From Daiei Studios, the good folk who unleashed Gamera the Flying Turtle on the world, comes a much earlier tinfoil effort. Warning From Space, released in 1956 to capitalize on the success of Godzilla, has the honor of being the first Japanese space opera film in color. It also features some of the most bizarre out-of-this-world creatures ever witnessed on Schlock Treatment - star creatures from the planet Paira who have giant eyes for belly buttons and look suspiciously like a cross between Tellytubbies and the KKK.
Their spaceship hovers over Tokyo, creating mass hysteria and the usual cries of denial from the stuffed shirts in the government. After frightening a few geishas, the star creatures decide to "transmute" into a more pleasing form to the human eye. And so as to not attract undue attention, the lead alien morphs into the most famous female singer in Japan, appears at a country club doing ten-foot volleys on the tennis court, and walks through walls in front of crowded rooms.
Her message is simple - Earth is on a collision course with the renegade Planet R and, as Planet Paira is dependent on the Earth's gravitational pull, the fate of both planets are at stake. Dr Kamura's plan is to use the earth's stock of H-bombs to blast the planet out of existence, but the rest of the world won't listen, and as Planet R dwarfs the Earth in its shadow, earthquakes and tidal waves split Japan in two. It's a perfect picture postcard of post-war angst: barely 10 years after Hiroshima and the Japanese population are running from air sirens into bomb shelters while their country is flattened by outside forces.
Interestingly, the A-bomb is seen as the potential savior of Japan - or maybe that's something the American dubbing studio lost in the translation. And speaking of the dubbing, why do half of the characters sound American, and the other half are straight out of Monkey Magic? Still, it's an interesting, uniquely Japanese manifestation of Cold War paranoia, with a very cool backdrop of 1950s Tokyo. Remember to keep your eyes on the stars as we prepare for the imminent destruction of the Earth - AGAIN - with the 1956 Warning From Space.
Their spaceship hovers over Tokyo, creating mass hysteria and the usual cries of denial from the stuffed shirts in the government. After frightening a few geishas, the star creatures decide to "transmute" into a more pleasing form to the human eye. And so as to not attract undue attention, the lead alien morphs into the most famous female singer in Japan, appears at a country club doing ten-foot volleys on the tennis court, and walks through walls in front of crowded rooms.
Her message is simple - Earth is on a collision course with the renegade Planet R and, as Planet Paira is dependent on the Earth's gravitational pull, the fate of both planets are at stake. Dr Kamura's plan is to use the earth's stock of H-bombs to blast the planet out of existence, but the rest of the world won't listen, and as Planet R dwarfs the Earth in its shadow, earthquakes and tidal waves split Japan in two. It's a perfect picture postcard of post-war angst: barely 10 years after Hiroshima and the Japanese population are running from air sirens into bomb shelters while their country is flattened by outside forces.
Interestingly, the A-bomb is seen as the potential savior of Japan - or maybe that's something the American dubbing studio lost in the translation. And speaking of the dubbing, why do half of the characters sound American, and the other half are straight out of Monkey Magic? Still, it's an interesting, uniquely Japanese manifestation of Cold War paranoia, with a very cool backdrop of 1950s Tokyo. Remember to keep your eyes on the stars as we prepare for the imminent destruction of the Earth - AGAIN - with the 1956 Warning From Space.