I was surprised how influential this film appears to have been. The meticulously clean set designs and some of the shots obviously influenced Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The scenes of fighter planes going up against flying saucers bring to mind Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Independence Day and so many others. Also a clear influence on the last-mentioned film is the destruction of famous monuments and the global coalition that bands together to defeat the flying saucers and their mother ship.
The legendary Ishirô Honda, creator of Godzilla, directs this Toho Studios outing and, though the dialogue is awful, and the pacing in the first half drags a bit, visually it's a thing of beauty. I love the American flying saucer films of the period, but, aesthetically, this is streets ahead of what the US was producing at the time. The miniature work is so well done, even if at times you think you're watching an episode of The Thunderbirds. Frankly, I'd rather see real objects held by strings than CGI that's laid on so thick you may as well be watching a cartoon. Life size lunar vehicles were built for the actors to climb in and out of, and they match the miniature work very well.
Often said to be a kind of sequel to 1957's The Mysterians (though I don't know why) there are no giant monsters or robots, but we do see the aliens on the lunar surface stumbling around in their space suits not looking very dangerous at all. Once they're in the air, however, raining down the apocalypse on Tokyo, New York and San Fransisco, they're clearly a formidable threat to humanity's existence. The final act is an aerial battle that kicks alien butt but it's all resolved very abruptly as the world cheers on its airborne heroes. As a postwar fantasy about the world's capacity to band together in brotherhood in order to secure a prosperous future, it's pretty hard to beat.
Ishirô Honda may not be taken seriously by film buffs but he took his own work very seriously. He was a close personal friend of Akira Kurosawa (who spoke at his funeral) and worked with the master on Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1984). Kurosawa is certainly the greater genius but Honda gave us Gojira, Mothra, and the Mysterians. For those, and this precursor to so many great science fiction classics, he also deserves to be celebrated as one of the greats of Japanese cinema.
The legendary Ishirô Honda, creator of Godzilla, directs this Toho Studios outing and, though the dialogue is awful, and the pacing in the first half drags a bit, visually it's a thing of beauty. I love the American flying saucer films of the period, but, aesthetically, this is streets ahead of what the US was producing at the time. The miniature work is so well done, even if at times you think you're watching an episode of The Thunderbirds. Frankly, I'd rather see real objects held by strings than CGI that's laid on so thick you may as well be watching a cartoon. Life size lunar vehicles were built for the actors to climb in and out of, and they match the miniature work very well.
Often said to be a kind of sequel to 1957's The Mysterians (though I don't know why) there are no giant monsters or robots, but we do see the aliens on the lunar surface stumbling around in their space suits not looking very dangerous at all. Once they're in the air, however, raining down the apocalypse on Tokyo, New York and San Fransisco, they're clearly a formidable threat to humanity's existence. The final act is an aerial battle that kicks alien butt but it's all resolved very abruptly as the world cheers on its airborne heroes. As a postwar fantasy about the world's capacity to band together in brotherhood in order to secure a prosperous future, it's pretty hard to beat.
Ishirô Honda may not be taken seriously by film buffs but he took his own work very seriously. He was a close personal friend of Akira Kurosawa (who spoke at his funeral) and worked with the master on Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1984). Kurosawa is certainly the greater genius but Honda gave us Gojira, Mothra, and the Mysterians. For those, and this precursor to so many great science fiction classics, he also deserves to be celebrated as one of the greats of Japanese cinema.