Title: Cure (1997)
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Studio: Home Vision Entertainment (US)
Rating: Up 18
Genre: Horror


Synopsis:
Oddball Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed this haunting police thriller about murder, mind control, and the power of charisma. Police Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) is tracking a series of bizarre murders, all committed in exactly the same manner: a giant X is slashed in the flesh of the victims. But that's where the similarities end. In each case, seemingly well-adjusted people suddenly kill without understanding why. Baffled, Takabe consults his psychologist friend Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), who finds no relationships among the perpetrators and rules out any connection with the media.

The investigation eventually leads to a young drifter named Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara), who asks everyone he meets the same simple question: "Who are you?" Usually people respond with such stock answers as "doctor" or "police detective," to which the drifter responds with the same question. Part of Mamiya's reason for this bizarre behavior is that he has been turned inside-out; his interior world is completely empty. He has no memory, no identity, and he does not recognize his own self-image. Yet he does have an insidious, hypnotic ability to get inside the minds of others and unleash their repressed desires to murder. His victims' inability to answer Mamiya's maddeningly simple question shows their own tenuous grasp of their identity. Only Takabe seems to understand the other meaning behind Mamiya's query.

His wife Fumie (Anna Nakagawa)'s own personality is slowly being destroyed by mental illness, making her act in increasingly inexplicable ways. Frustrated by Mamiya's sphinx-like ability to fend off the most rigorous interrogation, and yet drawn to his charms, Takabe undergoes a journey into the dark recesses of his own self, while slowly uncovering the secrets of the drifter's power. This film, which first brought international attention to Kurosawa, transcends the boundaries of its genre to become a riveting exploration of the collapse of identity in a postmodern age. It was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival as a part of the Director's Spotlight.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's moody, dark look at copycat murders in Japan is considered by many to be his greatest achievement, but Cure requires extreme patience to accept its languid style of storytelling. Furthermore, the effort proves somewhat futile when the viewer finds that there is little to relate to in the story: while the director's tone has an abundance of atmosphere and a few quality chills, there isn't much humanity, and the terror-laden subject doesn't resonate quite the way it should. Koji Yakusho elevates the difficult narrative with a believable portrayal of a conflicted man consumed by his work, but the character's motives remain puzzling ? which may indeed be the film's point but is dissatisfying nonetheless. Ultimately, Cure is an ambitious effort that is likely to find a cult audience, but also likely to be misunderstood by mainstream viewers, who may find its odd hybrid of philosophy and horror troubling. This feature was completed in 1997 and appeared as part of a retrospective of the director's career at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival before its stateside release in 2001.

Starring:
Kouji Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Anna Nakaga

taken from: http://www.dvdasian.com/cgi-bin/dvdasian/16859.html?id=ormsHn6h

IMO:
kinda fun to act amnesia, people think you are crazy but you will end up making them go crazy...

Rating:
3 out of 5 snoopys