Cure

Cure builds up a question. Are we inherently good and tainted by society or are we inherently evil and kept in check by society? Humans are capable of great evil, but is it through the bonds and burdens of society that we earn our humanity? Or are the burdens of society what create a vacuum for hate and violence to grow in? Takabe's foremost connection is with his ill wife. This connection supplies a great deal of the emotion Takabe exhibits throughout the film and encompasses his development. His bond with her both grounds him and weakens him. He struggles to eat alone and his meals with her are often on an empty plate. We are repeatedly left static for minutes, watching his scene from within, denied cuts or movement, trapped. The low rumble of the empty washing machine shares his tension with us and the sound stalks us from scene to scene, sinking into our psyche. Takabe admits his wife is a burden. He pins the blame first on himself, then on the so-called lunatics of society like Mamiya. However, Mamiya is not a lunatic. Human connection grounds you and hurts you until you flee to safe nothingness. Mamiya is the vessel of this impossible force - nothingness. Mamiya is a void. He questions others not to fill himself, but to empty them. Mamiya asks if you can wield the pain of connection. We hide behind labels. We describe ourselves as what we do, what we are called. But not who we are. We use this to ground ourselves, else our soul floats away. Mamiya breaks these bonds of society, he strips away our labels. "Who are you? … Who are you? … Who are you?". Then Mamiya, who is empty, casts away the burdens of his victims. He strips them of the weighty coat of society and innocently watches their soul drift away like a boy who has let go of his balloon. All that is left are husks of violence. If we are empty without bonds, then perhaps humans are neither inherently good nor evil but simply need to be filled to be human. Takabe hides behind his own label of detective. But Takabe is not full. He admits that he hides his emotions from his wife, he shies from his connection with her. Mamiya inexplicably gravitates towards Takabe's instability, offering to him his cure from the burden of his wife. Mamiya listens to his struggle and takes it from him. This leaves him as a void, able to eat freely yet never have any semblance of fullness. Cure offers us a vision behind the veneer of society, a possible explanation of unexplainable murders. It ushers us into its world, as if to say: "You're not special, you could be monstrous too."