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CURE
8/10
Kyua
: Kiyoshi Kurosawa : Japan 1997 : 111 mins
The
film that introduced the world to a new Japanese master named Kurosawa.
But while the legendary Akira never bothered with horror, his namesake
Kiyoshi pushes the genre in dazzling new directions. The basic plot of
Cure reads like a cross between Se7en and Heat:
a sophisticated, seasoned, world-weary cop (Koji Yakusho) with a troubled
homelife is baffled by a series of inexplicable, violent murders. But
for Kurosawa this is only a starting-point to explore Japan’s doomy, Sarin-haunted
millennial zeitgeist – with a coolly detached, technically dazzling urban
style that’s reminiscent of Heat auteur Michael Mann. From the
startlingly violent opening titles it’s clear we’re in the hands of a
master director in complete control of his chosen medium – one who pays
as much attention to sound as visuals. Even his most ardent fans will,
however, concede that Kurosawa isn’t quite so accomplished on the script
side – it may take several viewings to work out exactly what’s going in
the latter stages. But the lengthy final shot is arguably the most remarkable
in all recent cinema.
28th
September, 2002
(seen on DVD, 27th July)
For a more
in depth review of Cure click here.
by Neil
Young
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