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Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

From the director of the original Godzilla film, Ishirô Honda, which was a more high minded of sci-fi story about the dangers of nuclear weapons than were it's subsequent sequels, comes another tale excoriating the dangers of radiation and "H-Bombs." In this atomic-age story follows police detectives investigating the sudden disappearance of a suspected narcotics dealer only to figure out he was the victim of secret H-Bomb tests in the Pacific, which turned him and others into a sort of intelligent black slime that dissolves anyone or anything it touches. This story is pretty silly and watching the terrified denizen's of Tokyo run from slow moving slim will not trike much awe or terror in audiences. Interestingly, the American drive-in classic "The Blob" came out this same year and did manage to make a scary film about a growing blob of slime, which goes to show it can be done. However, in this film's favor, director Honda incorporates a number or film noir elements into the story and production, which makes this film stand apart from your typical Toho monster movie. It features some terrific nightclub scenes with fun music and atmosphere, as well as scenes shot around Tokyo, which had a cool Japanese "Mad Men" vibe. Overall, the ideas and action were not all that interesting, but if you're interested in later 1950s Japanese pop culture or are interested in a different kind of Japanese monster movie, you should check out "The H-Man."

H-Man, The (1958) ** (out of 4) Toho film has some excellent special effects but a story that made me want to punch the television. A man gets hit by a car but when the driver gets out to check on him he discovers that the man is gone and only his clothes remain. More and more stories of people being killed only to have their clothes remaining start piling up and soon it's learned that a blob-like substance is doing the killings. This Japanese film, from the team who brought us GODZILLA, is pretty much another version of THE BLOB and while there are some great moments we also get sucked into some pretty bad ones. I've often complained that the Godzilla films were weak because they didn't center their attention on the monsters and that holds true here as well because we get a subplot of gangsters, which ends up taking up nearly an hour of the 79-minute running time. The monster really doesn't take center stage till nearly the 50-minute mark, which is just crazy because of how good it is. There's an early sequence on a ship that is highly effective but moments like these are few and far between as we get too much dialogue with a boring subplot. The special effects for the blob creature are quite good and better than what we saw in the earlier American classic. I watched the P&S, American dubbed version, which was recently on Turner Classic Movies but will revisit the film when Columbia releases it later in the year. Rumored to include the Japanese version I will certainly give it a second take in its original language.

While I am a huge fan of Japanese films, I don't care for giant monster films. While Godzilla and the like have huge followings, seeing a guy running around in a rubber monster suit does nothing for me. Because of this AND the fact that the film was made by Toho Studios (home of 'Zilla) AND the director of many of these films (Ishirô Honda), my expectations were very low. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded and H-MAN turned out to be a decent film--with an interesting plot and decent dubbing (though I would have preferred it to be subtitled).The film begins with some drug dealers stealing some drugs. However, unexpectedly, one of the men suddenly vanishes and all that is left of him is his clothes!! What happened and where he went was a mystery and so far the film reminded me of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, where in the town the people were missing and all that was left were their clothes and some powder. However, the similarities to this Michael Crichton film/novel seem to end there and it really seems more like a variation on the film THE BLOB (also 1958).The police go on the assumption that the criminal is alive (and naked) somewhere and refuse to consider anything else. So, when a young scientist insists that he knows what happens, they naturally ignore him completely (even though they have no leads). He insists that nuclear testing (THE 1950s cause of all evil in horror films) created a monster that could dissolve people almost instantly but is forced to work on his own. Along the way, he falls for the missing gangster's lady friend and together they both set out to prove it.Eventually, after several folks are dissolved by this evil slime, the cops FINALLY admit that the scientist might just be right! And, in a very radical departure from what they'd been doing, they order the sewers of Tokyo to be flooded with gasoline and ignited to kill the beasts (which, apparently, isn't all that hard to kill--unlike most nuclear mutants). But, the girl is kidnapped and carried into the sewers, so it's up to the studly scientist to come to her rescue and save the city--at the same time (what a guy!!).While a lot of the film is the standard "nuclear slime dissolves the masses" film, it manages to do a good job thanks to better than normal dubbing, a decent story and a monster that isn't nearly as laughable as Godzilla, Rodan or Mothra!! Good old 50s horror entertainment for all.

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.