A landmark in the history of Japanese cinema, Cure was the breakthrough film for director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who would go on to make several further modern masterpieces in Pulse, Creepy and Tokyo Sonata. Released to critical acclaim in both the East and the West, this nerve-shredding crime thriller charts the hunt for a depraved serial killer in a decaying Tokyo.

A series of murders have been committed by ordinary people who claim to have had no control over their actions, many of them having killed friends, co-workers or even their spouse. There are only two links between each crime: an “X” carved into the neck of each victim, and a mysterious stranger who seems to have had brief contact with the perpetrator a short period of time before each killing. But to follow these leads and end a seemingly inexplicable wave of terror, police detective Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho, 13 Assassins) will need to put his own sanity on the line and endure a descent into hell.

Described as one of the greatest films of all time by Bong Joon-ho, the filmmaker behind Memories of Murder, The Host, Snowpiercer and Parasite, Cure is a cerebral and deeply unsettling police procedural to stand with The Silence of the Lambs and Seven.

The Masters of Cinema series and the Showroom Cinema are proud to present Cure from a new 4K restoration. The screening on Saturday 31 May will be preceded by a contextual introduction by Craig Ian Mann, producer for Eureka and its Masters of Cinema series.

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Year 1997
Duration 1h 51m
Language Japanese
Cast Koji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki