The Human Vapor

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The Human Vapor
Human Vapor (1960)
Directed by	Ishirô Honda
Produced by	Tomoyuki Tanaka
Written by	Takeshi Kimura
Starring	Tatsuya Mihashi Kaoru Yachigusa Yoshio Tsuchiya Keiko Sata Hisaya Ito Yoshifumi Tajima
Music by	Kunio Miyauchi (Japanese)
Cinematography	Hajime Koizumi
Editing by	Kazuji Taira
Distributed by	Toho
Release date(s)	December 11, 1960 May 20, 1964
Running time	92 min. 81 min. (USA)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese English
IMDb profile

The Human Vapor, known in Japan as Gas Ningen dai Ichigo (ガス人間第一号, Gasu Ningen dai Ichigo^?, lit. "First Gas Human"), is a tokusatsu film produced and released by Toho Studios in 1960. The film was made by Toho's legendary Godzilla directing/special effects/producing team of Ishirô Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, and Tomoyuki Tanaka.

1 Synopsis
2 Cast
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

The film tells the story of Mizuno (Yoshio Tsuchiya), a librarian at a sanatorium (implicitly for cancer), who has been given the ability to become vapor after a scientist does an experiment on him. Mizuno uses this power to engage in criminal activities, robbing banks to give the money to his dancer girlfriend (Kaoru Yachigusa). Tatsuya Mihashi is the police inspector after them. The film was recut by Brenco Pictures in 1964, changing the premise from mystery to being told from Mizuno's point of view. Even though this version is dubbed, Tsuchiya has stated that he prefers this cut of the film, which he considers to feature his finest performance.^[1]

[edit] Cast

Kenji Okamoto, Assistant Inspector - Tatsuya Mihashi
Fujichiyo Kasuga, Master of Japanese dance Nichibu - Kaoru Yachigusa
Mizuno, Gasu ningen - Yoshio Tsuchiya
Kyouko Kouno, woman journalist - Keiko Sada
Dr. Tamiya - Hisaya Itou
Tabata, Inspector - Yoshihumi Tajima
Inao, Detective - Yoshio Kosugi
Dr. Sano - Fuyuki Murakami
Old Japanese Tsutsumi dram player - Bokuzen Hidari
Metropolitan Police Department executive officer A - Takamaru Sasaki
Metropolitan Police Department executive officer B - Keisuke Yamada
Metropolitan Police Department executive officer C - Akio Kusama
Hayama - Minosuke Yamada
Ikeda - Tatsuo Matsumura
Bank manager - Youyou Miyata
Fujita, Detective - Kou Mishima
Hotta, Detective - Yukihiko Gondou
Oosaki, Detective - Kamayuki Tsubono
Kawasaki, journalist - Kouzou Nomura
Nishiyama - Ren Yamamoto
Mondayuu - Somemasu Matsumoto
Aizawa, policeman - Yasuhisa Tsutsumi
Nakaya, policeman - Rinsaku Ogata
Journalist - Masaaki Tachibana
Prison guard of a detention center A - Keiji Sakakida
Prison guard of a detention center B - Syouichi Hirose
Tobe - Tetsu Nakamura
The man who eats bread in a library - Akira Yamada
Satoyo（Mondayuu's Wife） - Toki Shiozawa
Kajimoto - Jirou Kumagai
Kamata, Discernment of the police - Mitsuo Matsumoto
Spectator of a theater　A - Yutaka Oka
Spectator of a theater　B - Kouichi Satou
Spectator of a theater　C - Tadahiko Kuroda

[edit] Trivia

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Along with Matango and The Mysterians, this ranks as one of Ishiro Honda's favorite movies that he directed.
A sequel to this film was planned called Frankenstein vs. the Human Vapor in which the Human Vapor survives the climax and goes to find a doctor who brought Frankenstein's monster to back to life, in hopes of finding a way to bring back his girlfriend who didn't survive the climax leading to battle between the two. This was dropped in favor of Frankenstein vs. Baragon (the 1957 film Tomei-Ningen To Hae-Otoko or Invisible Man vs. Fly Man is available in North America under the title Vapor Man meets the Human Fly but it is not related).
The surf rock group Man or Astro-Man? took its name from the American poster for the film.