Gobs and Gangsters: The H-Man (1958)
An Amorphous Monsters Month Feature
Original poster art for The H-Man
Our latest installment of Amorphous Monsters Month takes us to Japan, home to Toho Studios whose science fiction films have been delighting monster kids for more than half a century. Watching Toho’s Daikaiju Eiga (giant monster movies)/Tokusatsu (live action, special effects-driven films) formed some of my most beloved core childhood memories, with my affection for these cinematic gems extended into adulthood. While I would not presume to speak for all monster kids, I think it is fair to say that more than a few continue watch and celebrate these wonderful movies. Today’s feature, Toho’s The H-Man, is no exception.
The wrong kind of attention
Chikako Arai (Yumi Shirakawa) is a singer in a popular, if slightly lurid, Tokyo nightclub often frequented by gangsters and various other shady characters. She is having a rough time of it following the bizarre disappearance of her boyfriend Misaki and the subsequent revelation that he was involved in some illicit business.
The film opens on a stormy Tokyo night where Misaki and his accomplice are attempting to deliver contraband heroine to potential gangster customers. As Misaki is about to transport the stolen narcotics to his partner’s car he is attacked by someone or something at his feet, just out of view. Whatever it was, it caused him to grimace in pain then vanish before he and his partner can deliver the goods. The strangest thing about the event? While Misaki’s body is gone, his clothes and shoes are left behind in the very spot from which he disappeared.
The mysterious event generates intense interest from several of Misaki’s shady acquaintances, including a gleefully depraved gangster by the name of Uchia (Makoto Satô). In addition, an assortment of police detectives are keen to find Misaki to uncover possible crimes and mob connections. This squad is led by Inspector Tominaga (Akihiko Hirata), a by-the-book detective who demonstrates a major lack of imagination through the first half of the film. Supporting Tominaga is a cadre of investigators including Detective Taguchi (Yoshio Tsuchiya) and Detective Sakata (Yoshifumi Tajima). Poor hapless Chikako is harassed and threatened by the gangsters, while the police question, badger, and surveil her at every turn.
A strange, slippery case
While both gangsters and the police pursue Chikako for their own purposes, they are oblivious to or unconcerned with the confounding circumstances surrounding Misaki’s disappearance. It soon becomes clear that this strange case is not an isolated one as several of the gangsters have suffered the same fate—people are being dissolved by some kind of sentient, viscous, liquid-based life form. These amorphous monsters are composed of a green semi-translucent substance that can slither and slide its way through windows, under doors, and across ceilings, and need only come in contact with a person to reduce them to a pool of green slime; no, not THAT Green Slime (if you know, you know).
We are soon treated to one of the standout sequences in the film as a small group of fishermen discover a seemingly abandoned and foreboding looking ghost ship. As the crew begins to explore the eerie confines of the ship, it soon falls victim to the creatures, though this time we watch as the puddles of slime reconstitute as humanoid-like forms resembling green ghosts without facial features. It is a haunting sequence that certainly veers into horror territory.
Enter Assistant Professor of Biology Dr. Masada (Kenji Sahara) and his mentor Professor Maki (Koreya Senda), assistant professor of Biology at Jyoto University. They are studying the physical effects of radioactive ash fallout from hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific. The results of Masada’s research, including lab experiments using some very unfortunate frogs, suggest that these H-bomb tests have inadvertently birthed these monstrous creatures by altering their biochemical makeup. Maki dubs the humanoid form of these monsters now terrorizing Tokyo as the “H-Man.”
Doctors Masada and Maki attempt to convince Inspector Tominaga of these monsters’ evolution and the existential threat they pose to humanity. While Tominaga and his fellow detectives are very skeptical of Dr. Masada and his theories they eventually concede that the h-men are very real. In a nice little touch, the inspector apologizes to Masada for his dismissive and sometime snarky behavior towards him and the two decide to cooperate.
Fire down below
Now working together, the police, scientists, and the military must find a way to stop the h-men before they produce enough amorphous monsters to consume and convert all the citizens of Tokyo and beyond. The creatures are ultimately tracked to a series of sewers and tunnels running underneath Tokyo.
A plan is quickly devised to inundate the sewers and a connecting river with gasoline in the hopes of destroying the monsters. The military also deploys flamethrowers—that ever-popular weapon of choice of 1950s monster movies. See past Concentric Cinema features on Them! and Caltiki, the Immortal Monster as classic examples of this trend. To complicate matters, the slippery Uchia has managed to evade authorities as he pursues a heroin stash in those same sewers, holding a kidnapped Chikako as collateral.
How will this fiery conclusion pan out for our protagonists and amorphous monsters? Does Chikako have any chance of survival held at gunpoint and with slippery beasties lurking in the subterranean shadows?
My two cents
The H-Man is an atmospheric genre-straddling film that blends horror, sci-fi, and crime thriller elements. One also gets noir-ish vibes as the story is set largely within the seedy side of Tokyo night life, with semi-lurid nightclub scenes, shady criminals, hardboiled detectives, dark forbidding city streets, and an overall cynical tone. The film was directed by beloved director Ishirô Honda, who helmed many classics for Toho including Gojira (1954), Rodan (1956), Battle in Outer Space (1959), Mothra (1961), Matango (1963), Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster (1964), Atragon (1964), Monster Zero (1965), War of the Gargantuas, (1966), Destroy All Monsters (1968), and Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) among others. We will be talking about Honda many times over in future posts.
While it may not feature a massive, marauding monster (i.e. Gojira), one could argue that The H-Man comes close to matching the former film’s sobering, anti-nuclear tone. The specter of the hazardous fallout from nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific is a recurring theme in Toho’s sci-fi films of the period. Atomic age anxieties also loom large in 1950s science fiction cinema in the U.S. and beyond.
Fans of Toho’s classic science fiction films will recognize quite a few of familiar faces among The H-Man cast, which is stocked from their large cohort of reliable contract players including Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata, Yoshio Tsuchiya, and Yoshifumi Tajima. You will hear me reference these names many times over and with great affection in the future.
The practical effects, directed by special effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya (yeah you will be hearing that name many times in the future, as well) are gooey and glorious. The oozing gelatinous creatures are effectively weird and creepy slithering up walls, across ceilings, and through windows to envelop and absorb their victims. The final H-Man form, represented by green semi-translucent humanoid beings, is ghostly and downright spooky. We are also treated to that hallmark miniature work by Toho’s effects craftsman, including a city scape with a river running through it that becomes engulfed in fire at the climax of the film. Shots of flames kicking up on the surface of the river really pop!
The music for The H-Man was created by the prolific film composer Masaru Sato who scored many movies for legendary director Akira Kurosawa, including The Hidden Fortress (1958), Yojimbo (1961), and Red Beard (1965). He also scored quite a few Daikaiju Eiga/Tokusatsu films including some jazz-infused scores for Godzilla vs The Sea Monster—a.k.a. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)—and Son of Godzilla (1967).
The H-Man score is fine but not one of my favorites. It features an upbeat discordant theme that is in no way in sync with the film’s somber tone. However, I do appreciate a few touches including an effectively strange pinging type of musical cue that plays whenever the H-Man is present. As the film includes several nightclub scenes, the music also features its share of calypso and jazz. Lastly, I couldn’t help but notice that the score is at times very reminiscent of the score for The Quatermas Xperiment (1955), another blob adjacent sci-fi film released a few years earlier by Hammer Films in the U.K.
Released in the late 1950s, the H Man comes at the cusp of the 1960s and what is referred to as the “golden age of Toho” when the studio was hitting on all cylinders with imaginative practical effects, punchy storytelling, colorful characters, memorable music scores, and a series of soon-to-be iconic rubber-suited monsters that would go on to thrill generations of monster kids.
Several years back I attended a double feature screening of The H-Man and Mothra at NYC’s Film Forum as part of a homage to Ishirô Honda. The program was introduced by writer and film historian Steve Ryfle, author of Ishirô Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa. If you have an opportunity to hear Steve speak, I highly recommend it; he has a vast wealth of knowledge in Japanese cinema, which he shares in a very accessible, down-to-earth way.
If you are casual or even avid fan of the Godzilla films but haven’t gotten around to watching Toho’s other science fiction productions like The H-Man, I would encourage you to check them out.
Did you know?
The great monster suit actor Haruo Nakajima had two small parts in The H-Man, one as a dissolving sailor and another as one of the h-men.
The effect of humans being dissolved by the H-Man was captured by deflating life-sized inflatable human figures, filming them in fast-motion, and then running the film at normal speed.
Actor Kenji Sahara appeared in more Godzilla films than any other actor, not to mention many other Toho sci-fi films sans Godzilla.
Both the H-Man and Them! feature a climactic showdown in the tunnels and sewer drains of a major city.
How did I watch?
DVD Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection
Cast (abridged)
Akihiko Hirata – Inspector Tominaga
Yumi Shirakawa –Chikako Arai
Kenji Sahara – Dr. Masada
Makoto Satô – Uchia (gangster)
Yoshio Tsuchiya – Detective Taguchi
Eitarô Ozawa – Police Sgt. Miyashita
Yoshifumi Tajima – Detective Takata
Koreya Senda – Dr. Maki
Crew (abridged)
Director – Ishirô Honda
Producer – Tomoyuki Tanaka
Screenwriter – Takeshi Kimura
Art Director – Takeo Kita
Composer – Masaru Sato
Cinematographer – Hajime Koizumi
Special Effects Director – Eiji Tsuburaya
Production Company: Toho Company
Running Time: 1h 19m
Original poster art
Recommendations based on The H Man
Caltiki, The Immortal Monster (1959)
Matango (1963)
The Green Slime (1968)
Supplements-
Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa (Authors - Steve Ryfle & Ed Godziszewski)
