23 reviews
Brilliant Cinematography
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.
- edward_tan
- Apr 11, 2000
- Permalink
Odd Bit Of Japanese Psychological-Horror...
Edgar Allen Poe filtered through a japanese cyberpunk lense
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.
Another great movie from Tsukamoto!
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
- Oct 15, 2007
- Permalink
typical Tsukamoto's theme
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.
- othello-jiLOVEzi
- May 29, 2007
- Permalink
Ethereal, Brutal
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.
"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.
Neo Japanese Horror movie with stunning visual, however inconclusive!!
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.
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.
- elo-equipamentos
- Dec 28, 2022
- Permalink
beautiful terror
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.
Weird Romance
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"
"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"
- claudio_carvalho
- Dec 7, 2022
- Permalink
So-so Tsukamoto...
Tsukamoto's best?
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.
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.
- Speechless
- Sep 4, 2001
- Permalink
Clever Japs horror
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.
- Gunnar_R_Ingibjargarson
- Feb 12, 2019
- Permalink
Colourful nightmare
- politic1983
- Dec 20, 2020
- Permalink
The Sins of our Parents
Bit of a weird one.
I felt like Gemini was even harder to follow than most Shin'ya Tsukamoto films, but it kept me fairly engaged and it was always intriguing. It's like a psychological and supernatural horror movie at the same time. Or is it just one and not the other? Or is it actually neither? Will you be able to find out the answer if you watch Gemini? Maybe not!
It's stylish and atmospheric enough in any event, and it helps that it doesn't overstay its welcome as well.
One part of Gemini I really loved though was the music. It was done by someone named Chu Ishikawa, who I looked up and it seems he collaborated with Shin'ya Tsukamoto numerous times as composer, but sadly passed away when he was still quite young in 2017 (RIP).
It's stylish and atmospheric enough in any event, and it helps that it doesn't overstay its welcome as well.
One part of Gemini I really loved though was the music. It was done by someone named Chu Ishikawa, who I looked up and it seems he collaborated with Shin'ya Tsukamoto numerous times as composer, but sadly passed away when he was still quite young in 2017 (RIP).
- Jeremy_Urquhart
- Aug 13, 2024
- Permalink
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
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.
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.
- dbborroughs
- Aug 19, 2006
- Permalink
Stunning cinematography, dualist identity crisis plot
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!
Gemini
- Scarecrow-88
- Aug 9, 2008
- Permalink
do not read reviews: mystery /drama
Great acting cast .
decent production.
good direction.
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No eyebrows
- BandSAboutMovies
- Sep 15, 2020
- Permalink
Incredible fairytale for adults
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!!
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!!
- dopefishie
- Jul 5, 2021
- Permalink