In the fall of 1988, the earth is invaded by aliens based on Venus. (What, you mean you don't remember?) When Earth's orbiting space station is destroyed by an alien vessel resembling an ancient Roman galleon, U.N. Space Bureau representative Miyoshi (pop star Kensaku Morita, later an LDP politician, on loan from Shochiku Studios), newly returned from America, visits esteemed scientist/inventor Professor Takigawa (Ryo Ikebe), asking him to complete work on the aborted Gohten, a flying battleship-like, anti-UFO space cruiser unimaginatively modeled after the kaitei gunkan ("undersea battleship") from 1963's Atragon. Takigawa is reluctant to help for no clear reason, except that in Atragon its captain/inventor was equally obstinate. Anyway, the appearance at Takigawa's home by an alien masquerading as murdered colleague Professor Schmidt (William Ross) finally convinces the Gohten's inventor that Earth's future depends on him and his fantastic invention.

As earth's great cities are destroyed by the alien invaders (in stock footage from 1961's The Last War), Takigawa assembles his crew for the long voyage to Venus. They include Takigawa's daughter, June (Yuko Asano), who is in love with Miyoshi but became engaged to Muroi (Masaya Oki, who committed suicide not long after this) after Miyoshi essentially abandoned her to work at NASA. Also joining the team is American pilot Jimmy (David Perrin), whose family was wiped on in the attack on New York City. En route, June is kidnapped.

On the hot, volcanic planet, the Gohten's crew battle the self-appointed "Emperor of the Galaxy," Commander Hell (perpetual '70s bad guy Goro Mutsumi), who has had the kidnapped June changed into a skimpy leather bondage outfit. She's watched over by a furry, horned giant apparently modeled after Chewbacca from Star Wars, though the creature looks more like a refugee from Lost in Space.

The War in Space was something of a turning point in the history of Japanese science fiction and fantasy films. Up to then, its science fiction and fantasy films, as well as its war movies and historical spectacles that featured lots of visual effects work, all were singularly, distinctively Japanese. By the early-1970s, however, special effects pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya was dead, and the Japanese film industry was in a state of near total collapse. They could no longer keep pace with the technical innovations of big budget Hollywood films the way they had through the mid-1960s, and were at a loss as to what to do next.

Toho's Godzilla series had ground to an ignominious halt, and though 1973 The Submersion of Japan (Nippon chinbotsu) had been an enormous hit, earning nearly three times the rentals of the year's biggest foreign release, The Poseidon Adventure, Toho's big-scale, all-star follow-ups had met with mixed success.

The War in Space, however, signaled a new direction for the company: look at the American model, and make something like that, only a lot faster on a lot less money. And that's literally what happened. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, Special Effects Director Teruysohi Nakano and perhaps others flew to Hawaii to see Star Wars, then slapped together the film's basic components under the pseudonym Hachiro Jinguji (after Jun Tazaki's character from Atragon). Where other Japanese industries were beginning to shed their "Made in Japan" stigma by producing automobiles and electronics far superior to American-made ones, Toho unwisely began shamelessly imitating Hollywood, and in so doing in large measure began to forsake the very attributes that made Japanese fantasy films unique in the first place. The War in Space was quite successful, number eight on the list of 1979's top-grossing domestic films, and inspired more American-influenced productions.

At the same time, the film lifts scenes and ideas from just about every major sci-fi / fantasy film in Toho's canon, from the self-sacrificing pilot who crashes his plane into a mountain to bury his foe under a pile of rocks (from Godzilla Raids Again) to the scientist who dies with his awesomely destructive invention lest it fall into the wrong hands (like Professor Serizawa and the oxygen destroyer in Godzilla). Most of the film is patterned after Atragon and 1959's Battle in Outer Space, which also starred Ikebe. (Indeed, the film was first conceived as Battle in Outer Space 2.)

The film's rushed production is apparent everywhere. Director Jun Fukuda, even in his cheapest Godzilla films from the early-1970s, was able to inject some energy through his compositions and editing, but here his direction is merely adequate, so obviously rushed he can do little more than play traffic cop.

Teruyoshi Nakano's special effects are plentiful and, given the incredibly short schedule, not too bad, but the designs are uniformly ugly. The assault force on Venus rides around in a levitating vehicle that looks like a shoebox with wheels. The Gohten is derivative of the flying supersub from Atragon with none of its charm. Both it and the alien's outrageous "Roman" ship are inelegant and anything but aerodynamic, yet zip around the skies of Venus with no regard for trivialities like gravity and friction.

Genre veteran Akihiko Hirata makes a token appearance, while Hideji Otaki (often misbilled as "Shuji Otaki") plays the leader of the UN force in Japan. The other noteworthy credit is the film's score, which eschews the familiar genre work of Akira Ifukube and Masaru Sato in favor of an inappropriately contemporary work by Toshiaki Tsushima (Fukasaku's Battles without Honor and Humanity series).

Video & Audio

Discotek's release of The War in Space initially had some encoding problems. Some of these early DVDs apparently went haywire about 40 minutes into the film, though the copy sent to this reviewer played just fine. Those with defective discs can get replacement copies here. The film appears to be a clone of Toho Video's Region 2 DVD. It's 16:9 widescreen (from its CinemaScope original), bordered on all four sides, modestly so on the left and right of the frame. The image is very sharp and clean, though the color is rather tepid, with much of the film looking rather brownish, almost sepia at times, though once on Venus the garish art direction livens things up. Audio includes the original 2.0 Japanese mono mix, as well as a 5.1 remix with optional English subtitles, as well as a 2.0 English mono dubbed track.

Special kudos to Discotek for their complete translation of the Japanese credits, and thorough subtitling of the film's trailer (see below).

Extra Features

Extras include a 16:9 theatrical Trailer, complete with text, as well as trailers for a couple of other releases, including what looks like a pretty wild Danger Diabolik-esque live-action Lupin III movie from 1974. A pretty good Rare Black & White Still Gallery offers lots of publicity and behind-the-scenes photos.

The main supplement is a 32-minute, full-frame Interview with Special Effects Director Teruyoshi Nakano, subtitled into English. The interview goes into detail about the special effects, though it leaves you wanting more general background on the production itself. (Revealingly, Nakano never even mentions director Jun Fukuda by name.)

Parting Thoughts

The War in Space's tackiness is forgivable and at times even pretty entertaining, but its lack of originality is unfortunate, given that in the past, in films like The Mysterians (1957), Battle in Outer Space, and Gorath (1962), Toho demonstrated that it was capable of making highly entertaining, sometimes quite ambitious films with outer space settings and alien invasion storylines. The War in Space doesn't make the grade. Recommended for hard-core genre fans, others beware.

**You know, the one that no longer exists in its original form....

Stuart Galbraith IV talks about Invasion of Astro-Monster in an audio commentary track that's just one part of Classic Media's upcoming Godzilla Classic Collector's Edition. Visit Stuart's Cine Blogarama here.