After a winter storm strands five friends in a remote cabin with no power and little food, disorientation slowly claims their sanity as each of them succumbs to a fear that the snow itself may be contaminated or somehow evil.

Canadian surgeon Dr. Norman Bethune (Donald Sutherland) journeys 1,500 miles into China to reach Mao Zedong's eighth route Army in the Wu Tai mountains where he will build hospitals, provide care, and train medics. Flashbacks narrate the earlier events of his life: a bout with tuberculosis at the Trudeau sanatorium; the self-administration of an experimental pneumothorax; the invention of operative instruments; his fascination with Socialism; a journey into medical Russia; and the founding of a mobile plasma-transfusion unit in war-torn Spain. Bethune twice married and twice divorced his wife Frances (Dame Helen Mirren), who chooses abortion over child-rearing in her unstable marriage. By 1939, Bethune had been dismissed from his Montreal Hospital for taking unconventional risks, and from his volunteer position in Spain for his chronic problems of drinking and womanizing. As his friend states: "China was all that was left." Even there, Bethune confidently ignores the advice of Chinese officials until heavy casualties make him realize his mistake and lead him to a spectacular apology.

武泽竹夫（阿部宽 饰），绰号“老武”，人过中年的他是一个有着丰富经验的职业欺诈师，他与貌不惊人并且反应迟钝的入川铁巳“老铁”（村上昭二 饰）不打不相识，将后者引入行与自己结为搭档，穿行于都市的各个角落，银行、赛马场、当铺随处可见他们行骗的身影。拥有不堪回首过去的二人相互扶持，在底层过着不咸不淡的生活。某天，这对搭档与姐妹花河合八寻（石原里美 饰）、河合真寻（能年玲奈 饰）以及男孩石屋贯太郎（小柳友 饰）的人生发生交集。五个人生处于最底层的人，组成了一个略显别扭的临时家庭，他们朝着人生的转折点携手前进……本片根据2011年直木赏得主道尾秀介的同名原著改编。

南太平洋进行了一起核实验，“龙神丸二号”可能是此核实验的受害者。就在龙神丸二号出事不久，东京就发生了一系列诡异的事件，一个叫三崎的罪犯突然蒸发但却留下了他的衣服，一群鱼船的幸存者回忆说他们的同伴在一艘鬼船受到了液状生物的袭击而融化(其实是液化)。警方刚开始对鬼船上的液状生物 不感兴趣，而是更在呼三崎的案件并去调查三崎的女友“新井近子”，但是随着案件调查的发展警方发现鬼船的案件跟三崎的案件有着千丝万缕的联系，而事件的严重程度也远远超过了警方的想像！该片为东宝“变身人间”系列的第一部，同时也是一部反思科学利弊的科幻悬疑佳作！！！！〖文/灵魂在线〗