Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . such as the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, while others including WORLD WAR Z are peopled by fast-moving, gymnastic brain-eaters, there are scads of blob movies in which the title mass skedaddles right along, but sadly THE H-MAN is not one of these. "O.N. John" might have been "Torn between two lovers," but she certainly would have felt even MORE like a fool had she been divvied up among at least a dozen film genres, as is THE H-MAN. Whether you look at this tale as a mob saga, horror flick, musical, police procedural, romantic comedy, pacifist rant, anti-Nuclear plea, exercise in science fiction, ghost story, Asian sex industry expose, maritime myth, post-war anti-American propaganda piece, or something else, viewers cannot deny that THE H-MAN is one mixed up mess, given its leaden pace, ludicrous English voice dubbing, cheesy special effects, pretentious professors, flip-flopping police, idiotic crime lords, kitchen sink plotting, pulled punches, eye-candy teases that lead nowhere, amphibian genocide (putting one in mind of Dolphin Bay), and other incompatible jagged puzzle pieces.

Leofwine_draca This Japanese variant on THE BLOB sees atomic bomb testing (what else?) responsible for a gloopy ball of slime (nicknamed the 'H-man') going around dissolving people and leaving just their clothes behind. It sounds a lot of fun and it is, even though the majority of this film's plot is actually a crime drama, following a squad of policeman on the track of various criminal gangs. There are the requisite shoot-outs, car chases, and lengthy nightclub scenes involving scantily-clad singers, but it's the sci-fi trappings that make this movie so enjoyable. The first half hour is a little slow – other than a couple of people who disappear, we don't know what's going on – but once we get a flashback about the origin of the creature, the pacing picks up a great deal.The highlight of the film is the aforementioned flashback, a creepy segment involving some sailors investigating an eerily abandoned ship (a cliché, but designed perfectly here). Before you can say 'Steve McQueen', there's a slimy menace on the loose, dissolving people in some surprisingly gooey, graphic scenes that must have caused an uproar when this was first released. Although director Ishiro Honda is more used to shooting gigantic monsters, he's more than able to hand a smaller-scale menace on this occasion, delivering a suitably fiery climax in the sewers and another decent set-piece in which the titular menace invades a relaxed nightclub.The film doesn't offer up much that we haven't seen before, and it's fair to say that the cops-and-robbers element is fairly ordinary. None of the criminals stand out as really dastardly, and none of the cops are very interesting, either. Yet other characters are better – Yumi Shirakawa as a fragile mobster's girlfriend plays a pivotal role (the literal English title translates as Beauty and the Liquidman) and Kenji Sahara's dedicated scientist, forever performing experiments on unfortunate frogs, is entertaining. The special effects are fairly dated but always amusing, with glowing green figures, dissolving heads and a moving blob that looks like nothing more than washing up liquid squirted up the wall. A masterpiece this isn't – but it is a solid B-movie of the kind they made so well in the '50s.

Woodyanders The police investigate the disappearance of a drug dealer after a dope deal goes awry. The cops discover lethal radioactive beings called H-Men who ooze slime and dissolve everyone they come in contact with who were created by H-bomb tests in the pacific. Director Ishiro Honda relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, maintains an admirably serious tone throughout, does an expert job of creating and sustaining an eerie and unsettling atmosphere (the flashback sequence which takes place on board an empty abandoned ghost ship is especially spooky and nightmarish), and stages the stirring fiery conclusion with considerable brio. Takeshi Kimura's intriguing script cleverly blends horror and crime thriller elements into an engrossing and entertaining multi-genre synthesis. This film further benefits from solid acting by a sturdy cast, with stand-out contributions by Yumi Skirakawa as sweet nightclub singer Chikaro Arai, Kenji Sahara as the earnest Dr. Masada, Akihiko Hirata as the skeptical Inspector Tominaga, and Koreya Senda as the shrewd Dr. Maki. The special effects are quite imaginative and impressive: The glowing green H-Men are truly scary while the scenes of people disintegrating are freaky and upsetting. Both Hajime Koizuma's crisp widescreen cinematography and Masaru Sato's rousing score are up to par. A fun fright flick.

gdgold333 Alien is suppose to now be the most terrifying Sci-Fi/Horror put out, but for those of us who saw The H-Man as young baby-boomers this one should get first prize.The comments by others who were in elementary school at the time, pretty much says it all about being almost terrorized for weeks by nightmares and parents trying to sooth you before you could fall asleep at night. I still have an occasional dream about being tracked by one of these "liquid creatures". I would hope to see the movie again sometime to "embrace my fear" as an adult. Somethings in the psyche of a young child can hang around for decades, and for movies... this is one of them.If Sony decides to buy up the rights on this one from Toho Productions for a Region 1 DVD release, they would do well to bundle it with the other early and under-rated classics like Rodan and The Mysterians. Unfortunately, as classic as Godzilla releases have been (more than my mind can count), it is time for something more unique and rare which has been passed over. I hope it happens.