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Cure
キュア
1997 111 min Japan 12+
★7.6
Crime, Thriller, Horror, Mystery
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Trailers
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Description
A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.
Budget:
$20,000
Worldwide:
$234,821
Starring
Masato Hagiwara
Actor
Kôji Yakusho
Actor
Tsuyoshi Ujiki
Actor
Awards
9 wins & 2 nominations total
Key opinion
Cure is widely praised as a masterful, hypnotic psychological thriller that uses a slow-burning atmosphere to explore existential dread and the fragility of human identity. While most viewers admire its philosophical depth and unsettling mood, some find the deliberate pacing and ambiguous resolution frustrating or inaccessible.
| Production | The film effectively generates a lingering, pervasive sense of dread through minimalist production design, oppressive silence, and strategic use of shadows. | |
| Acting | Koji Yakusho and Masato Hagiwara deliver authentic, nuanced performances that anchor the film’s increasingly surreal and psychological narrative. | |
| Cinematography | The cinematography utilizes voyeuristic, static framing to turn mundane settings into spaces of hidden, creeping menace. | |
| Ending | The screenplay prioritizes atmospheric exploration of human nature over traditional narrative closure, resulting in a provocative, open-ended conclusion. | |
| Pacing | The film’s contemplative, slow-moving pace is lauded by those who favor mood and philosophical inquiry, but criticized by those who find the lack of conventional thrills exhausting. | |
| Direction | The director's attempt to bridge philosophical abstraction and genre-based thriller tropes creates a tonal divide, leading some to find the rhythm inconsistent. |