The Face of Another (1966)

Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara. With Tatsuya Nakadai, Mikijirô Hira, Kyôko Kishida, Miki Irie. A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality.

The Face of Another (他人の顔 Tanin no kao) is a 1966 Japanese New Wave film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and based on the novel of the same name written by Kōbō Abe.

A staggering work of existential science fiction, _The Face of Another_ dissects identity with the sure hand of a surgeon. Okuyama (Yojimbo's Tatsuya Nakadai), after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist's radical experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations. With unforgettable imagery, Teshigahara's film explores both the limits and freedom in acquiring a new persona, and questions the notion of individuality itself.

Bearing traces of both Frankenstein and the 1959 Georges Franju horror classic Eyes without a Face, the Japanese The Face of Another is a disturbing Japanese drama featuring Tatsuya Nakadai. His face horribly disfigured in an accident, Nakadai, a wealthy industrialist, commissions a special mask from a renowned plastic surgeon. Nakadai's wife fails to recognize her husband and makes advances to him, which effectively destroys their relationship.

A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality.

Based on a novel by Woman in the Dunes author Kobo Abe, The Face of Another opens with Okuyama (Tatsuya Nakadai), a wealthy chemist, being treated for his horribly scarred face, which was recently disfigured in an explosion.

A review by Jasper Sharp of The Face of Another (Tanin no Kao, 1966, Hroshi TESHIGAHARA)

The June-ar Module The picture you see is no portrait of me, It's too real to be shown to someone I don't know. The Face Of Another is one of those rare films that is so completely confident in itself that it will quite happily ask lots of questions of its characters and audience yet provide almost no answers. I love a film that has that confidence and swagger.