In the midst of a drug heist, criminal Misaki somehow disappears; his girlfriend, the nightclub singer Chikako, is thought to know something of his whereabouts and so she is pursued by both police and gangsters (the latter having owned the drugs Misaki stole). But what if Misaki really *had* disappeared, had, as it were, *dissolved* leaving only his clothes behind? Scientist Dr. Masada has a theory about the cause of such a horror: the effects of radiation from H-bombs have created a liquid monster, the terrible H-Man, and now that monster is coming to Tokyo
. Director Ishiro Honda is best known in the West as the director of the first "Godzilla" movie, but he has a lengthy and varied body of work that is soon to get its due in the form of a biography co- written by Steve Rylfe and Ed Godziszewski; the latter presented a screening of "The H-Man" at Montreal's FantAsia Festival 2017 and preceded it with a talk about the man, his life, recurring themes in his films and more. Really interesting information, and it made this film, similar in ways to many such radiation cautionary tales of the 1950s, resonate that much more deeply. I look forward to discovering more of Mr. Honda's films!
