The H-Man

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source: The H-Man

Trailer—Bijo to ekitai ningen

Bijo to ekitai ningen

There were a few films from my childhood that really left an impression, and this was one - creepy! It IS out on VHS at least, maybe DVD, but Netflix doesn't have it. One of five or six such films that still hold up both as documents of their times and as scary as they were to a kid. I'd also recommend Quatermass 2, aka Enemy from Space, and for nonscary monsters, try 20 Million Miles to Earth. It's an interesting project to go back and see what of the stuff from childhood is still effective, and in what ways it is not. This Island Earth totally creeped me out, as did the 1953 War of the Worlds, and the original Invaders from Mars, but the remakes of these last two mostly failed. The H Man however is great. Enough lines yet?

Like many other posters, I saw this film as a young boy and it gave me nightmares for weeks (maybe even months)! Luckily, my older brother finally convinced me that the "liquid creature" would not survive a swim from Japan to the United States and I was able to sleep again. I suspect that the modern age's Freddies, Jasons and Leatherfaces would not hold a candle to the effect that this film had on an impressionable youth back then. Perhaps the very fact that the monster had no tangible qualities and could theoretically be any puddle of water you came across was what gave it its fright value. It would certainly be interesting to see how a remake of this would play today.

Be sure to watch for the really creepy flashback sequence wherein the title creature is first discovered by sailors exploring an abandoned ship. The film's photography and special effects deserve a nod also. Those with a soft spot for blob movies are urged to also check out the Steve McQueen film of that name (released the same year), as well as Hammer Films' "X the Unknown" (1956).

I saw this when it was first released in 1958 in Sydney. The theatre was a very large and cold cinema. The atmosphere of the environs only added to the atmosphere of the film. I was six at the time but I can still remember it fairly vividly today - nearly forty years later. It gave me nightmares for weeks. I always thought this was the movie that the Blob was based on although the release dates seem to be fairly close. This by far was the better movie of the two. I have seen this once again in my older years and it still resurrects memories of those childhood nightmares. I would love to be able to obtain a copy of the film but it seems these days no-one seems to know of it.

One of my favorite films from Toho, a story about the city of Tokyo being terrorized by a transparent, liquid, radiated being called the H-Man. One-by-one, people start to disappear and it's up to the policeman and scientists to crack the case. This movie combines pure sci-fi and film-noir, giving us tense and non-stop thrills. Just the plot of policemen investigating drug dealers and scientists investigating the H-Man effects, with a beautiful nightclub singer mixed in, are pure excitement. A good, dramatic, but hopeful story from Takeshi Kimura and good directing from Ishiro Honda. A strong message of the consequences of misusing the hydrogen bomb is delivered in this film. I've only seen the English-dubbed version so far, but the dubbing was very good. Even the nightclub songs sang by Yumi Shirakawa fit the English dubbing. The nightclub scenes are a real treat. This movie ranges as one of the best non-Godzilla films from Toho. Grade A