Invasion of the Neptune Men
                   
Director: Koji Ohta
Year: 1961
Rating: 5.0
People can be so cruel sometimes. This gets a rating of 2.0/10 on IMDB. Really? Do these people torture kittens as well? Walk into other people's homes with mud on their shoes? In truth, I expect they saw it on Mystery Science Theater which no doubt mocked this dubbed sci-fi film from Japan. It isn't that bad. It isn't good but it is a low budget black and white sci-fi superhero film for children. And it stars a young baby faced Sonny Chiba! Chiba!




Japan is under attack again. They never get a break. This time it is men from Neptune who want to take over Earth. Mars we expect, but Neptune? That is almost embarrassing. We never get a look at their faces because they wear these huge metal helmets that cover their faces and have objects that twirl around on it. But they can project images to take on the appearance of grim faced Japanese soldiers. Six boys are out playing when they spot a space ship that has landed and Neptune Men chase them. But to their rescue comes Space Chief! A man in a mask driving around a jet propelled flying sports car. Quite cool. And then flies away not to be seen till much later. To save the budget I expect. The Neptune Men launch an invasion and make clocks go backwards and records play in reverse. Pretty evil. I think I heard "Paul is dead" on one record. They also start blowing up buildings; clearly stock footage as one showed a statue of Hitler being destroyed with the words Mein Kamph in the background.




The nation turns to their scientists to defend them and Shinichi (Chiba) invents in a matter of hours an electronic wall that they can't get through. This was Reagan's idea 40 years ago and Shinichi did in the time it takes to cook a Turkey! Come on America. Later there are aero dog fights between Space Chief and alien ships. Oddly, Shinichi and Space Chief are never seen together. Hmmm. Produced by Toei and directed by Koji Ota. It is for children.