The Starman Film Series
Atomic
Rulers of the World (1965) - 5.0
My rating is based on this being for children - or so I assume.
Between 1957 and 1959, Shintoho produced nine short films that were shown
theatrically. The series was called Super Giant and featured a super hero
named Sūpā Jaiantsu translated to Super Giant. In America he was known as
Starman. The nine episodes were purchased by an American company and edited
into four films and dubbed into English. That is what I have - bought long
ago but never watched. Super Giant is played by Ken Utsui, an actor who was
still appearing in films till 2013. Of the nine films, six of them were directed
by none other than Teruo Ishii, who would go on to direct much more adult
films. This film is made up of the first two episodes - Super Giant and Super
Giant Continues - with some 20 minutes cut out. Shot in black and white on
a very low budget, they reminded me of the early Superman TV shows before
they went color. It feels very slow but there are some nifty touches which
brought a smile to the child still within me.
The world is still testing nuclear devices and the citizens on the Emerald
Planet are concerned that the radiation will escape earth's atmosphere and
destroy theirs. They call a Council Meeting where it is all sign language
and they look like a collection from the Yokai Monster films. Some looking
like starfish, others like Knight Templars. They have discovered that the
evil people from the country Metropol have devised a nefarious plot to hide
nuclear devices in every country and then blackmail the nations to surrender.
Japan is up first. They send their self-made super hero to stop them, Super
Giant! Though he is no giant, his watch enables him to fly, to detect radiation,
to speak any language and to switch from his nifty white super hero outfit
and large codpiece into a business suit with a fedora in an instant. Later
Utsui said the codpiece was very embarrassing because it led women to believe
what dreams are made of.
On his way to earth, he saves a plane from crashing but also detects radiation
- a nuclear device in a briefcase. A number of fights follow - he is invulnerable
to bullets as well - some orphans get involved - a cute school girl (Reiko
Seto) gets kidnapped - and he and the girl get trapped with a nuclear bomb
about to go off! The villains have a great liar built into a mountaintop
in which a door opens to allow helicopters to fly in. It is for kids. From
the 1950s though the American compilations were not shown till the 1960s.
The next one is Invaders from Space.
Invaders from
Space (1965) - 6.5
My rating again based on this being a children's film - or so I assume.
This is the second in the Starman series - taken from episode 3 & 4 of
the Super Giant films. It is a vast improvement over the first - Atomic Rulers
- and honestly must have scared the hell out of children in a dark theater
back in 1957. Both episodes were directed by Teruo Ishii and after the first
and second conventional films that he also directed, he must have said to
hell with this and increased the weirdness tenfold. There are moments of
brilliance in this along with the corny super hero stuff. Super Giant (Ken
Utsui) is still hanging out around earth even though his mission was complete
in the previous film. Maybe he liked the food or the girls though since he
is constructed of steel, I am not sure if women are desirable.
Fortunately, for earth. This time it is aliens - they are the Kulimons from
the Moffit Galaxy and they want to conquer the world - and dance. They are
dancing fools. They are basically man-sized cockroaches that can stand up
and look human when they need to. They have released a virus that is killing
people by the thousands with children dying on the playground and women on
the public buses. The scientists are frantically looking for a cure. That
no doubt conspiracy nuts will refuse to take. Then the Kulimons try using
a high-pitched sound that makes people crazy - till Super Giant destroys
their spaceship. They can also emit a ray from their mouths that knocks people
out. They are kind of cool. Super Giant gets into a tussle with one of them
and he somersaults all over the place - so not to be shown up, Super Giant
does the same as they both keep somersaulting over one another.
That is nothing though. The scientists discover that the virus seems to be
emanating from a theater where a dance troupe is performing. An amazing troupe
giving an avant-garde performance in which the dancers in masks are flipping
and somersaulting all over the stage. When Super Giant unmasks them as Kulimons,
a wonderful fight closer to dance than anything begins. Later all the children
are sent to the countryside to escape the virus. Three of them decide to
take a walk and are soon surrounded by Kulimons dancing and prancing around
them like ghouls having a fraternity party. They capture them and hang the
little girl by her hands above a pool of acid. And the best is when
a nurse comes into the house of the scientist and the lights go off - she
returns with a candle and as she closes in on the camera we can see she is
a monster. Or a witch who later chases our little girl again - down the street
with her crutch - and into the house - where another child jumps into bed
to escape and finds the witch there waiting for him. Ishii is having some
fun. The children in the theater probably went home traumatized.
Attack from Space
(1965) - 4.0
Rating based on this being for children.
This is the 5th and 6th episode of the Super Giant serial edited together
for American audiences. It is directed again by Teruo Ishii but is fairly
pedestrian with a lot of filler in a 75 minute film. Maybe Ishii got hell
for the last film. Starman as he is called in the American version even disappears
for heaps of time. There are some pluses though in the film that make it
endurable. This time a different species of aliens who call themselves the
Sapphirians want to conquer earth and the only thing that stands in their
way is Super Giant - and a cute girl with a machine gun.
On an isolated island, the Japanese are building a cutting-edge spaceship
with a new type of engine that is superior to anything else. In fact, it
is superior to that of the Sapphirians and they want it. There are traitors
on earth who have been promised by the aliens - who look exactly like earthlings
- that they will not be harmed. The two children of the professor who heads
the project go into town to find a spare part and follow a man who has bought
the last one. He leads them to a graveyard, puts flowers on a tombstone and
then pushes a button and is able to descend below. The two children are captured
and taken prisoner. Down below is a huge construction with a space ship and
hundreds of soldiers in black who all give the Nazi salute. How they managed
to build this without anyone noticing is just one of those movie things you
can't worry about.
Then they fly up to the Mother Ship, past the Death Star, where the Sapphirians
start to blow up earth. There go the Himalayas, then New York, London and
Tokyo. It is not looking good for earth. But then the two children - one
being played by Reiko Seto who was in the first film - break out of jail,
disguise themselves as guards and plan to take the spaceship back to earth.
Finally Super Giant shows up and takes on about 100 bad guys - in fact he
goes on a killing spree with two guns and laughing as he kills them. Then
he poses, flexing his muscles. He may be going crazy on us. Reiko picks up
a machine gun and starts mowing them down too. The finale as silly as it
is almost makes the film worth getting through. It is like 15-minutes long
of him killing aliens and for some reason doing back flips. And laughing.
Evil Brain from
Outer Space (1966) - 2.0
Rating based on the film being for people with a brain.
This Starman film is a total nonsensical mess which is not surprising once
you know that it was made from three standalone episodes of the Japanese
series Super Giant, 7-9. The American producers smushed them together into
a 78-minute film which actually has practically nothing to do with the original
films. The narrator basically makes up a story about an evil brain from Zemaria
that can control people, create mutants and has an army. That part resembles
Episode 7 but then adds on the other two episodes - ep 8 of a scientist who
turns his dead daughter into a witch who kills women and ep 9 about an Arab
terrorist army. These episodes all sound good on their own but trying to
cram them into an evil brain film made no sense.
It is difficult to even explain the plot. The Council on the Emerald Planet
send Starman aka Super Giant on another mission to save earth. An evil genius
brain survived the death of the owner and wants to conquer earth. So, it
goes to earth and sets up a hidden base and with the help of traitors on
earth begins producing mutants - one a very cool batlike creature that fights
Starman. Another, a female witch who can appear out of nowhere and kill women.
The brain has to be destroyed but in a way that doesn't allow it to reform.
Or something like that.
It is an interesting game to figure out which bits and pieces belonged to
which episode. Thankfully, this was the last one of these mutant films -
I can go back to decent movies but I had these and just wanted to wrap them
up. I literally bought these decades ago. They are all up on YouTube if you
dare. Invaders from Space might be worth your time if you are a fan of Teruo
Ishii and want to see his early work. This last one had nothing to do with
him. Some of the Super Giant films are up on YT as well but with no English
subtitles. Info on Super Giant from Wikipedia.
