The Human Vapor (1960)

The police are in pursuit of a man who can change into gas and who is using that ability to rob banks so that he can pay for a recital by a dancer with whom he is in love. The film is an imaginative thriller from Toho, directed by Ishiro Honda and with effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The third act, in which the police set a trap for 'the gas man', seems a bit weak - surely the titular character would have suspected a trap when he is the only person at the recital; however, I was watching a subtitled version and might have missed something (perhaps 'the gas man's' behaviour was in keeping with his obsession with the dancer). The special effects are simple but effective, and overall, the film is an entertaining example of Toho's early 1960's non-Kaiju tokusatsu (although not as good as 1958's "The H-man").

I only recently saw the unedited, widescreen and subtitled version of this truly almost classic adult science fiction film: a near classic in it's original version, not the cut U.S. version. It's really not for children as there is much time spent on the characters and their relationships, a rarity in sci-fi films from that era.A librarian Name Mijuno is approached by a Dr. Sano to take part in a scientific test, unaware that the prior subject died. He acquires the power to change from physical form to vapor and back again, kills Dr. Sano and embarks on a series of seemingly impossible bank robberies and leaving a trail of bodies. Mijuno is in love with Fujichiya, a classical Japanese Kabuki dancer. She is recovering from either a break down of some sort or an injury or illness. We never find out exactly what it was, and she in training hoping for a comeback. The money Mijuno is stealing is for her comeback. There is a police detective and a determined woman reporter who eventually tie Mijuno and Fujichiya together. Fujichiya can't believe that Mijuno is responsible for the crimes as he for years has treated her with nothing but kindness and love. The police plan to trap the Human Vapor at her comeback performance. This movie is set apart from others by the doomed tragic love between Mijuno and Fujiciya, great acting, a more mature plot and some great special effects. The ending, somewhat unexpected in the way it unfolds, should move anyone to tears. This is a sci-fi film you can show to your date or wife or significant other.

**SPOILERS** Washing out, due to contracting tuberculosis, as a top test pilot for the Japanese Air Force Mizuno suffered a nervous breakdown that landed him into a Tokyo sanitarium. It was at the sanitarium that Mizuno met and fell in love with fellow inmate the famous and equally destroyed,mentally, Fujichiyo who at one time was Japans greatest dancer.Declared by the sanitarium doctors as being fully recovered and Let out in the outside world Mizuno ends up working as a librarian. In his work in the library Mizuno is approached by a Dr. Sano who's been a great fan of his when he was flying planes for the air force. Dr.Sano telling Mizuno that he can get him back into shape to fly planes has Mizuno agree to him being experimented on by the doc. Dr. Sano ends up putting Mizuno into this state of suspended animation for 10 days. when he comes out of it he's told by a scared and nervous Dr.Sano, who seemed surprised that he survived that it, the experiment was a total failure. Finding out from Dr. Sano that there has been other experiments by him, where all those involved died, and with him now being the only survivor an outrage Mizuno suddenly turns into a cloud of gas and attacks Dr. Sano engulfing and suffocating him to death.Mizuno realizing that he has achieved, due to the late Dr. Sano's experiments, super powers goes on a crime spree vaporizing into a fine mist and then robbing Toyko banks and killing a number of bank employees and police by asphyxiating them. Mizuno then makes his escape by fading away into thin air. Mizuno's, who's later dubbed by the police and newspapers as the Vapor Man, crimes are not for his own greed and misguided revenge against the world but to get enough money to have his love dancer Fujichiyo be able to get back to dancing by having a public recital of her talents. Mizuno wants Fujichiyo to become Japans premier dancer and the crazed Mizumo doesn't care how many banks he'll rob and people kill, with his new found powers, in order to do it.A really strange and at the same time touching love story, if you can excuse or overlook the bank robberies and killings involved, of a man ,Mizuno, gone insane with love for the woman ,Fujichiyo, he loves. Who's a sweet caring and conscientious person not having the heart to betray and turn him in to the police. For the crimes that he committed for her which she had no knowledge of.Arrested and thrown in jail Fujichiyo refuses to tell the police who her lover, who's committing all these vapor crimes, is. It's Mizuro himself who comes forward to tell the shocked public that he's the notorious Vapor Man and vaporizes himself going on to both rob a bank and kill a bank guard to prove it.The police are helpless to stop the Vapor Man and finally have to release Fujichiyo. That leads to her, and the Vapor Man, renting out a Tokyo theater to give her dance recital like the Vapor Man always demanded. At the recital a bunch of drunken yahoos crash the place thinking that it's some kind of strip show. This has the attending Mizuno, whom these jerks don't realize, the Vapor Man tell them to get the hell out of the theater and get their money back at ticket counter. This makes the theater crashers even more rowdy and in return Mizuno vaporizes attacking them and driving the entire bunch out in panic.The Tokyo police in a last desperate move, when the theater is emptied out with only Mizuno and Fujichiyo being in it, pump gas into the place in oder to knock out the Vapor Man and take him captive. Fujichiyo realizing what's happening and wanting to stop once and for all the death and destruction of her lover Mizuno pulls out a lighter. As she and Mizuno embrace, after her very successful dance number, Fujichiyo flicks her bic and blows the entire theater up killing herself in the process. Mizuno unfortunately survives and now has to live the rest of his life, which is forever, with the guilt of not only the many people he killed and victimized as the Vapor Man. He also has to live with the fact that he drove his one and only love Fujichiyo to kill herself because of the crimes that he committed for her.

"At first I could not understand the terror in Dr Sano's eyes. Then I knew: I had been transformed into something terrifying. Something repellant...."Maybe not necessarily repellant, but the sight of someone's body vaporizing till he becomes invisible... well, I've seen prettier things.The second feature of this double bill is The Human Vapor and was directed by Ishirô Honda, the man who also gave you Gojira (a.k.a. Godzilla) and countless sequels with the rubber-suited monster. Honda worked for Toho Studios who, apart from Godzilla and Samurai films, made four movies about humans who could change the state of their bodies. The Human Vapor, released in 1960, was the last of these four films.No monster in Gasu Ningen Daiichigo (1960) or The Human Vapor, but a librarian who agrees to be a test subject for a scientific study. Little did librarian Mizuno know the other test subjects had died during the test. He discovers he can vaporize his body and kills the professor (by asphyxiation). Mizuno might want to turn his back to humanity, but he's also madly in love with a beautiful dancer who's been saving for her comeback performance. He decides to help her by robbing the bank. Maybe not such a bad idea, but it's a crime my friendly neighbourhood officer tells me. The police pursue his trail (he might be invisible, but his car isn't) to the place where Vapor-Man abandons his car. Smart move, if it weren't for the fact that there's only one house nearby. That's where She lives and when She suddenly appears to have enough money for her comeback and can't/won't reveal any information on her maecenas, she's arrested.This makes Mizuno so angry he becomes even madder than he was before (it seems like the test affected both his visibility and his sanity) and he wants revenge for the imprisonment of his beloved dancer. More banks are robbed and more people get killed. That's as far as I'll go because, who knows, you might want to check this movie out and as the saying goes, there's no crying over spilt endings. The movie is very decent and a remarkable ending.The bad news is The Human Vapor isn't just the American title of the film, it's also the American version and sadly a lot went lost in the translation.First and foremost, Gasu Ningen Daiichigo was a mystery and in The Human Vapor the anti-hero tells his story in a long flashback. This would've been only half so horrible if the narration had been more interesting and if it hadn't replaced the dialogue in quite a lot of scenes (which leaves us with the "I told him and then he said" effect). The jerking effect of the re-edited version is also not really a plus side. Even the soundtrack was changed. If you can't remember why the soundtrack seems so familiar, you must have seen The Fly (1958).Crappy editing, dialogue and Americanized dubbing (Japanese characters are less credible with sentences like "Ah, go peddle your papers!") aside, nothing can keep us from knowing this is a terrific movie. Even if it falls from 10/10 to 8/10, an eight is still better than most things you're subjected to. The Human Vapor still has enormous amounts of tragedy and pathos, an anti-hero who can't control his limitless powers and an enchanting but painful love story. What it lacks as a crime story, it wins as a character study. It's fascinating to see how Mizuno evolves from a friendly lab rat into a psychotic megalomaniac. We also wonder about the role of the dancer Fujichiyo.Does she know where the money came from? Does she also love Mizuno? Her personality is quite different from the other female character in the film, the reporter Kyoko. Traditional versus modern.Mizuno's acts are beyond redemption, but still you feel some sort of sympathy for the Human Vapor and most of that comes from his unconditional love for Fujichiyo. (Not unlike the Phantom of the Opera's love for Christine Daaé.) True, the special effects are minimal, but who needs special effects in a sci-fi movie when you've got a story?