The Revenge of the 31 Days of Cheese - Day 13 - The War in Space

Concluding out little space opera star wars side bar we have Japans 1977 The War in Space.

Unlike the prior two films this wasn’t exactly an attempt to cash in on the star Wars boom – except by sort of linking it with Star Wars by using misleading posters. (the movie business can be pretty underhanded in a lot of ways - this is but one). This was more of a film like the Mysterians or Battle in outer space where the earth is invaded by aliens and they are fought off.

Sometime in the near future a huge space ship that looks something like a roman Galley (the oars are lasers or something that shoots things that blow up other things) appears over the earth. It then discharges flying saucers which go about blowing up cities (think IDF on speed using models instead of the CGI stuff that film used) so far so good.

Mean time at the Japanese division of NASA or the UN Space patrol or whatever – they realize that the only person who can stop this invasion is a retired professor who along with most of the folks at the Japanese Division had worked on something called Gothen – and it seems Gothen in the only weapon that will be able to fight the aliens.

There is some plather of back story set up as the cities are being blown up – one of the Crew is an old boyfriend of the Professor’s daughter who left Japan two years ago and has just returned- to find out that the Professor’s daughter Jun has become engaged to one of the other Gothen Crew – no it’s not awkward at all and of course someone will die in the coming battle.

The crew (including Jun) race to complete Gothen which turns out to be one of those super space battleships that the Japanese are so fond of, see Atragon and Space Battle Ship Yamamoto and heck there was one in Godzilla Final Wars – while the aliens pound the living day lights out of the island the ship is base on (deep underground). There are attempts at sabotage by Aliens made up to look like humans (they are humanoids but green) but they fail and the ship takes off and turns out despite looking a little absurd is brilliant against the flying saucers.

The Alien ship retreats to Venus – why Venus – why not I guess – and Gothen takes off after them – sometime during the trip aliens manage to get on board and kidnap Jun. Having Aliens take the only woman on the ship of course makes the men of the Gothen more determined than ever.

Before they land on Venus they receive a communication from the aliens – on the view screen they see what for all intents and purposes is a wookie with bull horns holding a huge axe in one hand. In the other hand he is holding a chain that is around Jun’s neck. The aliens have also put Jun in some sort of black leather outfit – that shows a lot of leg - not that I’m complaining mind you it just a weird shoot and no explanation of the change in clothes is forthcoming. The camera then pans right a bit and we meet the emperor of the Galaxy who threatens the Gothen. Well what else would he do? Invite them to tea?

By the way the wookie is a pretty useless menace he drops dead at the first shot from the crew as they are on their rescue.

The arrive on Venus and various battles (lovingly done in model form) take place – actually compared to Battle beyond the stars you know what is happening and who is shooting at who (of course by this time Toho had had 20 plus years experience at this sort of thing so well duh.)

In the course of events they rescue Jun (putting her back in the yellow jumpsuit she had been wearing – Yellow seems a go to color for Japanese space crews the crew of the SFX-5 or whatever in Destroy all Monsters wore yellow as well) destroy the ship and the aliens – of course not before a lot of the cast bite the bullet – including Jun’s new fiancé.

The last member of the crew to buy the farm is the professor who – in a plot point pulled right out of thin air mentions that the nose of the Gothen is actually a missile that contains an explosive developed by said professor which when used can blow up a planet – which he does so – riding the missile in himself (there’s a control room in the missile so it’s obvious this was the plan all along so he will get blown up and take the secret of his discovery to the grave with him . And the planet blows up as Gothen sails away and we get the credit roll.

The scientist sacrificing himself to prevent anyone from using his discovery has been used a lot both here and in Japan and I’ve always had a bit of a problem with this - mostly because hey folks know it can be done you did it – others given enough time and motivation could recreate the work.

Anyway this is a rather un-engaging film – you never really get to know anybody ( a few more minutes with the folks before the boom boom starts would have helped. Jun in the little leather shorts thing is worth looking at and the model work is fun but it just doesn’t have the jov de vi of Mysterians

Enjoy with California Roll and green tea.