It didn't take too long for this movie to hypnotize the audience with
various mysterious murder cases, without motives, with different suspects.
But what is certain, all the bodies of his victims have in common with the
large X on his body.
That mystery then becomes the responsibility of detective Kenichi Takabe
(Koji Yakusho) to find out who is behind it all. It was not easy to find
him, because all the perpetrators admitted that they had murdered in a
conscious state, but strangely none of them remembered what the X in each
victim was for.
The longer he searches, the more mysteries that are getting harder to
digest, plus the very minimal dialogue make this film so mysterious in every
phase. The director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, seems to want to make the audience
sink slowly, immersed in watching the various conflicts that exist in
detective Kenichi Takabe who continues to look for various connections
between murder cases and chooses to deny that these are not the actions of
the devil.
In the first half of the film, the plot of the story will focus on a
detective Kenichi, regarding his family and routines who have their problems
like humans in general. But in the midst of it all, Kenichi must also always
focus on his work as a detective to solve the mysteries of various murder
events that occurred in his city.
It's hard to imagine how people who don't know each other can murder with
the same method, especially since they all do it so consciously. But this
did not make detective Kenichi back down. With various methods, he tries to
find a connection which eventually leads to the name Kunio Mamiya (Masato
Hagiwara), an ordinary human who is considered "being" amnesia.
But can you think about what a young man with amnesia disease can do? Never
mind killing, he couldn't even remember his name. I even chose to believe
that the young man was just pretending to have amnesia. But in some scenes,
his amnesiac behavior is too real to be considered an "act". It must be
admitted that Masato Hagiwara is indeed very soulful in his role in this
film as Mamiya.
The focus of the film begins to change direction in the middle, from
initially focusing on Kenichi's investigation, now starting to move to
Mamiya who has a mysterious side of her own. In various scenes, it is clear
that Mamiya is indeed experiencing insomnia, but in other scenes, she seems
to be seen as a human who has thoughts above the average human. His playing
of hypnotic tricks kept my eyes glued while watching him as if he could
actually hypnotize me from behind the scenes. But is that really what he did
to the killers? Hypnotizing them to kill and writing X marks on their
victims' bodies?
Released on December 27, 1997, Cure is a psychological thriller film by
director Kiyoshi Kurosawa who was very popular in various J-horror films of
that era. It is undeniable that this film is very thick with elements of
J-Horror, especially when viewed from the taking of the scene which seems
simple, but looks very scary and mysterious for the audience to see.
The story phase is also slowly made, but still fully related to the plot of
the story. So, the slow phase of the story is actually a good place to put
the horror atmosphere that builds up very slowly. Although this film does
not have anything that smells of horror at all, the dark atmosphere it
displays, coupled with very supportive sound effects has made this film into
the horror category.
The character Kunio Mamiya, played by Masato Hagiwara, also managed to
appear very stunning. You could even say that he is the MVP in this film
thanks to his role which managed to make me wonder from the beginning to the
end of the film. Every time you see Mamiya talking, you will definitely want
to punch her in the head, because every question that is put to her will be
answered with absurd and annoying things, such as "What's your name?",
"Where is this?" basically it looks like someone who has amnesia, and the
question keeps being repeated so that it looks like we feel fooled by him.
The expression on his face which is flat, expressionless, and without guilt,
coupled with the lack of dialogue makes this character from Mamiya built
very neatly, slowly but surely hypnotizing the audience to believe that he
is experiencing insomnia.
The character of the detective is also very clearly depicted in this film.
The various problems he experiences, coupled with a murder mystery that
never ends, make the detective's condition worse. But one thing is for sure,
the detective will not be hypnotized easily, it can be seen from how he asks
questions and what kind of answers he has to give when he gets questions
from Mamiya. These various things make this film so meaningful because Cure
indirectly teaches us how to fight hypnotic tricks.
For a film class in the 90s era, Cure is really worth watching, especially
in the mystery section which is very interesting to follow throughout the
film, and don't forget the Mamiya character who will really hypnotize your
eyes, so don't even miss watching the movie. if you don't want to be
hypnotized by Mamiya.
SCORE
8/10
Overall, Cure is a good spectacle for you on the weekends, it's just that
with a very slow storyline it might make some people feel bored and sleepy
while watching it, but the Psychological Thriller genres in it, make this
film looks enjoyable to watch for me.
The excellent acting of the actors in this film is also a supporting factor
for why Cure can be a must-watch list for you. Supported by very subtle
sound effects, not surprising, but enough to make goosebumps.