Prince of Space (1959)
"Yûsei ôji" (original title)

When an alien force tries to invade Earth to steal a powerful new rocket fuel, a mysterious hero intervenes.

Director:

Eijirô Wakabayashi

Writers:

Masaru Igami (story), Shin Morita

Stars:

Tatsuo Umemiya, Ushio Skashi, Joji Oka

Bottom 100 #32 | See the Bottom 100 movies as voted by our users.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tatsuo Umemiya	...	Yûsei ôji / Waku-san
Ushio Skashi
Joji Oka	...	Maboroshi taishi (as Jôji Oka)
Hiroko Mine
Takashi Kanda
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jack Curtis	...	Additional Voices (voice) (unconfirmed)
Ken Sudoh
Nobu Yatsuna

Storyline

A Group of space men from the planet Krankor who resemble chickens are led by their leader, Phantom to invade Earth. But a strange superhero named Prince of Space (actually a bootblack in disguise) arrives to defeat the spacemen. Although the weapons of the aliens cannot harm the Prince of Space, the Phantom continues to fight, and many plot twists (including capturing a group of elderly scientists) ensue. Watch out for the Giant!

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Plot Keywords:

space | alien | prince | superhero | first of two parts | 

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

19 March 1959 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Invaders from the Spaceship

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toei Company, Toei Tokyo

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min 85 min (DVD) 57 min (part 1) 64 min (part 2)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Like Shintoho's Super Giant/Starman series, this Toei production was released to theaters as a sort of mini-serial with two approximately hour long episodes. In the United States this was edited into a single feature film running less than 90 minutes.

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Goofs

When the "guardian" monster's feet are on the video monitor, you can see the wood underneath the set.

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Quotes

Phantom of Krankor: Give everyone four hours off.

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Connections

Featured in Mystery Science Theatre 3000: Prince of Space (1997)

User Reviews

Prince of space...or the real starman series...I'm confused!

Prince of space is a pretty crappy movie, but it isn't the so called "Starman" series. The Starman series, which has been released in two volumes from Something Weird video, features a tights-wearing japanese man running around laughing and beating people up as they fire guns, which they know can't kill him, for he's made of steel. Shintoho, a company that was an off shoot of the great Toho production company created these films which range from bad to so horrible that you want to spray mace in your eyes so you can't see the screen. Walter Manly, the man responsible for delivering these messes to America made it worse by cutting them down from serials and turning them into 75 minute films about salamanders and monsters, and emerald planets... I really couldn't follow the plot I was to busy throwing up... anyway, their are some really classic moments in the films, weird, American serial influenced fights against hordes of creatures or even space facists, and mutants dressed in costumes you'd think were made by the producer's mother for $15.00. There are four films made for American release (even though there were nine films from Japan, three of them were turned into "The Evil Brain From Outer Space" which, sadly, is one of the better ones. My favorite of them all is "Invaders from Space, which has some nifty acrobatics and isn't as boring as some of the others. Prince of Space does suck, but then again so does Starman... if you've got nerdy friends and you're either drunk and/or high and your looking for a giggle, check them out.