Cure

Here are some of my somewhat scattered thoughts on this film, which I found absolutely incredible and fascinating. Even though it takes a while to understand what the actual plot is about (at first, it seems like nothing more than a mysterious police procedural, something along the lines of Memories of Murder), it turns out that it has much stranger ideas in mind. Basically, you realize that there is this guy who represents a kind of mesmerist cult, a cryptic and evil “influencer” who makes people commit murders by sabotaging their own will. I think the antagonist, Mamiya, is the embodiment of a mesmerist cult that had been dormant for some time. You know the old “truth” that a person cannot be hypnotized into doing something they don't genuinely want to do? That is essentially what the film is about: a subliminal critique of contemporary Japanese society. In other words, Mamiya has waited for Japanese society to reach a sort of critical mass, where countless ordinary people live their lives filled with hidden resentments, hatred, jealousy, and fear. Then Mamiya comes along and, through his hypnotic, dreamlike monologues, “convinces” them to open themselves up to their darkest side. This is the “cure” that Mamiya, so to speak, inoculates them with: a way of making these dark feelings disappear—or, rather, making them feel justified and giving them permission to act on them. This is why the man kills the prostitute: we can infer that he harbors a deep hatred of women, probably because he is unable to have a relationship without paying for it, and therefore resents the fact that he has to “go” to prostitutes. This is also illustrated by the police officer who kills his colleague after expressing his envy of the other man's career. Likewise, the owner of the dry-cleaning shop, after years of a terrible relationship with his partner, gets rid of her. And, most importantly, this is what is revealed when Detective Takabe has the vision of returning home and finding his wife hanging from the ceiling: it reveals the detective's disgust and hatred at being trapped—because of his own decency—in this nightmarish cycle. It shows that his deepest and most overwhelming fear is that he might one day return home and discover that his wife has killed herself... and that, on some level, her suicide will be “his fault.” This is the diseased mental state of Detective Takabe, the thing that ultimately makes him vulnerable to Cure. Mamiya is constantly asking, “Who are you?” When he is brought before the police superiors, Mamiya keeps asking them this question, which infuriates them. This leads to the central question: do we really know who we are at our darkest core? The film has an unsettling rhythm that is simultaneously gripping and almost hypnotic, and the scenes in which the evil “influencer” speaks to people through strange, seemingly nonsensical monologues mirror these seductive and disturbing rhythms. There are also some interesting details that I noticed which connect to the idea of mesmerism. Early on, when Takabe leaves the apartment where a murder has taken place, we see him notice a flashing train signal nearby. Then, while standing on top of a building and looking out over the skyline, he sees a tower with blinking lights. Immediately afterward, he is shown staring at the buzzing chandelier and at the pipe from which the water used in the murder was taken. I would say that these sounds and images function almost like metronomes that focus the viewer's attention, like a pendulum clock: they help create a hypnotic effect, reinforcing Mamiya's sinister suggestions. These visual and auditory effects add another layer of rhythm to the background, facilitating the process by which the “third-party killer” deceives his victims' minds and makes them “ride along” with his slow, poetically measured monologues. Another interesting detail is the curious (and significant) opening scene in which Takabe's wife is reading Bluebeard. She confidently claims to know what happens to the character in the story, while also admitting that she is a distracted person. The important thing to note about the story of Bluebeard is that Bluebeard's wife fears that her husband is a murderer—and that if she were to open the locked doors of the house, she would find the evidence and be killed for discovering it. Clearly, this works as an allegorical element connected to the film's broader ideas about the locked doors within our own minds. This is such a cool modern film, and it reminds me of Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse, with its mastermind antagonist who manipulates people's minds. That's a film you might want to check out as well. Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts. I'm glad you enjoyed Cure as much as I did. More cinephiles should seek this one out. Peace out. Peak reddit review