Tannin no Kao
96
10
Story
10
Cast
8
Fun
10
Subs
10
Overall
Alexis Glass
May 30, 2002
Synopsis

A chemist, Mr. Okuyama, has had an accident while examining a new industrial plant and suffers hideous facial keloid scars following the explosion. Forced to wear bandages around his head all the time, he feels himself slipping into a depression and losing connection with the world around him - most notably his wife who refuses his advances - and so he turns to a psychiatrist (who seems to be more of a plastic surgeon) to help him create a mask which will allow him reconnect with society by leading a second life and seducing his wife. The doctor considers it unethical, but agrees nonetheless. Meanwhile, a volunteer nurse at a psychiatric hospital who suffered scars on one half of her face in the war is trying to deal with her life without covering up her scars.

Scene from the movie Tannin no Kao - The Face of Another - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Tannin no Kao - The Face of Another - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Tannin no Kao - The Face of Another - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Tannin no Kao - The Face of Another - Review | KFCC
Review

The Face of Another is marked by beautiful and sometimes psychedelic cinematography which, along with the consistently excellent music from Takemitsu, makes it feel like a horror movie. Indeed, the film and original novel share some common traits with Frankenstein (the novel even introduces the story of Frankenstein into the narrative), though in the case of The Face of Another there is also the spectre of Japan's physical, emotional and cultural scars from WW2 which share space in the subtext along with the explorations of isolation, separation and masquerade within human society.

Following the opening credits, the movie begins with Okuyama speaking while his head is being x-rayed; we can see right through him as he describes the circumstances of his accident. His face as it appeared before the accident never shown to the viewer, from this point on Okuyama finds himself lost more and more; he muses that without eyes and a face with which to interact with the outside world, all senses become numbed and one's sense of self is weakened. He also questions his own worth which had previously thought to be determined by his work and accomplishments, but since he feels his friends and particularly his wife reacting distantly to him, he wonders if perhaps his outward appearance is more important than his work. Kobo Abe wrote almost exclusively on these themes of alienation, and The Face of Another might even be thought to be a temporally dislocated sequel of sorts to his later novel (also a movie by Teshigahara, included in the box set), The Ruined Map (the movie is called The Man Without a Map), which examines a character who slowly begins to lose sense of himself. Kobo Abe graduated as a medical Doctor, so it should not surprise us that the hero of his story resorts to meticulous scientific procedure in order to try to lose his loneliness and regain his self-worth.

The horror and paranoia which arises from Okuyama's loss of personal identity and his subsequent adoption of a new personality with his new mask is powerfully presented, with the film's stylized sets and psychologically disorientating camera work alienating the audience in much the same way that Okuyama's bandages and subsequent mask distance him from society. Marking a departure from his work on The Pitfall and The Woman in the Dunes, Takemitsu 's soundtrack for The Face of Another includes some conventionally harmonic (and dramatically emotional) compositions which, intermingled with his abstract pieces, lend a powerful musical underpinning to the movie.

It's worth noting that while I enjoyed every minute of the film's stylish 60s aesthetic, brooding alienation and sometimes discombobulating soundtrack, the movie is very much a movie of the 60s and some directorial choices might seem clichéd or too obviously artistic by today's standards, depending on the viewer's tastes. The movie is also 122 minutes long - not exceptionally long for a movie, but there is no action or outright horror and the story moves quite slowly by modern standards. Still, taken on the merits of Teshigahara's visual composition of each scene alone, the film is an aesthetic treat, and given the suspenseful and thought-provoking plot, the compelling characterizations and the excellent soundtrack, The Face of Another is a masterful movie worthy of many viewings.

Scene from the movie Tannin no Kao - The Face of Another - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Tannin no Kao - The Face of Another - Review | KFCC
96
Story
Cast
Entertainment
Subtitles
Overall
Alexis Glass May 30, 2002
Media Review
Media Review by
Alexis Glass
Distributor
Asmik Ace inc.
Media Format
DVD
Region
All Region
Encoding
NTSC

The DVD is only available as a part of the 18,500 yen Teshigahara box set.