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The Face of Another



Following Woman of the Dunes [Suna no onna] in 1964, Hiroshi Teshigahara continued his collaboration with avant-garde novelist/playwright Kobo Abe and experimental composer Toru Takemitsu for The Face of Another [Tanin no kao]. Starring Tatsuya Nakadai (Yojimbo, Kagemusha) as a man "buried alive behind eyes without a face", the film addresses the illusive nature of identity and the agony of its absence.

A man (Nakadai) facially disfigured in a laboratory fire persuades his doctor to fashion him a lifelike mask modeled on a complete stranger — totally different from his own face. Shortly after the mask is made, he successfully seduces his own wife (Machiko Kyo) but becomes angry at her falling for a handsome stranger. Worrying about his looks, and the way the mask seems to influence his identity, he begins to question everything.

Takemitsu's musical score is one of his best, contrasting sweet, sad melodies with eerie, experimental motifs. Alongside Franju's Les Yeux sans visage [Eyes Without a Face], Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Whale's Frankenstein, and Freund's Mad Love, Teshigahara and Abe's The Face of Another stands proud as one of cinema's most haunting explorations of identity. The Masters of Cinema Series proudly presents the film for the first time in the West on home video.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Restored transfer and audio
• Exclusive full-length audio commentary by Tony Rayns
• New English subtitle translation
• 20-page booklet with an essay by David Toop
• Original trailer
• Gallery containing rare production stills and artwork
• RSDL disc (DVD9), R2

In case anyone missed perpee's announcement in the old MoC thread, here's the official statement from DVD Times:

Due to minor technical problems and their dedication to release only the best end product Eureka Video have pushed the Teshigahara Masters of Cinema DVD releases back one month to 21st March.

Here's a nice overview of the film and its themes:

Marking Hiroshi Teshigahara's third adaptation of novels by modernist author Kobo Abe, The Face of Another is a highly stylized, psychologically dense, and provocative exposition on identity, persona, freedom, and intimacy. From the opening sequences of isolated anatomy, Teshigahara establishes the fractured tone of the film's narrative. Surreal, aesthetically formalized shots of the oppressive prosthetic laboratory underscore the atemporal and geographically indeterminate nature of the universal parable. (Note the disjunctive effect of freeze-frames, muted ambient sounds, and cultural polyphony of the doctor and patient meetings at a German pub-themed bar that further contribute to a sense of existential ambiguity and pluralism). The intercutting parallel, elliptical narrative of a facially scarred young woman (Miki Irie) - whose character introduction is intriguingly accomplished through a wipe-cut (and therefore, may only exist as a figment of Okuyama's imagination) - creates, not only a pervasive sense of alienation, but also betrays the unsympathetic protagonist's internal chaos and capacity for emotional violence. Combining striking, elegantly composed visuals with innately humanist themes of connection and identity, Teshigahara composes a haunting, cautionary fairytale of masquerade and revelation, defect and vanity, impersonation and self-discovery.

Its great that David Toop has contributed to the booklet. I suspect his is an article on Takemitsu's film music although he is also very knowledgeable about Japanese avant garde. Great news!

Beaver review

I was looking at the Beaver shots (er...hmm...you know what I mean), and was wondering if this is the best this film will ever look on DVD. Some of those are somewhat lacking on the definition side and this is one film that should really look amazing in its best conditions.

Peerpee, what do you reckon?

Annie, we used Asmik Ace's restored HD transfers, and they are cleaned up very, very well. Our PAL DVDs of both Teshigahara films are progressive, and we've adjusted the black levels to suit European equipment (the original transfers were both very light).

I've spent five months with these two films and there's no way we could have made them any better. Both look incredible in motion, because they're progressive.

I'm very, very happy with both discs.

Ok, then. I guess that frozen frames on a computer's monitor sometimes can be misleading.

A number of the DVDBeaver shots for both PITFALL and FACE are from scenes with lots of motion, or camera movement. There is blurriness inherent in the film image in those instances.

I'll be keen to hear what people think when they have the discs in their hands.

Peerpee-

I haven't purchased the MoC discs, but I can certainly vouch for the quality of the Asmik transfers. They're some of the best I've seen. Hopefully, when I'm more liquid, I'll spring for the MoC discs - I'm certainly intrigued by the extras.

You're releasing some great titles. Thank you!

A rave review from DVD Times.

From that review:

I thought the transfer for Pitfall was fantastic but the image here surpasses that leaving me with few remaining superlatives to describe it. The film is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio and it's as clean as the cleanest surface in the world.

For anyone still in doubt...

Great, suprisingly little known film. The transfer is gorgeous - the cleanest I've ever seen for a film of its age. Incredible work MOC =D>

A great film and a very nice presentation. I preferred the image of this to that of Pitfall, where the blacks sometimes seemed a little washed out.

There are strong connections between the concerns of this film and those of Frankenheimer's Seconds, a contemporaneous film that shares The Face of Another's visual extravagance as well. In both cases, the emphasis is on the question of identity, and the degree to which personality is a function of appearance (or the perception of anonymity), rather than on the technical process of transformation (as is the case with Eyes Without a Face, a film that's often lumped in with these two).

Rayns' commentary is very good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as his one for Pitfall. It was nice that he cross-referenced the other commentary rather than repeating huge amounts of information, but with less background information to deliver, this made for a few quiet patches and several stretches where he explained what was happening on-screen. However, this is a film that can do with a bit of explanation at points, so all around another excellent release from MoC.

There's a review of this film up at Midnight Eye, which is full of praise for the DVD.

Midnight Eye wrote:If the rest of Eureka's Masters of Cinema releases adhere to the high standards set here, then the summer of 2005 is going to be a very special one for Japanese film fans indeed.

I must say how impressed I was by the Tony Rayns commentary on this disc in comparison to his work on the Pitfall disc, which I found repetitious to the n-th degree. I wonder if he was given a few pointers after having done the first commentary...

I have to agree with Cineslob. I found the Rayns commentary on Face to be exemplary...one of the best I have heard over the last ten years. His work on Pitfall, on the other hand, was quite repetetive and less humorous, too.

If anyone is interested in searching this out, there's a fascinating article comparing this film to the Abe novel it's based on in Keiko McDonald's From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Film. The DVD didn't pay much attention to how interestingly Teshigahara adapted the film from the book (not a criticism, I love the DVD down to the smallest detail).

Here are some core differences (I've only read Woman in the Dunes, so I'm mostly going by the essay here for Face of Another). In the book, the main character is nameless, evoking even more strongly the sense of confusion about identity. The doctor plays a much smaller role in the book, where in the film he's a dramatic counterpoint. The book is presented as an apology, or excuse, written after the fact, where the film exists in the present (sometimes even that's in question, as the film begins speaking to the audience) and seems to apologise for nothing. I just thought these things were worth noting, and I'd love to hear more from people who have read the book (I'm looking for a copy today.)

Steven H wrote:I just thought these things were worth noting, and I'd love to hear more from people who have read the book (I'm looking for a copy today.)

I haven't read the book or watched the film in several years (no, still haven't watched the MOC disc yet) so details more than those you've already cited are foggy, but I do recall that there were marked differences between the two. Much more pronounced than the minor differences in the two versions of Woman in the Dunes. Does Keiko McDonald's book discuss other Abe/Teshigahara adaptations?

I've been thinking about buying the DVD for some time. There seems to be no discussion of the film itself so I would like to ask: how is it? Would it make a fine Halloween viewing? Is it in the same vein as Eyes Without A Face?

By all means, get yourself a copy of this brilliant film, without hesitation. It is 'in the same vein' as Eyes Without a Face, and is also far superior in my opinion.

I've only seen 3 of Teshigahara's films, and abolutely adore all 3 of them.

It makes a nice companion piece with Pitfall, another brilliant MOC/Teshigahara/Kobo Abe combination.

One of MOC's best releases thus far. If only they'd get Suna no Onna next...

It's a fantastic film, more oddball and far less 'classic' than Eyes without a Face in my opinion, with several memorably nightmarish visuals (such as the doctor's surreal lab) and a dark, disorienting atmosphere. Thematically, it's much closer to Seconds than Franju's film, in that it's about the nature of human identity and the degree to which a stable identity serves as a moral constraint. Teshigahara also layers on a bizarre parallel story whose air of nuclear dread and general obliqueness puts me in mind of Resnais. The film is full of bravura visuals and Nakadai is eerily, perfectly cast. MoC's package is exemplary: don't hesitate.

I got my copy in and watched it last night. Very interesting thought provoking film about the nature of identity. The team (Teshigahara, Abe, Takemitsu) were really doing some weird wild stuff. Watching the movie and reading the booklet has made me very interested in checking out the source material and other Kobe Abe books.

The MOC package is again superb, the transfer very clean and the booklet attractive and interesting. Pitfall has vaulted to the top of my must buy list.

Only £11.99 for a short time at Sendit.com, folks:

I just ordered it. A blind-buy. I have a feeling that I won't be disappointed.

Incidentally, I watched Stan Brakhage's, The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes today. The pulling back of the cadaver's face is a shocking revelation. I greatly admire Franju's, Les Yeux sans Visage and Frankenheimer's, Seconds (also released in 1966). The quest for what 'identity' is, is one of my most enduring pursuits in art and so I greatly look forward to experiencing The Face of Another.

btw. this site have PUNISHMENT PARK and VENGEANCE IS MINE for £12.99

I can't vouch for their service, just their price.

I don't know if Mr. Toop's notes mention it, as I haven't seen them yet, but in the coffee shop scene, Takemitsu can be seen smoking away throughout the whole sequence. just a curiosity...

putney