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The H-Man

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The H-Man
File:The H-Man poster.jpg
Japanese movie poster for The H-Man (1958)
Directed byIshirō Honda
Written byTakeshi Kimura
Hideo Unagami (story)
Produced byTomoyuki Tanaka
StarringYumi Shirakawa
Kenji Sahara
Akihiko Hirata
Koreya Senda
Makoto Sato
Yoshifumi Tajima
Eitaro Ozawa
Yoshio Tsuchiya
CinematographyHajime Koizumi
Edited byKazuji Taira
Music byMasaru Satō
Distributed byToho
United States Columbia Pictures
Release dates
Japan June 24, 1958
United States May 28, 1959
Running time
87 min.
79 min. (USA)
LanguagesJapanese
English

The H-Man, known in Japan as Bijo to Ekitainingen (美女と液体人間, lit. "Beauty and Liquid Men"), is a tokusatsu film produced and released by Toho Studios in 1958. The film was made by Toho's legendary Godzilla directing/special effects/producing team of Ishirō Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, and Tomoyuki Tanaka, and is considered part of Toho's "mutant trilogy," along with The Human Vapor and Secret of the Telegian.

This, with films like The Human Vapor, and Matango, was one of Honda and Tsuburaya's forays into science fiction without kaiju or giant monsters. Instead, the story focuses on mobsters, nightclub singers, and radioactive, liquid creatures that live in Tokyo's sewers.

Akira Ifukube, the usual composer for the Toho tokusatsu films, did not score this movie. Rather, the more jazz-influenced Masaru Satō was assigned the job. As much of the film takes place in and around a nightclub, Satō's music is a good fit for the film.

U.S. release

File:H-Man US.jpg
Lobby card to the 1959 US release of The H-Man

The film was released by Columbia Pictures in the United States in 1959. A New York Herald Tribune film critic at the time called it, "A good-natured poke at atom-bomb tests... The picture is plainly making a case against the use of nuclear bombs. At the same time, there is a great deal of lively entertainment in the story involving police, dope smugglers, scientists and some very pretty Japanese girls."

Cast

File:The H-Man poster 2.jpg
Japanese movie poster for The H-Man (1958)

DVD release

Columbia TriStar (Sony)

  • Released: August 18, 2009
  • Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic (2.35:1) Widescreen
  • Special features: Audio commentary by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski for Mothra and Battle in Outer Space
  • Sound: Japanese, English
  • Region 1
  • Note: Contains both original Japanese and English versions of the film; Only available as a triple feature with Battle in Outer Space and Mothra.

References

  • Parish, James Robert and Michael R. Pitts (1977). The Great Science Fiction Pictures. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-1029-8.
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