Cure (1997)

91% of critics liked it
(45 reviews)
80% of users liked it
(4,797 ratings)

Oddball Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed this haunting police thriller about murder, mind control, and the power of charisma. Police Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) is tracking a series of bizarre murders, all committed in exactly the same manner: a giant X is slashed in the flesh of the… More Oddball Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed this haunting police thriller about murder, mind control, and the power of charisma. Police Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) is tracking a series of bizarre murders, all committed in exactly the same manner: a giant X is slashed in the flesh of the victims. But that's where the similarities end. In each case, seemingly well-adjusted people suddenly kill without understanding why. Baffled, Takabe consults his psychologist friend Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), who finds no relationships among the perpetrators and rules out any connection with the media. The investigation eventually leads to a young drifter named Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara), who asks everyone he meets the same simple question: "Who are you?" Usually people respond with such stock answers as "doctor" or "police detective," to which the drifter responds with the same question. Part of Mamiya's reason for this bizarre behavior is that he has been turned inside-out; his interior world is completely empty. He has no memory, no identity, and he does not recognize his own self-image. Yet he does have an insidious, hypnotic ability to get inside the minds of others and unleash their repressed desires to murder. His victims' inability to answer Mamiya's maddeningly simple question shows their own tenuous grasp of their identity. Only Takabe seems to understand the other meaning behind Mamiya's query. His wife Fumie (Anna Nakagawa)'s own personality is slowly being destroyed by mental illness, making her act in increasingly inexplicable ways. Frustrated by Mamiya's sphinx-like ability to fend off the most rigorous interrogation, and yet drawn to his charms, Takabe undergoes a journey into the dark recesses of his own self, while slowly uncovering the secrets of the drifter's power. This film, which first brought international attention to Kurosawa, transcends the boundaries of its genre to become a riveting exploration of the collapse of identity in a postmodern age. It was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival as a part of the Director's Spotlight. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 50 min.
Directed By: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Written By: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Mystery & Suspense

In Theaters: Apr 25, 1998 Wide
On DVD: Jan 6, 2004
Studio: Cowboy Pictures

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
It's unsatisfying as a story precisely because it aspires to create a mounting sense of dread by enlarging questions rather than answering them.
David Rooney, Variety
Tone and atmosphere mirror subject to perfection in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's hypnotic trip into the lower depths of the human mind.
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
Tough to shake even when it feels more like an exercise than a movie.
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
A fascinating artifact as well as a most engrossing thriller.
Ray Conlogue, Globe and Mail
Cure has a cumulative power of horror which even seasoned filmgoers will not be able to resist.
Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle
It's more psychological than a genre movie, and that is the source of both its greatest interest and its biggest problem.
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
Fragmented identity becomes the ultimate horror
, Time Out
It's well enough acted and directed to advance Kurosawa's claim to be taken as an important new voice in Japanese cinema.
, Film Threat
There is no clear-cut conclusion. The film is not wrapped up in a nice neat little package. Kurosawa shows us a glimpse into this strange world and then pulls away, leaving us to figure out the answers, answers that may never come.
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
The single best horror film I've seen this century.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...what is this, an episode of The Flintstones?
James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk
a stylish horror thriller that looks on the surface like police procedural, but is really an eerie meditation on the self
Jake Euker, Filmcritic.com
The approach is not an especially deep one, and in Cure it's given more deliberation than it can bear.
Jeremy Heilman, MovieMartyr.com
Though there's a memorable final confrontation in the protagonist's mind, and a heck of a closing, most of the film's second half isn't nearly moody enough.
Spence D., IGN Movies
Kurosawa definitely has a strong visual style and a knack for spinning engrossing, if not bizarre, stories that cross the genre divide.
Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing
An effective piece of shock cinema.
Ross Williams, Film Threat
A movie to get lost in.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
The scenes of utter nonsense (and there are many) are outweighed by those of genius, making Cure a relative standout in this budding genre.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A dark and diverting urban psychologial thriller that is well-acted and staged but goes down an unconvincing metaphysical road in its conclusion.
Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion
A fascinating cinematic exercise which woozily suggests the fragile underpinnings of modern rational life by craftily employing genre conventions in unexpected ways.

Read all 20 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Greg S

A detective seeks to solve a series of murders committed by ordinary people, each of whom has come into contact with an amnesiac. Very strange psychohorror taking place largely in the subconscious; nice creepy atmosphere, but it fails to build to a satisfying climax, with the final… More
A detective seeks to solve a series of murders committed by ordinary people, each of whom has come into contact with an amnesiac. Very strange psychohorror taking place largely in the subconscious; nice creepy atmosphere, but it fails to build to a satisfying climax, with the final scene being a particular letdown.
Stella D

excellent hypnotic serial killer thriller. this is the creepiest film i've seen in some time. much better than average j-horror.
El Hombre I

On another level than homogenized japanese horror films, Cure is an involving crime drama and a moody thriller about serial killings committed through the power of suggestion. The lack of music during key scenes of violence is a bit unsettling as is the use of ambient sound during… More
On another level than homogenized japanese horror films, Cure is an involving crime drama and a moody thriller about serial killings committed through the power of suggestion. The lack of music during key scenes of violence is a bit unsettling as is the use of ambient sound during other scenes which add to the infectious, hypnotic theme. It's far too subtle for the die-hard horror crowd and too unconventional and violent for the art house crowd. Unclouded by narrative reassurance for morality themes such as good guy/bad guy found in Seven or Silence of the Lambs. If you enjoy deep, dark, traumatic, thoughtful psychological drama at its most heavy, tense and serious, Cure is for you. <a href="http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/?action=view¤t=Cure.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj203/goji9000/Cure.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Tsubaki S

Frustrating at times, and yet, hard not to pay attention to it. I can't say i got everything that K.Kurosawa wanted to say, but it kept me watching it all the way with both eyes and ears wide open. Koji-san performance is rock solid as usual.
Drew S

I adore Kiyoshi Kurosawa's style. I genuinely love it. I just wish he was better with the substance. Let's be honest with ourselves - none of KK's movies are really that deep or thoughtful, except probably Pulse. They don't really deserve multiple viewings. They… More
I adore Kiyoshi Kurosawa's style. I genuinely love it. I just wish he was better with the substance. Let's be honest with ourselves - none of KK's movies are really that deep or thoughtful, except probably Pulse. They don't really deserve multiple viewings. They are neat little baubles that show off a masterful, mature sense of style and some fantastic performances. If there's one quality Kurosawa has, it's that he can draw A-class performances from any actor in any of his movies. But with all that aside, he can't write for shit. His body of work explores a lot of gripping themes, but consistently fails to expound on all of them. The more he gets out of these ideas, the better his movies are. Doppelganger, Cure, Seance, Pulse. From worst to best, that's how his films stack up. (I haven't seen Bright Future or Charisma, and I hear that his J-pop-horror brainchild Loft is downright awful.) Pulse did such a great job tying its messages into its atmosphere and style; Seance was enormously involving, if not a little dry. Cure left me cold and Doppelganger was straight-out dull and repetitive. I'm sorry, but three-minute long shots of people walking through a house with no dialogue or exposition isn't productive film making, as cool as the shot may look. And in Kurosawa tradition, Cure's non-ending is dissatisfying, frustrating and cryptic. If you're a fan of Kiyoshi Kurosawa like I am, this is imperative viewing, but it's not a very good movie on many other fronts.
Lesley N

Japanese murder-thriller as an un-connected group of people suddenly take to murder in a similar and unexpected fashion. Not as blood-thirsty as I feared or as gripping as I hoped, but the culprit deserves all the retribution he gets, not for his heinous crimes but for being so… More
Japanese murder-thriller as an un-connected group of people suddenly take to murder in a similar and unexpected fashion. Not as blood-thirsty as I feared or as gripping as I hoped, but the culprit deserves all the retribution he gets, not for his heinous crimes but for being so damned annoyingly smug throughout the film .
Stephen M

I greatly admire the visual style of Kiyoshi Kurosawa. His landscapes convey dread and isolation better than no other. The ambiguity of this movie may be frustrating to some, but it ultimately helps the movie to succeed.
Krystle C

Very slow, but excellent as a psychological thriller. The leads are great together in a cat-and-mouse chase, and the ending leaves you going "What...?" Definitely not your run-of-the-mill horror movie.