Jû jin yuki otoko (1955)

A yeti terrorizes people on top of Mount Fuji.

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writers:

Shigeru Kayama (story), Takeo Murata

Stars:

Akira Takarada, Akemi Negishi, Momoko Kôchi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Akira Takarada	...	Takeshi Iijima, alpine club member
Akemi Negishi	...	Chika, villager
Momoko Kôchi	...	Machiko Takeno, Iijima's lover
Nobuo Nakamura	...	Professor Koizumi
Sachio Sakai	...	Nakata, alpine club member
Kokuten Kôdô	...	Tribal Chief
Yoshio Kosugi	...	Oba, animal broker
Akira Tani	...	Chubby Thug, Oba's men
Kenji Kasahara	...	Shinsuke Takeno, Machiko's younger brother
Senkichi Ômura	...	Villager
Koji Suzuki	...	Kurihara, alpine club member
Ren Yamamoto	...	Shinagawa, alpine club member
Akira Sera	...	Matsui, hotelier
Yasuhisa Tsutsumi	...	Kodama, reporter
Tadashi Okabe	...	Takeno, Machiko' older brother

Storyline

A yeti terrorizes people on top of Mount Fuji.

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Plot Keywords:

yeti | monster | creature | creature feature | monster movie | 

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

Japan USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

14 August 1955 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Half Human

Filming Locations:

The Japanese Alps, Honshu, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Future director Kihachi Okamoto not only served as Ishiro Honda's chief assistant director, he was drafted into appearing in front of the camera as an extra playing one of the searchers.

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Connections

Edited into Half Human (1958)

User Reviews

Nice Monster Film from Toho

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.