Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)

After escaping from an insane asylum, a medical student assumes the identity of a mysterious dead man, who appeared to be his doppelganger, and gets lured to a sinister island ruled by a mad scientist and his malformed men.

Director:

Teruo Ishii

Writers:

Teruo Ishii (screenplay), Masahiro Kakefuda (screenplay)

Stars:

Teruo Yoshida, Yukie Kagawa, Teruko Yumi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Teruo Yoshida	...	Hirosuke Hitomi / Genzaburô Komoda (plays two parts)
Yukie Kagawa	...	Shizuko
Teruko Yumi	...	Hideko / Hatsuyo (plays two parts)
Mitsuko Aoi	...	Toki Komoda
Michiko Kobata	...	Chiyoko Komoda
Yumiko Katayama	...	Female Patient A
Kei Kiyama	...	Kei
Reiko Mikasa	...	Mad Woman
Miki Obana	...	Slashed Woman
Michi Tanaka	...	Kin
Yoshiko Katô	...	Masseur
Asano Kanamori	...	Female Patient B
Yôko Koyama	...	Miki
Chiyo Okada	...	Clerk
Mie Hanabusa	...	Mie

Storyline

After escaping from an insane asylum, a young medical student takes on the identity of a dead man to discover the true identity of a man whose picture he saw in a newspaper--who is his exact double. His investigation leads him to a remote island where he discovers a sinister laboratory where a crazed scientist is performing gruesome experiments on live humans--and that his own family has a connection to the scientist.

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Plot Keywords:

insanity | based on novel | eye patch | female frontal nudity | sepia tinted scene | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Malformed Memories (2007)

User Reviews

A rewarding 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

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

31 October 1969 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Horrors of Malformed Men

Filming Locations:

Noto, Ishikawa, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toei Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1