SFIFF: Doppelganger.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's gleeful exploration of duality is by far his funniest film yet, full of the doses of humor it needs amidst all the dark allegory. He's used humor before certainly, but it was always subtle, way underneath the surface. An allegory about people mourning for someone else, or for themselves, Doppelganger's plot ostensibly centers on Michio Hayasaki (Koji Yukusho), an inventor (a modern take on the mad scientist?) who creates a mind-controlled robotic wheelchair for the disabled when his crazed doppelganger materializes, wreaking havoc on his life. The fun in this story about identity comes from trying to detect which version of the self we're dealing with in each scene as the story moves along - it's obvious at first, but it becomes increasingly, disturbingly difficult to tell. The evil twin scenario has certainly been done many times before, and the use of allegory in a horror film a not a new concept either, but what raises this above, say Multiplicity or Brian DePalma's Raising Cain, for instance (not that this film doesn't occasionally play like a Japanese version of a heyday-era DePalma genre subversion exercise), is Kiyoshi's deadpan touch and comic timing.

Doppelganger also really dives into the Ego vs. Id thing, exploring larger issues of identity, to great affect. The film is anchored superbly by Yukusho (who's been in enough Kurosawa films to qualify for permanent "director alter ego" at this point, but who also showcased his range in the popular Shall We Dance?), in a "finely calibrated performance" (the director's own words) - with additional support lended by the sweet-faced Nagasaku Hiromi, and the over-the-top Yusuke Santamaria as Michio's psychotic assistant. Although the humor and the thematic elements aren't new to Kurosawa either, this film feels like a turning point for him, a maturation of his work in that he's now confident enough to use comedic elements in the midst of telling a still rather dark story - much in the same way that All About My Mother and Live Flesh marked a similar transition for Pedro Almodóvar. A few scenes end with a disturbing crescendo of violence, be forewarned (in one scene, when Michio finally fights back against his devlish alter ego, beating him up, I joked, "Talk about a bruised ego, or is that a bruised id?" - luckily no one else was in the room except for my own double, but that's another story). But ultimately, there's a transcendental humanity at the film's core, ending on a (sort of) hopeful note. Doppelganger is a disturbing treat.

For more on Kurosawa, read GreenCine's interview with the director, dated March 3, 2004.

Posted by dwhudson at April 28, 2004 2:09 AM