Warning From Space

Well Wish Star Fish

Warning From Space
aka Spacemen Appear In Tokyo
aka Uchûjin Tôkyô ni arawaru
Japan 1956 Directed by Kôji Shima
Daiei Arrow Films Blu Ray Zone B

Warning: Star fish shaped spoilers in this one.

Okay, if there’s yet another good thing about UK boutique Blu Ray labels just recently, it’s their new found interest in releasing previously unseen Japanese science fiction, horror and fantasy movies which haven’t been seen over here in a proper version before. This one, Warning From Space is a first time watch from me and, although some print damage means some of the sequences are fluctuating a little, I have to say that Arrow have done a wonderful job with getting this out there. And I was actually quite taken with this one.

Briefly, in terms of plot, the film centres around some mysterious UFOs appearing in Japan over a few weeks followed by the brief appearances, of some starfish monsters, designed by popular artist Taro Okamoto. However, once the starfish people, who come from the planet Paira, have realised we frighten them, they transmute one of their best scientists into human form, the guise of a popular tap dancer in Tokyo, so as not to scare us jumpy Earth people. Then they tell us that unless we release all our nuclear weapons at an oncoming planet on a collision course with Earth, we will be destroyed by it in 30 days. Much politicking occurs but, when the various countries finally agree that it’s a good idea to stop the certain death which is approaching, the nuclear bombs do nothing. Luckily, the aliens prepare a missile utilising a theoretical formula from an earth scientist, which they knew about millenia ago but destroyed and forgot about it, so they could never suffer from its destructive force... and use it to destroy the menacing planet.

So, yeah, there’s lots of interesting stuff in this movie, for sure, beyond the fact that the creature designs were produced by a famous artist. Perhaps that’s why the decision was made to shoot this one in colour because, it’s actually the first ever Japanese science fiction film to be shot in colour (just two years after rival company Tokyo launched their black and white Godzilla films). It’s interesting that the aliens, although presented as a possible life threatening menace at the start of the picture, to catch the imagination and keep the audience interested, are actually on Earth for a mission of peace. The film was actually based on a novel by Gentaro Nakajima, from what I can understand but, in film at this point the concept of aliens being our friends was fairly new and I can’t help but think this film was in some small way influenced by the 1951 movie The Day The Earth Stood Still, in this regard... at least in terms of creating a cinematic environment to get the project green lit.

The starfish version of the aliens aren’t in the movie too much but they look pretty good and, for fans of comic book company DC, they may look especially familiar. I have no idea if this is true but surely the alien starfish character Starro, who debuted in the first Justice League Of America comic book in 1960, is a complete rip off of these aliens? Especially since it doesn’t take much imagination for someone to put an S in front of Taro Okamoto’s name and add an extra R. Starro, of course, would finally make it onto cinema screens as the prime villain in the 2021 DC movie The Suicide Squad (reviewed here).

There’s something about the way colour is used too, which gives this film a certain something. The bright red splash of blood (or is it supposed to be red paint) which ushers in the opening titles on a red block background (on the Japanese print... the US dub version, also included on this Blu Ray, apparently dumps these titles for something else) are quite strong and, in the opening shot, pitched in sharp contrast to a big close up of a blue umbrella to bring us into the first shot of the movie. And the main sequence on the mother ship when the starfish aliens are conversing about how to not frighten the Earthlings has them all appear as grey monsters on a grey set... which is a nice use of muted colour. Also, they have that wonderful, revolving double hoop spinning around in their ship, which is a simple effect but which I don’t remember seeing on screen before it made an impact with audiences in the 1978 picture Superman The Movie... so it’s nice to see it used here in a 1956 film. Another nice touch which we see in a lot of modern science fiction movies from the mid-1970s to present, is the loss of radio signals in the area whenever there’s a UFO or monster in the vicinity... the film is not shoddily thought out, for sure.

Of course, the alien transformed into a half drowned human found on a lake and then used to infiltrate one of the many scientist’s family homes gets some stuff wrong, if she doesn’t want to be immediately found out. For instance, in a wonderful instance of some kind of trick photography, which is very well done, she jumps impossibly high to return shots when she’s playing the scientist’s son at tennis. Not to mention, when trying to avoid autograph hunters who think she really is the local tap dancing sensation, walking through doors without realising you need to open them first, just dematerialising through them instead. Yeah, actually it’s surprising with all this going on that people take so long to realise that she’s not actually human, for sure.

The aliens are mostly not present for the last third of the picture, where it turns into a disaster movie with the heat of the approaching planet causing high temperatures and forcing the inhabitants of the planet into underground shelters. They turn up for a quick deux ex machina style rescue as revealed earlier but, yeah, I thought Warning From Space was pretty good, it has to be said. When the earth is saved, loads of different examples of native wildlife, such as rats, bunnys, crabs and tortoises emerge from their natural hiding places and return to Earth’s surface once more. A subplot involving a villain who kidnaps one of the scientists to persuade him to give them the formula of ultimate destruction kind of peters out by the end and the villain goes unpunished, since it’s only happening in order that the scientist’s absence from the main part of the narrative can build suspense as to whether the Earth will survive or not. But, as I said, I didn’t mind this and I will definitely try and watch this one again at some point. I had a good time with it and I suspect fans of Japanese science fiction in general should find this one worth a watch.