The Worst Film Ever

One of my all time favorites.

Best movie ever!

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

James Quandt's strident narration of the "video essay" that accompanies the Criterion release of THE FACE OF ANOTHER complains about the reception the film received in the United States on its initial release. He quotes the critics of the time: "extravagantly chic," "arch," "abstruse," "hermetic," "slavishly symbolic," and "more grotesque than emotionally compelling." Stop right there! These critics knew what they were talking about.The film combines several hoary and not particularly profound narrative contrivances. Here's a man attempting to seduce his wife, pretending to be another person--this was old when THE GUARDSMAN first went on stage and has been done countless times. Then there's the classic mad scientist, presented with very little nuance, delving into Things that Man Was Not Meant to Know. Related to this is that the story is only able to exist by grossly underestimating man's ability to adapt to the unknown. (An example is the 1952 science fiction story "Mother" by Alfred Coppel in which astronauts all return insane when confronted with the vastness of space.) These primitive tropes are shamelessly built on a simple narrative situation that is completely unable to carry them: a man with a disfigured face getting facial reconstruction. This happens all the time, so what's to "not meant to know"? If all this isn't enough, Teshigahara tacks on an unrelated, completely separate set of characters in their own undeveloped narrative that even Quandt thinks doesn't work. The dialogue by author/screenwriter Kobo Abe is risible, sounding like something out of a grade-B forties horror film.To disguise the paucity of the film's narrative, Teshigahara has tricked it up with what Quandt admiringly calls "its arsenal of visual innovation: freeze-frames, defamiliarizing close-ups, wild zooms, wash-away wipes, X-rayed imagery, stuttered editing, surrealist tropes, swish pans, jump cuts, rear projection, montaged stills, edge framing, and canted, fragmented, and otherwise stylized compositions." These arty-farty gimmicks (and more) are, of course, hardly "innovations." They were endemic in the early sixties. Their extensive use seems a vain attempt to disguise the film's shallow content. Quandt also sees great significance in the many repetitions in the film: I see only repetition.But even that is not the film's worst problem. Teshigahara often seems like a still photographer lost in a form that requires narrative structure. His inability to develop a sustained narrative makes the film seem far longer than its already-long two hours plus. Things happen, but the film doesn't really progress. The end result is little more than a compendium of tricks and narrative scraps borrowed from others.

This is amazing cinema all the way through, in story, in sound editing, in cinematography, in acting, in lighting, and editing. The story is all about a lonesome disfigured man, and feels like it could have been written by Tennessee Williams or Ernest Hemingway. The direction was trippy and haunting in the way that Roger Corman movies are. It's like a precursor to "Abre los ojos"/"Vanilla Sky", but with a pace all its own, a more thoughtful, careful pace, that builds subtly. But just like those movies, this one also has no clear resolution. After all that arduous torture, we are left without any shining piece of truth, without any humor, but beyond that, we are not left even with any lasting issues to discuss or contemplate. We are only left with a sick, hopelessness. That's why I say, it's technically and dramatically alluring, but without payoff. I'm glad I watched it once though.Goes well with "Memento".

Disturbing portrait of a disfigured man graveling in self-loathing at the circumstances presented to him wearing bandages covering his face severely burned after a disastrous fire. Mr. Okuyama(the great Kurosawa regular Tatsuya Nakadai)is a client of psychiatrist(Mikijiro Hira)who offers the troubled man a chance at a new face thanks to an elastic procedure used from the mold of another's facial features. Okuyama is a melancholic pity-party who dwells on his unfortunate condition to the point where he polarizes everyone around him. When he experiences what it's like to have a human face replacing the monster everyone was rejecting(the film shows the creeped-out expressions of others at the sight of Okuyama in bandages), Okuyama "allows the mask to take over" as his doctor begins to worry about how this new found freedom will effect his patient psychologically. Okuyama makes it clear to his doctor that he keeps the mask on as a way of attempting to unmask his wife's betrayal. There's this running commentary that has Okuyama constantly berating his wife feeling she'll leave him for someone who still has their looks..their face. His scathing views on her every move clearly shows the wear any wife might have trouble enduring. As the new man, Okuyama will set out to seduce his wife seeing if she'll in fact betray him. Meanwhile, a scarred beauty(Miki Irie)who hides that bad side with her hair tries desperately to provoke response from her brother who seems uncomfortable with much interaction. A hint of an incestuous relationship between these two is at the forefront of their story as she, much the same way as Okuyama, is quite self-conscious of the scar that labels her a monster.Boy, there are those certain few films that completely overwhelm me. I just can't shake this powerful work of film-making from director Hiroshi Teshigahara regarding the masks we all wear and how, if given a chance, we might react when given an opportunity to experience another life separated from the one we currently live. It takes a deep, penetrating look at identity as well according to how we as a public respond towards others who are burdened with imperfection that shows outwardly. I felt it also looks at the scars inwardly..no matter how attractive the mask might appear outwardly, if the soul is scarred then the person will still be ugly. So many themes, though, such as trust(Okuyama's mistrust in his spouse, played by Machiko Kyô, who appeared in such classics as "Rashômon", "Ugetsu" & "Floating Weeds")and dissatisfaction with your existence in this world are touched on. Extremely well acted with thought-provoking, intelligent, rich dialogue that remain with you after the film's haunting ending. The mask make-up work, and how the procedure is played out, is astounding.

This is a film that has to be rescued for all moviegoers.I saw "The Face of Another" (Tanin no kao) at the National Gallery of Art's series, "A New Wave in Japan: 1955-1974," and was mesmerized by this "elegantly spooky and enigmatic examination of identity." This is the third of four Hiroshi Teshigahara (director)/Kobo Abe (writer)/ Toru Takemistu (composer) collaborations. They have reached nearly the same perfection in the fusion of image, sound, and subject in this work as in their brilliant work, "Woman in the Dunes."A businessman (Tatsuya Nakadai), whose face has been scarred in an industrial fire, is receiving psychotherapy from a psychiatrist (Mikijiro Hira). He succeeds in persuading the psychiatrist to make a mask for him, amazingly lifelike but completely different from his own face. Soon after being fitted for the mask, he tries to seduce his wife (Machiko Kyo) and succeeds; she promptly falls for the handsome stranger. He becomes angry at her weakness for a handsome man, but she claims she was aware all along that he was her husband and believed that both were just masquerading together as most couples usually do in different ways. She tells him that it is not she but he who has worried excessively about his appearance and who has spoiled his relationship with others. Strangely enough, his personality seemingly begins to change after he puts on the mask as if the mask has influenced his personality. And, he comes to realize that his new identity does not enable him to reintegrate into society after all.The film also has a touching subplot. A good-natured young woman (Miki Irie, now Mrs. Seiji Ozawa), the left side of whose face is beautiful, but the right side of which is disfigured, has been hurt by others' inquisitive eyes and insults. She has been shunned and never been treated as a lady by any man other than her older brother. One day, she and her brother take a trip to a seaside resort, and in the hotel, she asks him to make love to her, hiding from him the intention of killing herself the next morning. He accepts her surprising request. During the lovemaking, he kisses her on the right side of her face. Her brother is the only man who can understand her pain and solitude and who can love the ugliest part of her appearance because of his deep love for her.After seeing this film, questions arise. What is Identity? How is it established? What is the relationship among Identity, Personality, and Physical Appearance? Does Personality determine Physical Appearance? Or, does Physical Appearance determine Personality? Abe and Teshigahara seem to challenge our common beliefs about this.The story is easy to follow, unlike "Woman in the Dunes." The dialogue is sophisticated enough as to be quotable.Takemitsu's musical score is outstanding. He has created a sharp contrast between sweet, sad music, which represents dance music for the masquerade, and deep, eerie "music," which represents the reality of faceless people.I hope this film will enjoy a revival and come to video or DVD in the near future.