Gemini (1999 film)

Gemini

Film poster
Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto
Produced by Futoshi Nishimura
Written by Shinya Tsukamoto
Starring Masahiro Motoki
Ryo
Yasutaka Tsutsui
Shiho Fujimura
Akaji Maro
Music by Chu Ishikawa
Cinematography Shinya Tsukamoto
Edited by Shinya Tsukamoto
Release dates
 September 15, 1999
Running time
 84 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Gemini (also known as Sôseiji) is a 1999 horror film by Shinya Tsukamoto, loosely based on an Edogawa Ranpo story, which pursues his theme of the brutally physical and animalistic side of human beings rearing its ugly head underneath a civilized veneer, present in previous films like Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) and Tokyo Fist (1995), in what is a new territory for Tsukamoto—a story set in the late Meiji era (1868–1912) with no stop-motion photography and no industrial setting.

Plot

Tokyo. 1910. Dr. Daitokuji Yukio (Masahiro Motoki), a former military doctor who has taken over a successful practice from his father and treats plague victims, is living a charmed life: he is a respected young doctor with a successful practice and Rin (Ryo), a beautiful wife. His only problem is that she suffers from amnesia, and her past is unknown.

However, things begin to fall apart. Both his parents die suddenly, killed by a mysterious stranger who looks just like him. His relationship with his wife worsens after he chooses to cure the mayor instead of destitute denizens of nearby ghettos. While isolated from his relatives, he one day faces the mysterious stranger who turns out to be his long-lost rejected twin, Sutekichi (again Motoki). Bent on revenge, Sutekichi throws him into the garden's well and takes over his life and his wife.

The final conflict between the two brothers is realized when Yukio, forced into an animalistic existence in the well, reemerges, prompting the fratricidal fight for the love of the same woman, since it turns out (while he takes over Yukio's role) that Rin had actually once been Sutekichi's lover.

Cast

Documentary

A behind the scenes documentary was produced and directed by Takashi Miike. The documentary is 17 minutes long.

External links