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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Old Nightmares, November 14, 2002
This review is from: The H-Man [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Back in the mid 60's in Knoxville, Tennessee, the first cinemascope theater opened. To fill the seats on Saturday mornings the owners struck a deal with Shoney's Big Boy; bring the toothpick from a Big Boy Burger and ten cents, and you'll see a Three Stooges movie, two episodes from the 40's Batman serial, and a feature film. On one such visit, at age seven, I viewed The H Man for the first time. For three years I couldn't fall asleep at night because I kept imagining the glistening, icy-blue goo creeping up the corners of my bedroom wall and across the ceiling, gathering above my bed, preparing to drip down, disolving me into a mass of jelly. Needless to say, I feel that this film is an atmospheric gem. The fact that the writers don't depend solely on special effects and that there is a parallel story line involving Tokyo's criminal underground (and literally the Tokyo sewar system) sinks the viewer even more deeply into its slimy atmosphere. We can only hope that someday the H Man shows up on DVD.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Women & the Hydrogen man, March 13, 2000
This review is from: The H-Man [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This movie is a well recommended "CLASSIC", from Japan combining 2 destinct styles of film:'the classic monster movie & tough crime drama(Film Noir)'. From the opening scene where the doomed thug(Misaki), fresh from breaking into a postal repository, encountering the monster and being dissolved for his trouble, we are made aware that something quite extrodinary has happened(all that are left is his clothing, and other personal items, the film becomes at first a police mystery, We are introduced to Police Inspector Tominaga as he examines Misaki's personal effects. Of course, this is merely the warm up for what is to come: I.E. standard police fare of checking known criminal associates, some of whom will also end up victims of the H-Man. We are then introduced to the true hero of the film: Dr. Misada. Misada is a close personal friend of Insp. Tominaga, and gives us the solution to Misaki's disappearance, Which is of course viewed with disbelief and skeptisism in the face of hard evidence. Futhermore, a glimpse of a Tokyo newspaper shows more strange disappearances are being reported. A sense of uneasiness begins to build: Chikako Arare(Misaki's Girlfriend) is assaulted in her apartment by another thug looking for Misaki, and who promtly pays for that indiscretion with his life, being attacked and dissolved, after climbing down from Ms Arare's balcony. The shocked look, of the detective keeping Ms. Arare under surveillance is one for the books, as he discovers yet another set of empty clothing in the street below. By this time the numerous disappearances are becoming too much for the police to ignore. Dr. Misada encourages Insp. Tominaga to talk with 2 men who are dying of radiation poisoning in the hospital that he works at. They relate in one of most frightning scenes, of how their ship encountered a strange derelic 'Ghost' ship, How they boarded the deserted ship, finding no signs of life, How they searched the ship finally coming to the captains quarters and discovering the ships log, and how they barely escaped with their lives as the H-Man attacked and dissolved the comrades. This too is viewed with disbelief until a deadly encounter at a bar/ganster hangout with the H-Man changes Tominaga's skeptisim to belief. The police and scientist, then band together to destroy the menace. Production values were kept high, and the eye popping dissolving scenes which frightened me as a child and viewed today are still quite powerful. Casting for all roles in the film are a cut above. And above all is Inoshiro Honda's directing. His skillful use lighting, special effects and backround music, coupled with a good script, and the skillful intercutting of both crime elements and monsterous encounters make this film a highly recommended for late night scarefest's.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Japanese Blob was Pretty Cool in 1959, September 12, 2000
This review is from: The H-Man [VHS] (VHS Tape)
When this movie was first released, during the heyday of the Japanese monster movie dubbed imports, I wasn't allowed to go and see it, but I was in the theater for some really cool previews of the Eastman-Color green blob that could slip through air ducts and then reconstitute into the form of a transparent "man." The best part was the way he dissolved people down to a puddle, leaving their hair and clothes intact. In fact, in the theater lobby in our town there was a display of an "H-Man victim" -- which was a toupee lying on a pile of clothes atop an empty pair of shoes. How neat for a kid my age! Not only that, the first 50 or so attendees at the box office were actually given an H-Man toy -- I never did find out whether that was a glob of Silly Putty or some kind of green "action figure." Anyway, I had to wait until I found it on video many, many years later to see whole thing through. And it is very much as described by the other reviewers -- a nice little movie with a better plot than some other Japanese imports, about a crime wave of dissolved people perpetrated by "things unknown" that leave a mess of "EC-inspired" shoes, clothes and hair. Along with RODAN, THE MYSTERIANS and BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE, this is among the better imports of its day.
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