Third Window Films Will Release Shinya Tsukamoto’s 1999 Horror Film “GEMINI” on November 02nd
Third Window Films will release Shinya Tsukamoto’s 1999 horror film “GEMINI” on November 02nd. This is Europe’s first Blu-ray edition and the first ever UK release of the title which was amongst the first wave of J-horror movies to hit the world following the seminal ghost story Ringu in 1998. Markedly different from that title and a complete departure from his oeuvre up to that point, Gemini is Tsukamoto’s adaptation of an Edogawa Rampo short story. Tsukamoto further explores the narrative’s psychological horror and class differences while utilising his unique aesthetic and aural sensibilities to create a sinister and enthralling experience full of mysteries, twists and turns.
Japan / 1999 / In Japanese with English subtitles / Colour / 84 minutes
Out on Blu-ray & digital
November 2nd, 2020
- New HD transfer
- Audio commentary by Tom Mes, author of Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto
- Making of Gemini” featurette directed by Takashi Miike
- Behind the Scenes
- Make-up demonstration featurette
- Venice Film Festival featurette
- Original Trailer
- First 1000 units come with slipcase featuring new artwork illustrated by Ian McEwan
- Region B
Synopsis (spoiler alert): Yukio is living a charmed life: he is a respected young doctor with a successful practice and a beautiful wife. His only problem is that his wife is suffering from amnesia, and her past is unknown. Things begin to fall apart, however, when both his parents die suddenly, killed by a mysterious stranger with Yukio’s face. Only when Yukio confronts this stranger will the mystery of his identity, and his wife’s past, be revealed.
Adapting the Edogawa Rampo short story “The Twins”, Shinya Tsukamoto’s (Tetsuo I & II) modernist Meiji horror represents the director’s first foray into period films and fleshes out Rampo’s original tale of savage sibling rivalry considerably.
Marked out by its bold, hyper-realistic colour palate, exaggerated make up and costume design and an absurd taste of the carnivalesque, this chilling psychological tale should prove more than a sufficient antidote to those left jaded by the restrained, by-numbers approach adopted by the majority of late 1990s horrors that appeared in the wake of Ring.
