mosquitodragon’s review published on Letterboxd:
I often get this inkling of a notion when watching a Shinya Tsukamoto film that... maybe no one else can really be considered a film artist to the same extent he can? That's hyperbolic but, still... there's definitely something about Tsukamoto that seems utterly unique and somehow... better about his specific approach to experimentation. Whatever else we claim or reject here, I think it's pretty clear by now that Shinya Tsukamoto should be considered one of the true greats of arthouse or experimental film-making. He's a phenomenon.
Gemini is another gift - Edogawa Ranpo through the Tsukamoto looking glass. Doppelganger horror is always so interesting in its skirting of themes of duality and inner conflict - the physical manifestation of the fundamental unknowability of human psychology - but of course Tsukamoto takes the crude resources at his disposal to produce something transcendent and arguably post-cinematic.
Gemini introduces performative disciplines here which mirror something like dance or performance art in the evocation of a new apprehension of meaning. His actors are so important and Masahiro Motoki and Ryo blaze their presence into your retina - Motoki in particular shows and incredible chameleonic range. Horror is evoked through facial expression and voice and unnatural camera angles. Editing keeps us blissfully off balance, because it won't allow us to escape the moment. Despite the simple production, there's something almost anti-Brechtian about this film - rather than distancing us and allowing analytical contemplation, Tsukamoto's simple immediacy reaches through the screen and yanks us by the scruff of the neck into the narrative.
A ramped-up Ranpo mind-rape - and I mean that in a good way.
