Entertainment

1 man, 2 faces

I have just returned from eight days of watching movies in Tokyo, to discover an array of Japanese films screening right here in New York. Let’s start with “The Face of Another” (1966), unspooling Tuesday as part of the Film Forum’s two-week showcase of movies with music by the renowned composer Toru Takemitsu.

The noirish “Face,” directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, tells of a businessman (Tatsuya Nakadai) whose visage is horribly disfigured in an industrial accident. He allows a doctor to fit him with an artificial face that looks nothing like his real one and is based on the features of another man.

To test his anonymity, the victim seduces his own wife, who doesn’t realize who her new lover is. Interwoven into the film is the story of a woman whose face has been partly scarred. The Forum is on Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue; filmforum.org

*Uptown, the Japan Society (333 E. 47th St.) is showing four films about “Japan’s quest for Empire and its tragic downfall.” They include Koji Wakamatsu’s “Caterpillar,” the disturbing story of a soldier who returns from war as a hero — but minus his arms and legs.

Also showing, Friday through next Sunday, are Kon Ichikawa’s “Fires on the Plain” (1959), Jiang Wen’s “Devils on the Doorstep” (2000) and Oshima’s “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (1983). Set in a Japanese POW camp in Java, it features David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tom Conti and Takeshi Kitano. Details: japansociety.org

*Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (1953), which is oft included on lists of the greatest films of all time, is showing through Thursday at the IFC Center (Sixth Avenue and Third Street). An elderly provincial couple go to Tokyo to visit their grown children, with tragic consequences. Details: ifccenter.com.