(pls read it took me like 40 minutes to write this post lmao)
This is one of my favorite topics, so this post is probably going to turn into a geek fest.
I’m a huge film fan, and I recently watched The Face of Another. In my opinion, it’s a masterpiece of its time, and it still holds up surprisingly well by today’s standards.
One of the things I love most about it is the cinematography. It’s simple and practical, yet it manages to convey so much emotion through nothing more than camera angles and framing. The acting can be hit-or-miss at times, but the real highlight of the film is the relationship between Mr. Okuyama and the psychiatrist. Their dynamic is absolutely disgusting, yet somehow perfect.
Mr. Okuyama, the protagonist, is severely disfigured in an accident, leaving his face looking like ground-up meat. To him, losing his face means losing his identity, his self-worth, and his place in the world. He sees himself as a monster because he no longer has a face to present to society.
A psychiatrist offers him an experimental solution: a lifelike mask modeled after the face of a stranger. What’s fascinating is that the stranger is paid for the use of his face. In a sense, he’s selling his identity for 10,000 yen. It creates an interesting question: how much money would it take for you to sell your own face and identity?
Once Okuyama receives his new face, he gradually develops a new personality. He becomes bolder, more reckless, and increasingly unhinged. He starts doing things he never would have done before because, in his mind, it isn’t really his face. Nobody can judge or punish his true self because the mask shields his identity.
One of my favorite scenes is a conversation in a bar between Okuyama and the psychiatrist. They discuss a world where everyone wears a fake face. In that world, we’d get to see everyone’s darkest desires and impulses because nobody would fear being judged. But at the same time, we would never truly know who anyone was. We’d know what was done, but not who did it.
That’s a chilling idea, and the film explores it brilliantly.
I absolutely love this movie. It’s only available in Japanese and it’s shot entirely in black and white, so it definitely requires some patience. But if you’ve got the attention span and the media literacy for it, I highly recommend giving it a watch.
(pls read it took me like 40 minutes to write this post lmao)
This is one of my favorite topics, so this post is probably going to turn into a geek fest.
I’m a huge film fan, and I recently watched The Face of Another. In my opinion, it’s a masterpiece of its time, and it still holds up surprisingly well by today’s standards.
One of the things I love most about it is the cinematography. It’s simple and practical, yet it manages to convey so much emotion through nothing more than camera angles and framing. The acting can be hit-or-miss at times, but the real highlight of the film is the relationship between Mr. Okuyama and the psychiatrist. Their dynamic is absolutely disgusting, yet somehow perfect.
Mr. Okuyama, the protagonist, is severely disfigured in an accident, leaving his face looking like ground-up meat. To him, losing his face means losing his identity, his self-worth, and his place in the world. He sees himself as a monster because he no longer has a face to present to society.
A psychiatrist offers him an experimental solution: a lifelike mask modeled after the face of a stranger. What’s fascinating is that the stranger is paid for the use of his face. In a sense, he’s selling his identity for 10,000 yen. It creates an interesting question: how much money would it take for you to sell your own face and identity?
Once Okuyama receives his new face, he gradually develops a new personality. He becomes bolder, more reckless, and increasingly unhinged. He starts doing things he never would have done before because, in his mind, it isn’t really his face. Nobody can judge or punish his true self because the mask shields his identity.
One of my favorite scenes is a conversation in a bar between Okuyama and the psychiatrist. They discuss a world where everyone wears a fake face. In that world, we’d get to see everyone’s darkest desires and impulses because nobody would fear being judged. But at the same time, we would never truly know who anyone was. We’d know what was done, but not who did it.
That’s a chilling idea, and the film explores it brilliantly.
I absolutely love this movie. It’s only available in Japanese and it’s shot entirely in black and white, so it definitely requires some patience. But if you’ve got the attention span and the media literacy for it, I highly recommend giving it a watch.