User reviews

Postwar Japan gave birth to probably one of the most consistently weird dance forms, Butoh. It rather hard to describe except that the processions of anguished clay caked naked bodies and rag covered transvestites makes me think of a nuclear holocaust. Since Japan is the only country with any experience with the horrors of a nuclear holocaust, it isn't surprising.

We open with a dazed man in the middle of a cage of naked crazy women in a mental institution. We soon learn that he's an inmate as well. He is haunted by an odd children's lullaby. That night a strange bald man tries to kill him but instead our hero kills the bald man and escapes. Our hero hears the unusual lullaby and finds a circus performer who seems to come from the same remote place on the coast. He makes his way to the coast and finds out that a rich man who looks exactly like him has just died. He digs up the body and switches clothing becoming the dead man mistakenly buried too soon. Our hero then attempts to discover the strange secrets of the dead man's family while trying to imitate the deceased.

After watching this production I am very interested in why this film has been banned in Japan for so long. There are plenty of films that are WAY MORE DISTURBING, disgusting or horrifying from Japan, some made the same year! The most likely part is the second half of the film when the Butoh dancers are given plenty of screen time but much of it is mystifying to me rather then disturbing. The couple of torture scenes are rough but not worse then anything I've seen from any pinku film.

Anyway the film is quite good for the first half and starts to fall apart during the second half. It seems the the director and his camera person really didn't know what to do with the Butoh dancers. We get a number of very striking Butoh scenarios, poorly filmed (compared to the excellent filming in the rest of the film), that go by with the main characters just gazing on in disbelief. No real connection to the plot.

An interesting experiment.

The movie directed by Teruo Ishii was part of series of very radical erotic violence movies that he directed for Toei studio in the late '60s and early '70s.

The story is an edit on many novels written by Edogawa Ranpo (who got his name from Edgar Alan Poe), but gathered fans and has become a popular story since it was made. Kogoro Akechi is the main protagonist that appears in many of Ranpo's novels.

Kogoro Akechi has somewhat become like the Sherlock Homes of Japan. Becoming the focus of many mystery drama with even new stories invented like this one long after the death of his creator.

This is a pretty interesting story, and no wonder it still garners fan base. It's an improbably story, but it carries the essence of Ranpo's novel that contains strange and unusual situation, and characters. Actors, and acting are first rate, and has the over the top craziness that director Ishii is known for, that makes this movie worth watching.

It's not a mainstream movie by any means, but is an interesting movie from the '60s Japan.

It's funny that Ishii says he was not familiar with the Moreau storyline because this flick looks so much like a crazy adaptation for it. Not an intense feature but one that will serve you very memorable freaky and somewhat psychedelic moments that, out of the wild context, will remind you of all the Japanese contemporary horror everyone yells for (think Ring, Dark Water as much as video games like Siren and Project Zero...). Very poorly written plot, but who cares when they're served such crazy visions and a final I would place in my top 10 of mindblowing movie endings - but that's just me... That's a very hard to see movie, and well worth seeing if you get the chance.

Horrors of Malformed Men is a quite experimental movie by veteran director Ishii Teruo that has been inspired by the tales of famous mystery and horror author Edogawa Rampo who had himself been inspired by Western authors such as Edgar Allan Poe. This experimental movie at the pulse of its time combines several of these tales. The main issue is that this fusion isn't always fluid and leads to two completely contrasting parts.

The first half of the movie is a murder mystery tale. A medical student without any recollection of his past is trapped in a sinister asylum. He manages to escape when one of the guards attempts to murder him. The fugitive discovers the photograph of a recently deceased man from a prosperous family who looks exactly like him. The medical student decides to take the dead man's identity to find out the truth about his origins and escape from the police.

The second half of the movie is a supernatural horror tale. The medical student travels to the island of a mad scientist who transforms perfectly normal humans into hideous freaks to create a better society. He gets captured, manipulated and threatened by the scientist and attempts to escape the island and prevent the scientist's megalomanic plans.

It's probably a matter of prefence whether you prefer the first or the second half of the movie but they are so different from each other that few people will equally appreciate both parts. The first half is atmospheric, mysterious and surprising as it convinces with clever storytelling and intriguing characters. It recalls numerous European murder mystery films as especially the German Edgar Wallace films and the Italian giallo genre come to mind. The second half is much more brutal, experimental and frantic and ventures into experimental cinematography with hectic camera work, numerous flashbacks and colourful locations. It's a mixture of Japan's very own pink film genre of the sixties and American pre-war science-fiction and horror cinema somewhere between King Kong and Island of Lost Souls.

In the end, Horrors of Malformed Men is certainly daring, entertaining and unconventional. However, the script is all over the place and the conclusion might even be too unconventional for most open-minded cineasts. Ishii Teruo should have created two different movies here instead of putting together two ideas that don't gel.

Wow, this is a must have for Japanese horror fans, and can you believe it, banned for all those years. Outstanding story involving a man finding his way back to his origins, which include his Father making malformed men, and ladies. My favorite, the goat women. This is quite a gruesome horror film from 1969 or so, that got banned in Japan, and therefore restricted everywhere. Don't worry, it's available now, and you need to see it, before it disappears again. Great DVD too, as it contains a commentary from some historians that will bore you to death. It did me at least, but nothing could damage my affection for this excellent shocker for the times. You thought your Father had problems, wait until you meet this dude. I like this one, it is decadent, gruesome, and has some naked girls. And should I forget, a pretty shocking depiction of the result of malformed men. Yes, Malformed Men, you have been warned.

The medical student Hirosuke Hitomi (Teruo Yoshida) is mysteriously interned in a mental institution without any explanation. When a stranger tries to kill him in his cell, he flees from the asylum and sees the young woman from the circus Hideko (Teruko Yumi) singing a lullaby that stays in his memory. She tells to him that she is from a coastal town, but out of the blue, Hideko is murdered. Hirosuke travels to the coast and learns in the newspaper that the wealthy Genzaburô Komoda, who is his doppelganger, has just died. He decides to assume his identity as if he had had only a sudden illness and revived. He lures his wife Chiyoko Komoda (Michiko Kobata), his mistress, the butler and the servants. When mysterious letters are delivered to his wife, who dies, and his mistress, he decides to travel to the island where Genzaburô's father Jôgorô Komoda (Tatsumi Hijikata) lives to find his origins. Soon he meets Jôgorô, who is a mad man that built an island of freaks, turning normal persons into malformed persons. Further, Hirosuke learns who he is.

"Kyôfu kikei ningen: Edogawa Rampo zenshû", a.k.a. "Horrors of Malformed Men", is a film certainly based on "The Island of Dr. Moreau" by the English author H. G. Wells (1866-1946). Japanese author Edogawa Rampo rewrote this tale and Teruo Ishii made this sick and transgressor film. The plot shows perversions, incest, the most freak creatures and a dreadful revenge, but is laughable many times. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Horror dos Homens Deformados" ("The Horror of the Malformed Men")

This infamous Japenese cult flick unfortunately doesn't live up to its lofty reputation. It has some worthy moments, but only a few in what is otherwise a painfully boring and poorly made affair. The confusing story involves a medical student searching for his origins based on the few memories he has from his childhood. He makes his way to the coast of the Japan Sea, where he discovers an obituary for a man who looks exactly like him. He then pretends to be the dead man resurrected, and eventually is brought to an island not far away where the dead man's father is purportedly conducting odd experiments on human beings. The entire story up to here is confusing, uninvolving, and honestly pretty stupid. Only when the protagonist arrives on the island with the titular malformed men does it contain a shred of interest. But only a shred. The mad scientist on the island, kind of the Japanese version of Dr. Moreau, is mutating human beings into freaks. These people, played by circus performers, are dressed in weird costumes and covered with icky makeup. Supposedly the film was meant to reflect the effects of an atomic bomb. I'm not really that sure that was meant, since I don't think any radiation poisoning resulted in a person turning silver. This seems to be where some of the film's fans find substance in the thing, but, really, that half-assed commentary isn't even close to as good as the half-assed commentary in the original Gojira, or, even more appropriate to this conversation, another Ishiro Honda film, Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People, which was made six years earlier than Horrors of Malformed Men. The malformed men are pretty cool, I must admit, but their appearance and participation in the film takes up around ten minutes of this 100 minute film, one tenth, by my estimation. I couldn't forgive the first half of the movie. And even moreso I can't forgive what comes after this, where the mad doctor tells his story in a prolonged, monochromatic flashback. I guess I should be thankful, because the stuff I couldn't understand about the plot earlier in the movie is explicated in such detail that I wanted to rip my hair out. But at least I finally got the plot. And worse, after the doctor has his ten minute flashback, another character has another ten minute flashback. The story is patently ridiculous, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It could have been fun, but it isn't. It's a crushing bore! It does end on a hilarious bit, but nothing could have saved this movie.

If you can stick this movie out till the end, you'll get a very rewarding movie. It's not the easiest movie to watch and it didn't seemed at first to me that this movie was going to be much good early one but it's definitely a movie that gets better in its second halve, when there is more story and the movie its visuals become just great to watch.

It's a quite surrealistic Japanese movie, that relies heavily on its visuals. There are some amazing visuals throughout the movie, with also the thanks of the phenomenal camera-work. It's an artistic movie above all things, so beware of what to expect.

Of course there is also a story but this one is quite hard to follow at times. It isn't until the movie reaches its halve way point that it becomes more or less more clear in which direction the story is going. The movie soon becomes a sort of a surrealistic Japanese version of the Island of Dr. Moreau. I think those that are familiar with this story, or any of the other movie versions of the story will be more able to understand and appreciate this movie.

For a Japanese movie it also features quite some good acting. It's an obviously well cast movie, in which the actors don't act in a very theatrical way, like you might expect from a Japanese movie. Especially surprising also since this movie got made back in 1969.

After finishing watching this movie I simply must say that I overall enjoyed it and found it to be an ultimately rewarding movie to watch, though it's obvious that this is not really a movie for just everyone.

8/10

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Well, I'll say right now that I'm surprised but confused as well. I'll tell you the first half of the movie is kinda boring. However, the second half is a fun ride.

I'll say that for a movie made in 1969, the effects are pretty good. The story is really hard to follow, but at least it was for me. Pretty much a young man finds pieces of information that there's a man that has the same looks and symbol on his foot. However, that man is dead.

Well, the young man goes out of his way to find the dead man's location and finds out the truth that his father is an insane cultist that deforms people. Why? We do not know at all, which is bothering me. Yes, the cultist's wife cheated on him, but I doubt that's a good enough reason to deform innocent people.

I wanted to give this thing a 7.5, but I'm still really confused about this movie. If you take Salo, Cannibal Holocaust, and Midsommar you'd get this thing. It's not a bad movie, but it a hard to follow, very strange, and a bit boring in the beginning, cuz the movie did not make much sense at the start.

This film has some beautiful imagery and a nice dreamlike quality at times. There is also much Japanese symbolism and dance. That sums up the recommendation. On the down side, nothing much happens in this movie. There are some crappy "Manimals" that look like something that escaped from a road show version of "The Lion King". There's a lot of crabs, a couple of bones, an adulterous wife chained in a dark cave with the decomposing corpse of her lover and an incestuous brother and sister who commit suicide by sitting on top of sky fireworks. Add to this a demented "scientist" who looks like a yard gnome and has Disney dreams of grandeur. You have been warned. I don't know what content got this filmed banned as the nudity is PG and the atrocities are stated and not shown. It was OK for a one time view but I can't see me sitting through this one again. Sayanara!

"Horrors of Malformed Men" is a truly bizarre Japanese horror flick that reminded me far more often of Jodorowsky than of anything in the supernatural genre.

If it has any other similarity, it's with avant-garde dance, as the movie often looks like a stage performance someone filmed from the front row.

The plot, if it can be said to have one, is a mess. A man is somehow in the female cell of an insane asylum, where all of the women are young, beautiful, and topless. He has no idea who he is. He realises that he is the spitting image of a recently deceased man, and so travels to that man's home and pretends to be him. On an island near-by, the titular "malformed men" reside.

The movie doesn't feel scary or suspenseful, but I don't think it means to be. Instead, it is a series of extravagant and strange set pieces, with much nudity, elaborate costumes, body paint, and kitsch.

Unfortunately, there's not enough of a plot - or a plot easy enough to follow - to keep your attention in between these admittedly quite impressive sequences. I found myself wanting the movie to end quicker than it did.

Looking to find out a burning mystery, a man escapes from an insane asylum and sets out to uncover the truth only to see a manner of accomplishing that when a man with his identical appearance is found dead, but a complication threatens to undo his quest when a strange secret is revealed.

For the most part, this was a wholly enjoyable effort. A lot of what makes the film so enjoyable is the strong first half which really sets this off on a fine note with how this plays out. The idea of him being trapped in the asylum with a fractured memory and trying to remember what happened while having all the unfortunate events occur around him both inside the prison and out provide this with a wholly enjoyable setup. Combined, these efforts provide a fine mystery-like beginning that is quite enjoyable and engaging during this section. Beyond this, film scores incredibly well with the scenes on the island depicting the strange revelations found there. The lead-up to the fact that the entire island is full of deformities and freaks, from the stories told to him and the various clues that fill him in on his quest to understand the mystery, and once we get beyond that there's some fantastic imagery of them alone on the island observing the demented work of his father. With their painted bodies, misshapen and deformed features, extended or protruding body parts and generally bizarre look that goes along with their absolutely hypnotic dance performances and behavior, these scenes create some memorable and unnerving ideas that are quite fun overall. Alongside the fine gore from that time period, these here are what hold this one up overall for the most part as there are some problems here. The main issue with the film is the complete lack of scares or tension in the middle of the film as we follow an incredibly convoluted and uninteresting hidden identity storyline. This whole section of the film, exploring the idea of him infiltrating the family and getting beyond their suspicions as if he were the man originally brought back to life, just becomes deathly boring as it resorts to the same old series of backstabbing political intrigue and sexual liaisons between him and the female members of the household which offers up the exploitation angles but nothing else. Once it gets to him being sent to the island things pick up but it's still not very interesting under this part of the film. That also brings up the other issue here in that the scenes on the island are far more bizarre than they are creepy or scary. The idea of them being just regular, random freaks and not really homicidal or dangerous doesn't provide this with any kind of special danger since nothing really happens to him in the end. Likewise, the fact that the ending turns into an endless round of reveals and storytelling for a section of the film we wouldn't have known about anyway just turns the entire thing into a comical and overlong unraveling sequence that does the film no favors. These are what hold this one down the most.

Rated Unrated/R: Nudity, Graphic Violence and sex scenes.

The only good thing I can say about is that it is not a horrible "Horror" film.

There are actually some interesting aspects to the movie. It has a plot! And, the plot is sort of interesting - even if we have to wait to the end of the picture for it to make any sense. It's interesting but boring because the story/plot is narrated to us. It would have been much more interesting the conventional way - letting us figure it out for ourselves. But, to think of it, lots of Sherlock Holmes films and others of that ilk have someone explain it all to us at the end.

Contrary to another opinion, I find the last half more interesting than the first. However, that is not to suggest that either is not boring. Both halves are boring! Possibly the most boring Pinku film that I have ever seen.

As a Horror flick it is, also, boring. I expected a Horror film which might be so bad that it is good - meaning comedic. Well, disappointment abounds.

A horrible waste of time. I'm all for non-linear narratives, but this made no sense and never paid off. Characters have beards or an eye patch in one scene, then not in the next. You can't tell which characters actually exist, or who they are to each other. There's no coherent visual style, or rhythm, or any logic whatsoever.

The Butoh dancers are probably supposed to be "artsy" or intense, but they just come off as silly, capering about with great commitment and no discernible purpose.

While there's some resemblance to the Dr. Moreau story, this movie is too goofy to be shocking, and too disorganized to ever build up any fear or potency.

What you do get: a random, unintelligible story, bad special effect violence, and a fair number of bare tits. (That actually makes it sound better than it is.)

Well, where to begin? This notorious Japanese horror has finally surfaced and our first concern is what was so terrible that kept it banned for so long? Made just over 20 years after the atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima, some of this film looks as if some of the short-lived survivors might have made it to the set. Both the way the deformity issue is enthused over here and the clear connection with the bomb attack, make this a true horror. We begin with vivid scenes inside a mental institution but then the film settles down into a creepy mystery before cracking open about half an hour in, whence we find ourselves in the Mexican, Jodorowsky territory, and then worse. This film is not particularly well written and is uneven and occasionally rather silly but nevertheless this is still a work of some considerable power. A one off and a must see for those not easily shocked.

The film begins in a mental institution where lots of half naked women are running about the place. One of the inmates insists he's not crazy and kills someone and escapes. Then, he learns that his exact double just died so he takes the man's place--only to be eventually lured to a freaky island run by a lunatic. There, he learns that his lover is his sister and lots of deformed folks have been created by the man man who created the place. In the end, the freaky man dies and the brother/sister lovers blow themselves up in a fireworks exhibition.

As you can see, "Horrors of a Deformed Man" is a difficult film to describe. It's sort of like combining a surrealist film with soft-core pornography and "The Island of Lost Souls". If you think that such a combination makes little sense, then you now know how I felt watching this film. It was thoroughly confusing, often grotesque and titillating--but not in a good way. The worst part about it is that I really have no idea what was happening during most of the film, not did I really care. Some of the reviewers apparently liked this and though the film was creepy--I mostly just thought it was dumb and a waste of my time. For my time, the great old film "Freaks" is much scarier AND it actually has a story. "Horrors of a Deformed Man" is just disjoint, stupid and incredibly talky. Rarely have I enjoyed a movie less than this one.

Teruo Ishii's 1982 film "Kyôfu kikei ningen: Edogawa Rampo zenshû" (also known as "Horrors of Malformed Men") is a bold and surreal exploration of madness and macabre, drawing heavily from the works of the famous Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Rampo. Ishii's direction plunges the viewer into a nightmarish world where reality and illusion blur, crafting a cinematic experience that is as unsettling as it is intriguing.

The film follows Hirosuke Hitomi, portrayed by Teruo Yoshida, who escapes from a mental institution only to find himself embroiled in a series of bizarre and grotesque events. As he uncovers his mysterious past and his connection to an isolated island governed by the sinister and eccentric Jogoro Komoda, played masterfully by Tatsumi Hijikata, the narrative delves deeper into themes of identity, insanity, and deformity.

One of the standout aspects of the film is the performance of Tatsumi Hijikata. Known primarily as a dancer and choreographer, Hijikata brings a unique physicality to the role of Jogoro Komoda. His portrayal is chilling and mesmerizing, commanding attention in every scene he inhabits. Hijikata's eerie presence is amplified by his grotesque makeup and the unsettlingly fluid movements he employs, making Jogoro Komoda one of the most memorable characters in Japanese horror cinema.

A particularly stand-out scene that encapsulates the film's essence is the surreal and horrifying sequence on Jogoro's island. The island itself is a character, filled with malformed and tormented inhabitants who reflect the inner turmoil of the protagonist. The atmosphere in this sequence is dense with dread, and the grotesque imagery is both repulsive and fascinating. Ishii's use of vivid colors and disorienting camera angles enhances the surreal quality of the scene, immersing the audience in a twisted dreamscape.

Despite its intriguing premise and striking visuals, "Kyôfu kikei ningen" suffers from a convoluted plot and uneven pacing. The narrative often meanders, losing focus as it attempts to weave together multiple storylines and themes. This can make the film feel disjointed and difficult to follow, detracting from the overall impact. Additionally, some of the special effects, while ambitious, do not hold up well, occasionally pulling the viewer out of the otherwise immersive experience.

The film's exploration of taboo subjects and its unflinching depiction of deformity and madness can also be challenging for some viewers. Ishii does not shy away from shocking imagery, and while this can be seen as a strength in creating a unique horror atmosphere, it can also alienate audiences who are not prepared for such graphic content.

Overall, "Kyôfu kikei ningen: Edogawa Rampo zenshû" is a mixed bag. It showcases Teruo Ishii's willingness to push the boundaries of horror and presents a visually compelling and thematically rich narrative. However, its flaws in storytelling and pacing prevent it from achieving its full potential. For fans of Japanese horror and surreal cinema, it is worth a watch, but it may not appeal to a broader audience.