Succumbing to Dread: A Seminar on Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s CURE

A masterclass in sustained dread and cinematic craft, Cure stands as a high point in both the career of its mercurial director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira Kurosawa), and in the history of Japanese horror. A filmmaker as revered as he is mercurial, Kurosawa has terrified audiences with the internet phantoms of Pulse, delivered the keen sociological observations of Tokyo Sonata, and even thrilled us with the Spielbergian alien invasion of Before We Vanish.

Yet none of his features cut so deeply into the existential and philosophical dread of the human condition as this 1997 masterpiece, which probes the trickling effects of systemic and domestic breakdown amid Japan’s prolonged era of economic stagnation. As Detective Kenichi Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) investigates a string of shocking, seemingly unmotivated murders, Cure evolves from brooding police procedural into a metaphysical horror tour de force, exploiting fears born of humanity’s loss of control and susceptibility to what one might term “ideological contagion.” If some believe that the abyss stares back at those who gaze too long into it, Cure insists that the darkness is not distant or abstract — it pulses within us, a corrosive force born of humanity itself.

Join us before the screening for a seminar hosted by the Colonial Theatre’s Repertory Film Programming & Membership Manager, Dan Santelli. In this 45-minute talk, Dan will provide a brief history of Japanese horror cinema while situating Cure and the career of Kiyoshi Kurosawa within the contexts of genre, culture, and film craft, deepening the audience’s appreciation for one of the most shrewdly crafted and viscerally unsettling horror films ever made. Be sure to stick around afterward for a post-screening discussion.

Dan Santelli (he/him) is a Philadelphia-based arts administrator, film programmer, and writer. His background includes an internship at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, serving as Repertory Film Programmer for the late, great Elks Theatre in Middletown, PA, and managing the film program at Civic Theatre of Allentown. He was also a key figure at the venerated video rental store Viva Video (Ardmore, PA) and recently earned an MS in Arts Administration from Drexel University, where he wrote a thesis on the history of repertory film curation and its methodologies. Having seen over 8,000 films, he is dedicated to strengthening the audience’s connection to cinema in all its sundry forms — from the populist and accessible to the recondite and esoteric. He loves cats

TICKETS

General Admission $8.00
Colonial Members: $4.00

Ticket prices include the $2 per ticket Processing Fee for non-members. Tickets are available with cash, check credit card at the Colonial Theatre Box Office, or online.