The Face of Another · reception & legacy
1966 · Hiroshi Teshigahara
How The Face of Another has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Long overshadowed by Woman in the Dunes — the middle sibling of the Teshigahara–Abe collaborations got a cooler reception at home and abroad — it's been steadily reappraised since Criterion's 2007 'Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara' box, and plenty of cinephiles now argue it's the trilogy's peak.
What's debated
The perennial fan debate: is this actually better than Woman in the Dunes, or the colder, more cerebral lesser sibling?
Its footprint
Its clinic set — glass panels, floating body parts, that wall of sculpted ears — is one of the most screenshotted interiors in 1960s cinema, and the film is a fixture in the beloved '1966 identity-crisis' trifecta fans build with Persona and Seconds.
Where it stands
A canon climber: once a footnote to Woman in the Dunes, now a Letterboxd darling and a 'you must see the whole trilogy' film.