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Review

The film opens with a young woman’s brother committing suicide; she believes it’s because he saw his doppelganger. Michio Hayasaki, a scientific researcher, driven in his quest to develop a mechanism capable of manifesting human thought so that physically challenged people can perform everyday tasks, thinks it is only stress-induced hallucination when his doppelganger shows up and wants to assist him with his research. Michio 1 was never exactly a people person, and Mechio 2 is if anything less so. M1 initially fights against M2’s incursions, but a conflict-filled working relationship develops in response to the pressures of the job at hand. Kôji Yakusho as Michio perfectly conveys an obsessive, Type A personality responding to the threatened suspension of the research project which has become his life. Doppelganger is not just your typical evil twin flick; it is well-constructed with effective performances, sardonic humor and more than a few genuine scares.

 -- Ann Yarabinee