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The Face Of Another
is a 1964 novel written by the Japanese novelist Kōbō Abe. Like other stories written by this author, the novel explores the alienation of modern man from urban society. It is written in the first person narrative mode, and is divided into a prologue, three "notebooks" (black, gray, and white), and a concluding letter from the protagonist's wife. In 1966, it was adapted into a film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara. Synopsis An industrial accident has severely burned the face of Mr. Okuyama, a plastics scientist. His wife is repulsed by his disfigurement and refuses to have sexual contact with him. In an effort to regain the affection of his wife, he attempts to create a prosthetic mask in a rented apartment. With this new "face," the protagonist sees the world in a new way and begins a clandestine affair with his estranged wife. Although the mask gives Okuyama newfound freedom, at the end of the story, it becomes difficult to determine if the mask has taken ownership of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kōbō Abe
, pen name of , was a Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor. He is best known for his 1962 novel '' The Woman in the Dunes'' that was made into an award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often been compared to Franz Kafka for his modernist sensibilities and his surreal, often nightmarish explorations of individuals in contemporary society. Biography Abe was born on March 7, 1924 in Kita, Tokyo, Japan and grew up in Mukden (now Shenyang) in Manchuria. Abe's family was in Tokyo at the time due to his father's year of medical research in Tokyo. His mother had been raised in Hokkaido, while he experienced childhood in Manchuria. This triplicate assignment of origin was influential to Abe, who told Nancy Shields in a 1978 interview, "I am essentially a man without a hometown. This may be what lies behind the 'hometown phobia' that runs in the depth of my feelings. All things that are valued for their stability offend me." As a child, A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans Japanese archipelago, an archipelago of List of islands of Japan, 6852 islands covering ; the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu (the "mainland"), Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa Island, Okinawa. Tokyo is the Capital of Japan, nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Japan is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh most populous country in the world, as well as one of the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated and Urbanization by country, urbanized. About three-fourths of Geography of Japan, the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kodansha
is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' and ''Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine'', as well as the more literary magazines ''Gunzō'', ''Shūkan Gendai'', and the Japanese dictionary ''Nihongo Daijiten''. Kodansha was founded by Seiji Noma in 1910, and members of his family continue as its owners either directly or through the Noma Cultural Foundation. History Seiji Noma founded Kodansha in 1910 as a spin-off of the ''Dai-Nippon Yūbenkai'' (, "Greater Japan Oratorical Society") and produced the literary magazine ''Yūben'' () as its first publication. The name ''Kodansha'' (taken from ''Kōdan Club'' (), a now-defunct magazine published by the company) originated in 1911 when the publisher formally merged with the ''Dai-Nippon Yūbenkai''. The company has used its current legal name since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1964 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1964. Events *January 10 – Federico García Lorca's play ''The House of Bernarda Alba'', completed just before his assassination in 1936, receives its first performance in Spain. *January 12 – The Royal Shakespeare Company Experimental Group open a four-week Theatre of Cruelty season at the LAMDA Theatre Club, London. *January 23 – Arthur Miller's play '' After the Fall'' opens at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre Off-Broadway in New York City, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Jason Robards and Kazan's wife Barbara Loden. A semi-autobiographical work, it arouses controversy over Miller's portrayal of his late ex-wife Marilyn Monroe. *February 11 – A London retailer, in the case of R. v. Gold, is found guilty under section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 of stocking a 1963 edition of John Cleland's novel ''Fanny Hill'' (''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'', 1748–1749). *February 28 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Alienation
Social alienation is a person's feeling of disconnection from a group whether friends, family, or wider society to which the individual has an affinity. Such alienation has been described as "a condition in social relationships reflected by (1) a low degree of integration or common values and (2) a high degree of distance or isolation (3a) between individuals, or (3b) between an individual and a group of people in a community or work environment '' numeration added'". It is a sociological concept developed by several classical and contemporary theorists. The concept has many discipline-specific uses, and can refer both to a personal psychological state (subjectively) and to a type of social relationship (objectively). History The term ''alienation'' has been used over the ages with varied and sometimes contradictory meanings. In ancient history it could mean a metaphysical sense of achieving a higher state of contemplation, ecstasy or union—becoming alienated from a limited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narration
Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to storytelling, convey a narrative, story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the audience, particularly about the Plot (narrative), plot (the series of events). Narration is a required element of all written stories (novels, short story, short stories, poems, memoirs, etc.), with the function of conveying the story in its entirety. However, narration is merely optional in most other storytelling formats, such as films, plays, television shows, and video games, in which the story can be conveyed through other means, like dialogue between characters or visual action. The narrative mode encompasses the set of choices through which the creator of the story develops their narrator and narration: * ''Narrative point of view, perspective,'' or ''voice'': the choice of grammatical person used by the narr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Face Of Another (film)
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 suffered 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 personalit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiroshi Teshigahara
was a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker and artist from the Japanese New Wave era. He is best known for the 1964 film ''Woman in the Dunes''. He is also known for directing other titles such as ''The Face of Another'' (1966), ''Natsu No Heitai'' (''Summer Soldiers'', 1972), and '' Pitfall'' (1962) which was Teshigahara's directorial debut. He has been called "one of the most acclaimed Japanese directors of all time". Teshigahara is the first person of Asian descent to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, accomplishing this in 1964 for his work on ''Woman in the Dunes''. Apart from being a filmmaker, Teshigahara also practiced other arts, such as calligraphy, pottery, painting, opera and ikebana. Biography Teshigahara was born in Tokyo, the son of Sōfu Teshigahara, founder and grand master of the Sōgetsu-ryū school of ''ikebana''. He graduated in 1950 from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and began working in documentary film. He directed his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prosthetic Makeup
Prosthetic makeup also called special make-up effects and FX prosthesis) is the process of using prosthetic sculpting, molding and casting techniques to create advanced cosmetic effects. Prosthetic makeup goes back to the beginning of film making with '' A Trip to the Moon'' Fench film ''Le Voyage dans la Lune'' a 1902 French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès where the man on the moon effect was accomplished using a combination of makeup and a prosthetic type mask with added pastes. The makeup artist Jack Pierce was another early Hollywood make-up artist, best remembered for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in ''Frankenstein'', his makeup for '' the Wolfman'', and more. Modern prosthetic makeup was revolutionized by John Chambers, whose work can be seen in ''Planet of the Apes'' as well as Dick Smith's work in ''Little Big Man,'' Stan Winston in the ''Terminator'' series, and Rob Bottin in '' The Thing''. Many of the techniques developed du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hibakusha
''Hibakusha'' ( or ; ja, 被爆者 or ; "person affected by a bomb" or "person affected by exposure o radioactivity) is a word of Japanese origin generally designating the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. Definition The word ''hibakusha'' is Japanese, originally written in kanji. While the term Hibakusha (''hi'' "affected" + ''baku'' "bomb" + ''sha'' "person") has been used before in Japanese to designate any victim of bombs, its worldwide democratisation led to a definition concerning the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped in Japan by the United States Army Air Forces on the 6 and 9 August 1945. Anti-nuclear movements and associations, among others of ''hibakusha'', spread the term to designate any direct victim of nuclear disaster, including the ones of the nuclear plant in Fukushima. They therefore prefer the writing (substituting ''baku'' with the homophonous "exposition") or "person affected by the ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Belle Image (novel)
''La Belle Image'' (1941) is a novel by French writer Marcel Aymé that has been described as "Kafka's ''Metamorphosis'' in reverse." Composition After France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, and during the Battle of France, Aymé was in Cape Ferret, but returned to Paris at the end of August. ''La Belle Image'' was begun during the summer of 1940 and completed between September and October of that year. Aymé believed that the war would last at least ten years, and his pessimistic mood is apparent throughout the novel. The work first appeared as a serial in ''Aujourd'hui'', from 15 December 1940 to 14 January 1941, with illustrations by . It was published by Gallimard towards the end of January 1941. Plot ''La Belle Image'' is the story of Raoul Cerusier, an upstanding, hard-working, but suspicious businessman, whose dull and unattractive face is transformed into one that is young, handsome, and seductive. His office colleagues no long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcel Aymé
Marcel Aymé (29 March 1902 – 14 October 1967) was a French novelist and playwright, who also wrote screenplays and works for children. Biography Marcel André Aymé was born in Joigny, in the Burgundy region of France, the youngest of six children. His father, Joseph, was a blacksmith, and his mother, Emma Monamy, died when he was two years old, after the family had moved to Tours. Marcel was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in the village of Villers-Robert, a place where he would spend the next eight years, and which would serve as the model for the fictitious village of Claquebue in what is perhaps the most well-known of his novels, ''La Jument verte''. In 1906 Marcel entered the local primary school. Because his grandfather was a staunch anti-clerical republican, he was looked down upon by his classmates, many of whose parents held more traditional views. Accordingly, Marcel was not baptized before reaching the age of eight, nearly two years after the death ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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