Gemini (1999) User Reviews

Brilliant Cinematography

[edward_tan · 7/10 · 12 April 2000]

Beautiful camera work from the director of Tokyo Fist and Bullet Ballet. Shows that he has come a long way from his small budget days. Plot gets a little predictable midway through which is ironic as you would expect a little more ingenuity from the director who brought us Tetsuo.

Edgar Allen Poe filtered through a japanese cyberpunk lense

[freakus · 8/10 · 17 October 2000]

This film is based on a story by Edogawa Rampo, a japanese writer who was so enamoured of Edgar Allen Poe that he even took on his name. This Film is the best evidence I've seen of Poe heavy influence. The twins, the well, the wife.... at times I was reminded of "Tell-Tale Heart", "Cask of Amontillado" and "Fall of the House of Usher". Yet the film's art direction and directorial style took these themes in brilliant new directions. I loved the sound design in the early part of the film using Bulgarian(?) female chorus voices to punctuate the terror of the dark house as the wife searches for the father-in-law. The hair and make-up on the wife made her both beautiful and poisonous at the same time. A uniquely creepy film.

Odd Bit Of Japanese Psychological-Horror...

[EVOL666 · 6/10 · 19 March 2010]

I started watching Gemini several years ago but never finished it for some reason. As I'm making a point to go through my unwatched film collection, I decided to give it another go. 

The storyline concerns the eyebrow-challenged couple of Yukio and Rin. Yukio is a young doctor and Rin is his (supposedly) amnesiac wife. Things get really strange for the couple when a man that looks just like Yukio shows up...

I have very mixed feelings about this one. Overall I'd say that I liked it-but I felt it could have been much stronger if it wouldn't have veered off into weirdo-territory the way so many '90s era Japanese films seem to do. The storyline is actually pretty straight-forward by the time you get to the end-but the atmosphere of the beginning is lost with a bunch of weird and garish costuming that felt nearly comical to me. I personally feel the first third of the film is really quite fantastic. During that segment-there's a constant feeling of anxious, near-dread that is almost early Cronenberg-ish in nature. Problem is-that feeling of suspense and general 'creepiness' dies quickly because the film becomes, well...too 'Japanese' for lack of a better term. Don't get me wrong-I'm typically quite fond of Japanese films and their often peculiar style-but in this one, it felt forced.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised coming from the director of the TETSUO films-and he does show far more restraint in GEMINI-but it just wasn't enough. I honestly think this could have been a really fantastic film that just really misses the mark for me. Still a decent film-just not a great one. 6.5/10

Another great movie from Tsukamoto!

[Infofreak · 17 June 2002]

I was incredibly impressed by Shinya Tsukamoto's surreal cyberpunk classic 'Tetsuo', one of the most startling, original and disturbing movies of the last twenty years, and also knocked out by 'Tokyo Fist' his hyperkinetic and violent study of macho competition. Now, once again I'm impressed, this time by 'Gemini' his beautiful and haunting story of identity confusion, and sibling rivalry. The movie is said to be based on Edogawa Rampo's short story 'The Twins', but I've read it and it has virtually nothing to do with this film. Whatever, it doesn't matter, Tsukamoto has taken one or two ideas from Rampo's (excellent) story and expanded it into more interesting and inventive territory. Masahiro Motoki is brilliant in a duel role as the uptight bourgeois doctor and his malevolent criminal twin, and Ryo is beautifully enigmatic as his (apparently) amnesiac wife who is harboring a secret or two. 'Gemini' is a brilliant piece of film making, and I highly recommend it.

Unusual

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 16 October 2007]

Director Shinya Tsukamoto of Tetsuo fame returns with something very different than his hyperkinetic cyborg technophilia mindtrip: an almost sober costume drama cum doppelganger thriller. This man has versatility, I must say.

Now the story is decent, though not as great as it could have been. As strange occurrences and the feeling of an alien presence start plaguing a successful doctor's life, he suddenly gets trapped at the bottom of a well while a mysterious person who looks just like him takes over his life, including his house and his wife. Through dialog and flashbacks we learn that the mystery man is his long-lost brother, abandoned by his family because of a snake-shaped deformity on his leg. After he got separated with his wife Rin, he searched for her to find that Rin had married the successful doctor twin. Wanting revenge for his rejection from society, plus to get back at and back together with his old wife, the stranger decides to taunt his doctor brother by forcing him into the most abject of conditions.

It's not particularly effective for horror or thriller approach, but it is a good movie in the way the one actor plays the double roles and the color and movement Tsukamoto captures. Apparently he hired actors from a certain local theatre to play the roles, and the approach they have to their characters is certainly very physical: the doppelganger and Rin snake around each other while making love, the way he cartwheels around to scare the brothers' mother, the level of distortion each character puts on their face in order to project their emotion. Add an extremely acute focus on costuming and you get something almost out of Noh theatre: demonic expressiveness, bright colorful motifs, paced and structured movements.

--PolarisDiB

typical Tsukamoto's theme

[othello-jiLOVEzi · 7/10 · 30 May 2007]

The many Shinya Tsukamoto's films (such as "Snake of June","Tokyo fist","Tetsuo" and others) appears psychological exploration of "love triangle" situation.Unusial in "Gemini" absence urban constituent.Therefore "Gemini" is not hypertrophied as "Tokyo fist",not surreal as "Tetsuo" and not so atmosphere as "Snake of June".Total is not so intensive as others Tsukamoto's works.But it is a good movie because qualified lighted , acted and cinematographied.Pleasant momentary turn (by using equipment in manner sci-fi movie) from "historical film" to "modern" (plague child scene).Synthetical music soundtrack is the part of "urban" instruments of director Tsukamoto.

Ethereal, Brutal

[Bishonen · 9/10 · 29 October 1999]

A film of extremes.

"Tetsuo" and its sequel were ripping bouts of cinematic mayhem. This film, "Gemini", represents a stunning turnabout for the director who applies a sure, delicate hand to an unnerving mystery.

A doctor in 1910 Japan lives a seemingly perfect life; he is handsome, he is married to a beautiful (albeit perplexing and inscrutable) woman and he is a renowned doctor.

The deaths of his parents send the doctor down a spiral of madness and violence. His wife grows more distant and enigmatic. He loses his grip on reality but the nightmarish events seem to spring from his own hand...

Frequently the imagery is rigorously symmetrical, composed with a great deal of poetry and ethereal beauty. Many of the shots are masterpieces of Japanese design. The effect is like a spiderweb where all the strands are perfectly aligned and no two edges seem to deviate from the basic construction. Even in the most tranquil image, the director creates a sense of palpable menace, as though the air is tinged with the smells of blood and gore even though the shot may be of a perfectly kept garden.

On this elegant framework the director lays on stunning moments of violence and revelatory mayhem. Besides the visceral elements, there is a great deal of psychic violence in the film. The audience witnesses the mental descent of the doctor so delicately and precisely that it seems that we can see the hairs rising on the back of his neck.

An unsettling and very rewarding film.

Colourful nightmare

[politic1983 · 6/10 · 21 December 2020]

Colour, or the lack thereof, is an important part of the films of Shinya Tsukamoto, with the grainy monochrome of "Tetsuo" or "Bullet Ballet", to the film noir blue of "A Snake of June", you will certainly remember how the film looked - as well as the experience it took you through. "Gemini" is certainly a film that leaves you recalling the colours on the screen, but here Tsukamoto gives you a full palette to play with and it comes as no surprise that production designer Takashi Sasaki went on to work on "Ichi the Killer".

In the early Twentieth Century, a former military doctor, Yukio (Masahiro Motoki), lives with his wife Rin (Ryo) and his parents, in his large compound which includes his surgery. Despite his parents not being completely enamoured with Rin, he lives a fairly idyllic life. But events start to turn against him. With a mysterious odour lingering in the air, his father and then his mother are found dead in their home.

Then, one night, a young mother from the slums comes to his door screaming for help. Likewise, the mayor is also in need of immediate care. He chooses to help the mayor who recovers, but his decision lingers over Rin. Something else that lingers over Yukio is the sense that someone is watching him. Finally, he is confronted.

Suddenly, Yukio's life is turned upside down, with revelations about his wife, his parents and long-lost brother revealed. Now trapped in a well, he has to sit and wait as he is replaced in his own life.

As with any Tsukamoto film, you are treated to moments of calm and then jolted and thrown across the room. Tsukamoto keeps his camera moving, and shaking, at various intense moments. You may not be fully aware as to exactly what is going on, but you certainly know what he is wanting you to feel.

The late Chu Ishikawa adds to this visceral experience with a soundtrack that creates the right amount of horror. The make-up and costume design departments were also allowed a free-reign to be as creative as they like, in what is a coloufully visual feast, suitable for a Edogawa Rampo adaptation.

Starting off with a dusky red, the film never feels natural, as if in an artificial world. The film also switches between blues and greens in the nightmare world which Yukio finds himself inhabiting.

As with other Tsukamoto films, the narrative is not clear or linear. With flashbacks telling the backstory of Yukio, Rin and Yukio's brother, we gradually piece together the story, though characters are quickly introduced only to be removed almost instantly.

But this is all part of the experience. It's fast and frantic and we're not fully sure as to what is going on. Visually memorable with a good soundtrack, you are again left to feel what the characters feel. Which can be both good and bad, but you certainly went through it.

politic1983.home.blog

beautiful terror

[Red Zebra · 10/10 · 27 August 2000]

After having been impressed by the Tetsuo series, Gemini was all I was hoping for and much more. The cinematography is some of the most beautiful and evocative I've seen, with wonderful use of colour, light and design. Though I'd been told this movie was not "cyberpunk" like testsuo, in a way it had a similar ethic, questioning "what makes a person a person", although in this case it's more about what makes one "good or evil". I saw it the same night as I saw another popular Japanese horror, "The Ring", which curiously also features a well, but I found Gemini much more sinister and frightening.

So-so Tsukamoto...

[poe426 · 3/10 · 10 June 2007]

I have a confession to make: I hate "evil twin" stories. There have been, to date, 750,899 versions of the "sinister sibling" on American television alone. Add in the innumerable feature films that feature "terrible twosomes" and we're talking 4.5 million times that this hackneyed approach has been used. Even George Romero, an otherwise mostly original filmmaker, used the doppelganger (in his version of THE DARK HALF, Stephen King's hackneyed retelling of The Evil (br)Other story). Enough, already. Anybody who thinks this is anywhere near Tsukamoto's best simply hasn't got a clue. It's better than A SNAKE OF JUNE, but that's not saying a whole lot. How does it stack up against his earlier films? It don't. Period.

Tsukamoto's best?

[Speechless · 9/10 · 5 September 2001]

First things first: somebody needs to officially release this film in the United States. I see three thousand copies of Dude, Where's My Car every time I step outside, but when I want to see a beautiful and interesting film like Gemini, I have to track down a dubious bootleg on eBay. Pitiful.

The plot concerns a rich doctor suddenly thrown into a well by a man who looks exactly like him. The mysterious doppelganger takes over the doctor's identity, his household, and his wife, all the while laughing and taunting down the well at his imprisoned twin. As the mysterious lookalike gradually reveals the truth to the doctor, it becomes less and less certain which of the twins is the "hero" and which is the "villain."

Shinya Tsukamoto isn't a great director yet, but he's getting there. With Gemini he reveals a tremendous versatility, combining moments of sedate drama with hyperkinetic sequences of terror and joy. The actors are all magnificent (especially Masahiro Motoki in a complex double role), the cinematography is stunning, and the story is thoroughly intriguing and well told. It's not the best movie ever made by any means, but here and there Tsukamoto manages a few moments of real greatness, scenes where we genuinely become one with these characters and their needs. Watch the doctor, defeated and filthy at the bottom of his well, beg for a release from his suffering; watch the wife burst into tears as she remembers her past existence.

Tsukamoto knows what he's doing. He hasn't quite achieved true greatness yet, but one day he may just break through.

Clever Japs horror

[Gunnar_R_Ingibjargarson · 6/10 · 13 February 2019]

A doctor's family starts to die one by one, after a young woman enters his life. A very clever Japanese horror which happens both in modern times and the past.

Weird Romance

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 8 December 2022]

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, in Japan, Dr. Yukio Daitokuji (Masahiro Motoki) lives with his father, who was a doctor, his mother and his wife Rin (Ryô), who is amnesiac and does not recall her past. He is young, but decorated and respected for his work in the war. He has bias against poor people in the slums, and his clients are most from the middle and upper classes. Out of the blue, his father first and his mother later are scared to death by a stranger dying of heart attack and raising no suspicion on their deaths. One day, Yukio is attacked by a man and thrown in a deep well in his garden. Soon he learns that the evil man is identical to him and has assumed his identity and closed his clinic. Along of the days, he learns dark secrets from the past of his parents and Rin.

"Sôseiji", a.k.a. "Gemini", is a weird romance having the background of the struggle of classes in the beginning of the Twentieth Century, in Japan. The lead character, Yukio, is from the upper class and distinguish people in accordance with their social position. The scene of the woman and her child from the slums asking for help in his backdoor, and the incident with the Major in his front door shows his character. The plot point is when he learns that his wife has come from the slums too and was the lover of his unknown twin brother, and he is easily posing of Yukio. When he becomes a killer, he sees that his prejudice was wrong. The performance of Masahiro Motoki in the double-role is top-notch. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Gemini"

Neo Japanese Horror movie with stunning visual, however inconclusive!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 29 December 2022]

The Japanese trademark in horror pictures is fully underlined in this production, the stunning visual is the prominence, the young director Shin'ya Tsukamoto introduces many unusual elements that boost how he displays his newest concept.

This macabre tale takes place post WWI around twenties when a well-born young doctor Yukio returns of the war and starting clinical exercise to cater wealthy clients, the he enchants by a girl called Rin naked at the river, even knowing that such girl actually is poverty-stricken from slum, even under letdown of his parents he marries her.

However Rin previously had a relationship with a guy extremally resemblance called Sutekishi a sort of orphan found in a basket at river by a poor man who raised him ever since, he becomes a thief, being rejected by his stepfather, he lost Rin who now lives with Yukio in a upper-class family, Sutekishi sudden appears scarring deadly Yukio's parents and trapping him at old pit, posing as Yukio henceforth, he keeping alive his brother at pit for a while, strangely the twin brothers will slowing changing their behaviors, something like backward process each one taking on each other's identity, sadly the movie stays inconclusive, letting to the viewers seek the answer at your leisure.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 2022 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

The Sins of our Parents

[myboigie · 9/10 · 4 June 2006]

Shinya Tsukamoto's take on a Meiji era "Cask of Amantillado", and the parable of Cain and Abel, is possibly one of the best Japanese horror-films ever lensed. There are no supernatural-elements, only the landscape of tormented human-souls. This was a for-hire film for Tsukamoto, and was released through Toho studios. For a director who has often expressed his love for the Toho monster films, it was a dream-come-true, and it did well in Japan. The film was originally slated to be less than feature-length, but because of the director's resourcefulness, it was lengthened to a running-time of 83-minutes. I originally thought the film was a little short, but there-it-is. More amazing is the fact that Tsukamototo was director, editor, writer and cinematographer! Perfection is achieved in all-areas.

While based on a story by the noted Japanese author, Edogawa Rampo, Tsukamoto has made a tale that is more his own. First, he changed the setting of the period-piece from the Showa era (1920s), to the late Meiji era when poverty was more-obvious in Japanese society. He also changed a major plot-point: in Edogawa's original, the doppleganger-brother (Sutekichi) murders his brother, throws him into a disused-well, and steals his identity permanently. Tsukamoto's revisions allow-for much more by the survival of the brother (Yukio), and is more realist since the Sutekichi would have to learn all the medical-knowledge Yukio knows. This would push the story into the realms of the supernatural or the absurd. But, the truth is, this is the oldest-story told. The real trick is making it one's own, and the director achieves this with his running-theme of the love-triangle, and a feminine-wisdom that teaches the male-protagonists something they could never learn otherwise. As-usual, there are also the themes of class and one's standing and honor in Japanese society.

It should be noted that the Japanese have been very-obsessed with an aesthetic for purity and order (like Germans?), and this extends to people. Even today, survivors and the children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are discriminated-against for being "contaminated" and "impure". In the late Meiji era, it was much-worse. The children of the wealthy would be abandoned, just as the brother, Sutekichi. His serpentine-birthmark causes his removal by his purity-obsessed parents, and he is the "bad-seed" to them. The story isn't a long-stretch, and one has to imagine how the real outcasts reacted. And yet, this is still a parable about Japanese society, which has a strangely universal-appeal. Gemini has a tension to it that resembles Poe's stories, and it is also about the psychology between people.

Sutekichi is the monster of this tale, but he was created-by his parents who abandoned-him near the slums. Sutekichi is raised, and taught by a thief to survive, much like an animal. His visage, covered in filth and rat-pelts, is terrifying. He scarcely looks human, a shadow-image of the successful doctor, Yukio. Sutekichi represents the oppression of Japan's violent, disordered-past from the eras of the Shogun and the Samurai. Yukio represents the emergence of a modern Japan, with his work as a doctor and his bourgeois life with his new-wife, Rin. He toils helping cure the rich and the poor alike, and is a hero as a field-doctor in the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905). This is important: it was the war that ushered-in Japan as a modern nation, and was the first time that a Western power was defeated by an Asian one. This is about a new Japan.

And yet, the story is creepy. Sutekichi murders his mother and father dressed as a shaman or ghost from traditional Japanese-lore. Also, Yukio and Sutekichi are identical-in-appearance. He is an apparition of the past. Also, the doppelganger is universal as an occult-symbol of death and the unknown, and this is perhaps why the film has a wider-appeal. By the end, it's clear that Yukio must absorb his brother to become whole. In killing his brother, there is a union of the past and present. He has understood the depravity of the slums by festering in the well, and he has understood the crimes of his parents. Rin also plays her part in educating Yukio what it is to be poor and desperate--to live like an animal. The doctor will return to his practice a full-man, but there is an ambivalence, as he also looks menacing striding towards the camera. It is very-much like the ending of Scanners, and so, the connection with Cronenberg remains.

Story of a doctor and his wife is one of the creepiest films I've seen in years. Its a perfect marriage of sound and image for maximum uneasy effect

[dbborroughs · 9/10 · 20 August 2006]

Shinya Tsukamoto, the man behind the Tetsuo films, Snake of June and Tokyo Fist takes on Edogawa Rampo story and turns in one of the most perfect marriages of sound and image I've ever run across not to mention one of the creepiest films I've seen in a very very long time.

Yukio is a famous doctor who won fame treating the war wounded. He is much in demand by the wealthy and so has little time for the poor in a nearby slum where the plague has been running rampant. Yukio is also recently married to a young woman he met by the riverside and who is suffering from amnesia.Soon a dark figure is lurking about and after Yukio's father dies under mysterious and unnatural circumstances things begin to take a turn for the worse.

What can I say? This is a creepy little thriller that will haunt you and keep you feeling off balance. Every shot seems to have been perfectly designed for maximum beauty. The soundtrack is a wonderful mixture of sound and music calculated to give the sense of things being not right. The effect of the sound plus the image is a sense of dread and unease even when there is nothing out of the ordinary in the frame, few thrillers or horror films have ever been able to make you feel so off by doing so little.

Adding to it all is the plot which I'm told takes the Rampo story as a jumping off point and then spins it out with new complications. Give it big points for its ability to keep you guessing as to what is going on even if you know whats going on. Having read on the film I knew what was happening and yet I still had to entertain numerous other possibilities. This movie masterfully makes you wonder about what is real and what is not.

I really liked this movie great deal. I don't know if its fully on its own terms or simply that its not another Japanese or Asian horror film with a long hair female ghost lurking about, honestly I don't care because the film is just so damn good it wouldn't really matter anyway.

See this movie.

Stunning cinematography, dualist identity crisis plot

[meehawl · 9/10 · 21 October 2000]

Stunning cinematography, moments of serene bliss cutting effortlessly to shocking scenes more akin to his earlier Tetsuo imagery. Tour de force and evidence of a rapidly growing range and depth. So so plot though, the beast within, Jekyll and Hyde, Janus, that sort of thing.

I love Tsukamoto!

[zetes · 9/10 · 5 June 2006]

Based on a novel by Edogawa Rampo, a Japanese author whose name transliterates to "Edgar Allen Poe". This story is very Poe-like, covering the subject of doppelgängers much like "William Wilson". Gemini is somewhat confusing, but overall it is a haunting film that actually generates fear and a deeper feeling of uneasiness. A rich doctor marries an amnesiac whose origins are unknown. Soon, her former lover – who happens to be the doctor's twin brother who was abandoned and then raised in the slums – comes back to claim what is his. The doppelgänger throws the doctor into a well and tries to win back his former wife. Soon, the twins begin to exchange personalities until, by the end, it's not entirely clear which one is the victor – or even if the final version of the man doesn't share the minds of both brothers. The film is slow to start, but it climbs to a high level. The technical aspects are especially amazing here. The makeup, the sound, the editing – everything is top notch. The acting is also great. Masahiro Motoki – whose other starring roles include Miike's exceptional The Bird People of China as well as a tryptich of Rampo adaptations named after the author – plays the doctor and his evil twin. A woman simply known as Ryo plays the doctor's wife. She's got a particularly intriguing face. She also starred in Ryuhei Kitamura's Alive. Gemini is not an easy picture, nor is it entirely satisfying. But it is great.

Gemini

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 10 August 2008]

Class *warfare* I felt was at the heart of this thriller from acclaimed cult director Shinya Tsukamoto regarding unstable Sutekichi(Masahiro Motoki) with a scar on his leg(..who was abandoned by his parents, found floating across a river and brought up by a theatrical troupe performer, living as a thief in the slums) who tosses his successful, respected and prominently regarded doctor twin brother Yukio into his family's well, assuming his identity. Sutekichi is essentially responsible for the deaths of their parents, but his ulterior motive is re-entering the life of Rin(Ryô)who was once his lover and partner in the slums, with them separated after their thievery leads to possible trouble for the troupe when a man comes seeking revenge for what they did to his family after stealing jewels. Sutekichi has studied Yukio's mannerisms and habits, perfectly embodying him with no one, except Rin(..who has been manipulating Yukio into thinking she's an amnesia case with no history she can recall)knowing who he really is. Sutekichi visits Yukio from time to time, to drop food scraps or for to torment and ridicule him. Over time, Yukio, in a sense, switches roles with Sutekichi, understanding what it was like from his point-of-view. There's a choice Yukio makes regarding whether to treat a drunken mayor who stumbled onto a spike which plunged into his chest, or a dirty, possibly plague-infested mother whose child needs help. Choosing the mayor, symbolically siding with the higher class instead of the poor, Yukio will swallow a bitter pill when his brother takes him away from the comforts of living, placing him in a horrifying situation of confinement, hunger, and filth..there seems to be no escape as he looks up at his brother, who teases about ruining his practice and making love to his wife. And, among the pile of burdens is the knowledge that Sutekichi may've been responsible for the deaths of his parents. Tsukamoto has always brought a collection of directorial styles, his camera can sit still, smoothly glide, follow the actions of a situation feverishly..whatever is taking place in the story, Tsukamoto has a certain way of conveying it. We get a look at two worlds, the proper, quiet life of a man of prestige and wealth, and the ugly, loud and scuzzy world of the slums..quite a contrast that really benefits the story as the lives of the twin brothers come full circle and both get an understanding as to what life is like in the other's shoes. Rin is the middle woman, who left the old world through an identity switch reaping the benefits of a much more healthier world, but inside longing for the life she once had, her love for Sutekichi just as strong as ever. As always Tsukamoto brings an uneasy atmosphere and the character arcs are stunning to behold, exploring the psychological terrain of what can transform a person when placed in a difficult situation(..all the three of the principals)whether it be for the betterment or detriment of their existence.

do not read reviews: mystery /drama

[surfisfun · 8/10 · 19 February 2021]

Great acting cast . decent production. good direction. . .

No eyebrows

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 16 September 2020]

Taro Hirai is better known as his pen name, Edogawa Ranpo (taken from Edgar Allan Poe). Writing often of the Boy Detectives Club and their leader Kogoro Akechi, he brought his love for Western detective fiction and melded it with traditional Japanese legend.

Shinya Tsukamoto is best known for his stop-motion cyberpunk body freakouts Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer and Tetsuo: The Bullet Man.

So imagine - a director mostly known for his modern takes on man's inhumanity to man going back in time to Japan's Meiji era for a story loosely based on Ranpo's work that ties closely to the same themes he's explored in our time and the near future.

Dr. Daitokuji Yukio (Masahiro Motoki, once an idol singer and now a serious actor) seemingly has it all. After a military career, he has taken over his father's practice and has a gorgeous wife named Rin (Ryo, Goemon, Alive).

However, she has no memory of her past. That's the least of his worries as in short order, both of his parents are killed by a mysterious stranger and his wife shuns him after he treats the rich instead of the poor during a plague. Yes, these same issues still were with us in 1910 Japan.

That strange man (Motoki in a dual role) ends up being his long-lost twin Sutekichi, who throws Yukio into a well and takes over his life. The true secret? Rin was once his and now, he has her back. The once-proud and rich doctor must now crawl from the muck to claim what was once his.

This is one strange movie and I say that in the best of ways. Here's one small example: no one has eyebrows. Everyone wore makeup to conceal them, which lends the movie an odd look.

Incredible fairytale for adults

[dopefishie · 9/10 · 6 July 2021]

Incredible fairy tale for adults

Tsukamoto has done it again! Visually astounding, simple, elegant, disturbing, horrific, sad, mysterious, and well-acted. This is just as good as anything he has made.

Def worth checking out!!