Toho Kingdom

Didn't see a thread on this. Still haven't got round to watching it, but it looks entertaining and quite creepy.

It's one of my favorite Toho Showa-era films. It is indeed a little bit creepy; maybe eerie is a better word.

Love this movie!! It's a fun twist on the whole crime thrillers genre, and the atmosphere and characters are just great. One of Honda's most enjoyable films.

I recently got this as part of Sony's "Icons of Sci-Fi - Toho" three-pack, and thought it was the best of the bunch.

I'm convinced a young David Lynch must have seen this film, because it's about one scene-last-uncomfortably-longer-than-it-should away from hitting all his later signatures. It's not fully realized, but there's that element of nightmare surrealism along with the B-movie tropes that helps make this a lot more enjoyable than it should be. One of my favorite showa-era Honda films, easily.

Is The Human Vapor really better? Is it available on any Region 1 releases? I'd love to see it.

Godzilla 1995 wrote:Overall a solid film, and the H-Man is a unique and interesting villian. The melting scenes didn't look too bad, which is a plus. The characters are interesting enough, but the problem with the film is the final act, when the city is being evacuated. It just becomes a little more boring, and even the characters fall a little flat, especially our lead female role(Seriously? Just standing there and freaking out? Come on!).

Yeah, I'll have to agree with this. The ending feels like a major step down from the rest of the film, but I guess that's what I meant by "not fully realized."

It's a late-'50s Toho sci-fi film. Even if the first three-fourths have an excellent atmosphere, it's hard to expect the ending to be anything other than abrupt and cliched.

Having watched this recently, I do think it's a fairly effective film and an interesting example of genre-mixing.

I did have a bit of a hard time figuring out who was who in terms of the drug deal. So yes, Chikako's boyfriend stole the drugs. Gotcha. So who exactly was Uchida? I'm assuming he was the bf's partner, right? So the fellow who snuck into Chikako's apartment and held a gun up to her before fleeing and melting...was he the guy they stole from? And who exactly was the dead guy at Melted Yakuza #2's home?

The film spent so much energy trying to juggle both subplots during the second half that I found myself getting lost.

Nonetheless, whenever it focused on the H-Man itself, it was especially eerie and effective. The special FX were good, with only one real unconvincing shot (the dancer getting covered with the green goo).

For those of you who think that Toho sci-fi/horror films need more female skin, then this is the film for you.

Just watched this morning. What a great film. This and the Mysterians may very well have made their way to the my top favorite movies. It's a fun movie. H-men are creepy, particularly when they are on the deck of the boat. Very erie scene. My only complaint is the intro music. Sounds more like the opening to a circus performance then a horror flick.

H-Man is a solid scifi movie because the liquid monster works well with the scale of the story being told. It's harder to imagine a daikaiju or alien invasion movie being able to mesh with the gangster/police drama elements. Here there's something smaller and less dangerous on the loose, but still terrifying and beyond anything the characters are prepared to confront.

Ivo-goji wrote:H-Man is a solid scifi movie because the liquid monster works well with the scale of the story being told. It's harder to imagine a daikaiju or alien invasion movie being able to mesh with the gangster/police drama elements. Here there's something smaller and less dangerous on the loose, but still terrifying and beyond anything the characters are prepared to confront.

Sounds like you just described Dogora. I've never seen it, I want to though. I just know from the synopsis I read on it that it has gangsters and a giant space ameoba thing.

^I haven't seen Dogora but I'd like to, especially if the two film have stuff in common.

I love The H-Man, it's easily one of my absolute favorite Horror films. ^_^ It's like The Blob crossed with a Gangster film, I just love the juxtaposition and how well the two mesh together.

It's a great example of sci fi/horror. The boat scene is very creepy, and the crime elements give the sci fi plot a good stage to build on. It's a favorite Toho movie of mine.

As for Dogora, it's not as good as The H-Man in regards to gangster/kaiju films. I still recommend seeing it, but the liquid monsters are more entertaining.

I saw this yesterday, it's a pretty good film. The only problems it has is the uninteresting car chase and the scene where one of the H-men kills a bikini-clad woman and it just freeze frames on her as the effect slowly consumes her. Bit of an odd moment. It's nowhere near as engaging as The Human Vapor when it comes to the characters and the titular villain's appearances, but it's totally worth watching anyways. The musical scenes in the nightclub had some really nice blocking, and Ishiro Honda always manages to create the right moody, and at times unsettling, atmosphere. The climax at the end featuring three characters in the sewers as the gas is lit was pretty well done. Now that I brought up The Human Vapor, does anybody know how the budgets between these movies compare? The set pieces in The H-Man felt far more elaborate and technically high end, especially when comparing their climaxes.