Face (2000) User Reviews

Fascinating and difficult to categorize movie.

[Infofreak · 4 July 2003]

'Face' is a fascinating and difficult to categorize movie. Naomi Fujiyama gives an impressive performance (her movie debut) as the frumpy, clumsy and socially retarded Masako who one day strangles the pretty sister who loves to torment her. Masako flees from her home and then goes on a journey, both physically and emotionally, which ranges from everything from rape, earthquakes, learning to ride a bicycle, and working in a karaoke bar. All kinds of things both big and small, serious and trivial. What makes the movie consistently fascinating is the fresh approach of the unpredictable script and direction by Junji Sakamoto, a film maker I am not familiar with. 'Face' isn't really either a true life crime portrait of a murderer or a saccharine women-overcomes-the-odds-and-finally-learns-how-to-live movie that Hollywood churns out. It's somewhere in between. And how much if any sympathy or empathy you feel for Masako will depend on the individual viewer. It isn't an obvious movie, and that's what I enjoyed about it. It may not be everybody's cup of tea but I liked it a lot.

Unique and powerful

[simon_booth · 9/10 · 19 August 2006]

A woman has two daughters who couldn't be more different - Yukari is slim, attractive and popular whilst Masako is frumpy, clumsy and reclusive. When their mother dies the two sisters fight, and Masako kills her sibling. She goes 'on the run'... which is quite a challenge for somebody who has barely left home her whole life, and has rarely had to deal with other people.

Junji Sukamoto's film is an offbeat exploration of a type of person who doesn't often get attention, cinematic or otherwise. Something like a road movie which leads to fascinating and unpredictable places, it is a quite unique and powerful piece of work. It's sometimes very funny, sometimes very sweet, sometimes rather rough and sometimes quite disturbing. Fantastic acting by the lead actress Naomi Fujiyama carries it wherever director Junji Sakamoto decides it should go.

movie with plenty of depth

[jim-890 · 10/10 · 7 January 2007]

excellent movie which really portrays the depth of human character. Two previous authors gave this movie a lower rating, saying they could not relate or figure out the character. This, for me, is exactly the point. The writing is so well done that as the movie progresses rather than figuring out the character we continually see more layers and see that a person cannot be so easily typecast in the length of a movie. If you are looking for a typical flic where each character has characteristics with the depth of mickey mouse (hey, i like these too!) then this isn't the movie for you.

I particularly like the sexuality in the movie, which is actually frighteningly disturbing. In relation to a previous author's comment about her 'getting hot' while being raped, i'd like to point out the complexity of sexual feelings that we can all relate to with our initial (and most likely current) experiences. basically, she didn't just say "Kyaa!" and the scene was over. We saw the various levels of competing feelings and anguish faced by the character.

as for being retarded, i think that there was definitely a large hint of retardation. This could be completely social, as later in the movie suggests, but she definitely has challenges. Why is this a problem for a heroine? Again, this movie isn't full of simple typecast and traditional stock characters.

Knock Down, Drag Out

[mcdougaller · 5/10 · 15 October 2005]

Misako, the fleeing main character who inadvertently kills her own sister directly after their overworked mother drops dead, struck me as mentally challenged right from the start. She is not "right." Even her walk is unstable. Psychologists would have a field day with her lack of self-esteem and poor self-image. She seems to have been the family dummy from the word Go. Yet, she is toiling dutifully away as the movie opens, sewing endless seams on zoo-ey fabric covered with jungle animals among whom she picnics in her imagination. Misako's demeanor is roughshod and instinctual, and her outcries are in such a low register, from the diaphragm, that it spelled mental illness to this viewer at least. Why, on two occasions, when unwelcome men press sexual demands upon her, does Misako encourage them once they wain by saying "My body is on fire!"? I had a difficult time following the various supporting characters,especially the men. Who was whom? From whence did they come?They confused me completely. If you enjoy watching a hard-pressed Japanese woman, who strangled her sister, running for her life through various gritty areas of Japan, colliding on her wobbly bicycle with strangers, remaining mute in circumstances that seem to require speech, pratfalling flat-out upon the ground several times in awkward flailings about, doing swimming motions on dry land like a maniac - then by all means rent this confusing flick. The only good thing is the realism imparted by the evidently well-respected Japanese actress Naomi Fujiyama.

Find It. See It.

[frankgaipa · 10/10 · 10 September 2002]

I'll do a longer comment later, if I can see it again, but this is a must see, a one-woman and much more credible "Honeymoon Killers," a more insightful "Fat Girl." For 123 minutes, you'll be controlled absolutely by stage actress Naomi Fujiyama in, according to imdb, her only screen role. This is no staged play. Her transition to the screen flawless.

No,sorry, couldn't relate to this movie at all.

[wombat_1 · 7 May 2003]

Well, as the (only!) other reviewer sort of implied, the story here is very straightforward. But it's the characterisation that is the problem. The "heroine" (using that word in the loosest possible context) is a problem.

Is she meant to be a "funny nerd", a la Jim Carey or perhaps Rick Moranis, at whom we laugh hilariously when she falls over her own feet? If so, then the movie fails, because she's not funny in that way - it would be like laughing at a paraplegic who fell out of a wheelchair.

Is she meant to be "seriously" clumsy, and so worthy of our sympathy? If so, then the movie fails also, because the clumsiness is so contrived, so exaggerated, the things that happen to her are so improbable, that the plot simply loses all credibility. It's like a "bad" war movie where the bad guys fire machine guns at John Wayne and every bullet misses, but he closes his eyes and with 6 shots of his revolver kills 20 baddies. And the scene where she "meets" her dead sister in the bathroom - well, that was totally incomprehensible.

Maybe this a "race" issue, with me not being Japanese therefore not being able to understand a Japanese "character" movie. I dunno. But by the end of the movie, I found myself regretting that I had allowed two hours of my life to slip away in front of the tube.

beautiful camera work, great acting

[tdean10 · 9/10 · 11 June 2006]

There are some editing issues, and the translation is probably poorly done, but I found this movie compelling. Amazing work by Ms. Fujiama. I found the situations believable in the context of who the character was. there were surprises that made the story interesting. Plenty of opportunities to examine the Japanese fascination with karaoke.

The movie is worth watching just for the truly astonishingly haunting sequence of the festival with children dancing and a chorus singing with drumming accompaniment . I have never seen or heard anything like this, I have no idea what it all means or if it is a real part of a festival on an island. Well worth seeing even if you skip to the "festival " scene.

Deep, varied, human

[eitel-jim · 9/10 · 14 January 2014]

I have just seen this in 2014. First run through I wasn't sure, but when I replayed some of the scenes, I began to see such a richness of detail and varied moods and camera angles that I was really drawn in. For example, just before she leaves for the ferry, as her pursuers are closing in--there is a scene of the harbor shore line at dawn, small waves slowly washing in, very calm. Another detail--of foreshadowing--is the bar owner's sister breaking a glass ashtray, just before we see him being killed. The fox dance scenes were spellbinding, another instance of varied mood and intensity. The film did npt lack in humor, as the scene in which the protagonist bangs her tambourine way out of time. Agree with the other reviewer that the heroine' acting was quite amazing.