Facial charm

Modernity and Director's Will

Let's imagine the life of the disfigured man Okuyama in "The Face of Others" before his disfigurement: an executive of a company, living a pampered life, the relationship between husband and wife may be harmonious, flat, and has everything in the life of a normal society. It seems to be living a good life... It is conceivable that these things happened before the beginning of the movie story. For Hiroshi Kawara, the emissary of the "existentialist philosopher", the existence of prehistory precedes The nature of the story makes a video experiment that explores the so-called boundaries of existence quite allegorical: a faceless person who acquires the faces of other strangers, gets lost in the crowd! This is completely commensurate with the emotional and rhythm of the paradoxical freedom of freedom and the paradoxical emotions and rhythms of the {Existentialism Trilogy} "The Trap" and "The Lady of Sand", which brings an inexplicable experience.

Behind the lost story, there can be many names, which is quite the so-called strong theory. But in this middle world where the old life is disintegrating and being cast aside, and the new life has not yet taken shape, which is worrying, and at the same time is not good or bad, there is no such a rhetoric. To Okuyama and ourselves in the story, naming something is like putting a label on it, and the opening prologue is just such a set of "descriptions" - imitations of human body parts floating in a nutrient solution.. ...."it's not just a finger, it's a lower compound with the shape of a finger"...a name means the same thing in this or more or less similar way, or is given One thing, naturally, without force, and as if refusing to define. Those low-level complexes in the shape of fingers, low-level complexes in the shape of legs, low-level complexes in the shape of a torso, low-level complexes in the shape of a face, etc., low-level complexes of different human tissues, which together constitute a replica of the body... ...However, the low-level complex that imitates the body is not the body. Even if it is the body, it can only be a human imitation at best. In the process of progressive truth-seeking, it seems that the truth of the ultimate goal can never be reached.. .... the practical significance of counterfeiting is that they are like the real: the false must be based on the real.

A lie, first and foremost, looks like the truth.

For Hiroshi Kawahara, the "philosopher" emissary, creating an intermediate state in which a broken life is overwhelmed, the story has the cornerstone of existence. Because philosophical problems always take the form of: we can't find our way! This is exactly the situation that existential film masters are best at. The patchwork of various close-up or deformed shots, the unique expressionist heterogeneous space, the mysterious action motives, the inexplicable small stories within the play, and the bizarre plot together form the The film "The Face of Others". The two questions at this point, "Is this movie the result of a simple plot twist or a complex narrative?" and "What are the simple components of the movie?" will have a clear meaning. For the first question, the answer, of course, is to make Hiroshi Kawara no longer be like "The Trap" and "The Lady of Sand", but to use simple elements such as mature narrative techniques and complete sets of metaphors in "The Face of Others". constitutes a complex film; and for the second question, it is clear that any answer "narrative techniques and sets of metaphors are the simple components of the film" cannot answer this question, but asks what kind of "narrative technique" and what exactly A description of how a "set of metaphors" are, and how they are formed and put together, can be answered. The correct answer to these two {philosophical} questions is: that depends on what you understand by "combinatorial"... This is certainly not an answer, but a rejection of the question.

What kind of answer or rejection is the face of others that Okuyama asked the doctor to change? Will this be part of answering and defining a person? The possibility seems to be quite random, but when Okuyama really puts on that person's face, this face will be counted as part of Okuyama's person, that is to say, other people's faces become the identification of Okuyama One can imagine that when the "same person" Okuyama went to rent an apartment twice, in the almost identical plot set up by Hiroshi Kawara, the manager's speech was almost the same but in fact the different reactions were the face as a sample of a person natural solution. And such plot arrangement and narrative tricks, the combined description is like a description of a facial expression, a description of a tactile environment, or a description of an emotion. Obviously, one can of course define "red" by pointing to something that is not red, just like defining "normal" by a landlord's abnormal natural reaction to a person who behaves normally but has no face, "No Face" and "New Face" are such a combination of backgrounds.

With a new face Okuyama, let's call it "Xin Oshan" for the time being. "Xin Oshan" is a completely different person from the old Okuyama. Perhaps it is also ok to call the new face a sample of Xin Oshan, namely: New Okuyama The face may and may indeed be an "elliptical expression" of this completely new person in Shin Okuyama. But here, why can't we turn {this completely new man of Xin Ou Mountain} as a kind of "expansion description" of {new face}? It is such an explanation, which is quite tempting for Okuyama and us, that just by thinking about what is to be expected, one inevitably falls into the trap of existentialism - a new face is a new person or even a new life. And even the abbreviation of the whole new world! Such a standard logical form seems to be able to solve all existing problems once and for all... But actually imagine that {this newcomer of Xin Ou Mountain} is indeed more accurate and specific than {new face}; When it comes to describing the life of the newcomer, a more accurate and specific description can be {the newcomer from Xin Oshan who has re-entered the society}; when considering the quality of life of the newcomer, a further accurate and specific description should be { This newcomer of Xin Ousan who has re-entered the society and continues to serve as a company executive}; when the imagination arbitrarily and double-strums to imagine the quality of life and future vision of the newcomer, a further accurate and specific description may be {new. Okuyama's newcomer who re-entered the society and continued to serve as a company executive and reconciled with his wife as before} and so on... It is not difficult to find that if you want to pursue accuracy and specificity, the reference chain of the definition can be extended indefinitely There is no end, so it cannot exist at all, so it is impossible to solve the so-called problem of existence.

As you can imagine, imagining a new face is imagining a new life.

Many people may think, like Okuyama, that being given a new face is an opportunity to rename, that is, to give a new label to social position, intimacy, interpersonal situation, etc. It seems that once the name is named, no matter what you do next, you can proceed according to the given new life. A person's life is within the frame given by this label, as if it only reflects the "reality of the face". However, such a basis will soon be "used up". For example, Xin Okuyama, who has changed his face, has redefined labels such as his situation and his relationship with his wife, but he still returns to the old Okuyama's rut ​​along with the communication of various situations. In this way, it seems that only one person's How unique and irreplaceable are name tags and the use of one's first name for the named person! So, when the doctor who changed Okuyama's face, among the faceless people, pointed to the new face and said that it was freedom, did he mean the new face? Or Xinaoshan? Or a new life? Or even freedom itself? These may or may not be, or some are and the other is not... Either way, it can only be understood in the overall context of a "Xin Ou Mountain" with a new face, because There is no new face or person who can be understood alone, but only strangers or acquaintances.

In "The Face of Others", the "polyphony" of the half-face disfigured and miserable woman in the play depicts a special "independent" unique individual who is separated from the environment of Okuyama's story in the existential lie of Edict Kawara Hiroshi. It's quite possible and experiential as if a plot was originally telling another story, and the viewer gets a definition of a certain original movie plot expression from this scene... There is a serious problem hidden here. The superstition is: some kind of montage rationality separated from the plot, some kind of narrative truth outside the story, some kind of identity that is separated from the form of life, as long as they are connected with the definition, they can achieve transcendence, and the beautiful vision can be The idea of ​​freedom that is mastered is superstitious in the world.

The inevitable nothingness caused by the free choice of existentialism implies that people, in a place where there should be a body and a face, but without a body and a face, we say that there is a spirit or an image, and the reason why the spirit and the image are "silent" It is due to the lack of that "voice" necessity, which means that silence is more powerful than voice. Obviously, the evidence of existence combined here is still a rejection of what a good life is and whether it is possible.