Yusei oji (1959)

Director:

Eijirô Wakabayashi

Writers:

Masaru Igami (story)
Shin Morita (writer)

Release Date:

19 March 1959 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi

Plot:

When an alien force tries to invade Earth to steal a powerful new rocket fuel, a mysterious hero intervenes.

Plot Keywords:

Space | Alien | Superhero | Alien Invasion | B Movie

Cast

Tatsuo Umemiya	...	Wally / Prince of Space / Planet Prince (as Tatsuya Umemiya)
Ushio Skashi
Joji Oka	...	Phantom of Krankor (as Johji Oka)
Hiroko Mine
Takashi Kanda
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ken Sudoh
Nobu Yatsuna

Directed by
Eijirô Wakabayashi

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Masaru Igami		story
Shin Morita		writer

Produced by
Walter Manley	....	producer

Original Music by
Katsuhisa Hattori

Cinematography by
Masahiko Iimura

Production Companies

• Toei Company
• Toei Tokyo

Distributors

• Toei Company (1959) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Walter Manley Enterprises (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Dark Sky Films (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Manley-TV (????) (USA) (TV) (syndication)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (199?) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Invaders from the Spaceship (USA) (alternative title)
Prince of Space (USA)
The Star Prince (USA)

Runtime:

121 min | USA:85 min (DVD version) | 57 min (part 1) | 64 min (part 2)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Company:

Toei Company

Trivia:

Like Shintoho's Super Giant/Starman series, this Toei production was released to theaters as a sort of mini-serial with two approximately hour long episodes. In the United States this was edited into a single feature film running less than 90 minutes.

Goofs:

Continuity: The morning after Krankor warns the world of his arrival, Wally and the kids are at their shoe shining post, and Wally is reading the morning paper. Then a car pulls up, Wally's paper disappears, and he is then given the exact same paper "hot off the press".

Quotes:

Professor Macken: What happened to my driver?
Phantom of Krankor: Come now, Professor. What a silly question. I can't be bothered to keep track of your worthless servants. We blasted him out of an airlock, so by now he's probably fallen into a star! HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in E.T. and Friends: Magical Movie Visitors (1982) (TV)

The definitive Japanese cheesy sci-fi space film.

This cheapo, cheesy, trashy, Japanese space 'epic' is absolutely without a doubt one of the worst movies ever. The pure badness of this film will leave you in awe. Really. Instead of leaving it in Japan, Belucchi (Is that how you spell it?) Productions (Italian accent!!) hired some guys off the street to dub this film, they must have been paid about $3.00 in the end. The dubbing is so terrible, your mouth will hang open. But the thing that really defines the whole fiasco isn't the bad dubbing, or cheap special effects, or terrible acting, it's Krankor. This has to be the STUPIDEST villain in film history. Instead of heading the message "Your weapons are useless against me" (The famous line spouted by our "hero" around 600 times) he stands around in his chicken suit trying to act scary. You haven't seen nothing until you've seen this. It is the DEFINITIVE Japanese bad sci-fi movie, I guarantee it!