Watching the movie 'A Different Man' and feeling deeply depressed [Review]

I watched the movie 'A Different Man'.

I'm writing this review at lightning speed so I don't forget. It's a fresh-from-the-theater review. Please enjoy (though I couldn't finish writing it on the same day, so I'm adding to it. I'll say this in advance: it's long! I'm just writing down whatever pops into my head, so it's long, but please read it to the end!).

So, let's get started.
Honestly, it was a deeply depressing movie.

The reason is that I am a hardcore lookist.
The more of a lookist you are, the more this movie stabs you, and it doesn't come out.
To use an analogy, it's like a fork with barbs, so it doesn't come out easily, and if you try to pull it out, you have no choice but to sacrifice flesh and blood. ("Flesh and blood"—anyone who has seen the movie should understand what this refers to! Sob.)

As the movie progresses, the more I want Edward to be rewarded, the more I am forced to become aware of my own "way of judging people by their beauty or ugliness," and I am confronted with the fact that it is the flip side of that.
Is this the proposition imposed on the audience living in the present that this movie depicts?

Edward, who "changed his face and became a different person," is, as mentioned many times in the play, a "handsome man."

Therefore, wanting "handsome Edward" not to lose to Oswald! Wanting him to be rewarded! Wanting him not to have everything snatched away! is, in other words,
nothing more than a desire for "good/beautiful people" to be happy rather than people who are "ugly" in appearance (face).

Of course, there might also be a "want him to be happy" desire born from empathy for Edward, who, back when he had a tumor on his face, decided not to attract people's attention, couldn't even go out under the moonlight, and couldn't live as he wanted.
But even that, thinking that I want him to finally work out with Ingrid, whom he couldn't be with back then (when he was ugly), now that he is (beautiful), means that I (or the part of me that) am subconsciously convinced that it was objectively "understandable" and natural that it didn't develop into a romance when he was ugly, and that it's not strange at all that Ingrid didn't turn to him……………


See, the more you think about it, the more deeply depressed you get, right?
That's right. Once you get to this point, you start to wonder if your sympathy for Edward, your support for his desire to transform, and even your jealousy toward Oswald just like him, were even correct.
It might not be a matter of correct or incorrect, so you could say it's a matter of whether it's healthy or not.

As mentioned above, Edward (who was ugly) when he had a tumor on his face was,

but,
even this is wiped away and kicked to the curb if you look at Oswald, as if it has nothing to do with the presence or absence of a facial tumor and the resulting judgment of beauty or ugliness by others, or rather, by oneself.

In fact, Oswald has been a good person from the very beginning: bright, sociable, proactive, thoughtful, humorous, interesting to talk to, has enough money to live without working, is good at singing and playing the saxophone, is hit on by women who are "not even his girlfriend," has even been married and has children, belongs to multiple communities, and can immediately build relationships and become friends with people he meets for the first time. If you exclude that one point of "that face," he "has" everything.
...If I write this much, you'll realize that there's no need to even dare to list "that face" as something he "doesn't have."

The Edward of the past and the handsome Edward are both always neurotic. Even if his face changes, his personality doesn't change. He can't change.
In fact, his colleagues at work have told him many times that he is "neurotic." On the other hand, what about Oswald?
There isn't even a hint of neurosis.

But no matter what, we, the audience, end up obsessing over what Oswald "has."
Because he has everything that the Edward of the past didn't have.

Because he has acquired everything that Edward had given up on or shut down himself because of his "face" (even if it wasn't actually because of his "face"), without letting his "face" be an obstacle at all.

In other words, Oswald, who "accepts reality" without throwing away his face, has easily obtained, is obtaining, and will obtain everything that Edward wanted to obtain even at the cost of "throwing away his face."

The contrast between "handsome Edward" and Oswald is depicted so cruelly and clearly that it makes me feel exhausted on his behalf.

I mean, Oswald even does judo!???

As a result, Edward's life is decisively ruined because of this judo (writing it this way makes it sound like it's Oswald's fault, but although Edward was the one who sowed the seeds and went forward on his own, physically it is Oswald's fault, so let's just say it's half Oswald's fault here~~~).

There is a scene at the beginning of the movie where someone, I think it was an apartment resident, tells Edward that he should at least do judo (and one other thing, I forgot what it was).
Edward didn't take the advice and brushed it off, but when the scene where Oswald says he does judo came later, I thought, 'Ah~~!' I thought, 'Ugh, this guy, he even does judo.'
And then there's that shoulder throw~☝️.

Watching Oswald makes me realize that belonging to some kind of community is a very big asset.
I think that if you have a community where you have a place as a "member" recognized by yourself and others, even just that fills your ontological security, which also involves the approval of others.

There were other scenes that made me think 'Ugh...'
During sex with handsome Edward, Ingrid says, 'Do you have that mask? Put it on,' and makes him wear a mask made with a 3D printer by scanning the face of the Edward from back then.
When Edward asks why, Ingrid replies, 'I want to do it with the "creation,"' but she starts laughing in the middle and dismisses it, saying, 'It's too stupid. It's impossible after all.'
And yet, as a result, she becomes romantically involved with Oswald and even has a child.
When I saw Ingrid with her big belly, I couldn't help but think to myself, 'Wait, so you could do it?'
Even so, she also said that casting the person involved in the play she is writing is exploitation, and I thought, 'Ah, I can trust her (as a movie) for being properly aware of that kind of thing,' but
the treatment of handsome Edward after Oswald rose to prominence (I'll dare to write 'treatment') is terrible~.

In the movie, it is said that the face of Edward from back then is something you can get 'used to.' At first, you might fear it as a natural instinct of humans, a natural reaction of a beast, but once you get used to it, it becomes okay. Ingrid is exactly that, isn't she? Even though the Edward from back then was not originally an object of sexual desire for her, the fact that she was able to accept his appearance easily even after meeting Oswald, and that a relationship was formed, must have been due in no small part to the 'getting used to' it from the Edward of back then.
Thinking about that, hmm... since she is using him as the subject of her play,
there is a part where Ingrid and Oswald pressure handsome Edward, saying that Oswald should play Edward, the protagonist of Ingrid's play, and that he should step aside, and they bring up Beauty and the Beast as an analogy.
The cut where Oswald asserts that if Ingrid is Beauty, then Edward is naturally the Beast, that is, "ugly," is directed impressively, but from my perspective, I had the worst impression, like, 'You, with that face, are calling him "ugly"~~? Do you really say it like that~~?' I'm really sorry.

But the reason Oswald can assert that Edward (at least in the story) is "ugly" (definitely not overlapping himself with Edward) is,
as depicted consistently throughout this movie,
it's only natural, since the character Oswald embodies and takes on the message that 'in the end, everything is about your own state of mind, and appearance is the "outermost layer of the inner self."

I just wrote that it's about your state of mind, but
the reason Edward's behavior gradually becomes strange after Oswald's appearance is that his own identity, which he had desperately gathered by "throwing away his face," is being shaken by the existence of Oswald. Of course, it's unbearable for him that the lead in a play based on his former self is not him, but played by Oswald!
Even if his face changes, Edward is and always will be just Edward, and he knows better than anyone that he is nothing more and nothing less than that. To have that reinterpreted conveniently by the woman he once had feelings for and a guy who just popped up, and to be showered with applause from the audience... of course, he'd want to go on a rampage!

Halfway through, I was nervous that handsome Edward might kill the two of them, but that was a groundless fear.
Well, someone else dies, though.
I was thinking about why Edward stabbed the occupational therapist, but since he stabbed him right after mocking the two of them, saying, 'Looking at Ingrid's belly, those two made a baby, huh? That's impossible for me,' I interpreted it as him wanting to throw away and get rid of with his own hands the past self that was laughed at in the same way, the Ingrid of that time who laughed at him, and Oswald who was so great that he could brush off even being laughed at—he wanted to get rid of everyone.

There are several other scenes that left an impression...
Before and after meeting Oswald, a statue performer appears.
Edward stares at the statue for a long time without doing or saying anything, and then leaves the scene. But in the back right of the screen, the statue performer moves his neck and glares back at the departing Edward. That had an indescribable scariness. It wasn't just that I was surprised by the quick movement, but I was frankly uncomfortable with the statue performer's expressive face that seemed to have something to say. What was that?
What kind of person is Edward that even a performer who is a statue performer would move involuntarily...

And as the story progresses, in a scene where Oswald and Edward are walking together, the statue performer from before was at the spot Oswald pointed to, saying 'Look at that.'
Oswald was laughing while pointing at the 'bronze statue,' but Edward still has an indecisive expression.
I think there must be some clear intention for this 'bronze statue' to appear twice, but...

After Oswald's appearance, Edward, who has no lines and is just in a state of nothingness, is frequently shown, and that face is, well, good!
Sebastian Stan, you're the best!!!!! I end up making the same face and getting lost in thought too.
I believe the camerawork gradually pulls back, and that further highlights the composition of Edward (who feels like he is) being left behind. Wow~

So, it has become quite long, and there are still things I haven't been able to write about, but
finally, I will end by writing about the last scene of the movie.

The three of them, Edward, Ingrid, and Oswald, ended up having a meal at a restaurant, happy to be reunited after a long time, but there was Edward, who again didn't know what he was thinking, against the two who were talking a mile a minute.
Edward, who can't decide on a menu, is the same as ever,
and Oswald casually calls Edward 'Edward'...
While I wondered, 'When did that happen??', Oswald's last line in this movie,
'Nothing changes, does it,' was very good in that there is an 'Edward' who hasn't changed at all. Seeing Edward, who had a dull reaction but was smiling faintly somewhere, made me feel a little saved.

As for what happened to Oswald, who said 'nothing changes,' he and Ingrid got into some cult I don't really understand and are soon to travel to that village. The fact that that was where the two who had 'changed' from the past ended up made me feel a sense of relief, as a member of the Edward Defense Corps, thinking, 'Well, that's all it amounts to in the end,' and I also snorted with a laugh. Director (who also wrote the script), thank you for the not-devilish script at the end.
By the way, who was the woman in mourning clothes who was eating alone at the end? I felt like I had seen her somewhere, but I couldn't remember who she was. Seeing Edward's expression brighten when he saw her, who was inserted at the very end, I know that 'something happened,' but I can't connect it, and it's very frustrating! If anyone knows who she is, please let me know in the comments. Please!

With the word "face" in the title, I thought it might be a film satirizing lookism, but rather than dealing with that directly,
the way it shifts the focus from the outermost layer of a person—the face—inward toward their personality, emotions, and inner self, revealing various desires and conflicts, really resonated with me as a viewer. Even as I struggled to keep up with Edward's downward spiral, I found the film incredibly compelling. The fact that I'm writing this much of a review should tell you just how much it affected me.

Man, that was interesting. I'm going to watch it again and add more thoughts later.
Thank you so much for reading until the end. I really appreciate it.