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Tony Rayns points it out on the commentary

sorry about that.. i have the asmik dvd, i haven't seen the eureka one yet.. will get that for sure, esp. cause i want to hear mr. rayn's commentary.
was just thinking how funny the italian-american soldier is in teshigahara's "summer soldiers". with the release of "punishment park", i've been thinking a lot this week about that film. it's always interesting to see the different levels of engagement various directors had with ideas vs. action. geographical distance now has a histoical distance which makes these films endlessly fascinating to me.
back to tanin no kao.
personally , i love the film, and it does indeed share a psychic space with Seconds. I actually personally prefer Seconds because it deals with the possibilities of a paradigm shift in society, while it is a covert operation in the film, there is a business model already in place, where in Tanin no Kao, it is still the act of what could be seen as a renegade doctor. this is just one sliver of course, and just writing of the top of my head. But, both are fantastic. It seems like cinematographer Hiroshi Segawa worked very sparingly after 72, but I haven't found much else after that, i'd be happy to know of any more!

putney

putney wrote:It seems like cinematographer Hiroshi Segawa worked very sparingly after 72, but I haven't found much else after that, i'd be happy to know of any more!

Could not find anything post Fukasaku's Under the Flag of the Rising Sun, not even on Japanese film sites. Segawa is primarily associated with the Teshigahara/Abe films, but they also collaborated on a number of short films.

thanks!
yeah, i found info on little bits of tv work here and there after "flag.." it's too bad there isn't more, of course...
yeah, a lot of the Teshigahara shorts are really good as well...
i was rewatching Matsumoto's "a stone's poem" last night, and was thinking, it would go well on a double bill with Downey sr.'s "chafed elbows" hahaha. i personally love that period of heavy optical printer work with b+w stills.

putney

This is an extraordinary film. Japanese cinematographers and operators knew who to shoot in black and white scope better than anyone and this lighting and framing in here is mesmerizing. Hiroshi Segawa only appears to have worked on four feature films - but what films! Pitfall; Woman of the Dunes; Under the Flag of the Rising Sun and, of course, The Face of Another. I really must order Under the Flag of the Rising Sun soon and I see that the BFI appear to readying the release of Woman of the Dunes for DVD this year; I avoided the region 1 edition, after hearing of the weak transfer of the shorter version, so I have been patiently waiting to see this intriguing film.

Mr. Okuyama's humour in the film is equally hilarious and disturbing in its casualness. This is definitely one of the best film explorations of identity, but also of the loneliness of what we percieve of as 'freedom'.

I'd love to see Teshigahara's 1968 film of Abe's The Ruined Map; it sounds fascinating - is it thematically similar Antonioni's, Professione: Reporter?

Gordon McMurphy wrote: This is an extraordinary film. Japanese cinematographers and operators knew who to shoot in black and white scope better than anyone

Scope? The version I saw was 1.33:1.

Gordon McMurphy wrote:I'd love to see Teshigahara's 1968 film of Abe's The Ruined Map; it sounds fascinating - is it thematically similar Antonioni's, Professione: Reporter?

Theme shmeme! :)

Every shot of Ruined Map is a compositional masterpiece. I have the Asmik Ace box and am deeply saddened that this movie - unlike Woman, Face, etc - is not subtitled. It's too bad the world gets multiple subtitled Woman and multiple subtitled Face discs, but not this one.

And, while I have nothing against Segawa's lighting, I think we're on pretty safe ground in attributing a lot of the compositional brilliance of Face to Teshigahara, who was, in addition to being a filmmaker, a pretty fabulous artist.

Gah! Confusion! Pitfall and Face of Another are indeed 1.33. Watched... too... many... films, lately.

yoshimori wrote:Every shot of Ruined Map is a compositional masterpiece. I have the Asmik Ace box and am deeply saddened that this movie - unlike Woman, Face, etc - is not subtitled.

The irony is that the opening titles for Ruined Map are from the English language international version! I assume that Asmik opted for the Japanese version as the international version probably had subtitles burnt into it (and it might have been edited). But even so, it should have been an easy matter to create subs for the Japanese version that was eventually used on the DVD set. My question is what happened to the original Japanese opening titles.

Yes. It's pretty disappointing to see a title card that says, iirc, "English subtitles by John Nathan" but then not to get the subs.

Asmik were prevented from using English subtitles on THE RUINED MAP by Toho on the instructions of Kobo Abe's publisher. It's the same problem (whatever it is) that's preventing the issue of the film outside of Japan. MoC have tried numerous times to release THE RUINED MAP.

Man I just have to say this film (and DVD) is amazing. I've long loved Abe's novels (though i haven't read Face yet) so I figured this would be a no-brainer purchase, and I was certainly right -- I'm gonna grab Pitfall immediately now.

I love the way the film becomes subtly more surreal as it goes along, with the non-sequitor intercutting of a parallel story whose relation to the main arc is never explained, and the random oddness of the psychiatrist's office (the woman's hair floating outside the door, the inexplicable mentions of his wife listening in). Like I said, I haven't read the actual book this is based on, but you can tell that Abe was involved in this project -- the film very much has the tone of his writing down pat, the deadpan presentation of utter surrealism and oddity. The effect of being presented with strangeness in such a casual fashion is a kind of numbing, a willingness to be pulled along as if nothing is out of the ordinary, although of course the strangeness keeps nagging at you unconsciously. That's the way Abe's novels affect me, and the way this film affected me as well. I think Takemitsu's helped as well, primarily because it was so much in the vein of "traditional" film scores, it almost lulled me into believing this was an ordinary thriller.

Face of Another is definitely a far superior film to Eyes Without a Face, which keeps cropping up in reference to it -- there's a greater depth to the transformation in Teshigahara's film, greater psychological and social implications that go way beyond the typical horror movie morality of Eyes (not that I dislike Franju's film, either, for what it is). From the very beginning, this film is about destabilizing identity -- the first time we see the main character, it's his X-rayed skeleton, raising the inevitable question if this ("what's underneath") is any truer a representation of who he is than the bandages, his scarred "real" visage, or the mask he later dons.

Also, one element I haven't seen brought up in any reviews or discussion -- didn't anyone else find this film wryly funny? Or am I the only weirdo? The scene near the end, with a rather pathetic Nakadai in a half-torn-off mask, was rather amusing in its juxtaposition of his crazed face with the absurdity of the dangling mask and the extreme pathos of the scene itself. The doctor's baroque office space certainly made me laugh as well, and the stagey acting of the poor dupe they talk into providing a facial mold, and there were several other scenes that escape me at the moment where the sheer surrealistic absurdity of it all was really funny as well.

Anyway, truly a remarkable film and a gorgeous DVD presentation from MOC.

A nice appreciation of a great film, sevenarts.

sevenarts wrote:Face of Another is definitely a far superior film to Eyes Without a Face, which keeps cropping up in reference to it -- there's a greater depth to the transformation in Teshigahara's film, greater psychological and social implications that go way beyond the typical horror movie morality of Eyes (not that I dislike Franju's film, either, for what it is). From the very beginning, this film is about destabilizing identity. . .

I agree. The repeated comparison between these two films seems lazy to me, since it's really only superficial plot elements that they have in common. As you note, The Face of Another is really about the nature of identity, and how one's self-conception can be skewed according to one's physical appearance (or, more precisely, according to how one thinks one is perceived by others). As such, its real astral twin is Frankenheimer's hair-raising Seconds.

I found what appear to be bootlegs of the Teshigahara titles on ebay, here and here. Same seller, but he also has lots of other DVDs for sale so I'm not sure if he did the bootlegging or if they're Japanese releases.

There's no mention of extra features, but the cover art is identical, even showing the booklet cover for The Face of Another and, if you look closely, the Pitfall cover mentions the Masters of Cinema commentary track!.

Which makes no fucking sense either, because after shipping his OPENING bid is only $1.50 less than the legitimate product from CD-Wow, Bensons, etc etc.

I already owned the Criterion set and have never seen FACE but I found an MOC version of FACE marked for $9 and just had to buy it for the commentary and booklet even though I already own the CC film. I loved Pitfall so hope to have a similar feeling towards this. Will probably watch it this week.

I've just ordered the Criterion 'Gaudi', purely on the strength of the 3 Tesh films I've seen (the two MoCs and 'Woman'). I hope if and when any other Tesh. films become available, be they with English or French subs., they maintain the dizzyingly high standards he set with these 3.

'Pitfall' is arguably my favourite at the moment, although that could change after many re-viewings. I don't think I've been so excited by the 'oeuvre' of a newly-discovered director in some 20 years.

Teshigihara was one of a kind. The Georges Franju of Japan.

HerrSchreck wrote:Teshigihara was one of a kind. The Georges Franju of Japan.

There was a lot more to him than that.
And his three regular collaborators were a vital part of the package.

I think you may have missed my meaning.. but if you feel like correcting my chiming in to agree with your penultimate post, feel free.

HerrSchreck wrote:I think you may have missed my meaning.. but if you feel like correcting my chiming in to agree with your penultimate post, feel free.

Please elaborate

In the interest of preventing this from spiralling off-topic, Schreck, please allow me:

Yojimbo posts that he thinks Teshigahara is great.
Schreck posts his agreement.
Yojimbo misunderstand Schreck's post, possibly thinking he was dissing Teshigahara.
Schreck says "I was agreeing with you dude, Teshigahara is great. But whatever..."

I think Yojimbo is saying that Teshigahara is a much bigger artist than Franju, which Schreck compared him to.

Tune in next time, as Sanjuro will request satisfaction from Ekerot for claiming that Bill Douglas is the Charles Burnett of the UK.

jt wrote:In the interest of preventing this from spiralling off-topic, Schreck, please allow me:

Yojimbo posts that he thinks Teshigahara is great.
Schreck posts his agreement.
Yojimbo misunderstand Schreck's post, possibly thinking he was dissing Teshigahara.
Schreck says "I was agreeing with you dude, Teshigahara is great. But whatever..."

perhaps you are Herr Schreck's surrogate in this regard in which case you might elaborate on his statement "Teshigihara was one of a kind. The Georges Franju of Japan" so that I may better apreciate the extent of his compliment. Otherwise, Herr Schreck, .....if you are reading this, perhaps you might consider replying in jt's stead!