Doppelganger (2003)

Overrated

Beautiful, moving film.

A Major Disappointment

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

One of these days, I'll see one of these so-called "horror" films that Kiyoshi Kurosawa directs. This and "Bright Future" are the only two I've seen thus far and both were completely unexpected. Don't let the American box art deceive you: it's not a "frightening" film. However, it's fantastic. And truly bizarre. Assigning this film a genre is a ridiculous exercise. It shifts seamlessly between moments of high emotional drama, absurdist comedy, and violence. And underneath it all is an interesting exploration of the concept of self: The reconciliation of who one wants to be, who one is trying to avoid becoming, and who one is. As the credits rolled, I laughed, impressed. Don't go into the film with expectations. Just try it.

There are some elements of Hitchcock in the film. The set up is annoyingly slow for some people, but it's quite rewarding. The message of the film, is to listen to your own self, not the doppelganger. the doppelganger is within us, not necessarily seen. The point of him seeing is doppelganger, is that his double has the temerity to do the things he (Hayasaki) couldn't do. As he becomes bolder and more amoral he wonders is he becoming the doppelganger? Is Hayashi becoming the worst part of himself? Or perhaps his double is the real suppressed Hayashi? He discovers his ruthless, ambitious, lustful self through his double. It would make an interesting remake with issues of duality and existentialism. If we could have a conversation with ourselves, what would we say? - what would our other self say to us? This would be a fascinating concept that was done in several films - most notably "Jo Jo Dancer, Your life is Calling" - "the ghost of Christmas future showing Jimmy Stewart's future without him and his effect on others. Also "Family Man" with Nicolas Cage explored this theme. DePalma's "Raising Cain" (to a lesser degree) I thought this premise was pretty good - some may think it was a bit underdeveloped, but I liked it.

Where to start? "Doppelganger" was truly a struggle to watch. It wasn't without a few moments that did succeed in keeping you glued to the screen but those were very few and to get to them you would have to withstand that urge to stop watching. Truth is I would of stopped it about half way through if it weren't for Hiromi Nagasaku who is quite the looker. To sum up the movie in as few words as possible It was about 40 minutes of blah blah blah followed by 30 minutes of confusion. I watched "Doppelganger" on DVD and both the picture and Audio was very good. Just a shame the movie could never really amount to much. But, did I mention Hiromi Nagasaku is a hottie?

Nothing wrong with this movie, but nothing particularly special about it either. It was a nice little drama, with some action, comedy and scary stuff added in for spice.It is all about one man's struggle to try and get what he really wants out of life (quit his job he hates, getting the pretty girl, etc), but never does. So his doppelganger (not necessarily evil, more like the person he always wanted to be, but was afraid of becoming) comes along and does it for him. Great acting, direction (great split screen usage), and an alright plot line keep you interested and entertained. Well worth seeing.6/10