***SPOILERS!****
The title to this review may be slightly confusing: Teruo Ishii's KYÔFU KIKEI NINGEN: EDOGAWA RAMPO ZENSHÛ aka. HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN (1969) is not an adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU nor some sort of remake of the adaptation THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1933). It simply also deals with a maniac who rules an island on which he does EXTREMELY maniacal things to other living creatures. The late Teruo Ishii is one of the most notorious Japanese Exploitation directors of the 60s 70s, and HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN is maybe his most notorious work. For understandable reasons as this highly bizarre and brilliantly demented flick just screams controversy.
HORRORS OF MALFROMED MEN starts out as a mystery, in a 19th century Japanese Insane asylum, from which the doctor Hirosuke Hitomi (Teruo Yoshida) escapes after several disturbing hallucinations. After being wrongly suspected of a murder, fate takes him to a seaside estate the proprietor of which was his spitting image... Without giving too much detail about the storyline as such i can say that the second part of the movie which takes place on an island ruled by a madman is more than a little weird and disturbing.
Tatsumi Hijikata, who was primarily a dancer and choreographer, delivers an incredible performance as one of the most scary-looking, bizarre, insane and diabolical villains ever seen. Unlike fellow mad island-ruler Dr. Moreau, the insanity of Hijikata's malformed Jôgorô Komoda is not driven by scientific interest, but by pure vengefulness and bizarre perversion. Disfigured himself, he enslaves 'normal' people on his island and turns them into 'malformed men', e.g. by sewing a beautiful female baby to an ugly male baby, and hence creating a male/female, ugly/beautiful Siamese twin. This is just one of the many nasty, bizarre and utterly perverse ideas in the second part of this film.
HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN is a haunting, sometimes beautiful and often truly disturbing and disgusting, highly bizarre and utterly unique viewing experience that can not quite be compared to any other film. This film has the reputation of being a forerunner for the Toei Company's (and particularly Teruo Ishii's) Pinku Eiga/Pinky Violence films of the 1970s. It is definitely the most bizarre flick from Ishii I've seen thus far, and also my new personal favorite (FEMALE YAKUZA TALE and THE EXECUTIONER sharing the second place). For lovers of Japanese Exploitation Cinema or any kind of Bizarre stuff in general, HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN is a true must-see. Definitely not for the squeamish, and a truly unique viewing-experience.
The title to this review may be slightly confusing: Teruo Ishii's KYÔFU KIKEI NINGEN: EDOGAWA RAMPO ZENSHÛ aka. HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN (1969) is not an adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU nor some sort of remake of the adaptation THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1933). It simply also deals with a maniac who rules an island on which he does EXTREMELY maniacal things to other living creatures. The late Teruo Ishii is one of the most notorious Japanese Exploitation directors of the 60s 70s, and HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN is maybe his most notorious work. For understandable reasons as this highly bizarre and brilliantly demented flick just screams controversy.
HORRORS OF MALFROMED MEN starts out as a mystery, in a 19th century Japanese Insane asylum, from which the doctor Hirosuke Hitomi (Teruo Yoshida) escapes after several disturbing hallucinations. After being wrongly suspected of a murder, fate takes him to a seaside estate the proprietor of which was his spitting image... Without giving too much detail about the storyline as such i can say that the second part of the movie which takes place on an island ruled by a madman is more than a little weird and disturbing.
Tatsumi Hijikata, who was primarily a dancer and choreographer, delivers an incredible performance as one of the most scary-looking, bizarre, insane and diabolical villains ever seen. Unlike fellow mad island-ruler Dr. Moreau, the insanity of Hijikata's malformed Jôgorô Komoda is not driven by scientific interest, but by pure vengefulness and bizarre perversion. Disfigured himself, he enslaves 'normal' people on his island and turns them into 'malformed men', e.g. by sewing a beautiful female baby to an ugly male baby, and hence creating a male/female, ugly/beautiful Siamese twin. This is just one of the many nasty, bizarre and utterly perverse ideas in the second part of this film.
HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN is a haunting, sometimes beautiful and often truly disturbing and disgusting, highly bizarre and utterly unique viewing experience that can not quite be compared to any other film. This film has the reputation of being a forerunner for the Toei Company's (and particularly Teruo Ishii's) Pinku Eiga/Pinky Violence films of the 1970s. It is definitely the most bizarre flick from Ishii I've seen thus far, and also my new personal favorite (FEMALE YAKUZA TALE and THE EXECUTIONER sharing the second place). For lovers of Japanese Exploitation Cinema or any kind of Bizarre stuff in general, HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN is a true must-see. Definitely not for the squeamish, and a truly unique viewing-experience.