'Beastman Snowman') is a 1955 Japanese science fiction horror film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya.
The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akemi Negishi, Sachio Sakai, and Nobuo Nakamura, with Sanshiro Sagara as the Abominable Snowman.
When they arrive, Kiyoshi and Kaji split off and visit their mutual friend, Gen, promising to meet the others later at the lodge.
While Takashi takes over the phone, a fur-coat-clad young woman named Chika, who lives in a village deep in the mountains, enters.
Growing up in a village that shuns contact with outsiders, Chika is none too pleased to see so many visitors but reluctantly takes shelter from the storm nonetheless.
Takashi and Nakata find strange tufts of hair around the cabin, as though whatever had left them was absurdly large.
The team splits up, one group brings the bodies back to the lodge and the other continues searching for Kiyoshi.
By nightfall, there is still no sign of Kiyoshi and the rescue team leader announces that they will have to return to Tōkyo until the snow thaws.
Six months later, when the snow has thawed enough for a proper search, Takashi and Machiko join an expedition to the Japanese Alps led by anthropologist Professor Shigeki Koizumi.
Koizumi's goal, also the expedition's main focus, is to verify the existence of an unknown bipedal primate lurking in the area.
One night, as Koizumi's group rests in their camp, an ape-like creature reaches into Machiko's tent and touches her face, causing her to wake up and scream.
Approaching the creature's lair, Ōba discovers a juvenile Snowman playing by the cave entrance.
With its offspring dead, the Snowman, enraged and full of grief, runs back to the village and destroys it.
The mortally wounded Snowman grabs Chika and drags her down with him as he plunges into the sulfur pit to certain death.
[4] Half Human was part of a mini-cycle of topical films influenced by Eric Shipton's photographs of large footprints found in the snow at Mount Everest in 1951.
[4] Writer Shigeru Kayama was hired to write the original script and completed his treatment on October 16, 1954.
[5] Honda went to Tokyo to shoot Half Human's scenes with snow and on returning found that special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya was busy working on Godzilla Raids Again, which put Half Human on hold while Honda began filming Mother and Son.
[5] Half Human was released in Japan by Toho on August 14, 1955, as a double feature with Three Brides for Three Sons.
[10] Crane also directed Monster from Green Hell, which was released by DCA on December 10, 1957[11] as a double feature with Half Human.