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

Krankor is allowed to escape after he threatens to kill a boy. As he starts running up the stairs, the boy (who is standing next to him) starts following him up the stairs, realizes he's supposed to stay where he is, and stops.

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Quotes

Prince of Space: Hold your fire! Your weapons are useless - let's try bare hands now!

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Connections

Referenced in Invasion of the Neptune Men (1961)

User Reviews

Chickens Without Underwear

"Your weapons have no effect on me" but this movie does. Want to laugh until you fall over? This is the one that tops the charts for the worst Japanese film of all times. The story appears to be that 7, or maybe 8, chickens try to take over the earth, or Japan, or something and a shoe-shine boy, who is really the Prince of Space, points a butane grill lighter at them and jumps around with a sinus mask over his face. The Phantom of Krankor, the head chicken (or is that rooster?), forgot his underwear much to our dismay (or delight),has drooping football pads under his tights, and laughs demonically every five minutes. His flock keep shooting at the Prince with their stick weapons, ignoring his statement that the "weapons have no effect on me". Maybe they should have just hit him over the head. To add to the confusions, small Japanese boys run around giving orders, having access to restricted government property and speaking with a variety of American accents. Somewhere along the line, a giant Pillsbury Dough Boy appears, guarding the planet Krankor, and is easily dispatched by the Prince. So much for giant guardians. The wimpy scientists, meeting in a room the size of the Metropolitan Opera, run the gamut of emotions from cowardice to boredom, which is probably what you will do as you watch this film. It all works out, I guess and the world is safe from Krankor and his flock of invading Rhode Island Reds. I wonder if the Prince went back to his shoe shine job?