Odd, moody crime-horror melodrama as a predatory radioactive liquid haunts the Tokyo waterfront. The films opens with a drug deal gone bad. The police investigation is complicated by a Dr. Masada (Kenji Sahara), a local scientist who suspects that there is a connection between the missing criminal and recent H-bomb tests. He has interviewed a sailor who told him about a drifting ship, where all that remained of the crew were their clothes and how almost all of the sailors investigating the derelict were attacked and dissolved by a blue ooze that could take on a vaguely humanoid form. When Masada finds a radioactive life-ring from the doomed ship, he becomes convinced that at least one of the "H-men" made it to Tokyo and, as more people disappear, the police realise that they have both a vicious drug dealer and a viscous killer to deal with. Directed by Ishiro Honda and with effects by Eiji Tsuburaya (both of Godzilla, 1954 fame), "The H-man" is an effective and entertaining thriller. While there are some weak moments (the car chase comes to mind), the film is overall a well done blend of Japanese-noir and horror. While somewhat similar to the contemporaneous "The Blob", "The H-man" is a more 'adult' film, with a gritty gangster subplot and some genuinely creepy sequences (especially those on the ship and in the sewers). Tsuburaya's effects are very good, with scenes of the sentient goo oozing up walls and along ceilings and of people dissolving into piles of clothing. Like Godzilla, the film is a cautionary tale of the dangers of radioactivity and both films feature scenes on a ship whose crew was exposed to radiation (inspired by the true story of the 'Lucky Dragon 5'). I watched an English-dubbed version of the film which differs somewhat from the original (there is less emphasis on the underworld background story) and opens and closes with the typical ominous voiceover warning of atomic danger. The dubbing itself was OK although a few of the heavies had cartoonish 'gangster' voices. All-in-all, a bit dated but worth watching.

Ishiro Honda directed this unusual film, which combines plot elements from both the crime and science fiction genres. A wanted criminal mysteriously disappears from a crime scene, leaving behind only his clothes. Japanese police track him by following his wife, who does lead them to the criminal, who has somehow mutated into a hydrogen creature who can change into a blob-like creature at will, and who can be traced to a mysterious ghost-ship anchored in the harbor that was exposed to unknown radioactive fallout. Can this menace be stopped? Good F/X, but story drags, and differing genres clash unsuccessfully in forgettable film.

***SPOILES*** One of the strangest and bizarre of all the monsters coming out of the Japanese Toho Studios in 1950's the H-Man unlike Toho monsters Godzilla and Rodan is totally indescribable in it changing it's shape like a "Silly Puddy" every few seconds when it's on the screen. The H-Man dubbed because it was the results of a US Military H-Bomb test is the South Pacific comes across like the Blob and a giant serving of lime Jello in it's attacking anyone in it's way and turning them into a greenish color liquid when it gets through with them.It's Dr. Masada , Kenji Sahara, who discovers just what this H-Man is and what he's up too but his conclusions are so off the wall that no one in the Tokyo Police Department believes him. We had added into the movie a plot involving Japanese mobsters pushing drugs who unwittingly get involved with the H-Man in their attempt to get pretty night club singer Chikako Arai, Yumi Shirakawa, to tell them where her gangster boyfriend Misaki, Hisaya Ito, is whom they suspect took off with their monthly heroin supply. After a number of people around the Tokyo end up being liquefied by the H-Man Tokyo Police Inspector Tominaga, Akihiko Hirata, is finally convinced in what Dr. Masada has been telling him about this radioactive blob of green and blue goo and call out the Japanese Army to put an end to it's reign of terror once and for all. Things get a bit complicated when gangster Uchida, Makato Sato, makes believe by taking off his clothes and leaving them in public that the H-Man did him in by getting Uchida liquefied. It's then that Uchida kidnaps Chikako and takes her into the Tokyo sewer system in order to both get his hands on the missing heroin that her liquefied boyfriend Miski hid there as well as hold her as insurance, or hostage, in getting out of the country before the police get a bead,by realizing that he's in fact alive, on him.***SPOILERS*** With the Japanese military setting the Tokyo sewer system on fire Dr. Masada risks his life to save Chikako as her kidnapper Uchida ends up getting liquefied, this time for real, by the H-Man as he tries to make his escape from the police. Spectacular final with all of Tokyo, or it's sewer system, on fire with the H-Men, there are now two of them, evaporating in the flames and Dr. Masada saving Chikako's life before the flames and heat get to both of them.

Why is this classic Japanese sci-fi movie not available on DVD? But yet it's on VHS? Come on, VHS?, & with all the other awful ones being offered on DVD, like Revenge of Godzill, Godzilla vs Megalon & Godzilla vs the Bog (Smog) Monster etc. Anything produced by Toho from 1970 thru 1998 were seriously inferior, (& that's pushing the envelope for these types of movies) in terms of plot/actors/building models/creative monster suits, etc. I buy only the good ones (the red one) dating back from 1954 thru 1968, then boom, no more.They seemed to have gotten their groove back on the right track with Godzilla 2000, All Out Giant Monster Attack & Tokyo SOS, combining CGI with old school model making, even bringing back some of the old favorites (Kumi Mizuno, Kenji Sahara, etc.), then boom again, Godzilla, Final Wars. What a terrible way to end the series. That Japanese director was obviously on crack and trying desperately to appeal to today's jaded US pop culture crowd (who needs them) and failed. I understand that Sony Pictures now owns Columbia and MGM (their back-lot too), so how about it? This, and other titles like a newly re-issued original Rodan, Mothra & War of the Garganuas, with both Japanese and unedited US versions, along with other special features that would only appeal to fans of these beloved science fiction icons. Get with the program! Who ever is in charge!