Rating: 
Summary: Cure -- A chilling cinematic experience
Review: A series of grisly murders are committed and they are linked as all victims have a deep "X" cut into their throats. There are strange circumstances with each murder as the murderer is found close to the crime site, and none of the murderers have anything linked to the other besides the carved "X" in the throat. Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakush) is the detective in charge of the murder investigations and he suspects that the "X" is linked to each murder, but there is no physical evidence to confirm his suspicions. Detective Takabe has help from Makoto Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), a clinical psychiatrist, in order to uncover the malevolent truth behind the murderers. Takabe is also suffering from the hardships of having a sick wife and being overworked. These two factors begin to affect Takabe's life and his feelings as he is becoming more involved in the macabre investigations.Cure provides a suspenseful atmosphere as it dives into the human psyche. This atmosphere is skillfully created by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who opens the door to notions of amnesia, personality disorders, interpersonal relationships, and fear. These psychological aspects are meticulously dissected by Kurosawa as he tells his story about the detective Takabe and his problems with his job and private life. In the end, Cure offers a suspenseful and absorbing cinematic experience.
Rating: 
Summary: LAME - ringu rip-off (why would anyone think this is scary??
Review: Astonishing. This film has not one original or interesting idea it it. There is absolutely nothing frightening about this movie. A detective's investigation of a series of killings leads him to a young psychology student with amnesia who seems to be hypnotising people into commiting the crimes (don't worry, I'm not giving anything away. This is all revealed in the first fifteen minutes). This young man is supposed to be kind of ominious but he is actually just annoying. He answers every question asked of him with a question. He constantly asks "who are you" to everyone he meets. Kurosawa appears to be attempting some sort of social commentary about the possibilities of a latent serial killer inside each one of us, but it just doesn't work. Nothing in the movie works on any level. Everything in the film appears to be build up towards a big revelation but the revelation never comes. A big bummer. Very disappointing. Why anyone would find this film scary is beyond me. The villain is a wimp. The plot inconclusive. The imagery banal. Yuck. Boredom.
Rating: 
Summary: How Can You Be Guilty If You've No Idea You Did It?
Review: CURE is an entirely engrossing cop procedural drama coupled with more than just a healthy hint of THE X FILES that scores kudos for its relentlessly plotted creepiness tied to the intensity of the murders. Inspector Takabe and Criminal Psychologist Sakuma believe they are on the growing trail of a serial killer forcing others to commit grisly murders, but one fact doesn't add up: the killers have no recollection of what they've done. Enter Mamiya, a psychology student turned 'mesmerist' who plants suggestions in the mind -- latent impulses upon which everyone he comes into contact with will eventually act upon. Vindicated by his capture, Takabe and Sakuma begin their quest to understand how Mamiya has accomplished what he's done, risking both their lives and sanity in order to bring the entire bloody affair to an end. Extremely well done and grippingly paced, CURE is a great flick to pop in and sit ready to pull the covers up over your eyes!
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's worth it
Review: Cure is that good. No use repeating all the reasons, which are covered in other reviews. The highest compliment I can give Cure is that it stays with you after you leave the theater. Let's face it, for experienced viewers most horror movies - at best - provide modest suspense and a few jolts, and are forgotten by the time you leave the theater. Cure will stay with you.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's worth it
Review: Cure is that good. No use repeating what others have said in previous reviews. The highest compliment I can give Cure is that it stays with you after you leave the theater. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and this condition persisted until I saw it again (and still persists). Let's face it, for experienced viewers most horror movies - at best - provide modest suspense and a few jolts, and are forgotten by the time you leave the theater. Cure will stay with you.
Rating:
Summary: perfect
Review: Cure is the perfect horror movie; the only one I've yet seen. That's an odd thing to say about a movie that isn't exactly scary at any given moment, but it's true. Cure's power lies in the cumulative impact of the movie as a whole; halfway through I was thinking "Is this it? Where can this really go from here?" but later as the credits rolled I was overcome with dread. Cure manages the near-impossible; it starts with a mysterious situation and makes it more and more mysterious the more you find out about it. You're always given just enough information to suggest something unspeakable (and unfilmable) beneath the surface - the movie pushes you right up to the edge of an abyss, without ever seeming to show you the abyss itself, but at the end it becomes apparent that the movie - and you - have at some point been swallowed whole by it without even noticing. It's hard to explain to someone who's never seen it; suffice it to say it's a stunning and singular achievement. I know the movie doesn't seem to affect some people much, and this seems to have tagged it in some quarters as a would-be horror movie for intellectuals who look down their noses at "real" horror movies. To which I can only say: I watched this without any expectations, good or bad, and my reaction was totally from-the-gut. This movie got inside me in a way in a way more traditionally "scary" movies never have. Every moment is perfectly judged; this movie could only work if it never put a foot wrong, and amazingly, it never does. See it. See it alone. Give it your undivided attention. Kurosawa has achieved a cinematic perfection exceeding anything the other (great) Kurosawa ever made. I am not exaggerating. This is one for the ages.
Rating:
Summary: Stupid people stay away
Review: Forgive the bad spelling and roughness of this review, its my first, but this movie deserves more than the one voice of praise for it.
When I walked out of the theater, my mind was a jumble of ideas, thoughts, imagis, and daydreams. Logical and brooding, I was confused and lost during the movie; then it ended, it ended perfectly, and all the thinking I had suppressed during the movie, swept over me. My brain screamed out for more.
This movie takes a look into each of us.
American movies throw everything right up front, plot, characters, settings, everything is explained, and justified. Most of them sit you down for five minutes and explain the plot and what is going on, and everyone is accustom to this now.
This movie doesn't even try to sit you down. You as a person fill in the absolute details by feeling how you feel.
The absolute sublty of this film will drive you up the wall. I cant think of a way to describe this film, to explain the sheer intellegence, so I think I will leave with one of the most powerful lines, lost in obscurity. 'No. Who are you?'
Rating:
Summary: engimatic, dark and utterly disturbing
Review: I have to chime in with those here who rate this as a modern masterpiece. I especially have to echo one reviewer's comments that "a film like this would only work if everything was done perfectly, and it is" (paraphrasing). Yes and yes. It absolutely is, I can't find a single false move. Towards the end I was starting to cringe, knowing that Kiyoshi would probably take the easy way out and break the steadily-building dread & ambiguity. He doesn't. He builds it all the way to the end, and then caps it off with a final shot that is liable to leave me mystified for years to come. Some people will not "get" this film. They will froth & fume, and claim that there's no easy explanation, no clarifying revelation here to bring everything into the brightness of day & banish the uncertainty. These viewers should do themselves a favor and stick to Freddy/Jason flicks, where easily-digestible horror film cliches can be found in abundance. Cure is that rare spell-binding work that finds a new form to express more vividly the ambiguities of life, identity, and morality. It doesn't strike me as having been a priori a horror film, but rather a very clever philosophical one that along the way exposes something already horrific there in the society we live in. A smooth, controlled descent into madness, one of the most haunting films I've seen.
Rating:
Summary: engimatic, dark and utterly disturbing
Review: I have to chime in with those here who rate this as a modern masterpiece. I especially have to echo one reviewer's comments that "a film like this would only work if everything was done perfectly, and it is" (paraphrasing). Yes and yes. It absolutely is, I can't find a single false move. Towards the end I was starting to cringe, knowing that Kiyoshi would probably take the easy way out and break the steadily-building dread & ambiguity. He doesn't. He builds it all the way to the end, and then caps it off with a final shot that is liable to leave me mystified for years to come. Some people will not "get" this film. They will froth & fume, and claim that there's no easy explanation, no clarifying revelation here to bring everything into the brightness of day & banish the uncertainty. These viewers should do themselves a favor and stick to Freddy/Jason flicks, where easily-digestible horror film cliches can be found in abundance. Cure is that rare spell-binding work that finds a new form to express more vividly the ambiguities of life, identity, and morality. It doesn't strike me as having been a priori a horror film, but rather a very clever philosophical one that along the way exposes something already horrific there in the society we live in. A smooth, controlled descent into madness, one of the most haunting films I've seen.
Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking Stuff
Review: I ran into Cure on the Independent Film Channel whilst laying in bed channel surfing one night, and was hooked. I purchased a crap copy off of ebay because I couldn't stand telling friends "you gotta see this movie that's... well... unavailable here in the US."
I'm so pleased to see that it's finally getting a proper stateside release (as opposed to being held up by a Hollywood hijacking a la Rungu/Ring), and I'll be grabbing my official copy immediately. Cure is a flick that'll either bore the pants off of you, or make your brain hurt a bit. If you're not the sort who's interested in being challenged by a film, pass on this one. If, on the other hand, you don't particularly care for being spoonfed, this may well be the movie for you. One quick rebuttal (and a potential *spoiler*) for the review that cites "gratuitous violence" in this flick:
The moments of violence portrayed in this movie are blunt; devoid of any stylized Bad Boys bang-pow soulessness. Cure's lensing of a pipe bludgeoning, for instance, is wince inducing because it's so stark and matter-of-fact; it feels like a frighteningly accurate representation of the act. Watching it can't help but remind you that what just occurred is indeed brutal. I appreciated the honesty, and would rather more movies go this route than continue with the cartoonish guiltless-carnage that permeates so much of Hollywood. Perhaps we've become numb to the fact that a-killin' is supposed to be ugly, and it's gratuitous when directors NEGLECT to depict it so.
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