A man badly disfigured in an industrial accident which he caused is rejected
physically by his wife. The doctor treating him persuades him to try a new
technique which requires him to select a live person's face which is then
somehow fitted over his while still leaving the original intact and in place.
He does this and sets out to seduce his wife which he does successfully only
to find out from her that she know it was he all along. He leaves her and
the film ends with his killing the doctor. The film is low key with no 'horror'
images as seen in 'Yeux Sans Visages' for example though there are some
deliberate distortions through various items of laboratory equipment. Near
the end there is a rather disturbing scene of the man and doctor walking against a crowd of masked figures. The question of the extent to which
appeance determines identity and behaviour lies at the heart of the film and
no real conclusion is reached. The man has a new face which gives him a
new confident approach yet he is still the same husband that his wife has
always known despite her physical rejection of him earlier in the film - her
willingness to be seduced was because she thought that was what he wanted
rather than any weakness on her part. A Japanese existential movie which is
not as well known as it should be