The Human Vapor
| The Human Vapor | |
|---|---|
 Human Vapor (1960) |
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| Directed by | Ishirō Honda |
| Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
| Written by | Takeshi Kimura |
| Starring | Tatsuya Mihashi Kaoru Yachigusa Yoshio Tsuchiya Keiko Sata Hisaya Ito Yoshifumi Tajima |
| Music by | Kunio Miyauchi (Japanese) |
| Cinematography | Hajime Koizumi |
| Editing by | Kazuji Taira |
| Distributed by | Toho |
| Release date(s) |  December 11, 1960 May 20, 1964 |
| Running time | 92 min. 81 min. (USA) |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese English |
The Human Vapor, known in Japan as Gas Person No. 1 (ガス人間第一号 Gasu Ningen dai Ichigo), is a tokusatsu film produced and released by Toho Studios in 1960. The film was made by Toho's legendary Godzilla directing/special effects/producing team of Ishirō Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, and Tomoyuki Tanaka. Along with Secret of the Telegian and The H-Man, it is often part of Toho's "mutant" trilogy.
A sequel to this film was planned called Frankenstein vs. the Human Vapor in which the Human Vapor survives the climax and goes to find a doctor who brought Frankenstein's monster to back to life, in hopes of finding a way to bring back his girlfriend who didn't survive the climax leading to battle between the two. This was dropped in favor of Frankenstein vs. Baragon (the 1957 film Tomei-Ningen To Hae-Otoko or Invisible Man vs. Fly Man is available in North America under the title Vapor Man meets the Human Fly but it is not related).
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[edit] Synopsis
The film tells the story of Mizuno (Yoshio Tsuchiya), a librarian at a sanatorium (implicitly for cancer), who has been given the ability to become vapor after a scientist does an experiment on him. Mizuno uses this power to engage in criminal activities, robbing banks to give the money to his dancer girlfriend (Kaoru Yachigusa). Kenji Okamoto (Tatsuya Mihashi) is the police inspector after them. The film was recut by Brenco Pictures in 1964, changing the premise from mystery to being told from Mizuno's point of view. Even though this version is dubbed, Tsuchiya has stated that he prefers this cut of the film, which he considers to feature his finest performance.[1]
[edit] Cast
- Kenji Okamoto, Assistant Inspector - Tatsuya Mihashi
- Fujichiyo Kasuga, Master of Japanese dance Nichibu - Kaoru Yachigusa
- Mizuno, Gasu ningen - Yoshio Tsuchiya
- Kyoko Kouno, woman journalist - Keiko Sada
- Dr. Tamiya - Hisaya Ito
- Tabata, Inspector - Yoshifumi Tajima
- Inao, Detective - Yoshio Kosugi
- Dr. Sano - Fuyuki Murakami
- Old Tsuzumi player - Bokuzen Hidari
- Metropolitan Police Department executive officer A - Takamaru Sasaki
- Metropolitan Police Department executive officer B - Keisuke Yamada
- Metropolitan Police Department executive officer C - Akio Kusama
- Hayama - Minosuke Yamada
- Ikeda - Tatsuo Matsumura
- Bank manager - Youyou Miyata
- Fujita, Detective - Ko Mishima
- Hotta, Detective - Yukihiko Gondo
- Osaki, Detective - Kamayuki Tsubono
- Kawasaki, journalist - Kozo Nomura
- Nishiyama - Ren Yamamoto
- Mondayu - Somemasu Matsumoto
- Aizawa, policeman - Yasuhisa Tsutsumi
- Nakaya, policeman - Rinsaku Ogata
- Journalist - Masaaki Tachibana
- Prison guard of a detention center A - Keiji Sakakida
- Prison guard of a detention center B - Shoichi Hirose
- Tobe - Tetsu Nakamura
- The man who eats bread in a library - Akira Yamada
- Satoyo (Mondayu's wife) - Toki Shiozawa
- Kajimoto - Jiro Kumagai
- Kamata, Discernment of the police - Mitsuo Matsumoto
- Spectator of a theater A - Yutaka Oka
- Spectator of a theater B - Koichi Sato
- Spectator of a theater C - Tadahiko Kuroda
[edit] Alternate versions
James Hong provided the voice of the Human Vapor in the dubbed American version. The English-dubbed version was released theatrically in 1964 by Brenco Productions. This version is extensively re-edited. The American distributors created a constant narrative from the title character. The music and sound effects are also toyed with. Despite all these changes, star Yoshio Tsuchiya has stated that this is his preferred version of the film. The American version was released on home video several times throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. MGM, the current rights holder, however, has yet to release the film on DVD.
[edit] References
- ^ Guy Marriner Tucker. Age of the Gods
[edit] External links
- The Human Vapor at the Internet Movie Database
- Scheib, Richard. THE HUMAN VAPOR (Gas Ningen Daiichigo)
- "ガス人間第一号 (Gasu ningen dai ichigo)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1960/cj005700.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
