Mimi Torigai (Teruko Akatsuki) and Ryosuke Akashi (Keiju Kobayashi) are reporters working for rival newspaper organizations. They compete with each other for stories hoping to scoop each other. The two reporters also have romantic feelings for each other, however, the story, at least at this time, is more important than developing a relationship.
Mimi is at the police station looking for a story when she sees her old friend, Yurie Obata (Sumiko Wakasugi). Yurie has been brought to the station for questioning by Inspector Okado (Den Obinata). It appears that a dead body of physicist Ryuzo Maya (Bontaro Miake) was found in the ashes of a burned-out country house. Yurie is the niece of Ryuzo’s second wife, Shimako Maya (Kiyoko Hirai). Yurie was found near the murder scene. She had been ill for a while. This caused her confusion and memory loss, which made her unable to account for her actions an hour before the fire was set.
The Maya family believes that they are suffering from a curse. The curse refers to a spectral element known by the family as the “Rainbow Man”. According to the curse anyone who sees the rainbow is doomed to die. Five years ago, a man connected to the family, Suga Hachiro, was the first person believed to have fallen victim to the Rainbow Man. The curse has affected other family members. The elder son, Katsuto Maya (Kenjiro Uemura) is an artist who paints disturbing pictures. The younger son, Toyohiko Maya (Junnosuke Miyazaki) has just returned having been away for several years.
As Mimi investigates more murders happen. Before each death the victim sees a rainbow, leading the family to believe that there is a supernatural presence involved in the deaths. But is there an earthlier reason for the rainbows? The Maya family secrets are slowly becoming revealed. As the mystery of the Maya family unfolds it reveals sinister secrets involving drugs and the theft of research materials.
“The Rainbow Man” AKA “Nijiotoko” was released in 1949 and was directed by Kiyohiko Ushihara. It is a Japanese horror fantasy and a mystery thriller. It is sometimes considered to be Japan’s first science fiction film, although the science fiction elements are slight.
I had a hard time with this movie. Normally it would have been quite an enjoyable mystery with some paranormal horror elements, but I had a lot of problems understanding the English subtitles. The subtitles, at least on my copy of the film, are really bad. Plus, they went by so rapidly that I had to rewind a lot to get all of the nonsense words, which didn’t help me anyway.
The special effects were designed by Eiji Tsuburaya, who also worked on Godzilla. The main effect in the black and white movie is the insertion of color stripes across the screen during the scenes where the Rainbow Man is stalking a victim.