After No Longer Human, Watch The Face of Another

The Face of Another (1966) is a compelling next film after No Longer Human because it gives you one person to recognise under two appearances. Hiroshi Teshigahara’s black-and-white film follows Okuyama, whose face is injured in an industrial accident. He accepts an experiment that gives him a new face modelled on a stranger’s. The film adapts a novel by Kōbō Abe. [3] [4]

The connection begins with Yōzō’s clowning. In the first notebook of Osamu Dazai’s novel, Yōzō explains that he fears other people yet cannot give up trying to remain connected to them. Making them laugh becomes a way of preserving that connection. He describes the strain beneath his outward cheerfulness. These are the fictional narrator’s reasons for his behaviour, offered in his own account. [1] [2]

That passage lets us hold the performance and its cost together. An apparently cheerful action reaches us through the voice of someone explaining how much effort it takes.

For a different way into that tension, watch Okuyama looking for accommodation. Critic James Quandt singles out the repeated renting episode as an instance of the film’s doubling: Okuyama rents one apartment for his bandaged self and another for his new appearance. [4]

An ordinary transaction supplies a point of comparison. The face changes, but we have already encountered the person wearing it. The repetition gives us a way to keep his earlier appearance in mind while looking at the later one. Okuyama can be presented afresh without becoming a stranger to us. That difference between how a character appears now and what we carry forward about him is something to watch for throughout the experiment.

The film also talks through its ideas. Quandt notes that the doctor and nurse become more substantial figures in the adaptation, taking over some of the work of the interior monologue in Abe’s novel. [4] The interest lies in how those explanations share the film with a person we can look at and recognise across changing appearances.

After Yōzō’s account of trying to stay connected through clowning, this is a reason to spend time with Okuyama: these scenes let us compare a changed appearance before deciding what it tells us about the person. When the renting episode returns, keep the bandaged figure in mind as you look at the new face. Notice what allows you to recognise the same man, and what you still need to know to understand him.

Criterion’s film page links to The Criterion Channel’s listing. Check the viewing conditions for your location and account.

References

1. Osamu Dazai, Ningen Shikkaku (人間失格), Aozora Bunko, first notebook. The discussion above paraphrases the Japanese text.
2. New Directions, No Longer Human, by Osamu Dazai, translated by Donald Keene. Publisher’s character description and English-edition information.
3. The Criterion Collection, The Face of Another, synopsis, film information and credits.
4. James Quandt, “The Face of Another: Double Vision”, The Criterion Collection, 9 July 2007. The discussion of adaptation and repeated apartment rentals supplies the film detail; the comparison with Dazai here is Monocurator’s reading.