IMDb user comments for
Uchûjin Tôkyô ni arawaru (1956)

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20 comments in total

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12 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
What's a guy in a silly starfish outfit to do?, 19 December 2000
Author: Glenn Andreiev (gandreiev@aol.com) from Huntington, NY

My family and I always watched this wacked out- one-of-a-kind treat when it came on WPIX SCI-FI THEATRE. There are these aliens, thier costumes are big baggy starfish outfits with a big cardboard eye duct-taped to the center. They waddle around a minimalist spacecraft and twiddle their thumbs. They need to comminicate with earth scientists about a planet on a runaway coarse about to collide with Earth. The film is silly, completely without logic.

What I sincerely love about this gem is the atmosphere. Night skies alive with darting flying saucers are quite beautiful, the sort of postcard-look of the advancing burning planet is rather neat, and the staggering heatwave that hits a seemingly doomed Earth gets rather discomforting. You'll giggle AT the film, but will be in awe WITH the film.

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8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Japan's first color science-fiction film, 20 January 2002

Author: Splatterdome-AMH (splatterdome-amh@ymail.ch) from Switzerland

Weird aliens from a planet called Pairan who look a lot like man-sized starfish creatures with a huge eye in the center show up in Japan and scare people. But their real intention is not to invade earth; instead they try to warn a scientist about his newly created weapon. To do so, one of them changes his look to that of a famous Japanese singer. But then the aliens discover a giant glowing meteor heading towards Earth! Can the starfish monsters help mankind to destroy the meteor before it crashes into Earth? It soon is discovered that there's only one way to destroy it...

Made by Daiei studios (later creators of the flying turtle Gamera, a popular movie monster in Japan) in 1956, this was the fist color science-fiction film from Japan. Supported by a then huge budget it was a serious effort to compete with enemy Toho studios and their 1954 hit "Godzilla". In 1957, Toho studios even made a somewhat similar movie, "Chikyû bôeigun", also known as "The Mysterians". "Space Men Appear in Tokyo" has far less special effects footage than Toho's movies, but the relatively few special effects seen in this film are of pretty good quality, especially considering their age! Filmed in beautiful colors, the film is still well worth watching. Story-wise, it is similar to the American production "When Worlds Collide", but it's actually based on a Japanese novel by Gentarô Nakajima.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
People's of Earth UNITE...Danger is at hand, 19 October 2004

Author: sol1218 from brooklyn NY

Aliens, from the planet Paila, and Earthlings work together to prevent the Earth from being destroyed by a runaway planet, Planet R, from another galaxy in this early Japanese Sci-Fi movie released in 1956 with the American title "Warning from Space".

The Pairans who's planet Paila is on the other side of the sun and undetected from the eyes of earth's astronomers sends a fleet of space ships to earth to get the people of that planet to join with them to prevent the rogue planet R from slamming into earth and destroying not only earth but the entire solar system including the planet Paila. The Pairans looking like star fish with an eyeball on their stomachs have one of them Ginko, Toyomi Karita, morphs into the popular Japanese singer Hikari Aozora, and make contact with the earthlings on the dangers they they as well as the Pairans are facing.

At first the leaders of earth don't, as usual, take Ginko's warnings seriously. But when the planet begins to get closer to earth they finally do and muster all the nuclear weapons that the earth's superpowers have together to shoot into space and blast the streaking planet off course. The attempt fails miserably and as Planet R gets closer to earth it causes death and destruction by unleashing giant tidal waves and great changes in the weather. All seems lost until Ginko tells the earthlings that only Prof. Kamura can save them with his formula for the destructive super-nuclear element Duriun. Which earlier in the movie Ginko took from Prof. Kamura and destroyed because it was too dangerous for anyone, much less those on earth, to have.

Ginko tells the people of earth that with getting the formula for Duriun from Prof. Kamura and together with the Pairans advanced technology to militarize and deliver it to the Planet R in order to knock it off it's course it will save the solar system but there's just one hitch, were is Prof. Kamura?

You have to forgive the cheap special effects since the movie was made almost fifty years ago before the invention of computer enhanced photography but the story and the acting in the movie "Warning from Space" is much better then you would have expected. It's also interesting to note that the movie was made in Japan the only country that was ever nuked and the story was about using nuclear weapons for survival instead of destruction.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
A charming movie about aliens trying to save mankind., 1 August 1999
Author: Jim in Seattle (petpost@aol.com) from Seattle, WA

This film, literally titled, "Aliens Appear in Tokyo," was the first COLOR sci-fi film made in Japan. ("RODAN" would be the first giant monster film). The first part of the film is similar to "Day The Earth Stood Still" as the Pairans try to warn a scientist using a new kind of explosive he has developed. One of the assumes human form (copying the image of a famous singer)and tries to communicate with the humans. Later, the same aliens discover that a planet is on a collision course with Earth--and the only thing that can save humanity is to use the very explosive that they warned against! This takes the idea from "When Worlds Collide" as the earth goes through disasters as "Planet R" comes closer and closer. Finally the scientist is rescued from the Yakuza, and the wayward planet is destroyed. The film is a charming look at Japan, coming into its own following the Occupation after World War II.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Starfish Troopers, 20 February 2006

Author: stmichaeldet (stmichaeldet@yahoo.com) from Detroit, MI, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

First, I'd like to have a word with the folks at Alpha Video - could you have possibly found a crappier print to transfer? Film dirt so bad it makes you want to floss, and an equally ragged soundtrack. But, if you can wade through the muck, there's quite a trippy little film going on here.

The plot is fairly typical - enlightened aliens come to Earth to tell us what bad housekeepers we are, and warn us of an impending catastrophe. The hook that makes this movie unique, though, is that the aliens look like giant starfish with a giant, glowing blue eye at their center. (OK, actually, they look like giant rayon starfish costumes with a gift-shop novelty lamp in the stomach, but work with me, here.)

Wacky hijinks ensue as the StarFish attempt to infiltrate human society, only to find that humans react to the presence of six-foot walking invertebrates by screaming, running away, or shooting. Just because the invertebrates in question were skulking outside windows and crashing dance parties. Stupid barbarian humans.

So, their chief scientist takes the form of a sexy nightclub singer to get some attention. Unfortunately for her, the human cast of this film (consisting of the usual assortment of scientists, scientist's daughters, and their boyfriends) seem completely uninterested in the plot. They go on picnics, take in a show, do anything to avoid working to prevent a rogue planet from colliding with Earth. At one point, the key scientist who knows the formula that will save the day is kidnapped, and apparently is left tied up, alone, in an abandoned building for a month (!) before anyone even bothers to go looking for him. These people are just not motivated!

Yet, somehow, in the end, the day is saved through the combined efforts of human and StarFish (was there ever any doubt?) We're supposed to have learned something here, something warm and fuzzy about accepting others no matter what they're like inside, as long as they conform outwardly to our narrow expectations of acceptable appearance. And also that, if we all work together, we can build a big enough bomb to knock a planet off it's course! Touching, no?

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
A Combination of the Two, 23 July 2003
Author: Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California

I remember watching this film when I was a kid. Ironically, it was before I saw When Worlds Collide or The Day the Earth Stood Still (ironically, I still have yet to see the latter). This film is successful for two reasons. The first one is the fears of the Japanese about nuclear holocaust. Like so many science fiction films that the Japanese released during this era, it was pretty much inspired by the events that had happened the previous decade. Also, this film also spreads the message of world cooperation, especially when there is a threat of total extinction either by aliens or a runaway planetoid (see Gorath). This was a pretty interesting film and its too bad that it is not being shown on television anymore.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
strange..., 31 August 2005

Author: pavo6503 from Albany, NY

Ironically, there is no irony in this review or in the movie. I bought this movie as part of a collection and didn't realize it was Japanese. The story is almost total nonsense, I would imagine that has a lot to do with it being re-dubbed in English for western audiences. The plot is typical of many "beings from a far away planet must save humanity from itself" movies, but it is almost completely lacking exposition. The humans and aliens act in an almost cryptic way, I was never quite sure of why they were doing anything they did. Had it not been for my watching the extra features on the re-release of THX-1138 I would be completely lost. For those who haven't seen THX-1138 there is an interview with George Lucas where he is explaining the style of THX. He says the Japanese don't explain anything in their movies, they just do it. Some odd little cultural aspect often comes off as a complete mystery to people not acquainted with eastern culture. This movie is one of those odd things. Imagine this... a samurai and a geisha drink tea, but go through a long and complex ritual of setting all the clocks in the house before sitting down for tea. Why the hell did they do that!?! Just drink the shizbangin' tea for God's sake! My son likes the starfish shaped aliens.

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6 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Mom, I'm Gonna Be a Star, 10 May 2006

Author: Hitchcoc from United States

When these aliens, dressed in tightly sewn starfish outfits (you can see the seams, even though these are their bodies) come to earth, people go into a panic. Actually, they probably laughing so hard they might fall off a bridge. But there is a serious side. A twin planet will be destroyed if a renegade body from space collides with earth. Most of the plot has to do with trying to convince the international community to supply nuclear weapons to blow up the invading spheroid. The starfish turn one of their women into a Japanese Ginger Rogers and she comes to earth to negotiate. Of course, she gives herself away when she jumps ten feet into the air to return a tennis shot. As we all know, these things have a way of working themselves out. I guess if I saw a gigantic starfish with an eye sewn on its belly, I would have a few moments of anxiety. Another subplot has to do with the old guy who knows the secret of how to save us all. He is kidnapped by a bunch of guys who want his formula. They want to sell it to the highest bidder. The bottom line is that nothing is ever set up, nothing is ever explained, the science is rocky at best (or is it Bullwinkle?). This is just another of those really poorly put together stories to fill drive-in movie time.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Entertaining space epic, 31 July 2006

Author: tday-1 (tday11@cox.net) from Tucson,Az

Neat little epic about starfish shaped aliens coming to Earth to warn it of impending Clayson with another planet. Oddly enough,viewers complains about the cheap costumes of the aliens,if they listened to the story,the aliens wore protective costumes to function in Earth's atmosphere because their actual shape would horrify the earth people. The special effects are very good,par for the course for fifties sci-fi. Definitely a must for your video shelf. The color is a bit faded but it's still a nice film to watch. The dubbing is well done and the musical numbers are fun. Probably not the classic film one would like but it still good. I'm a big fan of Japanese sci-fi.so it goes well with my collection.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
"Good luck Number #1, the fate of Paira rests with you.", 12 June 2006

Author: classicsoncall from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Warning from Earth - you are on a collision course with your own sanity if you proceed past the opening scene. Wow, did you get a good look at those goofy starfish pajamas? We should be grateful that that was one Japanese import that didn't make it.

"Warning From Space" requires a certain something from it's viewers, in my case it was an hour and a half of nothing better to do. I can't honestly say I'm any better off for having seen it, but then again, I'm not any worse. I'll have to wait to see if those starfish pop up in a dream tonight, or a nightmare.

At least there were some novel ideas advanced in the film for it's time. Japanese rockets were dispatched into space to get a picture of the luminous bodies resembling meteors, and the shape shifting Pairan had no fingerprint pattern. I got a kick out of the admirable attempt of the Pairan Ginko to transmute into a famous Japanese entertainer in order to make contact with humans. The first batch of Earthlings that pulled her out of the pond didn't recognize her.

I wonder how much money 'Mobilgas' had to offer to get their sign in the film?

It seems to me that "Warning From Space" is largely a forgettable movie. The lack of menacing monsters and a benign association of Japanese scientists with the Pairans made for a boring picture at times. But they should have given a prize to the person who came up with that cyclops starfish design; I don't think I'll ever be the same again.

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