Gemini

Set in Japan’s Meiji era (1868 - 1912) Dr Yukio Daitokuji is a prominent doctor running his father’s surgery. His patients are in awe of his surgical skills; they sit in the waiting room whispering stories about his heroic work in the third army where he saved the life of a general. Due to his outstanding reputation many affluent members of society visit him for medical care. Yukio is a prosperous and talented man and modest regarding his accomplishments; he is torn between the conflict of treating badly wounded soldiers and a desire to end their suffering.

As a member of Japans elite; he has adopted all of their customs and belief systems. Members of his household conduct themselves with genteel and reserved manners, concealing all emotions, their bodies emphasising restraint, walking slowly and talking softly in conversations they say very little about how they are really feeling.

Yukio lives in the family home with his parents and wife Rin, she claims to suffer from amnesia after a fire that killed her family. Rin’s amnesia serves as the one exquisite mystery in Yukio’s otherwise non-eventful existence. They’re tranquil and elegant home serves as a shield that separates them from the ugliness and poverty of the slums that lay close by.

The families’ comfortable life is interrupted when Yukio begins to have strange feelings that he is being watched from the shadows of the house. Shortly afterwards Yukio’s father suffers a gruesome death which is seen as a terrible accident.

In the night a ghostly figure stalks the corridors and approaches Yukio’s mother, dressed in colourful rags his painted features and morbid expression are formidable. His arms and legs move jerkily as he somersaults towards her. He makes her look at the sinister birthmark shaped like a snake that runs down his leg; she recognises the mark and immediately dies of shock. Yukio now believes that there is an intruder in the house and has the police search the property but to no avail.

A violent storm rages outside and Yukio has little time to grieve for his parents, he is placed in a disturbing dilemma forced to choose between a slum woman and her sick baby or the local Mayor both in need of urgent medical attention. He chooses the Major upsetting Rin with his decision; during a heated row he tells her that it is impossible to help the slum people. That they are born evil, in fact it would be better if the slums were burnt to the ground to the ground to eliminate the problem. This is an attitude taken from his father and his peers, but his anger betrays the fact that he feels guilt.

Shortly after this row Yukio is attacked in the garden and thrown into the swirling depths of the garden well by a man who appears to be his identical twin. The man’s name is Sutekichi, he takes Yukio’s place in the house, closing the surgery to avoid detection. After days of spying on Yukio he is well equipped to copy Yukio’s gestures and habits, repressing his volatile nature.

He visits the well feeding Yukio rotten food, torturing him with tales of his life screaming the painful truth into Yukio’s ears. Yukio soon discovers that Sutekichi is his abandoned twin left to die by Yukio’s parents due to an unseemly birthmark on his skin. Rin is actually a beggar woman from the slums, the previous girlfriend of Sutekichi, She does not suffer from amnesia but is hiding her background knowing how Yukio would react if he knew where she came from.

In the well Yukio huddles freezing in the cold bottomless pit, his clothes and body filthy, his emotional and psychological state begin to disintegrate. He faces the horror of the past actions of his parents and the slow torturous death he is facing at the merciless hands of his twin brother. He begins too resemble the slum people, screeching in anguish and pain, shouting obscenities, both men are exchanging identities as they experience a new environment and confront the hidden demons that have been invisible until now. Yukio becomes a savage animal with only one instinct survival, very much the instinct of the slum people.

Although Sutekichi masquerade is successful he is unable to subdue his passion for Rin sexually, in his sexual advances he finally arouses Rin’s suspicions, she is now in love with Yukio who has given her a gentle life and love. She soon comes to believe that Yukio has been possessed by Sutekichi as revenge for her finding love with his brother.

In the most chilling scene in the film Yukio escapes from the well and strangles Sutekichi. He calls out ‘brother’ at the last moment. Yukio is now a killer, his hands that were trained to save lives have actually been used to murder one, this one act means that nothing can ever be the same in his life. He returns to his life and Rin but not as the same man, his life and mind have changed forever. He now has a new strength and a new set of values; part of his personality now reflects his dead brother’s savagery. In a white suit he walks from his mansion holding his medical bag venturing into the dangerous diseased slums to treat the sick and needy.

The film focuses on the difference in the class systems, each class is seen with it’s own individual flaws. Yukio’s world is one in which people do not express any real emotion or feeling it is a repressed society filmed by Tsukamoto in dark colourless hues. Here people are obsessed with the superficial to the extent that they are willing to kill their own child due to a small physical abnormality. The people in Yukio’s world have a deep fear of the slum people who they do nothing to help.

The slums are filmed in bright primal colours; the people are savage and wild but open with their feelings. Their conversations are intense and frank, they say exactly what they please and are not afraid of being emotional. However their daily struggle to survive means that some turn to crime and murder for financial gain. Their savagery and primal needs can easily turn into something destructive but they are not all bad people, the man who saved the baby and brought him up shows his disgust when he finds out Sutekichi has killed an entire family for money.

Psychologically the changes in personality only occur when tragedy and pain is involved. Yukio changes for the better but only after he is forced to face dark truths about the lie he and his parents have lived, and suffer great cruelty at the hands of another human being. Through pain Yukio finds his true strength and his inner self.

The incredible score represents the savage beauty of the film itself, this is a powerful exploration of the class system and the psychological changes that can take place within the mind once it has experienced great tragedy. Tsukamoto’s skill at adapting a period drama is prominent throughout the piece in both direction and with the aide of a strong story, which was loosely based on a story by Edogawa Ranpo.

Gemini has to be one of Tsukamoto’s greatest achievements.

© 2004 Roseanna.Lawrence@Minadream.com