Summary
In preparation forLonglegs, I had heard that the 1997 Japanese cult horror film,Cure, was a good accompaniment.LonglegsandCureshare many attributes, such as their atmospheric tone, and leaving audiences feeling unsettled by their ambiguous endings.Cureis an unnerving film, with its creepy sound design and chilling narrative, and is definitely a worthwhile watch forLonglegsfans. However, I just couldn’t shake this feeling thatthe Japanese film was actually just a serious version of the Monty Python sketch about the funniest joke in the world.
Cureis currently available to stream on The Criterion Channel.
Cure’s haunting exploration of the human psyche and its susceptibility to suggestion eerily mirrors the absurdity of the Python sketch, where the simple act of hearing a joke becomes lethal.InCure, hypnosis is a tool used to compel people to commit murder, demonstrating the terrifying power of the mind’s vulnerability. This psychological manipulation is what makesCurea profoundly disturbing Japanese horrorand a deeply memorable viewing experience, but maybe it is just a Python sketch in disguise.
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1997’s Cure Is A Serious Take On Monty Python’s Funniest Joke In The World
They Share A Common Logic And Can Evade Police Efforts To Thwart Its Power
The Python sketch is abouta comedy writer who writes a joke so funny that he dies laughing. His wife finds his body and the suspected suicide note, but it’s the joke and she, too, perishes at the lethally funny joke. Not even the police are immune to the deadly joke. In typical Python form, the sketch escalates, and the joke becomes a weapon for the allies in the fight against the Nazis. The sketch first appeared inMonty Python’s Flying Circus,and again as a shorter remake of it in their filmAnd Now For Something Completely Different.
I found it hard watchingCurebecause all I could think about was this sketch.Kiyoshi Kurosawa’sCurefollows similar logic to “Killer Joke"but, obviously, in a serious way. In both the sketch and the film, there’s a force that causes people to suddenly die or murder someone. For Python, it’s a joke, and inCure,it’s secret hypnosis. The way hypnosis works inCurealso connects the two, showing that words can have a murderous impact on its audience. Police are also confounded by these words and are far from immune, as they, too, are among the victims.
Four seasons ofMonty Python’s Flying Circusare available on Netflix.
A combination of these concepts conjures the idea that in a modern re-telling ofCure, military forces would, in fact, want to harness Mamiya’s (Masato Hagiwara) hypnotic powers for a weapon, much like the Python sketch. His powers of hypnosis are akin to a superpower, so it’s easy to see how a remake / mash-up like this could genuinely work. Such a re-telling would likely end up as a close cousin of the Amazon seriesThe Boys, blending odd superpowers and serious, real-world subject matter with elements of comedy.
Kurosawa’s Film Influenced Top Directors And Pioneered An Era Of J-Horror
While it’s thoroughly unlikely that there’s any connection between Kurosawa’s film and the British comedy troupe in any way,Curehas had a lasting impact on modern horror. The film has had a huge influence on South Korean Oscar-winning director, Bong Joon-ho, who stated in aVanity Fairinterview thatCurewas his favorite film of all time, and stated (viaScreenDaily) thathe was heavily influenced by Kurosawa’s villain while making his 2003 film,Memories of Murder. Martin Scorsese, too, has given the Japanese horror film glowing reviews.
The power of these captivating and unsettling horror films has changed the way that Western filmmakers approach horror.
Curealso ushered in an era ofcreepy Japanese horror filmsin the 1990s and early 2000s, pre-dating popular movies likeThe Ring,The Grudge, andAudition. This period of horror made a big impact on the development of the genre, not just because many were remade into English-language versions, but they also influenced numerous horror writers and directors today.Its influence is clearly present in Osgood Perkins’Longlegs, for example. The power of these captivating and unsettling horror films has changed the way that Western filmmakers approach horror, infusing those Japanese horror stylistic elements with familiar Hollywood narratives.
Cure
Cast
Cure is a psychological thriller directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Set in Tokyo, the film follows Detective Takabe, played by Kōji Yakusho, as he investigates a series of bizarre murders where each culprit has no memory of committing the crime. The investigation leads him to a mysterious drifter whose influence over people appears to be linked to the killings.
