Kao

'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.