Uchu Kaisoku-sen (1961)

User Rating:

1.7/10   

Director:

Koji Ota

Writers:

Shin Morita (writer)
Akihiro Watanabe (story)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

Clumsy invaders from Neptune are thwarted by hero Space Chief and a nondescript group of microshort-wearing Japanese kids.

Plot Keywords:

Space | Alien | Flying Car | Superhero | Exploding Building

Cast

Sonny Chiba	...	Tachibana - Scientist / Space Chief (as Shinichi Chiba)
Kappei Matsumoto	...	Tanigawa Hiroshi
Ryuko Mizukami	...	Tanigawa Yoko
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harold Conway	...	Washington Broadcast Station Chief
Shinjiro Ebara	...	Yanigada - Scientist
Hidemichi Ishikawa	...	Yoshimoto Hiroshi
Seiichirô Kameishi	...	Yamagata Yukichi
Takashi Kanda	...	Defence Chief Takita
Genji Kawai	...	Morie
Mitsue Komiya	...	Saito - Scientist
Junji Masuda	...	Tamiya Hiroshi
Masazumi Okabe	...	Railway worker
Kôsaku Okano	...	Reporter
Koji Sahara	...	Garrison Chief Mikami
Kôji Sawada	...	Cosmos Man
Shôken Sawa	...	Land Commander Inukai
Koji Sekiyama	...	Karimasu
Ken Sudoh	...	Staff Chief Miyake
Rinichi Yamamoto

Also Known As:

Invasion from a Planet (International: English title)
Invasion of the Neptune Men (USA)
Space Greyhound (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

USA:74 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Toei Company

Trivia:

Many of the invasion scenes in Tokyo featured stock footage of bombings and explosions from World War II Japan (as evidenced by the giant billboard of Adolf Hitler).

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Invasion of the Neptune Men (#9.19)" (1997)

Mind-bogglingly bad, back-breakingly funny.

Where to begin? The soap-bubble thin plot? The lame "hero"? The annoying little kids? The repetitive and strafing footage filled battles? I honestly don't know. This film fails on so many levels, you can't really pinpoint what makes it the horror that it is. I don't think Mike and the Bots were even able to cover half the bad points that occured in the movie. The plot in the movie seems to continuosly go around in circles, with the evil bulletheaded aliens appearing, the scientists trying to look worried, the children in hot pants running, and Space Chief coming to the rescue. Sometimes we can't be sure exactly what is going on; all we know is that it's bad. So it comes to the final "climactic" battle, blah blah, the bad guys are defeated after a lengthy missile sequence, yadda yadda, and you're just glad it's over.