A welcome release for Tsukamoto Shinya’s Gemini because it’s high time that it received a reappraisal, especially in context of the other recent releases from the director covering films from across his career, including the recent triple bill Killing / Haze / Denchu-Kozo. Gemini is notably different in implementation from much of the director’s other work although it does, of course, maintain the themes and sense of macabre that permeates his oeuvre. This is a dark, claustrophobic, fantastical horror based upon the Edogawa Rampo short The Twins, placing the tale outside of the contemporary or futuristic worlds of his other films (until that point) and firmly in the period setting of Rampo’s work.
Yukio Daitokuji (Masahiro Motoki) is a successful doctor and potential geneticist/surgeon working for the better off clients within his community. His wife Rin (Ryô) lives in the family home and embraces the welcoming environment provided by Father (Yasutaka Tsutsui) and mother Shige (Masako Motai) despite suffering from a form of amnesia that means her life before marriage is an unknown to them all. Their life is affluent and agreeable in their comfortable accommodation until tragedy strikes and both of Yukio’s parents die, killed by an assailant, perhaps, in unknown circumstances within their own home. This assailant bears a striking similarity to Yukio, although shrouded in the shadows and darkness, it is difficult to tell. Yukio himself later finds himself incarcerated in a brick-lined depths of the garden well by this unknown agressor… with little hope of escape.
Tightly scripted and more linear in its narrative and revelations than his earlier films, Gemini demonstrates Tsukamoto showing a maturity developing following his early films (including the frenetic Tetsuo films and Tokyo Fist as well as teen horror kaiju oddity Hiruko the Goblin). This is in many ways an interstitial piece between the burgeoning Kaiju Theatre group and before the more self-internalising films that would follow, but still shows the perspective their aesthetics and instigation. Gemini offers similar themes and the claustrophobic environment of the 1964 film Woman of the Dunes but depicts even more extreme conditions. The wider cultural environment intrinsic to its plots and revelations – including a similar storyline and commentary about class issues – are countered by Tsukamoto’s implementation which distorts and defies expectations in such a way that recalls the two (or two and a half) male and female protagonists from Tetsuo to the Tokyo Fist and, later, in Vital (2004).
The backgrounds of the central characters are intrinsic to the plot as the macabre revelations become apparent. The audience initially identifies with the central protagonist and sympathises with his predicament but this is a film about class expectations and appropriation and Yukio’s disdain for the local “slum dwellers” is revealed as the plot progresses. The backstory of all characters is intrinsic to the evolving narrative which questions identity, background and social standing. There is an almost restrained minimalism in the interpretation of the source material that contradicts the fast-paced editing and viscera of other productions in favour of a more restrained morbid aesthetic and character realisation. This is complemented by a score that is rhythmic in a way that differentiates it from the electronic contemporary aspects of Tsukamoto’s other films.
Extras on the disc include a making-of documentary directed by Takeshi Miike (with whom Tsukamoto famously starred in Ichi The Killer) as well as a number of behind the scenes featurettes.