Rebooting a Classic Japanese Movie: Human Vapor with an Anti-Authority Twist
In the opening scene of Human Vapor, the first collaboration between Netflix and historic Japanese company Toho, Korean showrunner Yeon Sang-ho and Japanese director Shinzo Katayama deftly establish how science-fiction has scaled up since 1960, the release year of the original The Human Vapor film. We meet harried but dedicated reporter Kyoko Kono (Yû Aoi) interviewing a scientist about his new method of biomass power on live Japanese television when a strange and self-directing vapor infiltrates the studio, slipping under the scientist’s clothes and into his airways. All hell breaks loose: the autonomous, aggressive vapor floods his body, suspending him high in the air. His clothes stretch and his legs twitch as the vapor forces itself down his throat—before he explodes, blood and viscera raining down on the studio.
Rendered with vivid, pulsating CG effects, this is an explicit and attention-grabbing moment of body-horror, and viewers who only know the simplest contextual details about the series before they hit play—that it’s based on an old Japanese sci-fi film—will realize this reboot is not beholden to the style and restraint of a ‘60s monster movie. This happens before we even meet the titular Human Vapor, a sinister suited man who can shift between physical and gaseous form responsible for a mysterious killing spree.
But how does the Netflix series expand the scope of the original film by the original Godzilla director Ishirō Honda and special effects pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya, and how faithful is the show to its beguiling murderous villain?
What’s the story of The Human Vapor?
The Human Vapor is a tokusatsu film, which literally translates as “special photography” and refers to Japanese film and television that makes prominent use of practical special effects. Think monster suits, miniature battlefields and cityscapes, masked superheroes and giant mechas. Ishirō Honda is most famous in the West for establishing the kaiju genre and directing Godzilla and seven of its sequels. But special effects director Tsuburaya is sometimes credited as “the father of tokusatsu”, and his fascination with how Western special effects were developing in the 1920s and 30s drove him to push SFX boundaries while working for Toho, first in war movies and then in kaiju monster movies like Godzilla.
The Human Vapor belongs to a niche category under the tokusatsu umbrella—Toho’s “Transforming Human Series”, three films where scientifically altered humans, made amoral or downright villainous through their transformation, use their new supernatural powers to steal and kill, forging a new ethical code and escaping the authorities. In The Human Vapor, Mizuno (Yoshio Tsuchiya) is a librarian who, after being discharged from the air force for health concerns, takes part in a scientist’s astronautical experiment that goes awry. The doctor becomes Mizano’s first victim; let loose with no father figure to guide his powerful new existence, the gaseous man pulls off a series of bank robberies to fund performances for his beloved Fujichiyo (Kaoru Yachigusa), a Noh and Kabuki-trained dancer in dire need of a comeback.
What made The Human Vapor unique?
Honda and Tsuburaya delay the first sight of a man turning into vapor, but they come thick and fast in the film’s second half, using several different techniques like dry ice, optical compositing, and wire work in a single sequence to sell the Human Vapor effect. The mystery plot is basic, but effective at immersing us in the key relationships – primarily between gruff, disciplined detective Okamoto (Tatsuya Mihashi) and his sparky reporter girlfriend Kyoko Kono (Keiko Sata), who try to solve the bank robbery independently and act as a mirror to the doomed devotion shared by Mizuno and Fujichiyo.
The Human Vapor is built around Mizuno, and Yoshio Tsuchiya’s controlled, intense charisma ably conveys the calm, arrogant ambition the character now possesses. He turns himself in to the police, only to demonstrate how easily he can escape; later, he sits down with the press to explain his entire elaborate backstory, eager to explain his new ideology. The film is notable for smuggling in a socio-political angle: the atomic powers that gave Mizuno his powers also gave him a new morality, and his superiority over society feels just as chilling to the authorities as his supernatural powers.
How similar is Human Vapor to the original film?
There is no bank robbery in Human Vapor; the eight-episode story is entirely original, turning its focus to idols and yakuza whenever it chooses. But in homage to Honda’s film, Netflix’s Human Vapor carries over several elements. The leads are named Detective Kenji Okamoto (Shun Ogori) and Kyoko Kono, but they are not romantic
