Watch Half Human: The Story of the Abominable Snowman For Free

I love this movie so much

That was an excellent one.

Memorable, crazy movie

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a tale of two movies... Back in the days, before they decided to redub foreign movies they did this. Strip the original movie, in this case, Ju Jin Yuki Otoko, down to its basic storyline and better scenes (and in this case remove the sound too), then add segue segments where a narrator tells the story. So here you have John Carradine playing Dr John Rayburn, an anthropologist, who is relating his latest adventure in the Orient to two of his esteemed colleagues. A story about a group of friends holidaying when they come across "The Snowman".The major drawback is the commentary given by Carradine. Unfortunately, it's very badly written and flatly delivered. So even when we meet the hulking creature we are neither in awe or in fear since we've been lulled into boredom by the dialogue.To be honest, even the direction and acting given in the American sections of this film are below par. Whereas the opening sequence of the skiers on the mountainside is breathtaking and thought-provoking, even though it's in black and white and not been remastered that well. In fact, all of the original movie scenes are far superior to the added American sets. Not only in filming, which has some really nice shots, both iconic and scenic, but also in the acting. Even though they've diluted the sound the expressions on the actors and actresses faces say's it all.And for those reasons, I would recommend trying to find a dubbed or subbed version of the original instead of watching this as it looks more entertaining... and so much better.

Certainly, the original Japanese filming is masterful, and the conversations between the three Americans could have been less stilted, but the cut-up is fine and the more the story unfolds the more you realize that the narration actually works very well. To enjoy this movie, just try not to be offended on behalf of legendary filmmakers and enjoy a good, atmospheric story told in an interesting way.

Half Human (1957) ** (out of 4) Scientist John Carradine tells the story of how an abominable snowman was killed in Japan. As was the case with Godzilla, the producer's of this film bought the rights to the Japanese film Ju jin Yuki Otoko (1955), cut out around an hour and then added some twenty minutes worth of footage dealing with Carradine. This is certainly a cut and paste hack job but sadly Toho pulled the original film so it's nearly impossible to see outside of this movie. The American footage is all rather silly but it's always fun seeing Carradine and he has a good voice for narration. The Japanese segment of the film makes me really want to see the original movie because there's some nice, intense moments including the first encounter with the Yeti. I've seen countless films on the Yeti but the costumes here are the greatest I've ever seen. The monster actually looks real, which makes this entertaining enough.

It is a very unfortunate thing that Toho has decided to pull _Jû jin yuki otoko_ from its catalog based on Ainu lobbyists. Had Akira Ifukube scored the film, rather than Masaru Sato, he might have said something against it because he lived among the Ainu and knew the culture presented in this film bears little resemblance to the Ainu.Instead, we are left with this badly edited mess because an American producer got his hands on it, and inserted scenes with American actors that give away the story before we can actually be shown it. Ostensibly this footage was shot to increase Americans' interest in the Japanese production. Instead it brings the action screeching to a halt and we are given glimpses of what is obviously a much better film, with one of the most convincing yet-teh costumes of all time. The older one has a very lifelike face that is showing signs of balding.Because of Toho's quarantine on the original film, one has to sit through a lot of drek to have any film at all, since the 98 minute film runs 63 minutes in this version, even after all the boring footage was added. The sound quality is poor as well, and all (or most) of Masaru Sato's score as been replaced with library music. It's too short to fast-forward through all the nonsense and too dull to sit through it.The only redeeming element of the film are the exquisite Japanese scenes that we hear John Carradine talking over. This film is utterly ruined, thereby demonstrating Gresham's law. The good version is unavailable, and only the bad version can be seen.