Apocalyptic tension within three movies by Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Cure, 1997; Retribution, 2006; Pulse, 2001).

The specters of the dying city arise

Abstract

Given the fact that cinematography captured the first images in movement of the modern city, it would be poetically appropriate if it managed to arrive in time so as to capture the last images of its final stillness, right before its disappearance. In few filmographies like Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s can we perceive the continuity between modern city and imagery and contemporary city and imagery. Following the narrative of the last things, this article will focus on three of his movies; moreover, it will also focus on the progressive decay of the Tokyo that it is portrayed, until it reaches its ghostly disappearance. These movies are Cure (1997), Retribution (2006), and Pulse (2001). In these, Kurosawa enacts how our present would be when our modern cities -and the concept of modernity that he so well knows- are on the verge of their end. It will be, at this moment, when the viral infection of its ghostly façade becomes the biggest indication of its decadence.