The Invisible Man Appears
About The Invisible Man Appears
Professor Kenzo Nakazato has an invisibility serum and sets his assistants, Shunji Kurokawa and Kyosuke Segi, in a race to finish it. The winner may ask to marry Nakazato's daughter Machiko. Jewel thief Ichiro Kawabe kidnaps the professor so he can use the formula on a necklace called the Tears of Amour. Kurokawa takes the drug, hides his invisible face under bandages, and steals for Kawabe on the promise of an antidote, while investigator Matsubara follows the case.
Cast & crew
More about The Invisible Man Appears
Nobuo Adachi directed and wrote the screenplay from a story by Akimitsu Takagi, loosely using H. G. Wells's The Invisible Man. Hisashi Okuda produced it. The working title Okuda brought in was Invisible Demon. Eiji Tsuburaya, recently purged from public office, told Okuda he would handle the effects. Hideo Ishimoto photographed it, Shigeo Nishida edited, and Goro Nishi wrote the music. Daiei released it in Japan in September 1949.
Themes
Background
Daiei made it in 1949, during the Allied occupation, when American horror and crime pictures were back in Japanese theaters.
Making
Okuda has said that when he showed Tsuburaya the Invisible Demon plan, Tsuburaya answered that he was willing to work on it because he thought it was worth doing. Tsuburaya was just out of the public-office purge.
Look
Hideo Ishimoto photographed the live action. Tsuburaya's crew handled the invisibility: bandages with nobody in them, and objects that move after the man has faded.
Technique
Eiji Tsuburaya handled the invisibility effects after the occupation authorities had purged him from public office.
Music
Goro Nishi composed the score.
Preservation
A print survives. It was not issued outside Japan until Arrow Video's Blu-ray on 15 March 2021. A copy is also on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Kanji Koshiba plays Kurokawa, the man who turns invisible. Chizuru Kitagawa plays Machiko. Ryunosuke Tsukigata plays Professor Nakazato. Daijiro Natsukawa plays Segi. Shosaku Sugiyama plays Kawabe. Mitsusaburo Ramon plays Matsubara.
- Takiko Mizunoe plays Ryuko Mizuki.
- The necklace in the plot is the Tears of Amour, not a stone called the Blue Star.
- Daiei's next Wells-derived picture, The Invisible Man vs. the Human Fly, opened on 25 August 1957.
- Arrow Video's Blu-ray of 15 March 2021 was the first release outside Japan.
Scenes
- A bandaged figure walks into the jeweler's and demands the Tears of Amour.
- Kurokawa, already invisible, is told the theft will buy him an antidote.
Influenced by
- The Invisible Man (H. G. Wells, 1897)
Also available
- Arrow Video Blu-ray (15 March 2021)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Invisible Man Appears (1949) by Nobuo Adachi.webm)