The Face of Another

is a 1966 Japanese New Wave film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and based on the 1964 novel of the same name written by Kōbō Abe. The story follows engineer Okuyama, who suffers severe facial burns in a work-related accident and is given a new face in the form of a lifelike mask. Plot Engineer Okuyama's face was disfigured by an explosion in an industrial accident, and wears bandages to cover the burns. Feeling isolated and being physically rejected by his wife, he consults a psychiatrist. Seeing the frustration Mr. Okuyama experiences with his facial disfiguration, the psychiatrist proposes to make an experimental prosthetic mask for him, apparently with great reluctance. The psychiatrist and Okuyama offer a man 10,000 yen to serve as the model for the mask, and the mask is built and fitted onto Okuyama. The psychiatrist demands that Okuyama regularly reports his sensations and thoughts to him, and cautions Okuyama that the mask may change his behavior and personality so much that he will cease to be the same person. Okuyama tells no one that he has received the mask, and simply lives as a new man, telling his wife that he is traveling on business while he rents an apartment nearby. He tests the mask's effectiveness on a secretary of his company, who doesn't recognize him, and a mentally challenged neighborhood girl, who does. During a meeting between Okuyama and the psychiatrist, the latter realizes that his patient has already changed, and imagines a world where the mask goes into mass production, subsequently eliminating all sense of morality. Okuyama decides to seduce his wife using his new identity. When he obtains this too easily, full of rage, he reveals himself to her, who in turn says she had known about his true identity from the first moment. He tries to persuade her to give their relationship another chance, but she rejects him. Later, Okuyama attempts to rape a woman on the street, claiming to be nobody when arrested. He is freed thanks to his psychiatrist (whose business card the police found in Okuyama's pocket), who testifies that Okuyama is his patient and that he is not violent. While walking the nightly streets together, we see that everyone on the street is wearing a mask. At first the psychiatrist asks Okuyama for the mask back, then lets him keep it, as he is a free man. While shaking hands to say goodbye, Okuyama stabs him to death.