If you can stick this movie out till the end, you'll get a very rewarding movie. It's not the easiest movie to watch and it didn't seemed at first to me that this movie was going to be much good early one but it's definitely a movie that gets better in its second halve, when there is more story and the movie its visuals become just great to watch.

It's a quite surrealistic Japanese movie, that relies heavily on its visuals. There are some amazing visuals throughout the movie, with also the thanks of the phenomenal camera-work. It's an artistic movie above all things, so beware of what to expect.

Of course there is also a story but this one is quite hard to follow at times. It isn't until the movie reaches its halve way point that it becomes more or less more clear in which direction the story is going. The movie soon becomes a sort of a surrealistic Japanese version of the Island of Dr. Moreau. I think those that are familiar with this story, or any of the other movie versions of the story will be more able to understand and appreciate this movie.

For a Japanese movie it also features quite some good acting. It's an obviously well cast movie, in which the actors don't act in a very theatrical way, like you might expect from a Japanese movie. Especially surprising also since this movie got made back in 1969.

After finishing watching this movie I simply must say that I overall enjoyed it and found it to be an ultimately rewarding movie to watch, though it's obvious that this is not really a movie for just everyone.

8/10

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The film begins in a mental institution where lots of half naked women are running about the place. One of the inmates insists he's not crazy and kills someone and escapes. Then, he learns that his exact double just died so he takes the man's place--only to be eventually lured to a freaky island run by a lunatic. There, he learns that his lover is his sister and lots of deformed folks have been created by the man man who created the place. In the end, the freaky man dies and the brother/sister lovers blow themselves up in a fireworks exhibition.

As you can see, "Horrors of a Deformed Man" is a difficult film to describe. It's sort of like combining a surrealist film with soft-core pornography and "The Island of Lost Souls". If you think that such a combination makes little sense, then you now know how I felt watching this film. It was thoroughly confusing, often grotesque and titillating--but not in a good way. The worst part about it is that I really have no idea what was happening during most of the film, not did I really care. Some of the reviewers apparently liked this and though the film was creepy--I mostly just thought it was dumb and a waste of my time. For my time, the great old film "Freaks" is much scarier AND it actually has a story. "Horrors of a Deformed Man" is just disjoint, stupid and incredibly talky. Rarely have I enjoyed a movie less than this one.

The mere fact that it was banned in Japan was enough to make me want to seek out Horrors of Malformed Men. After all, it was made in the country that gave the world the Guinea Pig movies, pinku eiga, bukkake, hentai, and umpteen other acts of perversion that I don't even know the name for. If this film was considered unsuitable for viewing by its own people, what deviant treats could it possibly hold?

Well, not much really. Whilst there is plenty of nudity, a touch of blood, and a smattering of sex (non-explicit),there is nothing that could be really be described as particularly 'shocking', particularly by today's standards. My guess is that the film's central theme of physical deformity and dis-figuration touched a very sensitive nerve in a country that was still suffering from the effects of a nuclear attack, which resulted in its suppression.

Still, even without any extreme depravity on display, director Teruo Ishii's trippy flick is worth a watch if bizarre cinema is your cup of tea. Dreamlike, creepy and just downright weird, Horrors of Malformed Men contains plenty of startling imagery and a crazy narrative that is difficult to describe. But I'll give it a go...

Hirosuke (Teruo Yoshida) , a medical student with almost no recollection of his past, is trapped in an asylum, despite being perfectly sane. After escaping from the loony bin, and being framed for the murder of a circus girl, he spots the photo of a recently deceased man, Genzaburo Komoda, to whom he bears an uncanny resemblance. By pretending to have been resurrected, Hirosuke assumes the dead man's identity, fooling everyone, including Komoda's widow and mistress (both of whom he gets jiggy with).

Whilst at the Komoda household, Hirosuke recalls memories that convince him to travel to a nearby island, home of Jogoro, the web-fingered father of Genzaburo (who we first see making awkward movements amongst some rocks, and then performing a freakishly slow walk towards the camera, which eerily reminded me of Sadako from Ringu).

Whilst on the island, Hirosuke not only discovers Jogoro's plans to build his 'ideal community' (by transforming perfectly normal humans into hideous freaks),but also the awful truth behind his own identity.

Throw in a pair of Siamese twins (consisting of both sexes),some gold-painted dancers performing a hilarious routine, a perverted transvestite who plots with Genzaburo's mistress to inherit the Komoda fortune, an undercover detective, a woman who is forced to eat crabs off the rotting body of her lover, some accidental incest, and a finalé featuring a firework display that scatters body parts through the air, and you have one hell of a strange film.

6.5, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.