The Face of Another (1966)
"Tanin no kao" (original title)

A businessman facially scarred in a laboratory fire receives psychotherapy from a psychiatrist, and obtains an amazingly lifelike mask from the doctor. Soon after being fitted for the mask,... See full summary »

Director:

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Writers:

Kôbô Abe (screenplay), Kôbô Abe (novel)

Stars:

Tatsuya Nakadai, Mikijirô Hira, Kyôko Kishida

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Mr. Okuyama
Mikijirô Hira	...	Psychiatrist
Kyôko Kishida	...	Nurse
Miki Irie	...	Girl with Scar
Eiji Okada	...	The Boss
Minoru Chiaki	...	Apartment Superintendent
Hideo Kanze	...	Male Patient
Kunie Tanaka	...	Patient at Mental Hospital
Etsuko Ichihara	...	Yo-Yo Girl
Eiko Muramatsu	...	Secretary
Yoshie Minami	...	Old Lady
Hisashi Igawa	...	Man with Mole
Kakuya Saeki	...	Elder Brother of Girl with Scar
Sen Yano	...	Mentally Ill Man A
Bibari Maeda	...	Singer in Bar

Storyline

A businessman facially scarred in a laboratory fire receives psychotherapy from a psychiatrist, and obtains an amazingly lifelike mask from the doctor. Soon after being fitted for the mask, he seduces his wife and succeeds. But his wife claims she was aware all along who he was and believed that both were just masquerading together as most couples usually do in different ways. Strangely enough, his personality seemingly begins to change after he puts on the mask as if the mask has influenced his personality. His new identity does not enable him to reintegrate into society after all. A subplot is inserted in fragments. A good-natured young woman, the right side of whose face is disfigured, has been hurt by others' inquisitive eyes and insults, and has been shunned by men. She asks her older brother, the only man who understands her pain and solitude, to make love to her, hiding from him the intent of killing herself after then.

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Plot Keywords:

mask | incest | psychiatrist | doctor | bandage on head | 

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

9 June 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

I Have a Stranger's Face

Filming Locations:

Train Station, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Teshigahara Productions, Tokyo Eiga Co Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Quotes

Psychiatrist: You're not the only lonely man. Being free always involves being lonely. Just there is a mask you can peel off and another you can not.

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Connections

References The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

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Soundtracks

"Waltz"
(uncredited)
Music by Tôru Takemitsu
Lyrics by Tatsuji Iwabuchi

User Reviews

A flawless character study.

A brutal commentary on self-image and the way that appearances can change the attitude and ideals of a person that is one of the best films I've ever seen. The way that Okuyama changes throughout the film is incredible. He starts off as a brutally wounded man, who is afraid to go out in public due to his horrible disfigurement. He realizes how important looks are and all he wants is a new face so that he can blend back into society and be with his wife again. There's no desire to be attractive or important, he just wants to be normal. But once he gets his new face, his attractive appearance turns him into a completely different man. He buys flashy clothes and walks around with an attitude of superiority and importance in a world where he is really just a stranger. The film does a remarkable job of showing just how important appearance truly is, even if you think you can look beyond it. This is shown through Okuyama's wife, who pretends like she loves him even though he is horribly disfigured, but she ends up refusing his sexual advances due to it. Teshigahara uses bleak tones and minimalist sets as a way to show the isolation that society creates do to it's one-dimensional view of forming opinions on people merely due to appearance. These settings also do a great job of focusing the viewer on the characters instead of flashy visuals and elaborate sets.

I thought that the Psychiatrist was also a very complex character as he becomes more and more interested in his experiment with Okuyama's new face and less interested in Okuyama himself. He becomes greedy and selfish in his desire to mass produce the masks, but Okuyama's greed compels him to reject the Psychiatrist's wishes and look out merely for himself. This greed makes him a very dangerous man who is hanging on the edge of a breakdown through most of the film, until an encounter with his wife finally sets him off. It's the Psychiatrist's greed, though, that ends up being the true horror of the film. Okuyama realizes the dangerous monster that this mask has turned him into, and does the only thing he can think of to stop him from harming the world. It's the Psychiatrist's greed, though, that unleashes the beast of Okuyama into the world which leads to the abrupt and shattering finale. The paradox of a physical monster versus a psychological monster is absolutely sensational. In the beginning he is deformed on the outside, but as he becomes normal and beautiful on the outside, he ends up being a terrible monster internally. There is only one thing that I can really complain about, and that is the entire story of the "Facially scarred young woman". All of her scenes felt really out of place and added nothing to the fantastic commentary and intelligence of the plot. Everything with her was just unnecessary, but this was just a mere chink in the grand masterpiece that the film embodies as a whole.