The Human Vapor (1960)

Lack of good storyline.

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

**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.

Somber screenplay writer Takeshi Kimura at his best. Probably the most sad and dramatic of all Toho sci-fi epics. Here, we have the title character, who is a librarian in his real life, willing to make sacrifices to pamper his lover, the Kabuki dancer, even if it resorts to chaos and havoc. Caught in the mix is a policeman and a reporter, out to catch the rampaging "Vapor Man" before he causes any more harm. I usually prefer more light-heated pieces, like the works of writer Shinichi Sekizawa. Though this is a really dark film, which could use more lighter themes, it is a movie with a very compelling story with an astounding climax. A good thriller even by today's standards.Grade B

The title may suggest a bad sci-fi movie, but this film is actually quite dramatic and well produced. Part mystery and part science fiction, it is well acted and the special effects of the man turning into the vapor is expertly done. The segments of the Vapor traveling about the city and telling of his experiences are a high point of the movie, and explain what it would feel like to actually be a cloud of gas. The central story, of the attraction between the Vapor and the dancer, is well written and effectively developed on screen. This is an example of a Japanese science fiction film that often gets overshadowed by the likes of Godzilla and Rodan, but is quite good on its own merits. Watch it if you get the chance!

The Human Vapour shows that there was a lot more to 60s Japanese science fiction movies than Godzilla and Mothra. While the version I watched was badly dubbed and transferred to video, it still stood out as superior b-grade sci-fi. The FX may be quite primitive but the concept was handled well, the acting more than adequate, and the central relationship between the Vapour and the Kabuki dancer was suprisingly touching. Try and track this one down if you're looking for something different.