A movie is a relationship. Depending on when, in what way, and how we meet, my relationship with movies changes. It's no wonder that a masterpiece that many people cheer for is actually approaching me in an apathetic way. Maybe he wasn't ready to accept the film yet. Conversely, it is not uncommon for a movie that passed without rumor to become a masterpiece of one's own. The pleasure of increasing your own jewelry box like that would be another happiness to watch a movie.

On the other hand, some films are born with a destiny that ripens with time. It's always fun to revisit masterpieces that haven't been weathered by time, but it's also not uncommon for films that were ahead of their time to be discovered belatedly after not getting much attention at the time. In this way, some films are reborn in each era. To be exact, I meet you and am born anew. Of course, not all films have this luck. It is possible only when you have that much depth, presence, and something that does not change. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa 's The Cure is one of those rare kinds of movies.

 

The 4K remastered version of <Cure> will be screened in theaters from July 6th. In the meantime, it has met domestic audiences through film festivals and special exhibitions, but this is the first time it has been officially released. < Cure >, a masterpiece of Japanese horror thriller, has been regarded as one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's representative works, inspiring many genre films. Although it is the first domestic release in 25 years since its release in Japan in 1997, this film gives a feeling that it has matured more densely rather than faded with time. Kurosawa Kiyoshi said, “I wanted to make a perfect movie that I thought was perfect. It is not a film made to reflect the times or to hope for people's evaluation. That's why I think it has become a film with universality that connects with the current generation after 25 years," he said, expressing his feelings to meet Korean audiences.

As the saying goes, <Cure> is a work that fully melts Kurosawa Kiyoshi's stubbornness and determination. However, this is not to say that this work is a unique experimental film or an auteurist film. Looking at its appearance alone, it is more like a commercial film that adheres to the formula of the horror thriller genre, and was consumed that way even at the time. However, there are moments that eventually seep out between scenes made according to the thriller formula that is faithful to the basics. It would be safe to say that the creator Kiyoshi Kurosawa is the sense that perceives the world. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who entered the film industry with romantic pornography, borrowed the appearance of horror, thriller, and detective films, but digested it with an inimitable breath of intense self-consciousness. Anxiety hidden behind serenity, dissatisfaction with people who live casually, and disturbing emotions about unknown but tangible things burst out all over the screen. This is the secret that < The Cure > can transcend the times and be reborn as a completely new film.

< Cure > is not a story about a detective tracking down a mysterious suicide case. It is an apocalyptic imagination that touches on fundamental fear as well as the question of 'Who are you?', a proposition that will probably be repeated forever. Watching this movie again now is to witness the value that does not change over time. If you can see things that were invisible back then, it would be proof that your world has become that deep. If you are watching this movie for the first time now, it will be an experience confirming what a well-made thriller is like. Now that storytelling videos in various formats are overflowing, here is unshakable evidence of what films can do. In this way, Kurosawa Kiyoshi's starting point and peak, Cure , is reborn as 'today's film' as you witness it.

 

- After 25 years, < Cure > will be officially screened in Korea. I know that you have met many audiences through GVs several times since the Jeonju International Film Festival last May. Every time you bring up a story, there must be a part that stimulates old memories and changes your thoughts.

= Every time I come to Korea, I feel that the audience is young and there are many female audiences. This is definitely different from Japan. Korean audiences give the impression that they enjoy the movie itself. I am very happy and grateful just for the fact that such energetic people are eagerly watching such an old movie. Seeing a movie on the screen again after 25 years has brought many memories to mind. As expected, it finally became clear that I hadn't thought about this work that deeply before making it. (Laughter) In a way, I am ashamed. At that time, I definitely remembered the fact that I made this film only with the sense and enthusiasm I had at that time.

◈ Then and now, what has changed and what has not changed

- You said 'sense', but maybe that's the most important requirement for a director. It could be said that it is the ability to find the position where the camera should be.

= thank you This time, thanks to a lot of diverse questions, I felt like I was reviving my vague memories. It reminds me of the question that one of them asked, wondering, “Why are there so many hospitals in <Cure> ?” It was a question I had never asked or expected. But after listening to it, I realized that there are actually a lot of hospitals. To be honest, I wasn't too conscious of it. < Cure > is a movie where the entire Tokyo is set. The audience who asked the question expressed their impression that the whole of Tokyo looks like a hospital in this movie, which is a very fresh opinion and I could understand it too. I am excited to see that the film is being completed in its own way by the audience.

- I know that the original title of <Cure> was 'The Evangelist'. However, since the interpretation that the whole of Tokyo is a hospital is added, the title 'Cure' seems to fit well and allow various interpretations.

= right Many people see the title and interpret this film in connection with the practice of psychotherapy. At the end of the movie, there is a scene where Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) eats a meal with a very clean and refreshing feeling, as if he had actually received treatment. It is a scene where all the stress accumulated so far is relieved and it really feels like being healed. Even when I first screened it in the past, I recall that the audience asked questions about why it happened, what kind of process it was, and whether it was actually cured.

- Personally, that scene was particularly scary. Detective Takabe was eating so satisfyingly, but it was strange to feel this strange while watching someone eat well. In the ensuing situation, the scene ends when the waitress is about to do something with her knife. It is drastic editing and omission.

= Actually, after that, I filmed the scene longer until the end. There is a senior-like woman who comes out moments before the waitress grabs her knife and goes into the back of her kitchen. She even filmed stabbing the woman, leaving her covered in blood. It would be easy to put all of them in, but there was also a concern that it would be stuck with the conclusion that murders lead in this way. Of course, at first, I was aiming for such a shocking ending, but the moment I put that scene in, the whole movie seemed to shrink. In the end, after a lot of hard work, everything was cut. I'm still not sure if this edit was correct. Most of <Cure> is the result of such uncertain choices and judgments.

- Watching and talking about old movies feels like looking at records and revising memories. For example, I remembered that the video came out the moment Takabe set foot in the old building of the hypnotist to catch Mamiya Kunio (Masato Hagiwara ) . I wonder if there is a scene where the director feels that the actual scene is different from his memory.

= There are so many newly added memories. (Laughter) In my head, < Cure > was a movie that started with murder. At first, I remembered that the title appeared in the scene where Takabe rushes to catch the person in her car after a murder has occurred. The script is like that too. But this time, the movie starts with a scene where the wife consults at her psychiatrist. I was surprised to see that it was edited differently from the script. Perhaps these choices led to the conclusion of <Cure> . Basically, I remember the big chunk sequence where the first incident happens, Mamiya appears on the beach, and then Takabe chases the culprit as another incident happens. However, there were many scenes that were different from memories in terms of what was in between. Another thing, I was surprised by the fact that the development of the movie is much faster than I thought.

- Certainly, breathing is quite fast compared to thriller movies these days.

= I'm glad One of the factors I paid most attention to when directing was speed. I wanted to convey the sense of urgency of the detective chasing it to the audience. However, looking back now, there are quite a few strange breaths. After meeting Mamiya, I thought that something more everyday was portrayed, but this time I was very surprised that the scene developed at a fast tempo, such as a scene in which an incident occurs, arrest, and escape immediately. Do you think there is not much room between cuts? Instead, the breathing between events is surprisingly quite long. I feel that recent films are dragging the story by presenting incidents like waves without breaks, and I am also following this method a lot these days. You could say it's popular. However, when I was making <Cure> , I remembered that I had a desire to deliberately destroy all such writing methods.

- Watching <Cure> again , the most surprising part is that it doesn't look like an old movie. Even first-time viewers will be able to accept it as if it were a new film, not a classic film. Is there a big difference between the reaction at the time of release and the reaction of the audience now?

= At the time of the previous Japanese release, there were few opportunities to meet the audience directly. It was not submitted to a film festival, nor was it widely promoted in Japan. So I have no memory of the audience's reaction. I remember that the press said that it was a unique psycho thriller genre movie. Perhaps I did not try to attach any interpretation to this film or read the intention of the writer. Now, when the audience re-watches the movie, I wonder if the films made after < The Cure > will instead serve as guides and add more interpretation. You can find traces of < The Cure > in my other films , and vice versa.

- Compared to your recent work, there are quite a few rough, unfamiliar, and stubborn scenes in < The Cure >.

= right The more recent my work, the more kind I seem to be to the audience. But there are some things that don't change. For example, it is the rigor when making one shot. First of all, I tend to think for a long time about how densely I will express it in one shot, where to connect from where to how far to form a shot, how many spaces to place in it and where to place them. In the early works, the concentration of a certain stubbornness and resolution is definitely thicker. When I was making < Cure >, I had a very strong desire to properly make a pure psycho thriller genre movie. I was fully convinced that if I kept the rules of the genre to a minimum, there would be no further explanation and nothing more to show. Now, there are fewer opportunities to make a pure genre film like <Cure>, and it is not easy to make it .

 

 

◈ Films of the senses, scenes that will not be reproduced

- Maybe that's why <Cure> has undamaged scenes that look like lumps that can be interpreted in various ways. For example, the scene where Mamiya meets the teacher for the first time at Shirasoto Beach was shot in a long take. Like a folding screen containing old stories, the screen is stretched left and right, and the camera moves back and forth along the beach for a long time.

= Once I watched it again this time, I remembered the weather at the time of filming. When I went to shoot the movie, the weather changed drastically. It wasn't my intention at all, but I fell in love with the thought that I had to capture this whole thing while watching the weather, where the clouds came in and the sun came out. So, I decided to throw away the original continuity and shoot with a long take. In other words, the weather chose the scene. I honestly can't remember why I chose the left and right screen. It was literally a sensation. It's hard to explain why, but I was certain that I had to shoot like this. As a result, thanks to the very unique look of that scene, many people are still talking about it, and I am fortunate that I left something impressive. It is a scene that is highly likely to look like a useless joke even if it is slightly wrong. At that time, it occurred to me that I had done well in such a risky attempt. Thank you for the weather that day.

- Something beyond the director's intention was filmed, and it is a scene that blooms through each audience's interpretation. Should I say that it would never be reproduced even if I filmed it the same way, that I feel that something that was allowed only at that moment is being filmed here.

= When filming a scene like this, the actors and staff literally become one, and the tense and excited time continues. In this process, if even one person gets out of the way even a little bit, everything just goes to ruin. Whether in front of or behind the camera, everyone on set becomes one and shares a very fulfilling moment. The feeling of 'we're filming a real movie right now'. In a deep sense of unity, you must have felt a tremendous sense of fullness beyond the feeling of joy. That's also why I do movies.

- I remember what he said during a conversation with director Bong Joon-ho at the previous Cinematheque that a scene like this could not be filmed without some perverted motive.

= correct (Laughter) Among what I said earlier, 'a lump' is a very appropriate expression. I think it's a movie. Grabbing chunks. The power of a live-action film that cannot be implemented through animation. I believe in that power and have been making films to this day. Speaking of perverted motives, there is one more scene that comes to mind. In the second half, Takabe talks with his friend Sakuma (Ujiki Tsuyoshi), a psychiatrist, in the university garden, which was originally a normal and calm scene. Takabe is in a slightly delirious state, but in the scene where he walks to the other side alone after the conversation, a sudden wind blows and Takabe's coat flutters wildly. It wasn't intentional at all, it was a coincidence. That coincidence delivered as much as the weather on the beach. The wind clearly expressed that Takabe was not normal and that his heart had gone somewhere. The power of a live-action film is that such coincidences enter the screen and create more accurate emotions than any other explanation.

◈ A film destined to be reborn

- This <Cure> is a 4K remastered version. I thought the color was surprisingly not much different from what I've seen before, but the sound is so different that I wonder if I've seen the same movie. I wonder if small sounds overwhelm me.

= I was also surprised by the sound when I saw the 4K version. I didn't expect to hear so many clear sounds. In the past, when filming a movie, only about half of the sound was captured, so I intentionally put a lot of different sounds into the film. However, when I watched the movie again this time, I was a bit perplexed because I could hear so many sounds as they were. Overall , the music was very understated, and the sound often used in horror was not used at all . I wanted to make a quiet film based on the sounds of everyday life. It also appears in Mamiya's lines, but I wanted to convey an empty state, and because it is quiet, I approached it with the feeling that even a small sound dominates the space. I thought that such small sounds could drive a person surrounded by noise crazy because they sounded so loud and clear. For example, the sound of a washing machine is psychologically pressured not only by Takabe but also by the audience. It was partly intended, but it felt like the movie was reborn when it was implemented like this.

- In recent works such as < The Spy's Wife >, the weight of female characters increases and they play a leading role, whereas in the early works, women are clearly portrayed as unknown objects.

= When I look back at my past works, until a certain period, I had a character similar to me as the main character. A typical figure is Koji Yakusho . At some point, she changed her main character to a young woman, but she was not conscious of it until now, but she recognized it while receiving similar questions this time. In the early days, there were many works that showed who I was and myself. It seems that the weight is gradually shifting towards asking who you are. The trigger for the change was the TV drama <Atonement> directed in 2011. It's a story of five women as the main characters, and it was strange that the commission came to me who didn't know much about women, but I worked hard. I felt that I myself changed while working with talented actors such as Aoi Yuu and Ando Sakura. When you write a story with a male character projected by yourself, the ending is often ambiguous and there is no solution. If I was an unknown being in the past, now it feels like I keep knocking on the door saying 'Who are you?' This attitude also affects the story.

- Listening to the director's explanation, I feel that <Cure> is not simply a re-screening of old works, but a new one . In fact, there are not many films that have been allowed this fate. Are there any other films from the director that you would like to see reborn like this?

= First of all, the expression that I was born again is thrilling. When I was making <Cure> , I didn't know the fate of this movie. It was only after so much time had passed that I felt for the first time that the fate of a movie could change like this. All movies are precious, but if I could get this opportunity, I would like to pick <Revenge 2> out of the <Revenge> series. It is a film that is little known in Japan as well as in Korea. It is a genre film made with a small budget, and there are up to 4 films. Genre-wise, it is a yakuza film, but considering the directing attitude, it is quite similar to <Cure> . It is memorable that I made various attempts, such as taking a long, quiet one-shot or adding a strange sound that is not often used. I filmed up to 2 episodes of the <Revenge> series, and after I shot <Cure>, I shot 3 and 4 episodes. Perhaps it could be seen as an exercise to reach <Cure>, and on the other hand, it is more daring and experimental than <Cure> . I hope to get a chance to see it again in theaters someday.