Jû jin yuki otoko

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.

While searching for a lost skier in the mountains of Japan, a group encounters a huge, shaggy, man-like creature as well as a heartless carnival owner who is hunting the beast. Although directed by Toho's kaiju-master Ishiro Honda, the film is slow-moving and not all that interesting (not much is seen of the creature until well into the film). The kaijin is essentially man-sized, so there are few of the miniatures that make Toho's monster outings so entertaining (other than some toy trucks and a brief stop-motion scene). I watched a grainy sub-titled version on-line, so can't really comment on the kaijin suit, the cinematography (although the scene when one of the searchers is left as buzzard bait is great), original script, or acting. The titular 'Beast-Man Snow-Man' is an example of the 'misunderstood monster' sub-genre and the conclusion is poignant as the searchers discover the somewhat surprising fate of its species. The intriguing 'third act' balances the flat first half somewhat but the film will really only be of interest to fans of the studio and/or genre. Apparently the controversy about the depiction of 'Buraku' (a segment of the Japanese population who historically have been subjugated and ostracised) has led to the film being out of general circulation (the subtitled on-line version I watched seems to be quite recently made). Ju Jin Yuki Otoko was 'Americanised' into a much shorter monster film ('Half Human, 1958) featuring perennial horror-schlock star John Carradine, which by all accounts is terrible.

The dialogue is generally blunt to the point of emptiness, almost altogether senseless, sometimes contradictory, and nearly always deeply unconvincing. The stunts and effects are okay but may be dubiously employed, such as when a major landslide that the party narrowly dodges apparently just keeps sliding and leaves no trace of itself in the surrounding landscape. The pacing is meek and sluggish, testing one's patience; Ishiro Honda's direction often comes across as restrained, or possibly downright sedate, and maybe a little confused at times. Other elements are pretty good, I guess - sets, filming locations, costume design, acting. But these alone can't carry a film, or keep audiences invested. Frankly, 'Half human' is a club-footed, lumbering chore, stopping just shy of being soporific. It was only my generous sense of commitment that made me continue to watch, not any meaningful enjoyment. This isn't very good.

There are myriad distinct flaws and weaknesses, including halfhearted writing that commonly makes it impossible to really care about any of the characters or the course of events. Some aspects are more appreciable than others, however; there are some good ideas in the scene writing, for example, and some of the art direction is more plainly admirable. The story leans heavily on 'King Kong' in no small part, but I suppose there's nothing inherently wrong about that. Yet the picture mostly just saunters along, the writing is frail, the direction is unsteady, and - well, I know I said the acting was "fine," but if I'm being honest that's only true some of the time; too many moments are underwhelming, or more likely overdone. This is maybe even sort of unfocused, with too many ideas that arguably each receive insufficient treatment and almost certainly dilute the whole, and in turn ninety-five minutes feel extra, extra long.

There have been a lot of terrific monster flicks to come out of Japan, and Honda has directed some of them. This is not one of those. There are scattered bits and pieces that are commendable and that could have been latched onto as anchors for a better movie, but they are all too few. Construction that is meager and frequently outright questionable severely reduces the impact that the most dramatic or action-laden scenes should bear, and whatever it is one hopes to get out of 'Half human,' it can be found in many, many other places in higher quality and greater abundance. Why, I'd suggest simply rewatching 1933's 'King Kong' rather than sit through the tedium this predominantly represents. The value that this 1955 feature might claim is substantially outweighed by its shortcomings, and even if you're a major fan of someone involved I have a hard time thinking that I'd ever recommend it. Watch if you want, but I think your time is much better spent elsewhere.

I'm binging Toho movies and have to say that thus far Half Human is by far the worst.

It tells the story of a yeti like creature and its kin that an expedition comes across on Mount Fuji.

Looking dated even for 1955, lacking any of the Toho charm and without Kurosawa this is an absolute disjointed mess with no redeeming features.

Make no mistake this isn't a traditional over the top Toho creature film like Godzilla or Rodan, it's a poor sasquatch film that fails to entertain.

The Good:

Nothing springs to mind

The Bad:

Story is very poorly constructed

Looks terrible

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Toho have far from a flawless record

Ishiro Honda, fresh off of making Lovetide instead of the first Godzilla sequel (Godzilla Raids Again), was given a similar task by Toho: another monster film. Instead of a giant reptile tearing up major Japanese cities, Honda directs the story of a slightly larger ape-like monster in the Japanese mountains. This isn't exactly a huge step up in the monster genre, being a confused combination of three storylines inelegantly woven together in ways that make the whole point of the film muddy at best. I get the sense that this script was thrown together very quickly, the production rushed, and no one was particularly invested in the exercise.

A mountaineering club is coming back from the mountains after an adventure that has left them shaken. They get interviewed by a journalist, and we get the whole thing in flashback (it's a structural decision that I don't think contributes anything to the film). Anyway, the club had gone into the mountains months previous for skiing when one of their group, Takeno, disappeared with mysterious large tracks marking where he went. The winter weather was too much, though, and the club returned after the spring thaw to look again. This group is led by Professor Tanaka (Nobuo Nakamura) and features most prominently Machiko (Momoko Kochi), Takeno's sister, and her lover Iijima (Akira Takarada). At the same time, another group, led by Oba (Yoshio Kosugi), are animal trappers looking to find the mysterious animal and bring it to a circus.

So, this would be enough for a story. Two opposing groups looking for the same animal with completely different purposes. However, instead of just some lonely yeti in the mountains who may or may not have a young Japanese student prisoner for months, we also get the introduction of a remote, isolated, and primitive village that calls the yeti the Old Master. This is honestly just one major subplot too many for a simple monster movie, and the plight of this remote village in competition with the rest of the story, especially the fate of Takeno, being the actual focus. It seems odd to say that the fate of a village is less interesting than the fate of a single missing student, but considering the point of view of the story and the general focus, yeah, it is.

And point of view is just a shambles here. The story is being told by the students who have their own recollections and the journal left behind by Takeno, but they're telling bits of the story that they never saw, mostly around Oba and his men. Without the flashback structure, this doesn't matter at all. With the flashback structure, it's weird and makes pieces that should fit together easily enough at a basic level no longer fit together. It's also a relatively minor complaint with the film.

The bigger complaints I have are about how isolated the three stories are from each other. The two that are the most connected are between Oba's men and the village through the young woman Chika (Akemi Negishi) since Chika actually leads Oba to find the yeti and the yeti's son. This action leads to the yeti being very mad and tearing up the village itself. However, the mountaineering club is completely disconnected from it. Hard cut all of this out and, well, you get a 40 minute movie. However, it would be a clear series of actions of the club getting into the dangerous valley and finding their way to a cave where the yeti resides. It still wouldn't be a smooth action because they do follow the village fire to get there, but heck, it could be just a random fire.

The other problem inherent in the film is that there are just so many characters in the limited runtime. Oba has henchmen who get attention. The mountaineering club is more than the three characters named. The village has an elder. And then there's the journalist on top of that. All of these characters have to compete for screentime with monster action and some beautiful photography of the Japanese mountains.

That being said, the monster action is...decent. It's not great like the attack on Tokyo in Godzilla, but the yeti itself looks decent (its face having a surprising amount of articulation), and the action around it has some skill. That's helped in no small part that even though the script is a mess, Honda can still frame things nicely and gets some good compositions pretty consistently, especially at the attack on the village.

Apparently the film is some kind of embarrassment for Toho not because it's kind of terrible but because its portrayal of the mountain people is supposed to be a manifestation of the Burakumin. It's supposedly kind of racist at this point. Honestly, it should probably be more ashamed because this was a rushed product that completely wasted a high quality talent like Honda to take advantage of a quick fad poorly. But it looks decently and the monster action is fine. That's not much, but it's not nothing.