Sunday, August 23, 2009

Interesting Japanese Horror / Comedy Hybrid (rated 3 stars)


Kioshi Kurosawa’s films are fascinating as he moves through different genres and creates interesting stories all that have an uneasy and ambiguous quality to them. In Doppelganger he starts off in the creepy / horror mode and then moves into a more comedic tone all while keeping things uneasy. The idea of Doppelganger is “what would happen if you met your double”. Kurosawa cleverly plays with the convention of having an evil version of yourself and does some innovative things in terms of the shooting. The challenge in shooting a film with a double is that you need to use the same actor to play both parts. Kurosawa divides the screen into 2 or 3 frames and uses the split screen to seamlessly create the illusion that there are two versions of the same person in the same space. There also are some amazing shots combining the same actor together, so technically it’s a lot of fun to watch as well. While not as involving as his other films, it’s still worth seeing as Kurosawa explores ambiguity and character in interesting ways.

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