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Two Memorable Films on Duality
I’m glad about my nocturnal film habits. They sometimes nurture my brain with what is to come during the rapid eye movement hours. Last night, I sailed my bedship into a Dostoyevsky ocean of duality pushed forward to the architecture of Eastern Bloc buildings in the ’40s and, for the sake of an hour and a half, tried to sympathize with a man too invisible to himself to tolerate the burden of a mysterious doppelgänger and an unrequited love. Richard Ayoade’s The Double made me completely change my skepticism towards Jesse Eisenberg who portrayed possibly the strongest role of his career.
And not only that, but the movie also reminded us of “Ue o Muite Arukō” aka “Sakamoto” aka the only Japanese song to have topped the Billboard charts. We’re talking 1963 Billboard. No Chris Browns!
Kyu Sakamoto died during the Japan Airlines Flight 123 disaster at the age of 43. The lyrics — written by Rokusuke Ei — root to the failure of a protest, quite like the anti-hero in Ayoade’s cold dystopia. And I’m not even done with movies about dead ringers. Already queued for tonight is Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy.
