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An
unusual Cure
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Kurosawa makes an off-kilter occult movie
by MATTHEW HAYS
 The
opening crime in Cure is particularly gruelling. A man clubs a prostitute
to death with a metal pipe while she lies in bed, naked. Bizarrely enough,
an odd little comic tune plays as background music. After the cops arrive
on the scene, the murderer is found cowering in an airshaft. It’s
one of the strangest openings I’ve ever witnessed in a horror or
suspense film, something that would be downright comical if it weren’t
for the pipe bludgeoning.
Such is the universe of director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the Japanese director
whose perverse style is in full form here. As Detective Takabe (Koji
Yakusho, who was also fine in The Eel) hones in on the serial crimes
and tries to figure out who—or what—is behind them, a disturbing
trend emerges. All of the crimes are committed by people who have no
previous record and are entirely unconnected. And yet the deaths are
all eerily familiar: an ‘X’ is slashed across the victims’
chests, throat slit. None of the criminals have any motive for committing
the horrific crimes. They just do them, apparently under some kind of
orders.
Hypnosis, it turns out, is the culprit. And Yakusho must deal with an
annoying suspect (Masato Hagiwasa) who won’t properly cooperate
with the authorities and let on how these crimes continue to be committed,
even while he’s in custody.
Cure is punctuated by nasty, grisly bits, but at many points it’s
a slow-moving film. Simply put, it won’t be everyone’s cup
of green tea, but I think there’s a lot to merit here. That the
crimes remain such an obscure mystery makes them all the more creepy;
that the filmmaker doesn’t reach for any easy clichés makes
the film itself much more intriguing; and the two leads are excellent
as detective and criminal ringmaster.
This film was a hit at Fantasia a few years back. In keeping with that
fest’s excellent track record, Cure should sate the appetites of
those filmgoers looking for more than the drivel Tinseltown studios
are passing off as horror and suspense these days. :
Cure opens Friday,
Jan. 11 at Cinéma du Parc
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