Face (2000)
"Kao" (original title)

Director:

Junji Sakamoto

Writers:

Junji Sakamoto, Isamu Uno (screenplay),

Stars:

Naomi Fujiyama, Etsushi Toyokawa, Michiyo Ôkusu

23 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Naomi Fujiyama	...	Masako Yoshimura
Etsushi Toyokawa	...	Hiroyuki Nakagami
Michiyo Ôkusu	...	Ritsuko Nakagami
Riho Makise	...	Yukari Yoshimura
Jun Kunimura	...	Kenta Kariyama
Kanzaburô Nakamura	...	Toshirô Yamamoto (as Kankurô Nakamura)
Misako Watanabe	...	Mrs Yoshimura
Ittoku Kishibe	...	Eiichi Hanada
Kôichi Satô	...	Akira Ikeda
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ai Saotome	...	Sakiko Kariyama
Hajime Tsukumo	...	Train Conductor
Shungiku Uchida	...	Coffee Shop Woman

Storyline

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

12 August 2000 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Face

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eiga Gekijo, Kuho, Mainichi Hoso

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

DTS

Color:

Color

User Reviews

No,sorry, couldn't relate to this movie at all.

Well, as the (only!) other reviewer sort of implied, the story here is very straightforward. But it's the characterisation that is the problem. The "heroine" (using that word in the loosest possible context) is a problem.

Is she meant to be a "funny nerd", a la Jim Carey or perhaps Rick Moranis, at whom we laugh hilariously when she falls over her own feet? If so, then the movie fails, because she's not funny in that way - it would be like laughing at a paraplegic who fell out of a wheelchair.

Is she meant to be "seriously" clumsy, and so worthy of our sympathy? If so, then the movie fails also, because the clumsiness is so contrived, so exaggerated, the things that happen to her are so improbable, that the plot simply loses all credibility. It's like a "bad" war movie where the bad guys fire machine guns at John Wayne and every bullet misses, but he closes his eyes and with 6 shots of his revolver kills 20 baddies. And the scene where she "meets" her dead sister in the bathroom - well, that was totally incomprehensible.

Maybe this a "race" issue, with me not being Japanese therefore not being able to understand a Japanese "character" movie. I dunno. But by the end of the movie, I found myself regretting that I had allowed two hours of my life to slip away in front of the tube.