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| “ | All the things that used to be inside of me, now they're all outside. So, I can see all of the things inside you, Doctor. But the inside of me is empty. | „ |
Kunio Mamiya is the main antagonist of the 1997 Japanese crime thriller movie Cure. He is a former psychology student who became obsessed with mesmerism and hypnosis, using it as a tool to awaken dark urges within those he comes across.
He is played by Masato Hagiwara.
Biography[]
Not much is known about Mamiya's past. It is stated that he was a psychology student, but he abandoned his studies three years prior to the events of the film.
A man who had presumably come into contact with Mamiya is shown beating a prostitute with a piece of pipe, then carving an 'X' shape into her neck. The man is found near the scene by police but is in an unresponsive state of shock, leaving his motive a mystery.
Mamiya himself first appears wandering on a desolate beach, seemingly disoriented and suffering from amnesia. He approaches a man sitting on the beach and repeatedly asks basic questions like the date or where they are. The man gets up to leave, but Mamiya collapses and pleads the man for help and is taken in.
The man takes Mamiya home and serves him coffee. The man notices the name 'Mamiya' written in his coat asks if it could be his name, but Mamiya says he's not sure. The man suggests contacting the police, but Mamiya refuses. Mamiya ignores the man's questions and instead begins asking the man personal questions about himself. The man obliges and tells Mamiya he is a teacher, then attempts to ask Mamiya questions instead. Mamiya deflects his questions once again, and continues pressing the teacher. Mamiya mentions a detail about the teacher's wife that would be impossible for him to know. The teacher is shocked, but before he respond Mamiya takes out a lighter and continues his questioning. The next day, the teacher slashes his wife's throat and is arrested. When questioned by police, the teacher is unable to give an answer as to why he did this.
Later, a policeman sees Mamiya standing on a roof. Assuming he is attempting to commit suicide, the policeman tries to reach him, but Mamiya jumps from the roof before he can do so. However, Mamiya is mysteriously unharmed, and is brought to a police box where there is another, younger police officer on duty. The older officer attempts to question Mamiya to no avail, and the younger officer leaves to go on patrol. Now alone with the older officer, Mamiya lights his lighter, which seemingly puts the officer into a hypnotic state. Mamiya then tells the officer that he would like to hear about who the officer is. The next day, the older officer abruptly shoots his younger partner in the head, before carving an 'X' in his neck. When interrogated by Takabe, the detective charged with investigating the bizarre string of crimes, the officer confesses to the murder, saying he grew to hate his colleague. However, when asked if he spoke to anyone before the crime, the officer insists he hadn't.
Mamiya, now at a hospital, is examined by a doctor for his amnesia. The doctor remarks on Mamiya's calmness. Mamiya tells the doctor that she is the one who is worried, to her surprise. Mamiya then gets up to pour himself a glass of water. He tells the doctor that he has become empty on the inside, but as a result can see everything that is inside others. Mamiya spills the water onto the floor, putting the doctor into a state of hypnosis. Mamiya asks the doctor to tell him about herself while in this hypnotic state. He reminds her of the fact that she was discouraged to become a doctor by her male colleagues, who believed she was unfit for the job because she was a woman. He also recalls to her the first time she dissected a corpse in medical school, suggesting that because of the resentment that she harbored she enjoyed cutting into the man. Mamiya concludes that the doctor has always fantasized about cutting a man open, and leaves the hospital. The woman is later found in a men's restroom, dissecting the body of a man that she has killed in an identical manner to the previous victims.
Eventually, Takabe is informed of Mamiya’s location. He searches for Mamiya in the hospital along with several other police officers, and finds Mamiya in a dark back room. Takabe confronts his suspect, but Mamiya again claims amnesia and begins to ask Takabe personal questions. Takabe refuses to answer, and Mamiya is eventually arrested by the other officers.
Now in police custody, Mamiya is interrogated by Takabe, who believes that Mamiya is the hypnotist behind the string of murders. Mamiya continues to ignore Takabe's questions and instead ask his own, infuriating Takabe.
Takabe searches Mamiya's seemingly abandoned home at a junkyard and finds a number of books relating to mesmerism and hypnosis. Shortly after investigating Mamiya's home, Takabe has a horrifying vision of his wife committing suicide.
Takabe again visits Mamiya, who is now being detained at a psychiatric hospital. Mamiya, having learned personal details about Takabe from one of the hospital's guards, suggests that Takabe resents his wife for her mental illness that forces Takabe to care for her. Takabe has a breakdown and admits what Mamiya says is true. He attempts to question Mamiya, using Mamiya's own lighter similarly to how Mamiya hypnotized his victims earlier. However, water from the rainfall outside seeps into the cell through the roof, extinguishing the lighter. Mamiya suggests that Takabe listen to the sound of the water, telling Takabe that he could be reborn as an empty vessel like Mamiya was. Frustrated, Takabe beats Mamiya and leaves the hospital.
Mamiya is brought before an audience of police officers and lawyers in order to determine if he is sane enough to stand trial for the murders. Takabe's superior attempts to interrogate Mamiya, but he simply shrugs off his questions and repeatedly asks him who he is. The audience is left at a loss, and as they argue Mamiya tells Takabe that he is someone special who understands what Mamiya is truly saying. Takabe lashes out in anger and has Mamiya sent back to the mental hospital.
Takabe grows increasingly frustrated, and in a fit of fury considers murdering his wife, but instead has her admitted into a mental hospital until he is finished with this case. Takabe consults Sakuma once more, who has found that Mamiya may be using a method of hypnosis similar to one shown an obscure video tape on mesmerism recorded in 1898: an unknown man is shown hypnotizing a woman, gesturing in the shape of an 'X.' The woman in the video later murdered her son by carving the same shape into his neck, suggesting a link to the killings incited by Mamiya. Sakuma suggests that Mamiya is acting as some sort of missionary, but doesn't elaborate. However, Sakuma begins to have troubling hallucinations, envisioning himself visiting Mamiya in the mental hospital but finding Takabe in his place instead. Sakuma shrugs it off, but Takabe grows concerned upon seeing that Sakuma has scratched an 'X' into his bedroom wall. Takabe suspects that Sakuma also visited Mamiya, but Sakuma doesn't remember doing so. Sakuma is later found dead after hanging himself, presumably having fallen victim to Mamiya's hypnosis.
Takabe allows Mamiya to escape from the mental hospital, and Mamiya flees to an abandoned building. Takabe comes to the building alone and finds Mamiya there. Mamiya suggests that Takabe allowed him to escape in order to learn his secret for himself, but Takabe draws his gun and shoots Mamiya on the spot. As Mamiya bleeds out, Takabe asks if he remembers everything now, to which Mamiya nods. Before Takabe can kill him, Mamiya reaches out and gestures to Takabe in the shape of an 'X.' Takabe then executes him. Takabe explores the abandoned building and listens to a hypnotic recording on a phonograph, presumably the voice of the mysterious man from the old video tape.
Takabe's wife is found murdered with an 'X' slashed in her throat, while Takabe nonchalantly enjoys dinner at a restaurant. The waitress Takabe speaks to picks up a knife and seemingly prepares to kill someone, suggesting that Takabe has possibly become a vessel for Mamiya, or is at least carrying on his mission.