Ishiro Honda, Toho's original Godzilla director took on this strange hybrid of a film. The Human Vapor is as the title says, about a man who is given the ability by a scientist to turn himself into a gaseous cloud. He uses this vapor power stuff to rob a a series of banks in order to bankroll a performer of ancient Japanese dance. Simultaneously, the police are after this vapor guy as they try to figure out a way to stop him. So what we have here is a film that combines science fiction with a love story and a crime thriller.
Ishiro Honda directs and I guess he gets the job done in his own way. Honda never brought a lot of so called directorial touches to his film. Honda was a very pedestrian filmmaker, no fancy angles or editing for him. Honda was always the good company man. The strange mix of these different genres would probably have intimidated any director. But Honda soldiers on and gets the job done I guess.
Since this is a Toho film, the colors are bright, the special effects are interesting and the love stories between the various characters are very chaste. The Human Vapor is mostly for Toho science fiction film fans, a regular viewer will probably find the film kind of boring for the most part.
The screenplay was by Takeshi KImura an old hand at writing Toho science fiction films, the running time is 91 minutes.
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