Review: Excuse a minor digression into a brief history of the Meiji Period. When Commander Perry sailed into Tokyo in 1853 and demanded that Japan be opened to American commerce, he forced the Japanese, who had kept the country isolated for hundreds of years, to adapt quickly to the modern world. During the Meiji period which followed, there was a desperate rush by Japan to modernise the country so that its military could prevent it from becoming subjected to the west as had already happened to many other countries in Asia. It is against this backdrop of frantic modernisation, mixed values and confused morals that GEMINI is set.

A richly coloured historical horror loosely based on Edogawa Rampo's short story 'The Twins', GEMINI marks a significant visual departure for Shinya Tsukamoto, who first found worldwide fame with his disturbing black & white stop-motion-rich surreal cyber-horror, TETSUO: IRON MAN (1989). Thematically, however, GEMINI explores many of the same issues that he dealt with in TETSUO, TETSUO 2 (1992) and TOKYO FIST (1994) -- human instinct and animal nature vs. human civilization and culture.

As a horror movie, the film is effectively frightening for approximately the first 30 minutes or so and then psychedelic and disorienting for the rest of the duration. The mixture of hyperactive cinematography, some of which seems to set the precident for REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, a bold colour palette, fantastic costumes and makeup and atmospheric music, reminiscent of Ring at first, makes the movie simultaneously gorgeously riveting and profoundly repulsive.

Whereas the clash between civilized humanity and brutal barbarism in TETSUO was expressed by the sudden and surreal cybernetization of its protaganist, with the cold industrial world exposing the inner beast, GEMINI introduces humanity's dichotomy in the twin's two identies. Yukio ostensibly represents the civilized and repressed middle class and his abandoned twin represents the animalistic lower class. While Yukio and his family are considered and reserved in their movements, Sutekichi and the segments filmed in the slum where he lived are garish and their movement chaotic -- at least until the brothers trade places; as Yukio subsists at the bottom of the well on the meals thrown down to him from Sutekichi above he becomes increasingly animalistic, whereas Sutekichi, in assuming Yukio's role, represses his personality to the point where the viewer could be forgiven for losing track of exactly who is who.

The Region 2 DVD box for GEMINI is loud and garish and I must admit that it had previously discouraged me from purchasing the movie -- which is a shame, because while the film is garish at times, much of the camera work is spare and the composition is always carefully considered. Perhaps I'm too repressed myself, but I wasn't as fond of the colour-saturated exaggerated scenes in the slums as I was about the colder scenes in the Meiji-era house. If the slums were merely garish I could have appreciated that, but in addition to the garishness of the slums, the makeshift post-apocalyptic clothes that the slum dwellers wear look like they were taken from the sets of both MAD MAX 2 and CATS! and stiched back together in order to further exaggerate the chaos. Comparing GEMINI to CATS! may be hyperbole, but with the inclusion of some short animalistic modern dances in GEMINI, it is hard not to recall a musical at times, much as TETSUO 2 had percussive choreographed scenes which recalled Stomp.

Speaking of musicals, all of Shinya Tsukamoto's movies have made music a crucial part, from the industrial percussion of TETSUO to the, errr, industrial percussion of TETSUO 2 to the, hmmm, yeah, industrial percussion of TOKYO FIST. To be honest, while I've always enjoyed the intent of Tsukamoto's musical direction, I've never been completely fulfilled by musician Chu Ishikawa's implementation. GEMINI starts out well with a weird manipulated vocal/operatic sample setting a creepy atmosphere along with the requisite creeks, whines, rumbles and scrapes, but although Ishikawa succeeds in eshewing a cliched soundtrack in the later half of the movie, much of the instrumental music feels thin and drained of energy, perhaps partly due to the production which almost makes it seem like he wants it to sound as if it's playing over a 1920s gramophone, but probably also due to the original scoring and palette of sounds used. That said, I know that many people consider Ishikawa's soundtracks on TETSUO/TETSUO 2/TOKYO FIST to be first-rate, so perhaps those same people will enjoy his work again here.

The acting in the movie is fantastic, the secondary characters well developed and intriguing and I'm sure many will enjoy Tadanobu Asano's humorous cameo, looking very much like's preparing for his role as Kakihara in ICHI THE KILLER. Ryo is also very effective as the enigmatic wife, known both to Yukio and Sutekichi, and although all the women sport historically accurate UFO-like hair styles, Ryo's otherworldy nature is particularly pronounced.