Human Vapor opens with TV news reporter Kyoko Kono (Yû Aoi) interviewing a professor, when something supernatural happens to a him during the process live on TV, and he… explodes! Ewww… what a mess!
Still, if anyone should be fired it would be the guy who insists on cutting to commercials, since this will get you ratings for days!
Of course, everyone in the vincinity of the TV studio soon plays detective to get to the bottom of what happened, and whether the titular chap did it when he reveals himself to the cops as the culprit, but how on Earth could you do it?
And once vapor… sorry, vapour – I’m writing in English – claims he did it, that stuff falls out of him, too. Weird! And even when he DOES start talking, it still doesn’t make any sense. It’s mostly forgettable with one of the scant memories being that veryone grimaces at each other on a regular basis.
Spread out over 8 episodes, this does feel incredibly dragged out, and while that’s often the case for some East Asian dramas – particularly those from Korea – it’s telling that this is a remake of the similarly-named 1960 movie, The Human Vapor, which only ran for 91 minutes. Hence, why couldn’t they just cut things down, here?
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Human Vapor is on Netflix from tomorrow.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 45 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: July 2nd 2026
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.39:1
Director: Shinzô Katayama
Producers: Sôkichi Onoda, Hailey Yoomin Yang
Writers: Yeon Sang-ho, Ryu Yong-jae
Cast:
Kyoko Kono: Yû Aoi
Detective Kenji Okamoto: Shun Oguri
Kaho: Suzu Hirose
Fujita: Kento Hayashi
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.