Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring: Yoriko Douguchi, Masato Hagiwara, Anna Nakagawa, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Koji Yakusho

- Reviewed by Frankie

Cure by itself is confusing. It's awfully slow, and takes a while for payoff, if such an ending can really be called that. The story follows a detective who is investigating a series of murders where the victims have Xs slashed into their throats, usually by their best friends. When the mysterious amnesiac the police think has planted hypnotic suggestions into the murder's brains comes in for interrogation, things become only more difficult. As the investigation continues, our detective hero finds himself entangled in the mastermind's web of thought, and finds his feelings about his amnesiac wife souring.

Got all that? Seattle International Film Festival 2001's emerging master Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) peppers his story with long, gazing shots that have little to do with what's going on, and then inserts important plot points in quick flashes. The result is a lumbering thriller that winds you up on its little finger, and then lets you off with absolutely no reward, and certainly no purpose. This is just another violent, action/gangster film from Japan.

After the film in a question and answer session, Kurosawa explained what was going on. I wondered if we had just seen the same film. While moody and atmospheric, the filmmaker's job to accurately convey the story he imagined fails. Kurosawa is emerging, but he's hardly a master. Avoid this one.

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