Japan Release: 1958
Running Time: 86 minutes

H-Man

美女と液体人間
[Bijo to Ekitainingen]

In the outskirts of Tokyo, a drug smuggler named Misaki vanishes, leaving only his clothes behind. The police go to his apartment to investigate. There they find his girlfriend, Arai Chikako, who says he's been missing for five days. Arai is then placed in the cross-hairs, both by the police looking to extract information from her and the other drug dealers from the Haneda gang. The gang is worried she'll reveal Misaki's location, jeopardizing their operation. They go as far as sending an operative to assault and threaten Arai, relating the risk. However, the gang enforcer also vanishes, leaving only his clothes behind. This leads to the involvement of a local lab on radiation, believing the disappearances are the result of the men dissolving...

Live ActionScience Fiction

Titles

H-Man

The H-Man
US Distributor: Columbia Pictures (1959) / Time: 79 minutes

Beauty and the Liquid People
[Literal Translation]

Monsters

Staff

Cast

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CD Soundtracks

Background and Trivia

• Columbia Pictures registered the film with the US copyright office on June 6th, 1959 under registration number LP0000014162. Oddly, the movie was registered with the title "H Man", with no hyphen or "The" as is used for the American title under Columbia Pictures. On February 23rd, 1983, they renewed the copyright once more under the name "H Man". On December 20th, 2002, Toho finally registered the movie with the US copyright office. Oddly, the titles they used were the US one, "The H-Man", and the Romaji title, "Bijo to Ekitainingen". The actual international title, though, was stated as just "H-Man" back in 1994 for the book Distributed by Toho Special Effects Movies 1954-1999 (ISBN: T1065429631982).
• The electric sounding "ping" noises heard in Masaru Sato's soundtrack are actually achieved from plucking piano strings and then doubling that sound with woodwinds. Noted in Age of the Gods (self-published).
• The movie's Japanese title, "Beauty and the Liquid People", is an intentional play on the title "Beauty and the Beast". Confirmed in Age of the Gods (self-published).
• Actress Yumi Shirakawa earned top billing for her work on the film, ahead of her male costars.

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