ferbs54
Based on the 1926 novel "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island" by Edogawa Rampo--the so-called Edgar Allan Poe of Japan--as well as at least two Rampo short stories, "The Human Chair" (1925) and "The Walker in the Attic" (also 1925), and also conflating Rampo's most famous detective character, Kogoro Akechi, the 1969 film "Horrors of Malformed Men" obviously has a lot of ground to cover. The picture was cowritten by its director, genre favorite Teruo Ishii, an old fan of Rampo's work in boys' detective magazines in the 1920s, and so shocked and scandalized viewers upon its initial release that it has been a sort of taboo product ever since; indeed, the film has never been made available for home viewing in Japan! I suppose that given its central theme of willful and calculated human mutations, coming a scant 25 years after the atomic denouement of WW2, this feeling can be understandable. Still, for viewers today, the film will probably come as a genuine stunner. In it, a medical student named Hitomi (an appealing performance by handsome Teruo Yoshida) escapes from a mental institution in the year 1925 (although it could just as easily be yesterday, based on what the viewer sees), with only a dim knowledge of who he is, or why a child's lullaby keeps repeating itself in his mind, or why he keeps seeing visions of a mysterious-looking seacoast. His lot worsens when he is falsely accused of knifing a young girl (in a scene strangely reminiscent of a similar one in "North by Northwest"), and while on the run, and desperately searching for that bit of seacoast on Honshu's 800-mile-long northern shore (!), notices the obituary for a man who he exactly resembles. He pretends to be that dead man, resurrected back to life, and ultimately goes to the island sanctuary of his look-alike's father, a Dr. Moreau type of character. And once on that island, things start to get REALLY strange!Shot on the Noto Peninsula, "Horrors of Malformed Men" is a film of impressive natural beauty and, once on that darn island, dreamlike surrealism. Indeed, the film would have been a natural back in the early '70s among the midnight-feature stoner crowd. It is easily as "trippy" as Alejandro Jodorowsky's "El Topo," a favorite back then amongst that crowd, as well as Jess Franco's "Succubus," Jaromil Jires' "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders" and Michel Lemoine's "Seven Women for Satan" (all films that SHOULD have been on the midnight circuit back when)...but unlike these films, and amazingly, its wild and crazy plot makes absolute, perfect sense by the picture's conclusion! In a final summation, events are explained at a clip that rivals the rat-a-tat explications in "The Big Sleep," accompanied by monotinted flashback sequences. And, oh, is this film a strange one! Among the film's many bits of weirdness are that freaky insane asylum opening; a snake decapitation; a 1/2 goat, 1/2 girl creature; a human torch sconce; a psychedelic, Cirque du Soleil-style dance number (put on for no apparent reason other than to flabbergast the viewer) performed by a gaggle of the island freaks; silver-painted women; a male/female Siamese twin combo; the eating of live crabs (and lots of them!); incest; the old poison-down-the-string trick (which viewers may recall from the 007 blowout "You Only Live Twice"); freeze frames; and other assorted mishegas. In the film's single most arresting image, perhaps, Jagoro Kimodo, the creator of the island monstrosities, capers along the seashore, the waves crashing behind him. Kimodo is played in the film by Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of the Butoh style of dance, and the stylized, spiderlike way that he scuttles along here is like something you may have never seen before. Featuring exquisite camera work from Shigeru Akatsuka and a freaky-deaky score by Masao Yagi, and concluding with a beautifully symbolic fireworks/sunset display, "Horrors of Malformed Men" is a film that should linger long in the memory. Far from just another Dr. Moreau rip-off, it is a genuine work of cinematic art, a minor masterpiece, and should prove a real find for the jaded horror buff. It is presented here on a great-looking DVD from Synapse, loaded with "extras." In the most interesting, directors Shinya Tsukamoto and Minoru Kawasaki discuss the influence that Ishii and Rampo have had on their own work, while in another, we see Ishii himself--"the King of Cult"--present the film at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy in 2003 (two years before his death). A most generous DVD package, of a film that must be seen to be believed....
Boba_Fett1138
If you can stick this movie out till the end, you'll get a very rewarding movie. It's not the easiest movie to watch and it didn't seemed at first to me that this movie was going to be much good early one but it's definitely a movie that gets better in its second halve, when there is more story and the movie its visuals become just great to watch.It's a quite surrealistic Japanese movie, that relies heavily on its visuals. There are some amazing visuals throughout the movie, with also the thanks of the phenomenal camera-work. It's an artistic movie above all things, so beware of what to expect.Of course there is also a story but this one is quite hard to follow at times. It isn't until the movie reaches its halve way point that it becomes more or less more clear in which direction the story is going. The movie soon becomes a sort of a surrealistic Japanese version of the Island of Dr. Moreau. I think those that are familiar with this story, or any of the other movie versions of the story will be more able to understand and appreciate this movie.For a Japanese movie it also features quite some good acting. It's an obviously well cast movie, in which the actors don't act in a very theatrical way, like you might expect from a Japanese movie. Especially surprising also since this movie got made back in 1969.After finishing watching this movie I simply must say that I overall enjoyed it and found it to be an ultimately rewarding movie to watch, though it's obvious that this is not really a movie for just everyone.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
Chung Mo
Postwar Japan gave birth to probably one of the most consistently weird dance forms, Butoh. It rather hard to describe except that the processions of anguished clay caked naked bodies and rag covered transvestites makes me think of a nuclear holocaust. Since Japan is the only country with any experience with the horrors of a nuclear holocaust, it isn't surprising.We open with a dazed man in the middle of a cage of naked crazy women in a mental institution. We soon learn that he's an inmate as well. He is haunted by an odd children's lullaby. That night a strange bald man tries to kill him but instead our hero kills the bald man and escapes. Our hero hears the unusual lullaby and finds a circus performer who seems to come from the same remote place on the coast. He makes his way to the coast and finds out that a rich man who looks exactly like him has just died. He digs up the body and switches clothing becoming the dead man mistakenly buried too soon. Our hero then attempts to discover the strange secrets of the dead man's family while trying to imitate the deceased.After watching this production I am very interested in why this film has been banned in Japan for so long. There are plenty of films that are WAY MORE DISTURBING, disgusting or horrifying from Japan, some made the same year! The most likely part is the second half of the film when the Butoh dancers are given plenty of screen time but much of it is mystifying to me rather then disturbing. The couple of torture scenes are rough but not worse then anything I've seen from any pinku film.Anyway the film is quite good for the first half and starts to fall apart during the second half. It seems the the director and his camera person really didn't know what to do with the Butoh dancers. We get a number of very striking Butoh scenarios, poorly filmed (compared to the excellent filming in the rest of the film), that go by with the main characters just gazing on in disbelief. No real connection to the plot.An interesting experiment.
