L'effrayant Docteur Hijikata

It's funny that Ishii says he was not familiar with the Moreau storyline because this flick looks so much like a crazy adaptation for it. Not an intense feature but one that will serve you very memorable freaky and somewhat psychedelic moments that, out of the wild context, will remind you of all the Japanese contemporary horror everyone yells for (think Ring, Dark Water as much as video games like Siren and Project Zero...). Very poorly written plot, but who cares when they're served such crazy visions and a final I would place in my top 10 of mindblowing movie endings - but that's just me... That's a very hard to see movie, and well worth seeing if you get the chance.

Horrors of Malformed Men is a quite experimental movie by veteran director Ishii Teruo that has been inspired by the tales of famous mystery and horror author Edogawa Rampo who had himself been inspired by Western authors such as Edgar Allan Poe. This experimental movie at the pulse of its time combines several of these tales. The main issue is that this fusion isn't always fluid and leads to two completely contrasting parts.

The first half of the movie is a murder mystery tale. A medical student without any recollection of his past is trapped in a sinister asylum. He manages to escape when one of the guards attempts to murder him. The fugitive discovers the photograph of a recently deceased man from a prosperous family who looks exactly like him. The medical student decides to take the dead man's identity to find out the truth about his origins and escape from the police.

The second half of the movie is a supernatural horror tale. The medical student travels to the island of a mad scientist who transforms perfectly normal humans into hideous freaks to create a better society. He gets captured, manipulated and threatened by the scientist and attempts to escape the island and prevent the scientist's megalomanic plans.

It's probably a matter of prefence whether you prefer the first or the second half of the movie but they are so different from each other that few people will equally appreciate both parts. The first half is atmospheric, mysterious and surprising as it convinces with clever storytelling and intriguing characters. It recalls numerous European murder mystery films as especially the German Edgar Wallace films and the Italian giallo genre come to mind. The second half is much more brutal, experimental and frantic and ventures into experimental cinematography with hectic camera work, numerous flashbacks and colourful locations. It's a mixture of Japan's very own pink film genre of the sixties and American pre-war science-fiction and horror cinema somewhere between King Kong and Island of Lost Souls.

In the end, Horrors of Malformed Men is certainly daring, entertaining and unconventional. However, the script is all over the place and the conclusion might even be too unconventional for most open-minded cineasts. Ishii Teruo should have created two different movies here instead of putting together two ideas that don't gel.

Director Teruo Ishii's HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN opens in a mental institution in 1925, where Hitomi (Teruo Yoshida) tries to remember the events that landed him there. This leads him on a bizarre journey of discovery, including his having to impersonate a dead man. There are some intriguing and humorous scenes along the way, until the title comes into play.

Admittedly, this is a weird movie. The first half is straightforward enough, though it has its odd moments. However, once we're taken to the island of Hitomi's father, the real strangeness begins. Describing it just wouldn't do it justice. It simply must be witnessed. Personally, the closest I can get is that it's sort of what you would have if THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU had been directed by Jodorowsky. If you enjoy mad science, female nudity, mutants, and / or unsavory situations, then you'll probably love this.

Things about this movie you won't soon forget:

#1- The crab scene!

#2- The secret chair!

#3- That damned lullaby!

#4- The fireworks display at the end!

A perverse, twisted nightmare that everyone should see at least once...

Well, where to begin? This notorious Japanese horror has finally surfaced and our first concern is what was so terrible that kept it banned for so long? Made just over 20 years after the atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima, some of this film looks as if some of the short-lived survivors might have made it to the set. Both the way the deformity issue is enthused over here and the clear connection with the bomb attack, make this a true horror. We begin with vivid scenes inside a mental institution but then the film settles down into a creepy mystery before cracking open about half an hour in, whence we find ourselves in the Mexican, Jodorowsky territory, and then worse. This film is not particularly well written and is uneven and occasionally rather silly but nevertheless this is still a work of some considerable power. A one off and a must see for those not easily shocked.

If you can stick this movie out till the end, you'll get a very rewarding movie. It's not the easiest movie to watch and it didn't seemed at first to me that this movie was going to be much good early one but it's definitely a movie that gets better in its second halve, when there is more story and the movie its visuals become just great to watch.

It's a quite surrealistic Japanese movie, that relies heavily on its visuals. There are some amazing visuals throughout the movie, with also the thanks of the phenomenal camera-work. It's an artistic movie above all things, so beware of what to expect.

Of course there is also a story but this one is quite hard to follow at times. It isn't until the movie reaches its halve way point that it becomes more or less more clear in which direction the story is going. The movie soon becomes a sort of a surrealistic Japanese version of the Island of Dr. Moreau. I think those that are familiar with this story, or any of the other movie versions of the story will be more able to understand and appreciate this movie.

For a Japanese movie it also features quite some good acting. It's an obviously well cast movie, in which the actors don't act in a very theatrical way, like you might expect from a Japanese movie. Especially surprising also since this movie got made back in 1969.

After finishing watching this movie I simply must say that I overall enjoyed it and found it to be an ultimately rewarding movie to watch, though it's obvious that this is not really a movie for just everyone.

8/10

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