Let me just start by saying this film is crazy..but, I had such a thrill and few films leave me as breathless with my jaw hanging in shock as "Horrors of Malformed Men". It was like the door to an asylum of depravity and insanity was opened and we bare witness to the madness that springs forth.
It starts out rather conventional. A young man, Hitomi is placed in the cell of an asylum and remembers the image of a seashore and the tune of a lullaby. A bald prisoner tries to murder him in his cell, but our protagonist gets the better of him and escapes. He meets a female circus performer who he heard humming the lullaby tune from his memory down a street from the institution. This circus performer was about to reveal the whereabouts of the seashore location he seeks, but is stabbed by a knife in the back. He is framed for her murder and flees. On a train he sees the photo of a recently deceased heir to a fortune named Genzaburou who looks exactly like Hitomi. After Genzaburou's burial ceremony, Hitomi assumes the man's identity having the surprised family believing his death misdiagnosed. Strangely, both Hitomi and Genzaburou have a specific scar on their foot and our protagonist notices the seashore from his memory nearby where his new identity lives. As Hitomi tries to falsely lead others who knew Genzaburou astray, continuing to remain in this new identity becomes quite exhausting..how long can Hitomi continue this charade. Hitomi is told that across the sea on an island lives Genzaburou's father. Hitomi's wife is murdered by a poison, and his secret lover is supposedly getting threats through letter so he decides to take a trip to the island and that's where the film takes a detour into insanity..
The film really doesn't get good until Hitomi, his assistant(who may be more than he appears)and lover(..along with their man-servant who is of major importance and a voice that brings answers to some things left unanswered back at Genzaburou's estate)land on the island where he finds his father, web-hands and dancing in some state of lunacy, who has turned normal women and old men into "malformed" animalistic primitives conducting all forms of depravity and unhinged behavior(..not to mention, the way that many are covered naked in forms of paint, chalk, feathers, etc). Some of them, in cages, eat grass from the madman's hand, making animal noises! The madman explains what motivated this island of the bizarre and odd, speaking of his wife's adultery and his own web-hands. He plans, the nut, to turn loose his malformed army on the normal, enslaving them so that they can experience what it's like to feel his anguish. He also answers an important question that has troubled Hitomi. The film also explores an incestial relationship that blooms between Hitomi and the Siamese woman he separates from a creep the madman "sown" onto her, that culminates into "fireworks" at the end.
Really, this film has to be seen to be believed..especially the closing hour on the island. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. There's a lengthly "reveal" segment where everything that has occurred gets fitting explanations specifically Hitomi's missing history and how his life as a medical doctor was thwarted by betrayal which resulted in his attempted murder in that asylum. The "human chair", "human fireworks" and, especially, the scene where a woman, imprisoned in a cave, has to eat the crabs which had spent a few days munching on her lover's corpse, are just highlights of many surreal sequences in this truly one-of-a-kind film.
It starts out rather conventional. A young man, Hitomi is placed in the cell of an asylum and remembers the image of a seashore and the tune of a lullaby. A bald prisoner tries to murder him in his cell, but our protagonist gets the better of him and escapes. He meets a female circus performer who he heard humming the lullaby tune from his memory down a street from the institution. This circus performer was about to reveal the whereabouts of the seashore location he seeks, but is stabbed by a knife in the back. He is framed for her murder and flees. On a train he sees the photo of a recently deceased heir to a fortune named Genzaburou who looks exactly like Hitomi. After Genzaburou's burial ceremony, Hitomi assumes the man's identity having the surprised family believing his death misdiagnosed. Strangely, both Hitomi and Genzaburou have a specific scar on their foot and our protagonist notices the seashore from his memory nearby where his new identity lives. As Hitomi tries to falsely lead others who knew Genzaburou astray, continuing to remain in this new identity becomes quite exhausting..how long can Hitomi continue this charade. Hitomi is told that across the sea on an island lives Genzaburou's father. Hitomi's wife is murdered by a poison, and his secret lover is supposedly getting threats through letter so he decides to take a trip to the island and that's where the film takes a detour into insanity..
The film really doesn't get good until Hitomi, his assistant(who may be more than he appears)and lover(..along with their man-servant who is of major importance and a voice that brings answers to some things left unanswered back at Genzaburou's estate)land on the island where he finds his father, web-hands and dancing in some state of lunacy, who has turned normal women and old men into "malformed" animalistic primitives conducting all forms of depravity and unhinged behavior(..not to mention, the way that many are covered naked in forms of paint, chalk, feathers, etc). Some of them, in cages, eat grass from the madman's hand, making animal noises! The madman explains what motivated this island of the bizarre and odd, speaking of his wife's adultery and his own web-hands. He plans, the nut, to turn loose his malformed army on the normal, enslaving them so that they can experience what it's like to feel his anguish. He also answers an important question that has troubled Hitomi. The film also explores an incestial relationship that blooms between Hitomi and the Siamese woman he separates from a creep the madman "sown" onto her, that culminates into "fireworks" at the end.
Really, this film has to be seen to be believed..especially the closing hour on the island. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. There's a lengthly "reveal" segment where everything that has occurred gets fitting explanations specifically Hitomi's missing history and how his life as a medical doctor was thwarted by betrayal which resulted in his attempted murder in that asylum. The "human chair", "human fireworks" and, especially, the scene where a woman, imprisoned in a cave, has to eat the crabs which had spent a few days munching on her lover's corpse, are just highlights of many surreal sequences in this truly one-of-a-kind film.