Product Details

• Actors: Masato Hagiwara, Kôji Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Anna Nakagawa, Yoriko Dôguchi
• Directors: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
• Writers: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
• Producers: Atsuyuki Shimoda, Hiroyuki Kato, Satoshi Kanno, Shigeo Minakami, Tetsuya Ikeda
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated:
• Studio: Homevision
• DVD Release Date: January 6, 2004
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000YAEHK
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #40,897 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

  #18 in

  Movies & TV > Horror > J-Horror

• For more information about "Cure" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In the hands of director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a serial-killer movie is not merely a serial-killer movie. Cure doesn't so much scream and shout as drive the audience slowly crazy--much like Kurosawa's subsequent creepfests, Seance and Pulse (a.k.a. Kairo). Koji Yakusho, the happy-foot husband in Shall We Dance, plays a weary detective on a baffling murder case, which paradoxically becomes even more puzzling as the solution begins to emerge. Kurosawa's use of empty spaces, and his uncanny command of the soundtrack (the eerie collection of hums and drones would win David Lynch's approval) makes for a shivery experience... though not one interested in resolving itself in a conventional manner. And why should it? At some terrible point in this movie you realize that catching the bad guy isn't going to make Kurosawa's poisoned world any cleaner or safer. Stick with the director's elliptical style, and Cure will leave dread in its tainted wake. --Robert Horton

Product Description

In the tradition of Seven and Silence of the Lambs comes this genuinely spine-tingling horror/thriller from one of Japan’s most talked about filmmakers, Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Set in and around a bleak, decaying Tokyo, a series of murders have been committed by average, ordinary people who claim to have had no control over their horrifying actions. Following the only link—a mysterious stranger who had brief contact with each perpetrator/victim—detective Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho, Shall We Dance, Warm Water Under A Red Bridge) places his own sanity on the line as he tries to end the wave of inexplicable terror.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant., May 20, 2004

By	Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Cure (DVD)

Kyua (Kyoshi Kurosawa, 1997)

Veteran director Kyoshi Kurosawa (Serpent's Path, the recently-optioned Pulse) weighs in with this 1997 offering, and the best way to describe it is giallo gone Yakuza. It has all the highlights of good giallo, from an overly gory mystery storyline to broad cinematic shots in the best Argento style to characters who sometimes just say the silliest things imaginable to one particular plot twist that makes absolutely no sense to anyone until you've seen the movie fifty times. And with the Japanese so much farther out on the bleeding edge of extreme horror than the Italians these days, you can bet a Japanese giallo is going to be two hours of bang-up knockdown bloody fun. And oh, my, it is.

Cure (the English title) revolves around a series of brutal murders with one thing in common: the throat of each victim is slashed in a large X. Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho of Tampopo, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, etc.), the inspector assigned to the murders, soon discovers that they all seem to center around an odd amnesiac (Masato Hagiwara). He's not the murderer, but each one of the murderers-yes, they're all different people-came into contact with him not long before killing their victims.

While the style is giallo all the way, the pacing is Japanese New Horror. Kurosawa starts things off in the nastiest way possible, then gives us the finding of the amnesiac and some buildup in the characters of Kenichi and his reluctant partner in this, Makoto Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki of The Eight-Tomb City and Full metal Yakuza fame) before the murders kick off again and everything rolls into high gear. There are more than enough snippets to satisfy gorehounds and a fine, albeit slowly-paced, mystery for fans of more explicit mysteries (I'm sure I'm not the only one who spent the latter half of the film drawing comparisons to Silence of the Lambs). But the true fanatic audience of this film are going to be the giallo lovers, those who eagerly await every new film from Dario Argento. For them, Kurosawa is sure to be a fantastic find. Hopefully, everyone else will come up to speed eventually (perhaps when the American version of Pulse, directed by... ulp... Wes Craven, is released next year). *** ½

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Can You Be Guilty If You've No Idea You Did It?, February 6, 2004

By	Edward Lee "ncc1205" - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Cure (DVD)

CURE is an entirely engrossing cop procedural drama coupled with more than just a healthy hint of THE X FILES that scores kudos for its relentlessly plotted creepiness tied to the intensity of the murders.

Inspector Takabe and Criminal Psychologist Sakuma believe they are on the growing trail of a serial killer forcing others to commit grisly murders, but one fact doesn't add up: the killers have no recollection of what they've done. Enter Mamiya, a psychology student turned 'mesmerist' who plants suggestions in the mind -- latent impulses upon which everyone he comes into contact with will eventually act upon.

Vindicated by his capture, Takabe and Sakuma begin their quest to understand how Mamiya has accomplished what he's done, risking both their lives and sanity in order to bring the entire bloody affair to an end.

Extremely well done and grippingly paced, CURE is a great flick to pop in and sit ready to pull the covers up over your eyes!

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant filmmaking...., December 11, 2006

By	Grigory's Girl "Grigory's Girl" (NYC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Cure (DVD)

I really love this film. I love horror films that get into your head quietly, and then stay there for days. This film is one of those films. It's similar in tone and style to Kwaidan, Vampyr, and The Sixth Sense. The director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, directs the film with a beautiful langorous pace, with very long takes, incredible atmosphere, a superbly renedered soundtrack, understated performances, and a very ambiguous plot. It's nice to see a horror film without gratuitous gore, stupid teenage characters, idiotic language, and plot holes that are there because the writers/director are lazy, not because they're trying to be ambiguous. Some people haven't liked this film very much, arguing that it was too boring and vague. It's supposed to be ambiguous and vague; that's what makes it as good as it is.