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Review: Cure (キュア) (1997)
This movie was kind of a surrealist horror in the sense that even by the end, the audience had a sense of how the crimes were perpetuated, but not the details. I thought it was decent.
Spoilers.
Story
Takabe was investigating a number of murders in which women would be brutally murdered with and X carved in their skin, and the murderer would have been nearby, having some memory of the murder but not quite sure why they did it. After some investigating, Takabe found that all murderers had some interaction with Mamiya. Mamiya was a man who seemed to have trouble remembering things. That, or he was constantly messing with people around him.
Takabe found out that Mamiya used to be a psychology student who studied hypnosis and mesmerism but stopped his studies a few years ago. Afterwards, Takabe experienced a vision of his wife committing suicide. His wife was currently battling mental illness. Stressed and fearful, Takabe admitted his wife to a psychiatric hospital.
Takabe had a psychologist friend Sakuma who was also looking into Mamiya, hypnosis, and mesmerism. As he explored further, he fell into the trap. Sakuma found an old video of a woman being hypnotized, who later killed her son. The person hypnotizing her drew an X in the air. Sakuma started to hallucinate and later on he had been found to have committed suicide.
Mamiya escaped from prison, and he implied that Takabe had purposely left the door open for him to escape. They met at an abandoned location. Mamiya seemed more lucid, eager to reveal his secret to Takabe, but before he could say any more, Takabe shot him. As Mamiya lay dying, he drew an X in the air. In another room, Takabe played some tapes that were implied to hypnotize him.
Later, Takabe’s wife was found to have been killed at the institution with an X carved in to her. Takabe was found at a restaurant. There was a waitress who served him, and was then spoken to by some of her colleagues. Then she picked up a knife and walked off screen, implying that Takabe had somehow driven the waitress to kill. (I rewatched this scene to see if Takabe had drawn an X at all while talking with the waitress but he didn’t, so I suppose he did it another way).
The gist was that Mamiya had become hypnotized through the tapes that were probably left from the hypnotist in the old video that Sakuma had found. That was supposed to be one of the original hypnotists in Japan. Mamiya would then hypnotize people he bumped into, compelling them to kill people around them. Takabe was starting to become hypnotized, either through speaking with Takabe or from the video that Sakuma found. He got scared and that was why he put his wife in the psychiatric hospital. After Sakuma’s death, Takabe grew quite fearful and decided to end it once and for all. He purposely let Mamiya escape so that he could kill him and end the chain of hypnotism. However, Takabe became hypnotized himself and thus the curse would continue.
Simple, and yet haunting. I appreciated how this movie straddled the line of explaining things but not too much. I am not big into horror as I get scared easily, but my opinion is that leaving things ambiguous makes the movie scarier (which is a good thing). However, I also appreciated that this movie wasn’t too abstract and that I could still gleam the general sequence of events.
Production
I thought the direction was pretty good. I worried that this movie would be too abstract but I appreciated that it did hit certain story beats that made it easy to track the progress of characters, particularly Takabe. I thought the acting was fine. No complaints.
Characters
Takabe
Takabe was our protagonist, a detective investigating the murders. He tracked the crimes down to Mamiya and that’s when the problems began. It was frustrating when he’d get nowhere with the questioning. And while Mamiya was cagey with others, it infuriated Takabe more when Mamiya would talk to him like they were in cahoots.
Takabe had a wife who had a mental illness. there was a bit of strain in their relationship, probably due to the illness. Takabe suggested that they could go on a vacation later on, something that would cheer them both up. However, as Takabe grew more stressed with the investigation, he grew more frustrated with his wife as well. Takabe was angry that one of his colleagues had told Mamiya about his wife’s condition and confronted Mamiya. However, Takabe just ended up unloading his frustrations onto Mamiya, basically saying it was a burden to take care of his wife and he didn’t even know how to connect with her. There was one time where she had not cooked dinner properly and in a rage he threw the meat against the wall. Afterwards, Takabe admitted his wife to the institution, maybe to protect her from himself.
Out of ideas, Takabe decided he had to kill Mamiya on his own. However, I’m not sure why Takabe sat down to listen to the tapes. Was he simply unaware that the taps could hypnotize him? If his intention was to stop the curse, then killing Mamiya without hearing him out would have fallen in line with that thinking, but not listening to the tapes. As a result, Takabe became the new progenitor of the curse.
I don’t consider Takabe to be a strong man. He was a man trying to hold it together, but we saw that he had doubts. He wasn’t sure of his love for his wife. And when Mamiya spoke to him, I think Takabe was afraid that that was became Mamiya saw something in him that was evil, that was worthy of the curse. But then what was it that compelled him to listen to the tapes? Was it curiosity? Or just pure ignorance?
I think Takabe killed his wife, so in the end, Mamiya succeeded in hypnotizing Takabe, even if Mamiya died in the process.
Mamiya
Mamiya was a psychology student who was studying hypnotism and mesmerism but fell too deep that he was hypnotized himself. Then he started to hypnotize other people into killing. Takabe easily found him as he was a common element in many of the crimes.
Was Mamiya’s forgetfulness true, or was it a bit? Did he regularly forget himself and everything around him? Or did he simply refuse to engage with people he didn’t want to speak with? Takabe was the exception, in which Mamiya seemed to regain full lucidity when speaking to at times. Was it because Takabe was his target?
Mamiya escaped from prison, a little pleased that Takabe had helped him, and a little eager to tell him about what was going on. Takabe shot him, but it was not a big matter to Mamiya because he cursed him anyway.
Themes
I wonder if the name of the movie was supposed to be Curse instead of Cure, because this chain of hypnotism very much was a curse. How did the curse work? One person who hypnotize others into killing. Who would they kill? People around them. The first person killed a prostitute. A teacher killed his wife. A man killed his coworker. If the theory that Takabe killed his wife is true, I think the point of the curse was to push people to kill those they already held resentment towards. Men seeking prostitutes because they resent women is not surprising. The teacher perhaps killed his wife because he resented her not working. The man seemed to show some resentment to his coworker. Takabe resented his wife because he couldn’t connect with her and found her a burden. If that was the case, how much responsibility does the curse hold if it was just pushing people to act on their hatred. I do still think the curse holds responsibility. We all have people we are not fond of, but we do not want to kill them.
Was the curse the creation of the Japanese hypnotist? What was his goal? Simply an experiment, or did he intend to unleash this evil on the world? This is purposely left unanswered because it’s more frightening to not know the answer and to not know how to stop it. The only way to stop the curse is to kill Takabe, but for the killer to not inherit the curse through the tapes.
Overall
Interesting horror movie, thought provoking, decently paced.
Spoilers.
Story
Takabe was investigating a number of murders in which women would be brutally murdered with and X carved in their skin, and the murderer would have been nearby, having some memory of the murder but not quite sure why they did it. After some investigating, Takabe found that all murderers had some interaction with Mamiya. Mamiya was a man who seemed to have trouble remembering things. That, or he was constantly messing with people around him.
Takabe found out that Mamiya used to be a psychology student who studied hypnosis and mesmerism but stopped his studies a few years ago. Afterwards, Takabe experienced a vision of his wife committing suicide. His wife was currently battling mental illness. Stressed and fearful, Takabe admitted his wife to a psychiatric hospital.
Takabe had a psychologist friend Sakuma who was also looking into Mamiya, hypnosis, and mesmerism. As he explored further, he fell into the trap. Sakuma found an old video of a woman being hypnotized, who later killed her son. The person hypnotizing her drew an X in the air. Sakuma started to hallucinate and later on he had been found to have committed suicide.
Mamiya escaped from prison, and he implied that Takabe had purposely left the door open for him to escape. They met at an abandoned location. Mamiya seemed more lucid, eager to reveal his secret to Takabe, but before he could say any more, Takabe shot him. As Mamiya lay dying, he drew an X in the air. In another room, Takabe played some tapes that were implied to hypnotize him.
Later, Takabe’s wife was found to have been killed at the institution with an X carved in to her. Takabe was found at a restaurant. There was a waitress who served him, and was then spoken to by some of her colleagues. Then she picked up a knife and walked off screen, implying that Takabe had somehow driven the waitress to kill. (I rewatched this scene to see if Takabe had drawn an X at all while talking with the waitress but he didn’t, so I suppose he did it another way).
The gist was that Mamiya had become hypnotized through the tapes that were probably left from the hypnotist in the old video that Sakuma had found. That was supposed to be one of the original hypnotists in Japan. Mamiya would then hypnotize people he bumped into, compelling them to kill people around them. Takabe was starting to become hypnotized, either through speaking with Takabe or from the video that Sakuma found. He got scared and that was why he put his wife in the psychiatric hospital. After Sakuma’s death, Takabe grew quite fearful and decided to end it once and for all. He purposely let Mamiya escape so that he could kill him and end the chain of hypnotism. However, Takabe became hypnotized himself and thus the curse would continue.
Simple, and yet haunting. I appreciated how this movie straddled the line of explaining things but not too much. I am not big into horror as I get scared easily, but my opinion is that leaving things ambiguous makes the movie scarier (which is a good thing). However, I also appreciated that this movie wasn’t too abstract and that I could still gleam the general sequence of events.
Production
I thought the direction was pretty good. I worried that this movie would be too abstract but I appreciated that it did hit certain story beats that made it easy to track the progress of characters, particularly Takabe. I thought the acting was fine. No complaints.
Characters
Takabe
Takabe was our protagonist, a detective investigating the murders. He tracked the crimes down to Mamiya and that’s when the problems began. It was frustrating when he’d get nowhere with the questioning. And while Mamiya was cagey with others, it infuriated Takabe more when Mamiya would talk to him like they were in cahoots.
Takabe had a wife who had a mental illness. there was a bit of strain in their relationship, probably due to the illness. Takabe suggested that they could go on a vacation later on, something that would cheer them both up. However, as Takabe grew more stressed with the investigation, he grew more frustrated with his wife as well. Takabe was angry that one of his colleagues had told Mamiya about his wife’s condition and confronted Mamiya. However, Takabe just ended up unloading his frustrations onto Mamiya, basically saying it was a burden to take care of his wife and he didn’t even know how to connect with her. There was one time where she had not cooked dinner properly and in a rage he threw the meat against the wall. Afterwards, Takabe admitted his wife to the institution, maybe to protect her from himself.
Out of ideas, Takabe decided he had to kill Mamiya on his own. However, I’m not sure why Takabe sat down to listen to the tapes. Was he simply unaware that the taps could hypnotize him? If his intention was to stop the curse, then killing Mamiya without hearing him out would have fallen in line with that thinking, but not listening to the tapes. As a result, Takabe became the new progenitor of the curse.
I don’t consider Takabe to be a strong man. He was a man trying to hold it together, but we saw that he had doubts. He wasn’t sure of his love for his wife. And when Mamiya spoke to him, I think Takabe was afraid that that was became Mamiya saw something in him that was evil, that was worthy of the curse. But then what was it that compelled him to listen to the tapes? Was it curiosity? Or just pure ignorance?
I think Takabe killed his wife, so in the end, Mamiya succeeded in hypnotizing Takabe, even if Mamiya died in the process.
Mamiya
Mamiya was a psychology student who was studying hypnotism and mesmerism but fell too deep that he was hypnotized himself. Then he started to hypnotize other people into killing. Takabe easily found him as he was a common element in many of the crimes.
Was Mamiya’s forgetfulness true, or was it a bit? Did he regularly forget himself and everything around him? Or did he simply refuse to engage with people he didn’t want to speak with? Takabe was the exception, in which Mamiya seemed to regain full lucidity when speaking to at times. Was it because Takabe was his target?
Mamiya escaped from prison, a little pleased that Takabe had helped him, and a little eager to tell him about what was going on. Takabe shot him, but it was not a big matter to Mamiya because he cursed him anyway.
Themes
I wonder if the name of the movie was supposed to be Curse instead of Cure, because this chain of hypnotism very much was a curse. How did the curse work? One person who hypnotize others into killing. Who would they kill? People around them. The first person killed a prostitute. A teacher killed his wife. A man killed his coworker. If the theory that Takabe killed his wife is true, I think the point of the curse was to push people to kill those they already held resentment towards. Men seeking prostitutes because they resent women is not surprising. The teacher perhaps killed his wife because he resented her not working. The man seemed to show some resentment to his coworker. Takabe resented his wife because he couldn’t connect with her and found her a burden. If that was the case, how much responsibility does the curse hold if it was just pushing people to act on their hatred. I do still think the curse holds responsibility. We all have people we are not fond of, but we do not want to kill them.
Was the curse the creation of the Japanese hypnotist? What was his goal? Simply an experiment, or did he intend to unleash this evil on the world? This is purposely left unanswered because it’s more frightening to not know the answer and to not know how to stop it. The only way to stop the curse is to kill Takabe, but for the killer to not inherit the curse through the tapes.
Overall
Interesting horror movie, thought provoking, decently paced.