Doppelganger (Dopperugengâ) Reviews

I saw this a while ago but it seems that Flixster has added it only now. Not that I really care, because this is Kiyoshi Kurosawa's worst movie by a mile. I honestly cannot remember a single thing about the plot except that it lacked any sort of conflict or character development. The one scene I can recall is when Koji Yakusho freaked out and destroyed a bunch of equipment because goddamn, at least he was DOING something.

This is the movie that made me wonder if KK is pulling the wool over my eyes with the rest of his films. That's kind of a harsh assessment for a director that I really adore, but seriously, the man gets his screenplays right one out of five times. It's kind of admirable that he just says "fuck it" to those cinematic conventions, but a lot of the time they exist for a reason.

Someone send this man a decent script!

Starts well, and then, for no reason, derails so badly in the second half i was wondering if Kurosawa just directed the first part and then dropped the whole thing. What starts as a strange psychological thriller ends up being some sort of silly road trip film full of slapstick comedy that doesn't work.

This, along with Kairo stays as K Kurosawa's weakest efforts to date. The man can do way much better.

interesting concept, decent acting..but slow moving and film turns on its side from ghost /horror to more of a comedy..I ultimately gave up on this one!

Fun and intelligent film wrongly marketed as a horror film. As I watched it, I was a little disappointed that it wasn't what I expected it to be, but once it was finished I realized I still enjoyed it a lot and it stuck with me. As long as you know that about half way through this film it changes gears entirely, it should make for an easier watch. It's also nice to see directors try something different, no matter how outlandish.

This movie is the kind of movie that will have people loving or hating it. But I think one thing cannot be denied, this is amazing filmmaking. No one can really doubt the effects and effectiveness of the visuals in this movie. And the character development means something when you get to the last act, but once you get to the last act you realize the transformation of the separate entities as the relate to the whole ? and by then the entire act is almost executed in symbolism.

This is Kurosawa at his technical best. The movie is moody, even in the bright countryside. The machine means so much more and is a perfect symbolic catalyst for the doppelganger. And the story of the brother himself in the first act really brings the tone of the movie right to our noses, right up to the truck accident. Actually, the entire movie gets very symbolic and more allegorical once they are in the countryside. There are many points about control of the body and reflection on oneself that is very deep in their visual use. And, as usual, the violence in the movie is brutal and real. It is one thing I appreciate about Kurosawa, like what Cronenberg did in History of Violence, he gave it to us in an exciting way, but made sure it wasn?t polished and that we saw the aftermath.

I recommend this movie to anyone who likes character studies with a sci-fi twist, or really character study movies and don?t mind realistic violence. This is definitely a psych class paper. And the split screens are played to wonderful effect. It was like watching a De Palma movie when he was good.

One of the best from prolific Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Horror with a strong comic tone. What would YOU do if your evil twin was stalking you?

An intersting asian film to say the least. I much prefered "Premotion" or "Infection" to this. Overall tho from the preview, to the actual viewing to the end my attn was held and I was not bored w/ it.

Kiyoshis worst film to date by far. a fantastic director sinks into the mainstream with this disaster of a mystery featuring numerous casual clinches.

Filmfest München 05 - It's an german filmfestival with international independent films.

Havoc - It's not yet available at RT, but it was great. 9/10
The only good films were: Crash, Havoc, Layer Cake, Last Days, The Jacket.
The only films btw where you couldn't really tell that they were "independent" (look of the film etc)