Synopsis

A businessman facially scarred in a laboratory explosion receives treatment from a psychiatrist, and obtains an amazingly life-like mask from the doctor. Soon after being fitted for the mask, he attempts to seduce his wife and succeeds. But his wife claims she was aware all along who he was and believed that both were just masquerading together as men and women do in different ways. Strangely enough, his personality seemingly begins to change after he puts on the mask as if the mask has influenced his personality. His new identity does not enable him to reintegrate into society after all. A subplot is inserted in fragments. A good-natured young woman, the right side of whose face is disfigured, has been hurt by others' inquisitive eyes and insults, and has been shunned by men. She asks her older brother, the only man who understands her pain and solitude, to make love to her, hiding from him the intent of killing herself afterwards.

Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for The Face of Another (1966) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Tatsuya Nakadai, Mikijiro Hira, Machiko Kyō, Kyôko Kishida, Eiji Okada, Miki Irie DIRECTOR: Hiroshi Teshigahara CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hiroshi Segawa MUSIC: Toru Takemitsu PRODUCTION: Teshigahara Productions, Tokyo Eiga

Box Office Performance

Theatrical box office data is not publicly available for The Face of Another (1966). This may indicate a limited release, direct-to-streaming, or a release predating modern box office tracking.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

One recurring image is the large and small severed ears which appear in the scenery in several scenes. These ears were designed and sculpted by Japanese sculptor Tomio Miki.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Summary: 2 wins total

CRITICAL RECEPTION

The Face of Another was not well received outside of Japan, with audiences and critics largely feeling that it did not live up to Teshigahara's earlier film The Woman in the Dunes. Although it was successful in Japan, the film was a critical and financial failure internationally. In 2008, film scholar Alexander Jacoby called it "a flawed fantasy" whose interesting theme suffers from the protagonist's "bland characterization."

The film has since improved its critical standing. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 100% approval rating based on 7 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader defended the film in his 2005 review, calling it "more palatable" than Teshigahara's previous works, the theme "brilliantly and imaginatively explored," and the acting "potent." The game director Hideo Kojima, a fan of the writer Kōbō Abe, is a fan of The Face of Another.