The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly (1957)
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Invisible Man and Fly Man (1957)
The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly (透明人間と蝿男 Tōmei Ningen to Hae Otoko, lit. "Invisible Man and Fly Man") is a 1957 Japanese tokusatsu science fiction horror film directed by Mitsuo Murayama and written by Hajime Takaiwa based on an idea by Toshikazu Yamano, with special effects by Toru Matoba. Produced by Daiei, it was the studio's second film inspired by the novel The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells, after The Invisible Man Appears in 1949. It stars Yoshiro Kitahara, Junko Kano, Ryuji Shinagawa, Ikuko Mori, Joji Tsurumi, Yoshihiro Hamaguchi, and Shozo Nanbu. The film was released to Japanese theaters by Daiei on August 25, 1957 as part of a double feature, first with Suzunosuke Akado: The Vacuum Slash of Asuka, and then with Headbutt and Karate Chop.[1]
Plot
Ryoki Watanabe, the president of Watanabe Construction, is murdered on a Japan Airlines flight. The killing took place in a bathroom none of the stewardesses can recall anyone else entering. None of the passengers interviewed by the police knew him, although one, Doctor Hayakawa, postpones his interview due to a recent heart attack. The police chief suggests a link to two equally unexplained bank robberies that took place in recent months. Chief Inspector Wakabayashi notes that the victims in all three cases offered no apparent resistance, and died in a state of character. Interviewing Hayakawa and his daughter Akiko, Wakabayashi alarms them by joking that the perpetrator must have been invisible. Working with Dr. Tsukioka, Hayakawa has just recently unlocked the key to invisibility while studying cosmic rays. Their assistant Sugimoto demonstrates their machine by turning a glass invisible, but says they have never tested it on anything living.
The bank robber strikes again, with no evidence the safe was even entered save for a matchbox from a nightclub called Asia. The owner, Tatsuya Kuroki, denies all involvement. He introduces Wakabayashi to Hajime, his bartender and a karate hobbyist. Soon after, another murder takes place: a man seems to materialize behind a woman named Noriko Maeda before stabbing her and vanishing. Detective Tada happens to be on the scene, and hears a buzzing sound as she points to the sky. Kuroki has an alibi; so does Maeda’s boss, Kusunoki.
Following Hajima as he walks to visit one of Asia’s dancers, Mieko, Wakabayashi watches him swat at what appears to be a fly. He too is fatally attacked after rounding a corner, with Wakabayashi arriving too late to see the murderer. He too hears a buzzing sound. His fellow investigator Hayama uncovers a connection between Watanabe and several earlier victims: all were assigned to the same secret military project at the end of World War II. After comparing notes with Wakabayashi, Tada brings up the buzzing sound they both heard. Wakabayashi calls Sugimoto, who considers a shrinking human theoretically possible, but unlikely in practice. Determined to prove that invisibility has practical applications, Sugimoto interrupts the Hayakawas’ dinner wearing an invisible cloak and gloves. The ray only worked on the parts of him less exposed to sunlight, so he needs the accessories to achieve the full effect.
The murderer, a twisted smile on his face, strikes again, stabbing Kuroki. He takes out a vial and releases the gas within, shrinking himself down to diminutive size. Buzzing through the air, he visits Kusunoki next — and the businessman sets down a pool of liquid which restores him to his normal size. Convicted as a war criminal and left stranded on the island where he helped develop the shrinking gas, Kusunoki has been using it to take revenge on his former associates, although he has almost run out of the ampules. His hitman, Yamada, has become addicted to it and more sadistic as a result, killing Maeda, Hajima, and Kuroki over his possessiveness of Mieko. His next victim is Hayama, who he outmaneuvers during a nighttime chase.
Tsukioka attempts to develop a machine to cure invisibility, but the ray it emits proves lethal when tested on rabbits. At Asia, Yamada uses another ampule to lust over Mieko undetected, though it backfires when she mistakes him for a fly and swats him away. Enraged, he kills her just before she walks on stage. Wakabayashi has no luck advancing his Human Fly theory before the police chief, and with the bodies piling up, he begs Tsukioka to turn him invisible to crack the case. The scientist refuses on moral grounds. As Hayakawa and Sugimoto continues to work on a cure, Yamada infiltrates the lab and kills them both. After the funeral, Tsukioka uses the invisibility ray on himself. He drops in on Yamada and Kusunoki, who are at odds over Yamada’s failure to steal the ray, and hears them plan a second attempt. Once inside the lab again, Yamada dives into a vat of chemicals, killing him instantly. The police discover his remains at normal size, but with no possible mode of entry besides the vents, Wakabayashi deduces that he was the Human Fly.
The detectives charge Kusunoki with the murders, but seem to have no proof until Tsukioka enters the office, offering his testimony. Asking to change in the next room before he goes down to the station, Kusunoki uncorks an ampule and escapes. With all of Tokyo on alert, Kusunoki kills a passer-by, then calls Wakabayashi and Tsukioka to demand the invisibility ray. When Tsukioka refuses, he sets off a bomb beneath a train, killing 790 passengers, and threatens to do it again the following week.
Wakabayashi meets Kusunoki atop the Marunouchi Building to hand over the device. The new Human Fly arrives by helicopter, allowing him to spot the soldiers surrounding the building. He reveals he has already set the next bomb to explode, then demands Tsukioka reveal himself. Instead, Wakabayashi attacks him during the handoff, foiling his efforts to set off an ampule, but loses his gun. As he flies away, he reveals that he planted the bomb far away on Christmas Island. To their surprise, he returns to the helipad moments later, held at gunpoint by Akiko, now invisible herself. He manages to disarm her, but Wakabayashi shoots him, causing him to fall off the roof.
Tsukioka, having perfected the invisibility cure, agrees to turn the machine over to the government, but not before using it one last time on himself and Akiko to give a group of reporters the slip.
Staff
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Mitsuo Murayama
- Written by Hajime Takaiwa
- From a story by Toshikazu Yamano
- Based on characters created by H. G. Wells
- Executive producer Hidemasa Nagata
- Planned by Osamu Yoneda
- Music by Tokujiro Okubo
- Cinematography by Hiroshi Murai
- Production design by Taijiro Goto
- First assistant director Kiyoshi Ishida
- Director of special effects Toru Matoba
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Yoshiro Kitahara as Chief Inspector Wakabayashi
- Junko Kano as Akiko Hayakawa
- Ryuji Shinagawa as Dr. Tsukioka, the Invisible Man
- Ikuko Mori as Mieko
- Joji Tsurumi as Sugimoto
- Yoshihiro Hamaguchi as Detective Hayama
- Shozo Nanbu as Dr. Hayakawa
- Bontaro Miake as chief of the Metropolitan Police
- Ichiro Izawa as Kokichi Kusunoki, the Fly Man II
- Shizuo Chujo as Yamada, the Fly Man I
- Ko Sugita as Hajima
- Tatsuo Hanabu as Director Tada
- Yasuo Harumoto as Tatsuya Kuroki
- Koichi Ito as chief detective
- Shoichi Kawashima as detective
- Kazuko Miyakegawa as policewoman
- Teppei Endo as doctor
- Ken Yamaguchi as professor
- Kyoko Anan as maid
- Chikayo Matsuo as waitress
- Kan Takami as old bank custodian
- Koji Matsuyama as Sadanaga, reporter
- Shinji Takada, Ryuichi Ishi as reporters
- Toshiko Hashimoto, Kinuko Mochidome as stewardesses
- Kazuo Sumida, Eiichi Takamura as golfers
- Toru Konoki as branch manager
- Saburo Sakai as deranged man
Appearances
Monsters
- Dr. Tsukioka
- Kokichi Kusonoki
- Akiko Hayakawa
- Yamada
Alternate titles
- Invisible Man and Fly Man (literal Japanese title)
- Transparent Man and Fly Man (alternate English title)[2]
Video releases
Kadokawa DVD (2005)
- Region: 2
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (Mono)
- Subtitles: Unknown
- Special features: Unknown
Kadokawa DVD (2014)
- Region: 2
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (Mono)
- Subtitles: Unknown
- Special features: Audio commentary and photo gallery
Arrow Video Blu-ray (2021)[3]
- Region: A and B
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (Mono)
- Subtitles: English
- Special features: Booklet containing essays by Keith Allison, Hayley Scanlon, and Tom Vincent (first pressing only), interview with critic and genre scholar Kim Newman, trailer for The Invisible Man Appears, photo galleries
- Notes: Packaged with The Invisible Man Appears.
Trivia
- This film shares part of its Japanese title with the Japanese release of the much better-known 1958 American science fiction film The Fly, which was released in Japan as Horror of the Fly Man (ハエ男の恐怖 Hae Otoko no Kyōfu), though with the 'Fly' in "Fly Man" spelled in katakana rather than kanji characters. While both films feature "fly men," The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly actually predates the latter film by almost an entire year.
References
This is a list of references for The Invisible Man vs. The Human Fly. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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