Cube (2021)

Cube (2021)

Original title: 一度入ったら、最後

When Americans make remakes, they are immediately criticised. However, when other countries do it, it’s less of an issue. It’s crazy!

Many people say that Japan, with its rich horror film culture, should have made a better film. That remains to be seen. I think the American remake of The Ring (2002) is much better. Everyone has their own opinion!

At the same time, this film isn’t really a remake, just a new option, a new episode, albeit one packed with references to the cult film Cube (1997). But the concept is still pretty worn out. We could make bad Cube films until the end of time. Because, cult or not, and despite an idea that I’ve always found brilliant, I haven’t seen any film turn it into something truly incredible, completely gripping or wonderful. It’s still just people waking up without knowing where they are, going from room to room, falling into traps and getting torn to pieces. I still much prefer it when it takes place in a real maze or places where all the rooms are different.

I don’t know if this film is the best in the franchise. Probably! It’s perfectly fine. But once again, it’s far from excellent. There are some very well-crafted moments, such as when a character sinks into anger or becomes threatening, the light in the cube turns red. This also happens when someone is very scared, I think.

But although the film drags a little in the middle, overall it is watchable and there are some twists. Of course, those who are unfamiliar with hyperactive and over-the-top Japanese games will turn up their noses, but fans of the original Cube will have to admit that the substance is far from bad.

Just like in the 1997 film Cube, there are characters who become increasingly detestable, traps and extremely violent moments, but not necessarily gory, because there is a certain artistic desire, I suppose, to hide the worst. Unless it was just a fear of censorship, but I doubt it. We’ve seen so many forms and types of violence on screen that we could be immune to it! Fortunately, some of us are still human.

We thought the Cube franchise was history after a lackluster first film (which is nevertheless considered legendary by its biggest fans) and the two disastrous sequels that followed. Now, nearly 25 years later, that’s how long it took for this famous puzzle to spread across Asia and for the Japanese to decide to do something with it. After all, it’s fashionable to upgrade old films, and the original film was a B-movie that could be improved upon, at least artistically. Except that it’s easy to see that this isn’t what this remake does, with its cheaper design than the original and much less interesting characters. One could also say that it adds absolutely nothing to the concept, so you might as well just rewatch the old one.

The traps and their deadly consequences are fortunately rendered in a more modern style. The new design of the rooms is pleasing to the eye, but you may find yourself on familiar ground with most of the twists and turns encountered along the way, which is, of course, terribly annoying for a film that seeks to maximise its surprise effect on the advances within its enigmatic environment.

On a symbolic level, as in the original, the progression through the architectural madness of the Cube, where each room can reveal an unexpected deadly face, will of course become a reflection of the increasingly unstable flaws and hidden sides of certain participants, plunging the group’s human dynamics into chaos. Here again, ‘Cube 2021’ does not invent anything new and comes across as a simple, updated copy-paste with little interest.

There are also redundant flashbacks that break up the anxiety-inducing aspect of the closed setting. The psychological traits of the protagonists were already clearly not very successful in the original film! Those in this 2021 version turn it into a complete disaster by making its already rather dull characters absolutely unbearable, not to mention their sometimes highly questionable performances in a lunar delirium, a pseudo-denunciation of the oppression of youth by adults that begins to take precedence over everything else in the film, transforming it into a torturous bore where the same flashback seems to repeat itself ad infinitum.

The latest film in the saga, as if we needed another one, this Cube confirms that these films are pretty pointless, despite a concept that is nevertheless more than interesting. Even the best ones are not essential and have plenty of flaws.

So, as in all countries (England, Spain, USA…), Asian cinema, much vaunted as it is, also has its flaws! It is far from being full of gems, and the proof is here: the Japanese can clearly make bad films too!

There are three kinds of endings. The first is as mysterious as what we already know from elsewhere. The second is pathetic. The third is reminiscent of other mind-fucks like Breathing Room (2008) without giving too much away.

Rather lacking in suspense and not particularly inspired, I wonder what the real point of making this remake was. It’s a shame, because this concept deserves so much more.