DVD offers perfect ‘Cure’ for jaded thriller fans

A mysterious young amnesiac employs his arcane hypnotic abilities to coax hitherto solid citizens into killing those close to them in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s quietly chilling 1997 thriller Cure ($29.95), making its stateside DVD debut via Home Vision Entertainment (homevision.com). It’s our…

Video pick of the week

Fond of playing Hannibal Lecter-like mind games with his prospective victims, spooky antagonist Mimaya (Masato Hagiwara) meets his match in obsessed detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho), who’s determined to resist Mimaya’s seemingly supernatural powers of suggestion and end his reign of terror. Even as maddeningly rational police psychiatrist Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) claims that decent people cannot be made to act against their basic nature, Mimaya’s casualty list grows, with respected doctors and law enforcers committing brutal acts of murder under his pernicious influence.

While “Cure” contains echoes of Jonathan Demme’s “Silence of the Lambs” and David Fincher’s “Se7en,” writer/director Kurosawa (no relation to legendary Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa) opts for a subtler, more surreal approach to his material. The film’s repeated imagery and often lulling musical score exert a hypnotic effect on the viewer not unlike Mr. Mimaya’s mesmerizing on-screen handiwork.

In a fascinating bonus interview, Mr. Kurosawa admits he was more interested in exploring the nature of personal identity than in crafting a traditional thriller; fortunately for the audience, he succeeds on both counts. While light on extras, beyond the interview, original theatrical trailer and liner notes, “Cure” rates as a bracing tonic for suspense fans sick of predictable Hollywood fare.

Collectors’ corner

In vintage disc news, three terrific actresses — Ingrid Bergman, Susan Hayward and Fay Wray — top line in the 1941 family saga Adam Had Four Sons, co-starring Warner Baxter, while Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds battle it out in the 1967 comedy Divorce American Style, both out via Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment ($24.96 each).

This week, the same label adds to its DVD slate the musical Annie ($19.95) — featuring Albert Finney, Bernadette Peters and Carol Burnett — and George Cukor’s 1954 satire It Should Happen To You ($24.96), with Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon and Peter Lawford.

Next week, Universal Studios Home Video performs repackaging magic with a quartet of DVD sets in “The Franchise Collection”:

• American Graffiti Drive-In Double Feature contains George Lucas’ original along with the 1979 sequel, More American Graffiti;

• Conan: The Complete Set couples the Arnold Schwarzenegger duo Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer;

• Slap Shot 2-Movie Fan Pack yokes the 1977 Paul Newman original with 2002’s Paul-less Slap Shot 2;

• Smokey and the Bandit offers the 1977 Burt Reynolds romp plus a pair of high-speed sequels.

The sets, complete with special features ranging from commentaries to behind-the-scenes footage, are tagged at $19.98 each.

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