A pulpy, positively 80s action film that feels like an episode of Dragonball or Ranma jumped off the screen. The Cantopop aesthetic paired with a stylistically wonderful synth soundtrack make for a great time. This is popcorn cinema Hong Kong style. If you aren’t hooked by the opening Michelle Yeoh as Dirty Harry set piece, you cannot be an action fan. 

Update: the soundtrack is so good because it is borrowing tracks from John Carpenter’s Halloween!

Japanese horror is as unique to cinema as any other aspect of Japanese culture is unto itself. Cure is no different. The film loosely follows the investigation of seemingly random and violent murders, each committed by different average people completely out of character for their lives. It eventually spirals into a deep meditation on mesmerism, human psychology, and the art of tone. The very structure of the filmmaking (especially the soundscape) is used to create the tone of the movie. As if Yasujiro Ozu and David Lynch collaborated on a film together.

This film melded documentary and fiction in a seamless way but I think that the discussion that lays at the heart of the film isn’t answered. It can be difficult to follow what the film is trying to say at times as well.