Considering how much influence Ishirō Honda has had on popular culture, I’m frankly amazed that more of his stuff hasn’t been updated or adapted for modern properties. Obviously, being the man who directed the original Godzilla should be impressive enough as the big, unstoppable lizard is currently experiencing a period of immense success. However, beyond that city-stomping icon, Honda made a whole clutch of sci-fi thrillers, each one worthy of some modern appraisal, and this brings us to Netflix’s redux of The Human Vapor.
Originally made in 1960 and the third part of the Transforming Human Series after The H-Man and The Secret Of The Telegian, the film saw a lowly librarian gain gaseous powers and uses them to commit crimes – however, for this Japanese/South Korean production, the scale has been increased to include modern themes and effects to give the story a thorough update. Will the result yield a show that simply cannot be mist?
Kyoko Kono is a reporter for JNT who, despite the fact that she’s recently been promoted, is still struggling to get into the studio in time to interview University Professor Emeritus Kyugo Sano on the finer points of biomass power regeneration. While that sounds like something of a rather dull topic, even for live television, the broadcast gets some horrific pizazz when a seemingly sentient mist enters his lungs and causes him to first violently blow up like a balloon and then pop, sending the resulting offal all over the Tokyo airwaves and Kyoko’s horrified face. In the aftermath, no one quite knows what to do as speculation runs riot about this bizarre death, but the news team ultimately find a clue in an empty box that was delivered to the station on the same day that contains a QR code.
Once scanned, Kyoko finds that it contains a video message from a mysterious man who calls himself the “Human Vapor” and who swears terrible vengence on those who have wronged him. Claiming that the professor was only the first, the Human Vapor says he will talk more at a specific time and place and soon everyone and their dog converges on the ramen restaurant where this bizarre killer claims he’ll appear next.
But what are the police doing about this? Well, for a start they’ve reinstated Detective Kenji Okamoto back to active duty to take on this near impossible case; but making things extra awkward is the fact that Kenji and Kyoko have some sort of past together and it was she who managed to get him suspended in the first place. However, despite some initial hesitation, the city holds its breath as they await the Human Vapor to arrive at his designated meeting spot – however, both Kyoto and Kenji soon realise that this is actually a red herring and the Vapor’s instructions are actually referring to an older, closed down restaurant across town. Racing there, they finally understand what it is they’re dealing with when the shocking truth is revealed. The killer didn’t murder the Professor with deadly gas – he is the deadly gas, as he can transform himself into deadly vapor at will. But how are you supposed to catch a man who can’t be held?
Thanks to the fact that a lot of classic Japanese sci-fi is still incredible tough to view on demand in the west, there’s a regrettable, Transforming Human-sized hole in my Ishirō Honda filmography as I’m yet to see either the original Human Vapor or the second movie in the series that was helmed by Jun Fukuda – still, that didn’t stop me from becoming intrigued by this new take on classic material that takes a somewhat different route. While the 1960s version saw a simple man gradually lose his humanity due to his new condition (think a visible Invisible Man), the 2026 version goes full sci-fi mystery as we initially lock into the people trying to solve an unsolvable crime.
Straight off the bat, the first episode brings everything up to date with an opening sequence wreathed in body horror and fittingly reminiscent of the infamous opening skull-popper from David Cronenberg’s Scanners. Both taking place during a publicised interview that’s being viewed by the public, watching the visual effect team that bequeathed us with Godzilla Minus One levitate a thrashing man and bursting him like a water balloon in an expensive suit proves to be a fairly successful statement of intent. From here, we mostly focus on the people trying to make sense of what has transpired, with Yū Aoi’s ambitious reporter making the best of a bloody situation and trying to unravel this sci-fi mystery. Interestingly, the Human Vapor himself is kept more in the shadows for the first episode with only the gory results of his powers and an imposing, monotone, message left as a clue. But already we find that this version of the misty murderer desires revenge rather than staging bank heists like his 1960s forebear, and is eager to annihilate anyone who works for something called “The White Centre”, which I’m assuming has given him his cloudy condition in the first place.
The final piece in the first episode’s puzzle is Shun Oguri’s affable detective, Kenji, whose sense of innate decency is shown when he leaps to the defence of an immigrant being hassled by his boss. He’s obviously one of those cop archetypes who hates authority while looking cool in a leather jacket, but the show also makes him nicely vulnerable due to a salty past with Kyoko that’ll no doubt unravel more as the episodes go on.
As it stands, Human Vapor gets off to an intriguing, if hardly roof-lifting start as we’re only just getting introduced to the entire scenario. The script, co-written by Train To Busan director, Yeon Sang-ho, is perky enough and Shinzo Katayama’s direction is energetic enough to ensure this first episode set-up zips by despite all the exposition and various musings. However, most memorable is that splattery opening and a climax that sees the titular gas-man use his powers to beat the shit out of an entire strike team as our dumbfounded leads look on. It’s genuinely cool stuff as we watch the villain first transform his body molecule by molecule (think the rapid deconstruction of the human state seen in Paul Verhoven’s Hollow Man) and then ragdoll grown men as a particularly violent cloud. As antagonist introductions go, it’s certainly memorable and it’s yet another example how a modern day tokusatsu show (a live-action show or film that utilises special effects) can now easily match the visuals of their western brethren.
It’s early days yet and there’s still a wealth of plot, backstory and supporting characters still to dive into; but on the strength of the first episode, it looks like Human Vapor has the ability to be a real gas. Yes, that’s a terrible joke, but it’s what you get when the first episode of a vaperous murderer proves to be impressively solid.
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