Nearing the end of viewing films for ICM's best of 1958 movie poll,I took a look at flicks I've seen from the year,and something about the "Camp" monster movie Half-Human (HH) stood out. Checking my pile of Japanese DVD's I have to view,I was very happy to find the original cut of HH waiting to be discovered.The plot:Whilst out skiing in remote mountains, a group of skiers are told of dangerous weather on the way. Taking shelter in separate spots,one of the skiers is found killed and another "missing" the next morning,with weird footprints outside their cabin, and fur from an unidentified animal stuck in a wooden pane.Locals soon begin linking the events to a mythical "Half-Human." Waiting weeks for the horrific snow and ice to clear on the mountains, Dr. Koizumi gathers a team to go in search of the missing skier,and to locate the "Half-Human." View on the film:Slapped with a limitation by Toho studios to only be screened at retrospectives due to the Burakumin people being shown as cavemen savages, the screenplay by Takeo Murata & Shigeru Kayama actually takes a pretty even-handed approach in showing all humans to be scum! Reuniting with director Ishirô Honda after Godzilla, the team continue on the theme of human folly,in this case giving examples to how humans can damage nature, with the hunters being gung-ho psychos,and even the touchy-feely students going for guns as their first response,despite being aware of the "half-human" being near extinct."Borrowing" elements from the original King Kong,director Honda and cinematographer Tadashi Limura give the jungle action an Adventure mood,with Limura and Honda stylish using tracking shots to create a depth of field to the searchers getting closer to the "half-human." Introducing the "monster" in shadow, Honda artfully gives the adventure an elegant horror edge,as an ultra-stylised mix of matte paintings and swift,mist-covered whip-pans unleash the roar of the half-human.

Ju Jin Yuki Otoko (1955) ** 1/2 (out of 4) This Toho film from director Ishiro Honda was pretty much pulled from release and has been hidden by the studio ever since then. If you have seen the film it's probably been the American version known as HALF HUMAN, which cut out over a hours worth of footage and replaced it with new scenes featuring John Carradine. In the uncut Japanese original, a group of friends go skiing but two of them decide to stay in a cabin where they are attacked by a creature. One is killed on the spot but another one is missing so a search party goes out looking for him. JU JIN YUKI OTOKO isn't a masterpiece and if you've seen HALF HUMAN than you've seen the majority of the Yeti footage. It's really hard to judge this film because the only thing out there is un-subtitles and since I don't speak Japanese it was impossible for me to really follow the story. There's a lot of dialogue here so you really are missing stuff by not having any subtitles. The actual story is easy to follow but with all the dialogue you have to think a lot more was going on. Still, for the most part I thought there was some pretty good stuff here including the music score, the cinematography and especially the look of the creatures. Yes, there are more than one and they look quite good and very realistic. The performances for the most part seemed to be good and director Honda has no problem at building up a rather nice atmosphere. Considering how long this movie has been put in a vault, it's probably highly likely that a Special Edition is coming anytime soon. Until it does, the bootleg version out there will have to do or you can check out the easier to find American cut, which on its own isn't too bad in a campy sort of way.

When this film was released in America in 1957, two years after its theatrical release in Japan, it had been cut to just 63 minutes. Library music was implanted, along with narration and scenes starring John Carradine and Morris Ankrum, both of whom would have been more useful elsewhere. Toho apparently had faith in the American distribution company, they even loaned out the snow monster suit to film the new scenes. In any event, the American version was and still is a travesty.*potential spoilers*The story of the original version concerns a group of five skiers who go out for a weekend in the Japan alps. Three head to an isolated hotel while two others go to a shack some distance away. That night one of the skiers in the shack is killed and the other goes missing. The only evidence as to the cause of the death and disappearance are mysterious footprints and tufts of hair stuck to a few places inside the shack.Some time later, a search party is organized that contains the three original skiers, a professor, and several helping hands. Their goal is to find the creature that killed the skier and locate the missing person. This becomes somewhat complicated when two greedy men arrive intent on using the snow creature for profit...Overall, Ju Jin Yuki Otoko is an effective little film from the early days of Toho fantasy. The suit work is good, as are the majority of the other effects used. The musical score from Masaro Sato is one of his best early scores. The cast includes many many people that would go on to become Toho regulars, including Akira Takarada, Momoko Kochi, and Nobuo Nakamura.Sadly this film is unavailable from official sources in its uncut form as Toho has removed it from its catalogs due to constant lobbying by the Ainu. Uncut prints are available, however. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Toho's early fantasy films.