Back in the early years of the Showa Era, the Toho Universe was vast, with action and adventure occurring with or without the presence of Godzilla. Toho would eventually abandon the notion of making giant monster movies without the Big G toward the second half of the Showa Era, which is why a part of me appreciates the first half of the Era for being more interesting and complex. However, not all the films in the Toho Universe made at this time were winners. Some were downright boring and silly even beyond the point of being good cheese. “The Mysterians” is one of those movies that I’ve never been able to fully enjoy and can barely manage to sit through.
Everything is going just swell on Earth until the planet is attacked by a giant robot from spaced called Moguera (Haruo Nakajima)! Following Moguera’s attack, the Earth Defense Force discovers the threat of the Mysterians: color-coordinated aliens from the ruined planet of Mysteroid. The Mysterians’ demands are simple: they want a two-mile strip of land near Mt. Fuji for their own purposes and the right to marry any Earth woman of their choosing. As you can surmise, the people of Japan aren’t too thrilled with this new development and the Earth Defense Force takes to action. As Dr. Adachi (Takashi Shimura) works to develop a means to defeat their seemingly invulnerable foe, Joji (Kanji Sahara) struggles to protect his female friends from imminent kidnapping from not only the Mysterians, but his friend-turned-traitor, Shiraishi (Yumi Shirakawa).
“The Mysterians” is one of those early installments in the Showa Series that’s very often overlooked because it just didn’t have much of an effect on the rest of the films. The film’s sequel, “Battle in Outer Space”, was even more boring than its predecessor and the most notable aspect of the film, Moguera, isn’t seen again until “Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla”, almost forty years later. As it stands, “The Mysterians” is a fairly skippable episode of the Showa Series.
I can’t say I’m surprised that Moguera took a four decade-long break after “The Mysterians”. As much as I like Eiji Tsubaraya’s suit designs, the man had his low points and Moguera represents something close to his worst. While his glowing eyes provided some nice shots, the rest of the robot is as goofy-looking as they come. A body that is either intended to look like it’s made out of tank treads or sprockets results in a very clunky appearance, while Moguera’s spinning “rabbit ear” antennae only drive the point home. While I realize that this was very early in the Showa Era and special effects of this nature were still a work-in-progress, Moguera’s laser eyes couldn’t look any worse.
Thankfully, Moguera takes a dirt nap about twenty-five minutes into the feature, only to return for less than a minute’s worth of screen time during the last ten minutes of the film. So, don’t expect to see a whole lot of this extremely fugly kaiju.
With Moguera scarcely to be seen, the bulk of the film revolves around the Mysterians. The Mysterians all dress in color-coordinated space suits with identity-concealing helmets. It gives the film something of a “Power Rangers” vibe (or should that be “Super Sentai”, since this is Japanese?), which you might or might not like, depending on who you are. If there’s one plot I’ve never liked from either American or Japanese sci-fi/horror films of this time period, it’s the “horny aliens/monsters want our women” shtick. It’s like ever since King Kong tried to get his freak on with an unsuspecting dame, every cinematic monstrosity became excessively rape-happy. Even the Gillman from “Creature from the Black Lagoon” tried to get it on with the film’s female lead, and that thing had no visible genitalia of any kind!
If there’s one upside to the plot it’s that it’s very tense. The entire film, all the way up until the conclusion, is nothing but a string of failures on the part of the protagonists. Their every attempt to defeat the Mysterians results in crushing defeat and this goes on and on and on. You actually begin to feel as disheartened as the characters, after a while. This makes the inevitable victory feel pretty good, as those stuck-up space-rapists finally get what’s coming to them. Shiraishi’s subplot wasn’t especially enthralling but added a nice touch to the film.
The cast features two of Toho’s all-stars, Kenji Sahara and Takahashi Shimura. You may remember Sahara from “Rodan”, and I hope you like the guy, because Toho is going to use him a lot. Meanwhile, Takashi Shimura (who played Dr. Yamane in the original “Godzilla”) is always welcome on my TV screen. Yumi Shirakawa would go on to appear in “Gorath”, but other than that he seemed to mostly steer clear of Toho’s monster movies. The only members of the cast that managed to get on my nerves were the American ones, if you can believe it. What with the protagonists being the “Earth Defense Force”, you’d expect a level of multi-culturalism. Every word out of their mouths in both English and Japanese will have you clawing grooves into the arms of your chair. As someone who can speak both of those languages, well, it was double the pain.
I honestly never reach for “The Mysterians” when I’m in the mood for a good Toho kaiju film, and now that I’ve reviewed it, I really can’t see myself ever watching it again. The action is as badly choreographed as it gets (see the scene where Joji subdues the blue-clad Mysterian while breaking into their dome) and the giant monster action is destined to disappoint. Director Ishiro Honda and special effects wizard Eiji Tsubaraya rarely failed when combining their talents, but even they can’t claim an undefeated record.
Grade: D- (as in “Don’t blame Toho when the Power Rangers try to rape Earth’s women. They tried to warn us…”)
Everything is going just swell on Earth until the planet is attacked by a giant robot from spaced called Moguera (Haruo Nakajima)! Following Moguera’s attack, the Earth Defense Force discovers the threat of the Mysterians: color-coordinated aliens from the ruined planet of Mysteroid. The Mysterians’ demands are simple: they want a two-mile strip of land near Mt. Fuji for their own purposes and the right to marry any Earth woman of their choosing. As you can surmise, the people of Japan aren’t too thrilled with this new development and the Earth Defense Force takes to action. As Dr. Adachi (Takashi Shimura) works to develop a means to defeat their seemingly invulnerable foe, Joji (Kanji Sahara) struggles to protect his female friends from imminent kidnapping from not only the Mysterians, but his friend-turned-traitor, Shiraishi (Yumi Shirakawa).
“The Mysterians” is one of those early installments in the Showa Series that’s very often overlooked because it just didn’t have much of an effect on the rest of the films. The film’s sequel, “Battle in Outer Space”, was even more boring than its predecessor and the most notable aspect of the film, Moguera, isn’t seen again until “Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla”, almost forty years later. As it stands, “The Mysterians” is a fairly skippable episode of the Showa Series.
I can’t say I’m surprised that Moguera took a four decade-long break after “The Mysterians”. As much as I like Eiji Tsubaraya’s suit designs, the man had his low points and Moguera represents something close to his worst. While his glowing eyes provided some nice shots, the rest of the robot is as goofy-looking as they come. A body that is either intended to look like it’s made out of tank treads or sprockets results in a very clunky appearance, while Moguera’s spinning “rabbit ear” antennae only drive the point home. While I realize that this was very early in the Showa Era and special effects of this nature were still a work-in-progress, Moguera’s laser eyes couldn’t look any worse.
Thankfully, Moguera takes a dirt nap about twenty-five minutes into the feature, only to return for less than a minute’s worth of screen time during the last ten minutes of the film. So, don’t expect to see a whole lot of this extremely fugly kaiju.
With Moguera scarcely to be seen, the bulk of the film revolves around the Mysterians. The Mysterians all dress in color-coordinated space suits with identity-concealing helmets. It gives the film something of a “Power Rangers” vibe (or should that be “Super Sentai”, since this is Japanese?), which you might or might not like, depending on who you are. If there’s one plot I’ve never liked from either American or Japanese sci-fi/horror films of this time period, it’s the “horny aliens/monsters want our women” shtick. It’s like ever since King Kong tried to get his freak on with an unsuspecting dame, every cinematic monstrosity became excessively rape-happy. Even the Gillman from “Creature from the Black Lagoon” tried to get it on with the film’s female lead, and that thing had no visible genitalia of any kind!
If there’s one upside to the plot it’s that it’s very tense. The entire film, all the way up until the conclusion, is nothing but a string of failures on the part of the protagonists. Their every attempt to defeat the Mysterians results in crushing defeat and this goes on and on and on. You actually begin to feel as disheartened as the characters, after a while. This makes the inevitable victory feel pretty good, as those stuck-up space-rapists finally get what’s coming to them. Shiraishi’s subplot wasn’t especially enthralling but added a nice touch to the film.
The cast features two of Toho’s all-stars, Kenji Sahara and Takahashi Shimura. You may remember Sahara from “Rodan”, and I hope you like the guy, because Toho is going to use him a lot. Meanwhile, Takashi Shimura (who played Dr. Yamane in the original “Godzilla”) is always welcome on my TV screen. Yumi Shirakawa would go on to appear in “Gorath”, but other than that he seemed to mostly steer clear of Toho’s monster movies. The only members of the cast that managed to get on my nerves were the American ones, if you can believe it. What with the protagonists being the “Earth Defense Force”, you’d expect a level of multi-culturalism. Every word out of their mouths in both English and Japanese will have you clawing grooves into the arms of your chair. As someone who can speak both of those languages, well, it was double the pain.
I honestly never reach for “The Mysterians” when I’m in the mood for a good Toho kaiju film, and now that I’ve reviewed it, I really can’t see myself ever watching it again. The action is as badly choreographed as it gets (see the scene where Joji subdues the blue-clad Mysterian while breaking into their dome) and the giant monster action is destined to disappoint. Director Ishiro Honda and special effects wizard Eiji Tsubaraya rarely failed when combining their talents, but even they can’t claim an undefeated record.
Grade: D- (as in “Don’t blame Toho when the Power Rangers try to rape Earth’s women. They tried to warn us…”)
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