Battle In Outer Space

 

 

Anti Gravitas

Battle In Outer Space
aka Uchû sai sensô
Japan 1959 Directed by Ishirô Honda
Toho/Eureka Masters Of Cinema Blu Ray Zone B

Battle In Outer Space was directed only a year after Ishirô Honda’s The H Man (reviewed by me here) but, even so, he managed to sandwich directing another six features in between that one and this. This is part of the new double bill of Honda restorations released very recently on the Eureka Masters of Cinema label and, between these and their simultaneous release of a UK edition of Mothra (which I reviewed in its previous Blu Ray edition here), Eureka have basically reissued the old US Toho Icons Of Sci-Fi DVD set of these three films and relaunched it, at a higher price, for the UK market. But it’s still a welcome release and, although I really don’t have much to say about Battle In Outer Space (it’s an okay watch but nothing really special), I’m really glad that The H Man was restored and, frankly, there are still some nice things about this one which are worth noting.

One of those is ‘the Japanese John WIlliams’ Akira Ifukube’s rocking score, which is basically cribbed off one of his sub themes from the first Godzilla and also makes its way back into the Godzilla franchise at various points. What this means is, no matter how bad or ridiculous things get on screen, the viewer can at least tap their toes along to the rocking score as it plays through, sometimes a little less than appropriately, as the story unfolds.

Alas, that story is absurd but at least it’s fun. The film was made in 1959 but it’s actually set in Earth’s far future of... 1965. I’d like to think the Japanese really were that optimistic that, by 1965 they’d have manned space stations and a space force but... yeah, the projection of where they’d be at seems a little absurd, especially considering this was made ten years before man even got to the moon.

Starting with a group of flying saucers who destroy said space station, the plot unfolds as they go to Earth and do dodgy things, causing destruction that makes no sense. For example, we see them levitate a huge (model) railway bridge and so a train plummets to destruction but, then they just put the bridge back and you’re left with the question of... why the heck did they want to do that anyway? Soon, though, the pesky Earthlings plan their counter move, with two rockets sent to the moon for reconnaissance. However, the aliens (who we never get to see out of their spacesuits), have taken over a human in the crew and turned him into a spy, who they force to explode one of the two rockets while the ground crew are skirting around, trying to find the alien moon base. There’s a battle on the moon where the alien base is destroyed, another battle escaping back to their lone standing rocket (which is somehow a much more interesting sequence than the rest of the film) and then, when they return to Earth, the planet is galvanised into action, building a defence force for one big super battle above our planet.

It’s pretty tame stuff and, like always on these films, some of the effects and model work is quite good and... other stuff isn’t (you can clearly see and count all the various strings holding up all those models). Some of the models are nice though, especially the cute little lunar mini-buses which the humans use to journey around to the light side of the moon. They’d make really good Japanese tin toys and, for all I know, they might well have been at the time.

One quite comical moment comes when a crowd of aliens finally encounter two of the Earth people and attempt to stop them. They totally sound like a group of dogs all got a new squeaky toy for Christmas and are squeaking them all together at the same time for a sustained period. This made me smile... as did the various ray guns and lasers in the wonderful sequence where the two moon buses are trying to beat a hasty retreat back to their rockets, not knowing one has already been destroyed.

And, yeah, not much else to say about Battle For Outer Space. This was always going to be a short review because there’s nothing really great or really terrible about it. It’s a solid, late 1950s Japanese sci-fi movie which is probably superior, at least in the ambition of what the writers and director were trying to do compared to the US films of the same ilk but, perhaps because of this, lacking the real gravitas of the situation which is constantly etched into the faces of the various characters (as it should be). Nowhere near my favourite of Honda’s films but I’m looking forward to listening to the new commentary track at some point and I love the colours and clarity of the restoration of the thing. So top marks to the Eureka Masters Of Cinema label, once again. I’m assuming we’ll be getting The Mysterians from them or a similar label again sometime soon.