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A Major Disappointment

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Based on the 1926 novel "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island" by Edogawa Rampo--the so-called Edgar Allan Poe of Japan--as well as at least two Rampo short stories, "The Human Chair" (1925) and "The Walker in the Attic" (also 1925), and also conflating Rampo's most famous detective character, Kogoro Akechi, the 1969 film "Horrors of Malformed Men" obviously has a lot of ground to cover. The picture was cowritten by its director, genre favorite Teruo Ishii, an old fan of Rampo's work in boys' detective magazines in the 1920s, and so shocked and scandalized viewers upon its initial release that it has been a sort of taboo product ever since; indeed, the film has never been made available for home viewing in Japan! I suppose that given its central theme of willful and calculated human mutations, coming a scant 25 years after the atomic denouement of WW2, this feeling can be understandable. Still, for viewers today, the film will probably come as a genuine stunner. In it, a medical student named Hitomi (an appealing performance by handsome Teruo Yoshida) escapes from a mental institution in the year 1925 (although it could just as easily be yesterday, based on what the viewer sees), with only a dim knowledge of who he is, or why a child's lullaby keeps repeating itself in his mind, or why he keeps seeing visions of a mysterious-looking seacoast. His lot worsens when he is falsely accused of knifing a young girl (in a scene strangely reminiscent of a similar one in "North by Northwest"), and while on the run, and desperately searching for that bit of seacoast on Honshu's 800-mile-long northern shore (!), notices the obituary for a man who he exactly resembles. He pretends to be that dead man, resurrected back to life, and ultimately goes to the island sanctuary of his look-alike's father, a Dr. Moreau type of character. And once on that island, things start to get REALLY strange!Shot on the Noto Peninsula, "Horrors of Malformed Men" is a film of impressive natural beauty and, once on that darn island, dreamlike surrealism. Indeed, the film would have been a natural back in the early '70s among the midnight-feature stoner crowd. It is easily as "trippy" as Alejandro Jodorowsky's "El Topo," a favorite back then amongst that crowd, as well as Jess Franco's "Succubus," Jaromil Jires' "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders" and Michel Lemoine's "Seven Women for Satan" (all films that SHOULD have been on the midnight circuit back when)...but unlike these films, and amazingly, its wild and crazy plot makes absolute, perfect sense by the picture's conclusion! In a final summation, events are explained at a clip that rivals the rat-a-tat explications in "The Big Sleep," accompanied by monotinted flashback sequences. And, oh, is this film a strange one! Among the film's many bits of weirdness are that freaky insane asylum opening; a snake decapitation; a 1/2 goat, 1/2 girl creature; a human torch sconce; a psychedelic, Cirque du Soleil-style dance number (put on for no apparent reason other than to flabbergast the viewer) performed by a gaggle of the island freaks; silver-painted women; a male/female Siamese twin combo; the eating of live crabs (and lots of them!); incest; the old poison-down-the-string trick (which viewers may recall from the 007 blowout "You Only Live Twice"); freeze frames; and other assorted mishegas. In the film's single most arresting image, perhaps, Jagoro Kimodo, the creator of the island monstrosities, capers along the seashore, the waves crashing behind him. Kimodo is played in the film by Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of the Butoh style of dance, and the stylized, spiderlike way that he scuttles along here is like something you may have never seen before. Featuring exquisite camera work from Shigeru Akatsuka and a freaky-deaky score by Masao Yagi, and concluding with a beautifully symbolic fireworks/sunset display, "Horrors of Malformed Men" is a film that should linger long in the memory. Far from just another Dr. Moreau rip-off, it is a genuine work of cinematic art, a minor masterpiece, and should prove a real find for the jaded horror buff. It is presented here on a great-looking DVD from Synapse, loaded with "extras." In the most interesting, directors Shinya Tsukamoto and Minoru Kawasaki discuss the influence that Ishii and Rampo have had on their own work, while in another, we see Ishii himself--"the King of Cult"--present the film at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy in 2003 (two years before his death). A most generous DVD package, of a film that must be seen to be believed....

I like a malformed man as much as the next guy... No, strike that, I like malformed men more than most guys, so I was eager to see this infamous flick after reading about it for years. Now that I've seen it, I can return to my usual state of mind, which is probably just a stone's throw away from where this film came from. Like some of its characters, the film itself is malformed and untidy. There is an extremely convoluted plot about a man pretending to be someone else, and so many loose ends a detective is required to turn up at the climax to explain what the hell is going on. In a deformed nutshell, the film is about a wacko, who looks a little like Jesus, who has isolated himself on a island in order to create a society of freaks. Somehow, his doing this enables him to "get back" at the "normal" people who have ridiculed him. His motivations don't make a lot of sense, but since he's a nut, they don't have to. The wacko takes well formed people and turned them into malformed people. For example, he creates his own male/female Siamese twins by fusing their asses together. The special make-up effects are mildly grotesque, never achieving any level of realism. It is most unfortunate and sad that Ishii didn't take the Todd Browning approach and use real freaks of nature. Perhaps the real freaks were busy working in Sideshow Alley or performing in traveling circuses; however you look at it, it's a missed opportunity of epic proportions. Although the film most closely resembles "Island of Lost Souls", it is too sloppy and too silly to be considered a Japanese equivalent to that masterpiece. Once again, I find myself liking Ishii the filmmaker more than Ishii's film. His sensibility is original and interesting, and his love of the macabre and sexually grotesque is to be be admired. This is certainly worth seeing, but be prepared for a lot of awkwardness and a very slow pace. And don't come expecting too many shocks because the real shock here is the lack of shocks.

Let me just start by saying this film is crazy..but, I had such a thrill and few films leave me as breathless with my jaw hanging in shock as "Horrors of Malformed Men". It was like the door to an asylum of depravity and insanity was opened and we bare witness to the madness that springs forth.It starts out rather conventional. A young man, Hitomi is placed in the cell of an asylum and remembers the image of a seashore and the tune of a lullaby. A bald prisoner tries to murder him in his cell, but our protagonist gets the better of him and escapes. He meets a female circus performer who he heard humming the lullaby tune from his memory down a street from the institution. This circus performer was about to reveal the whereabouts of the seashore location he seeks, but is stabbed by a knife in the back. He is framed for her murder and flees. On a train he sees the photo of a recently deceased heir to a fortune named Genzaburou who looks exactly like Hitomi. After Genzaburou's burial ceremony, Hitomi assumes the man's identity having the surprised family believing his death misdiagnosed. Strangely, both Hitomi and Genzaburou have a specific scar on their foot and our protagonist notices the seashore from his memory nearby where his new identity lives. As Hitomi tries to falsely lead others who knew Genzaburou astray, continuing to remain in this new identity becomes quite exhausting..how long can Hitomi continue this charade. Hitomi is told that across the sea on an island lives Genzaburou's father. Hitomi's wife is murdered by a poison, and his secret lover is supposedly getting threats through letter so he decides to take a trip to the island and that's where the film takes a detour into insanity..The film really doesn't get good until Hitomi, his assistant(who may be more than he appears)and lover(..along with their man-servant who is of major importance and a voice that brings answers to some things left unanswered back at Genzaburou's estate)land on the island where he finds his father, web-hands and dancing in some state of lunacy, who has turned normal women and old men into "malformed" animalistic primitives conducting all forms of depravity and unhinged behavior(..not to mention, the way that many are covered naked in forms of paint, chalk, feathers, etc). Some of them, in cages, eat grass from the madman's hand, making animal noises! The madman explains what motivated this island of the bizarre and odd, speaking of his wife's adultery and his own web-hands. He plans, the nut, to turn loose his malformed army on the normal, enslaving them so that they can experience what it's like to feel his anguish. He also answers an important question that has troubled Hitomi. The film also explores an incestial relationship that blooms between Hitomi and the Siamese woman he separates from a creep the madman "sown" onto her, that culminates into "fireworks" at the end.Really, this film has to be seen to be believed..especially the closing hour on the island. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. There's a lengthly "reveal" segment where everything that has occurred gets fitting explanations specifically Hitomi's missing history and how his life as a medical doctor was thwarted by betrayal which resulted in his attempted murder in that asylum. The "human chair", "human fireworks" and, especially, the scene where a woman, imprisoned in a cave, has to eat the crabs which had spent a few days munching on her lover's corpse, are just highlights of many surreal sequences in this truly one-of-a-kind film.

The mere fact that it was banned in Japan was enough to make me want to seek out Horrors of Malformed Men. After all, it was made in the country that gave the world the Guinea Pig movies, pinku eiga, bukkake, hentai, and umpteen other acts of perversion that I don't even know the name for. If this film was considered unsuitable for viewing by its own people, what deviant treats could it possibly hold?Well, not much really. Whilst there is plenty of nudity, a touch of blood, and a smattering of sex (non-explicit), there is nothing that could be really be described as particularly 'shocking', particularly by today's standards. My guess is that the film's central theme of physical deformity and dis-figuration touched a very sensitive nerve in a country that was still suffering from the effects of a nuclear attack, which resulted in its suppression.Still, even without any extreme depravity on display, director Teruo Ishii's trippy flick is worth a watch if bizarre cinema is your cup of tea. Dreamlike, creepy and just downright weird, Horrors of Malformed Men contains plenty of startling imagery and a crazy narrative that is difficult to describe. But I'll give it a go...Hirosuke (Teruo Yoshida) , a medical student with almost no recollection of his past, is trapped in an asylum, despite being perfectly sane. After escaping from the loony bin, and being framed for the murder of a circus girl, he spots the photo of a recently deceased man, Genzaburo Komoda, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. By pretending to have been resurrected, Hirosuke assumes the dead man's identity, fooling everyone, including Komoda's widow and mistress (both of whom he gets jiggy with).Whilst at the Komoda household, Hirosuke recalls memories that convince him to travel to a nearby island, home of Jogoro, the web-fingered father of Genzaburo (who we first see making awkward movements amongst some rocks, and then performing a freakishly slow walk towards the camera, which eerily reminded me of Sadako from Ringu).Whilst on the island, Hirosuke not only discovers Jogoro's plans to build his 'ideal community' (by transforming perfectly normal humans into hideous freaks), but also the awful truth behind his own identity.Throw in a pair of Siamese twins (consisting of both sexes), some gold-painted dancers performing a hilarious routine, a perverted transvestite who plots with Genzaburo's mistress to inherit the Komoda fortune, an undercover detective, a woman who is forced to eat crabs off the rotting body of her lover, some accidental incest, and a finalé featuring a firework display that scatters body parts through the air, and you have one hell of a strange film.6.5, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.