Good movie but grossly overrated

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Odd, moody crime-horror melodrama as a predatory radioactive liquid haunts the Tokyo waterfront. The films opens with a drug deal gone bad. The police investigation is complicated by a Dr. Masada (Kenji Sahara), a local scientist who suspects that there is a connection between the missing criminal and recent H-bomb tests. He has interviewed a sailor who told him about a drifting ship, where all that remained of the crew were their clothes and how almost all of the sailors investigating the derelict were attacked and dissolved by a blue ooze that could take on a vaguely humanoid form. When Masada finds a radioactive life-ring from the doomed ship, he becomes convinced that at least one of the "H-men" made it to Tokyo and, as more people disappear, the police realise that they have both a vicious drug dealer and a viscous killer to deal with. Directed by Ishiro Honda and with effects by Eiji Tsuburaya (both of Godzilla, 1954 fame), "The H-man" is an effective and entertaining thriller. While there are some weak moments (the car chase comes to mind), the film is overall a well done blend of Japanese-noir and horror. While somewhat similar to the contemporaneous "The Blob", "The H-man" is a more 'adult' film, with a gritty gangster subplot and some genuinely creepy sequences (especially those on the ship and in the sewers). Tsuburaya's effects are very good, with scenes of the sentient goo oozing up walls and along ceilings and of people dissolving into piles of clothing. Like Godzilla, the film is a cautionary tale of the dangers of radioactivity and both films feature scenes on a ship whose crew was exposed to radiation (inspired by the true story of the 'Lucky Dragon 5'). I watched an English-dubbed version of the film which differs somewhat from the original (there is less emphasis on the underworld background story) and opens and closes with the typical ominous voiceover warning of atomic danger. The dubbing itself was OK although a few of the heavies had cartoonish 'gangster' voices. All-in-all, a bit dated but worth watching.

Even though it is not, in totality, a great film, Ishiro Honda's "The H-Man" (or "Beauty and the Liquid People" as it was named in its own country) has some remarkable things in it. The cast is a harvest of reliable acting talents; the movie features some tremendously effective special effects; and the photography is luscious and rich with color. What is most remarkable about "The H-Man," however, is the way it combines two radically different genres, and yet gives each genre its due and moments to shine. If the movie were just a horror story or just a yakuza melodrama, it still would have been an interesting picture. And once combined, they form one of Toho's most intriguing, if uneven, efforts to date.We also get Honda's usual symbolism, once again on the atomic bomb. And once again, as in "Mothra," it is applied in a rather subtle manner. Honda opens the movie with an eye-popping, wholly unexpected nuclear explosion and then shies away from talking about his message for quite a spell. The eponymous H-Men, a race of liquid organisms that can take the shape of humans and dissolve any living thing they come into contact with, are supposedly an aftereffect from nuclear testing in the South Pacific. When they disintegrate a person, leaving nothing but their clothes behind, the area is teeming with radiation. But Honda does not take the cheap shot; he does not drag out his story with chatter and contemplation about man messing with the balance of the world. His only lapse is at the end, when he allows Takashi Kimura's screenplay to blabber, via an unimportant supporting character, about how man should stop tinkering with nuclear energy, else let the H-Men take over in the future. Here, the allegory comes on a bit thick, and the end monologue does not come across as hauntingly fresh as it was in "Godzilla," but instead, on the pretentious side.For the most part, however, both Honda and Kimura allow the double-edged plot to take center-stage. It's a combination I very much enjoyed, particularly the half about the Japanese gangsters and the police department's attempts to drag them into the gutter. There are some terrific character actors in the film's police force, including Akihiko Hirata, Yoshio Tsuchiya and Eitaro Ozawa. Now granted, the policemen are not developed as really anything but policemen – straight-shooters who seldom smile and scoff at the suggestion that liquid-men are running amok in Tokyo – but the actors breathe such life into them, as to make them interesting. Take Yoshifumi Tajima, for instance. He plays the most skeptic cop you could ask for – no real depth of character – and yet when he winds up being killed by one of the monsters, I actually felt a bit down. I liked that character, or at least Tajima's interpretation of that character.If only there was more life put into the love story. And this is what I think disqualifies "The H-Man" from being a truly great film. The movie would like us to care about the couple (a yakuza's moll and a daring young scientist trying to warn the cops of the impending danger), but the emotional involvements adds up to zero. This is not a reflection on the two performers. Kenji Sahara and Yumi Shirakawa are superb talents and even proved two years before, in Honda's better film "Rodan," that they can effectively play lovers on film. But "Rodan" gave them things to do together, moments to shine in each other's company. The screenplay of "The H-Man" asks us to believe in their chemistry after they meet very briefly, pass a few insignificant words, and when Shirakawa sobs into Sahara's shoulder. I really wanted more meaningful scenes between them.Shirakawa, on the other hand, does run away with the show, and she does have the best-rounded character. From the get-go, we like this soft-eyed, confused girl, and we sympathize with her when both rival gangsters and skeptical detectives refuse to quit hounding her. And at the end, when a snarling gangster starts dragging her through the sewers of Tokyo, all the while getting themselves surrounded by liquid-men, I felt myself really worrying about what would become of her, and really hoping her captor would get his comeuppance.But the horror story works well, too. Most of all, because how Kimura's screenplay depicts the H-Men as mostly a predatory substance, maintaining very little of what made them human to begin with. It's not at all like the cartoonish demeanor of the organism from "Space Amoeba." The H-Men attack like parasites ensuring their own survival. When one of them takes the form of a man, in which case they glow with a tremendous neon aura, they are dazzling. But I really like how most of the time, they melt down into a moving sludge that crawls up and down the walls. There are some laughable moments (such as a freeze-frame shot of a victim while animated sludge consumes her body, mercifully cut from the U.S. print of the picture), but the good moments far outnumber the bad ones. Part of the fun of these special effects is just wondering how, given 1950s technology, the staff could pull it off. Especially when sludge starts crawling out of a pool of water and we cannot see any signs of a reverse-speed shot. Aided by Masaru Sato's gentle yet ominous music, the monsters do have a presence of their own.It is such a relief to finally have Ishiro Honda's "The H-Man" widely available in the United States. For the picture really is a delightful little experience. Even its U.S. print maintains the fun, making a few small edits for pacing and completely honoring the original premise. With some reservations, I would even go so far as to call this one of my more favorite Toho movies of the 50s.

The police investigate the disappearance of a drug dealer after a dope deal goes awry. The cops discover lethal radioactive beings called H-Men who ooze slime and dissolve everyone they come in contact with who were created by H-bomb tests in the pacific. Director Ishiro Honda relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, maintains an admirably serious tone throughout, does an expert job of creating and sustaining an eerie and unsettling atmosphere (the flashback sequence which takes place on board an empty abandoned ghost ship is especially spooky and nightmarish), and stages the stirring fiery conclusion with considerable brio. Takeshi Kimura's intriguing script cleverly blends horror and crime thriller elements into an engrossing and entertaining multi-genre synthesis. This film further benefits from solid acting by a sturdy cast, with stand-out contributions by Yumi Skirakawa as sweet nightclub singer Chikaro Arai, Kenji Sahara as the earnest Dr. Masada, Akihiko Hirata as the skeptical Inspector Tominaga, and Koreya Senda as the shrewd Dr. Maki. The special effects are quite imaginative and impressive: The glowing green H-Men are truly scary while the scenes of people disintegrating are freaky and upsetting. Both Hajime Koizuma's crisp widescreen cinematography and Masaru Sato's rousing score are up to par. A fun fright flick.

This is one of the legendary Toho sci-fi films that is remembered more then actually seen. A number of friends fondly recall this film as one of the best that Honda directed even with the less than stellar English dubbing.The film is very well done but with some weak points that detract from the overall effect of the production. One aspect that is very good is the excellent special effect work by Eji Tsuburaya. The scenes of liquid humans going up walls works and the scenes where the victims are liquefied are still effective. Towards the end we are treated to some great miniatures of the Tokyo waterfront and sewer system that are almost indistinguishable from the life-size sets. The film is filled with shadows and creepy sets. The story moves along quite well until the times we get to the nightclub were everything stops for dance numbers with bikini clad women and two songs (one in English!). The film would be a good fifteen minutes shorter without them and they contribute nothing to the story. Of course you might enjoy these for their own qualities.The ending is a little screwy and there seems to be some budgetary constraints as a promised H-Man destruction event never occurs.Overall, a very good horror film that stands up to anything that came out of the US or Britain at the same time.