Tanin no kao (1966)

Director:

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Writers:

Kôbô Abe (novel)
Kôbô Abe (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 June 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

A businessman facially scarred in a laboratory fire receives psychotherapy from a psychiatrist, and obtains an amazingly lifelike mask from the doctor...

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | 1960s | Burnt Face | Japan | Seduction

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Tatsuya Nakadai	...	Mr. Okuyama
Machiko Kyô	...	Mrs. Okuyama
Mikijiro Hira	...	Psychiatrist
Kyôko Kishida	...	Nurse
Eiji Okada	...	Mr. Okuyama's boss
Miki Irie	...	Facially scarred young woman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kôbô Abe	...	Man in bar
Yuriko Abe	...	Doctor's wife
Minoru Chiaki	...	Apartment caretaker
Robert Dunham	...	Man in Bar
Etsuko Ichihara	...	Apartment caretaker's daughter
Hisashi Igawa	...	Man with a mole
Shinobu Itomi
Hideo Kanze	...	Okuyama's patient
Bibari Maeda	...	Singer in Bar
Yoshie Minami	...	Old lady
Eiko Muramatsu	...	Secretary
Koreya Senda	...	Man in Bar
Tôru Takemitsu	...	Man smoking in Bar
Kunie Tanaka	...	Patient at mental hospital

Directed by
Hiroshi Teshigahara

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kôbô Abe		novel
Kôbô Abe		screenplay

Produced by
Nobuyo Horiba	....	executive producer
Kiichi Ichikawa	....	executive producer
Tadashi Oono	....	executive producer
Hiroshi Teshigahara	....	producer

Original Music by
Tôru Takemitsu

Cinematography by
Hiroshi Segawa

Film Editing by
Fusako Shuzui

Production Design by
Kiyoshi Awazu

Art Direction by
Arata Isozaki
Masao Yamazaki

Production Management
Iwao Yoshida	....	production manager

Sound Department
Keiji Mori	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Mitsuo Kume	....	lighting technician
Yasuhiro Yoshioka	....	still photographer

Production Companies

• Teshigahara Productions
• Tokyo Eiga Co Ltd.

Distributors

• Criterion Collection, The (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• New Star (2008) (Greece) (theatrical) (re-issue)
• Rising Sun Producitons (1974) (USA) (subtitled)
• Sony Video Software Japan Film Collection
• Toho Company (1966) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Toho Company (1967) (USA) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

I Have a Stranger's Face
Stranger's Face
The Face of Another

Runtime:

USA:124 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Train Station, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Teshigahara Productions

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.

Movie Connections:

References Jetée, La (1962)

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.