Human Vapour, The
Entry updated 10 April 2023. Tagged: Film.
Japanese film (1960). Original title Gasu Ningen Daiichigō. Toho. Directed by Ishirō Honda. Written by Takeshi Kimura. Cast includes Tatsuya Mihashi, Fuyuki Murakami, Keiko Sata, Yoshio Tsuchiya and Kaoru Yachigusa. 91 minutes. Colour.
A car chase following a bank robbery ends with the criminal's vehicle going off the road and crashing: the police find the car empty, yet no footprints nearby. When another bank is robbed the metal gate protecting the safe room is still locked and the only person with the key is within, suffocated; and when Detective Okamoto (Mihashi) eventually enters he finds the murdered man still has the key in his pocket.
Okamoto's only lead is that traditional dancer Fujichiya Kasuga's (Yachigusa) house is close to the car crash; her aristocratic family ended her career, so she now has to live modestly – Okamoto thinks this might be a motive. When his journalist girlfriend Kyoko Kono (Sata) discovers Fujichiya has just bought an expensive car and plans to hold a recital in the near future, Okamoto investigates and finds she is paying for the recital with the stolen bank notes. When arrested Fujichiya refuses to reveal who gave her the money; however Mizuno (Tsuchiya), a young man, walks into the police station and confesses, saying he wishes to prove Fujichiya's innocence by demonstrating how he performed the robberies. He is taken to a bank, whereupon he melts into vapour – his suit dropping to the floor – and asphyxiates a couple of people, then laughs, demanding Fujichiya's release (being gas merely adds an echo to his voice) and seeps out through a window. Later Mizuno argues that, no longer being a human being, he is no longer subject to human law.
Mizuno tells his story to Kyoko's newspaper: suffering from lung cancer, he left the army and was working at a college library when Scientist Dr Sano (Murakami), Medical Director of the Japan Space Research Programme, offered him a job as an astronaut (see Space Flight). Sano says his treatments will transform Mizuno's cells (see Biology), allowing him to survive the heat of the Sun: however things do not go as planned and after ten days of unconsciousness Mizuno finds he can turn his body into vapour at will (see Superpowers). When he realizes he is the latest of several human guinea pigs and the first to survive, he asphyxiates Sano.
Mizuno is fixated on Fujichiya and determined that she will dance in public again: the police agree to the recital going ahead, planning to get Mizuno alone in the theatre then flood it with "U.M. Gas" – which when ignited should kill him. However, Fujichiya and her elderly assistant refuse to leave; they are determined the performance will be completed, knowing it will be her last. The senior police officer, deciding this might be their only opportunity, tries to detonate the gas; but the triggering device has been sabotaged, we can infer by Fujichiya. The dance reaches its end, Mizuno and Fujichiya embrace: but, unseen by him, she then takes out a cigarette lighter and ignites the gas – the theatre explodes. The watching police and reporters see what remains of Mizuno crawl out of the flames and die.
For most of its run the film is fairly good, but the ending is the highlight: Fujichiya at first seemed a passive character, but gradually demonstrates the strength of her will, taking control of events and ensuring her final show is not interrupted. Time is spent on her performance, before she dramatically brings matters to a close. It is clear that the story told by her traditional dance has significance, and (before being chased out by Mizuno) we watch the unappreciative audience respond with coarse remarks: the film seems to be touching on changes in Japanese culture and honour. On the whole, the special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya (see Tokusatsu) are reasonable, with Mizuno's death being the standout.
In 1964 the film was released in the USA with an English dub; there were changes made – it now opened with Mizuno's newspaper interview and backstory, then has the earlier scenes as a flashback, before continuing with the rest of the film. It adds narration from Mizuno: including stating he performed the sabotage and – at the very end – that he cannot die (somewhat contradicted by what we see) but will live on for eternity (see Immortality) without his beloved. [SP]
links
previous versions of this entry