Charisma

Kurosawa's Cure (screened in 1998 in Rotterdam) looked at several existential themes around the way in which people's lives are defined by language, consciousness and memory. The ominous mood was partly a result of the location: a derelict, deserted sick bay that Japanese associate with school complexes or army barracks and that is imbued with sinister threat. The deserted and derelict laboratory of the female botanist in Charisma has a much-more-universal architecture. The house in the mountains has lots of glass and so it is much more open. This is faced by an area around a bare open space in the woods where a large gnarled tree stands in the middle as a strange object. The space is open but also gives a feeling of being shut in. Around the tree, a conflict develops between the botanist, who thinks the tree is poisonous and hence dangerous, a group of people who worship the tree and a group that wants to cut it down, purely for profit. The theme of this film is the primeval power nature against the man as ruler of nature. It also questions the legitimacy of the question of whether the power of nature is inherently good or evil. The finale of the film does not give a clear answer. Through the protagonist, we become aware that we have to take the world the way it is. (K.O.)