Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

christopher-underwood Excellent and provocative outing from the likeable and intelligent, Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Made after a run of smaller 'straight to video' yakuza and the like movies, this was an early break for something better and is a great success. Staring the equally likeable Koji Yakusho, who would go on to work several times with Kurosawa, who seemed attracted partly by the fact they were the same age. The film begins and continues for some time as a beautifully shot bur scary exercise as people drop dead, seemingly inexplicably and an aura of surrealist mayhem develops. There is a slowing in proceedings while the main protagonist is investigated but interest is well maintained ahead of the fine denouement.

tapio_hietamaki Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira Kurosawa) makes movies that some would describe as incomprehensible art house. It's true that they're short on explanations and feature long shots with ambiguous meaning, but they're still narrative movies, thrillers. Well, maybe I said too much as I haven't seen his movies other than 'Cure' and 'Kairo', but those two had a lot of similarities so I feel I've got some kind of grasp of his style.'Cure' is a story about hypnotism, but despite the name-dropping and exposition it's not meant to be a realistic portrayal of the practice. It takes the concept of hypnotism and uses it to scare the viewers, plants seeds of doubt, explores philosophical ramifications.The story is about a string of gruesome murders, where the suspect killed with no motive and can offer no explanations as to why they did it. Turns out there is a vagrant, a dropout student, who has an inexplicable power to turn men to senseless evil.What does this mean? The movie invites the viewers to draw their own theories. I see it as this twisted worldview where some people are above morality, above the mindless masses and able to manipulate them. It's a chilling picture.The movie is nearly colorless and light on dialog and music. It's slow, brooding and distressing.

Sean Wilson Wow. This was my first Kiyoshi Kurosawa film, and what an incredible experience it was. This is art at its finest. It's been over seven hours since I watched it and as I am writing this, my heart still palpitates when recalling the mesmerising images and scenes from the film. 'Cure' is a film that blends multiple genres into a unique cinematic experience akin to the films of Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock and Andrei Tarkovsky. In fact, I'd put Kiyoshi Kurosawa up there as one of the greatest filmmakers in world cinema.Koji Yakusho plays a detective investigating a series of bizarre murders across Tokyo in a superb and emotional performance. Masato Hagiwara delivers an absolutely chilling performance as the mysterious Mamiya. Kurosawa's camera work allows the viewer to witness the subtle changes in Mamya's body language and the results are absolutely terrifying. It's his eyes: cold, lifeless and sinister.The story itself comes from an intelligent script written by Kurosawa, combining a crime mystery with film noir, horror, psychology, philosophy and social criticism. The atmosphere can only be described as a unique mix of Lynchian terror, Hitchcockian suspense and Tarkovskian or Kubrickian ambiguity. The music itself consists of ominous ambient soundscapes and rumbling drones which is a great deviation from orchestral scores.Each scene, each shot is so well filmed. The camera work is pretty much perfect. Kurosawa's direction is absolutely masterful, delivering beautifully shot long takes, some lasting more than five minutes, to allow the viewer to soak in the atmosphere he has created on screen. Kurosawa clearly has an eye for the camera and each scene is so well shot and edited, evoking a kind of dark beauty to the screen.This is not strictly a horror film. David Lynch is known for incorporating elements of horror in his works, but isn't strictly a horror director. Kiyoshi Kurosawa should be considered the same. There is horror, but this horror isn't overt; it is subtle and intelligent. I've heard the average movie goer say that Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' wasn't scary, simply because they were expecting jumps, gore and other cheap tactics to scare the audience. Little did they realise was that Kubrick was making a deep, cerebral psychological story. So if you like your films cerebral, ambiguous, deep and different, then 'Cure' is highly recommended. It will likely stay with you long after the end credits.

MarieGabrielle Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) is called upon to solve a group of inexplicable murders.The sights and sounds of this film encompass an odd sense of foreboding and despair. I watched this DVD four separate times as it had such an effect, as did several of the performances.Takabe is saddled with the additional burden of a wife with emotional problems, she has an amnesia of sorts and also is at times depressed. We see his frustration as he comes home from a long days work merely hoping to engage in conversation with her.There is a young man roaming the city who is eventually hospitalized, who incites various people to act out, or kill in a ritualistic fashion. It comes to bear that Mahimi was at one time a medical student studying the occult and hypnotism as taught by Austrian "occultist" Anton Mesmer ("Mesmerism").In Japan it is revealed this technique was called "soul conjuring" and suppressed by the Meiji Government during the late 1800's. The events unravel in a domino effect, taking you into a bizarre scenario.Overall this is an excellent film with good performances, do not mind the subtitles. I will be looking for other films by this director as well. Excellent suspense here, in American film we do not have similar, except maybe for Hitchcock. 10/10.