ebiros2 The movie directed by Teruo Ishii was part of series of very radical erotic violence movies that he directed for Toei studio in the late '60s and early '70s.The story is an edit on many novels written by Edogawa Ranpo (who got his name from Edgar Alan Poe), but gathered fans and has become a popular story since it was made. Kogoro Akechi is the main protagonist that appears in many of Ranpo's novels.Kogoro Akechi has somewhat become like the Sherlock Homes of Japan. Becoming the focus of many mystery drama with even new stories invented like this one long after the death of his creator.This is a pretty interesting story, and no wonder it still garners fan base. It's an improbably story, but it carries the essence of Ranpo's novel that contains strange and unusual situation, and characters. Actors, and acting are first rate, and has the over the top craziness that director Ishii is known for, that makes this movie worth watching.It's not a mainstream movie by any means, but is an interesting movie from the '60s Japan.

edchin2006 The only good thing I can say about is that it is not a horrible "Horror" film.There are actually some interesting aspects to the movie. It has a plot! And, the plot is sort of interesting - even if we have to wait to the end of the picture for it to make any sense. It's interesting but boring because the story/plot is narrated to us. It would have been much more interesting the conventional way - letting us figure it out for ourselves. But, to think of it, lots of Sherlock Holmes films and others of that ilk have someone explain it all to us at the end.Contrary to another opinion, I find the last half more interesting than the first. However, that is not to suggest that either is not boring. Both halves are boring! Possibly the most boring Pinku film that I have ever seen.As a Horror flick it is, also, boring. I expected a Horror film which might be so bad that it is good - meaning comedic. Well, disappointment abounds.

locohombre80 My buddy showed up with this a few nights back. "You got to see this movie," he says. "You won't believe it." He sure was right. I don't know what it was I saw. Was this a horror movie or a comedy or a just a weird collection of crap? I'll be damned if I could tell.What I do know is that it was entertaining from start to finish. It's not like any Japanese movie I've ever seen before. Lots and lots of nudity. No monsters to speak of, but there is a horror movie edge. And it's got one of the weirdest endings I've ever seen. Did the couple get blown up? Were their heads still supposed to be alive? Was this intended to be funny or deep? Crazy stuff.I was so confused I listened to part of the commentary track, hoping it would shed some light on the picture. Let me warn you, don't do it. The guy sounded like he was on downers and the track sounded like it was recorded in a bus station. To make it even worse, he said nothing about this movie. I mean it. Nothing. He talked a lot about the director, mostly just listing hundreds of other movies he made, but nothing about this one. It was a major waste.The commentary might get a zero, but I've been thinking about this movie ever since. It definitely earns its score.

Scarecrow-88 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.