Gasu ningen dai 1 gô

Cashing in on the influx of western sci-fi movies Toho created The Human Vapour and it's a thoroughly mixed bag.

It tells the story of a man who can turn into vapour and proceeds to use his ability to rob banks.

As you can imagine it all looks very tacky as everything did back then, complete with the same sound effects you'll have heard a thousand times from movies like this.

The core story is fairly unique and the film does have quite the heart. Sadly from an entertainment standpoint it's rather underwhelming and that's a shame.

Think of this as a sci-fi verison of the H-Man (1958) in many regards, but inferior and more than little goofy.

It manages to meet the quality of the films it mimmicks, but alas that really isn't saying much.

The Good:

Plot isn't terrible

Quite a good finale

The Bad:

Taglines are ridiculous

Why keep calling him gasman when he's not gas?

Lifeless in places

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Abbreviated to Vape Man, I'm shocked this hasn't been remade

I thought this was fairly good, but not great. It mixed science-fiction in with some other genres which was cool (I would have expected this to be a sci-fi/horror kind of movie, based on Ishiro Honda being the director, but it definitely wasn't).

It looks and sounds pretty good, certainly to the point where labelling it a B-grade movie wouldn't feel right. I was only really let down by the writing - the ideas and the premise are interesting, but the film didn't have a great flow to it for me, and so narratively wasn't particularly satisfying.

But still, that didn't make it a bad watch, and so a decent time was had for the 92 minutes that The Human Vapor went for.

The police are in pursuit of a man who can change into gas and who is using that ability to rob banks so that he can pay for a recital by a dancer with whom he is in love. The film is an imaginative thriller from Toho, directed by Ishiro Honda and with effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The third act, in which the police set a trap for 'the gas man', seems a bit weak - surely the titular character would have suspected a trap when he is the only person at the recital; however, I was watching a subtitled version and might have missed something (perhaps 'the gas man's' behaviour was in keeping with his obsession with the dancer). The special effects are simple but effective, and overall, the film is an entertaining example of Toho's early 1960's non-Kaiju tokusatsu (although not as good as 1958's "The H-man").

The Human Vapour shows that there was a lot more to 60s Japanese science fiction movies than Godzilla and Mothra. While the version I watched was badly dubbed and transferred to video, it still stood out as superior b-grade sci-fi. The FX may be quite primitive but the concept was handled well, the acting more than adequate, and the central relationship between the Vapour and the Kabuki dancer was suprisingly touching. Try and track this one down if you're looking for something different.

Ishiro Honda is best known for his Kaiju films, which is rather a shame because he made many other fine and creative movies. This scifi/horror mix a good example of one of his more intimate, darker and multilayered creations and is to be recommended to old-school fans of these genres.

The scifi/monster elements in this film are a variation on H G Wells' Invisible Man, although our protagonist/villain is more complicated and more tragic than Wells'. The protagonist in this film uses his superhuman powers to rob banks and finance the come-back of a Noh dancer who is recovering after a recent stay in a sanitarium, and there are a number of scenes with her dancing and wearing traditional garb...these scenes are in contrast to the eponymous protagonist, who wears a business suit and participates the sordid business of crime. Yet our protagonist loves the dancer and the dancer appears to at least partially reciprocate.

In the hands of a lessor director, this material could become boring and maudlin, yet this film is moody, suspenseful, and there is a haunting sense of impending tragedy that is maintained throughout. Certainly our protagonist has become unhinged, and there are hints that the Noh dancer may also have been at the sanitarium for mental health problems. So then, this film presents us with mix of madness, art and science fiction that is interesting on several levels...not the least of which is the love story between a fragile artist and a homicidal lunatic.

In a strange way, this film has many of the same themes as the 2010 pseudo art house flick, 'Black Swann,' yet is more deft and has more depth.

The FX, while clearly belonging to the world of 1960, are creative and tell the story, and contribute to the coherent mood of this film. The American version has been edited badly, but still conveys the major meanings. I recommend this to fans of old-school horror and scifi, and to those studying the work of Ishiro Honda.