Cure, 1997
This movie is often inaccurately billed as a horror movie, I guess because it’s easily marketable that way. That does Cure an injustice, however — it’s more a psychological thriller than anything, and one with some genuinely interesting points to make. Yes, people die. Yes, there is some blood (but not gore). But this is not a horror movie!
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (who also directed one of my favorites, Pulse) does an amazing job of making the world claustrophobic in a way that’s reminiscent of Kubrick. The movie is tense and creepy, and meditates on how much we can control our own behavior. Plus, check out the neat Japanese movie poster!
I watch a lot of Asian horror and I will fully admit that a lot of the appeal is the grody exploitation factor. In this case, however, Cure is a genuinely great movie that was clearly put together with a lot of care and thought.
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The Red Shoes (Bunhongsin), 2005
So let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: the shoes are pink. It’s not your screen… they’re pink. Not red.
Okay, so that aside I figured that this would be your average Asian ghost movie and it turned out to be much better and much twistier than I expected! The characters were good, the directing was excellent, and it was much more than the standard “oh no, hair!”. I was even surprised by the ending, and I am one of those smug bastards who loves to guess the ending ahead of time.
Highly recommended!
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