Mar 15

Mar 15 Ishirō Honda's “THE MYSTERIANS”

Action, Japanese, Popcorn, Robots, Space Travel, Kaiju

A movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

The Movie

In 1957, Toho Studios released Akira Kurosawa’s epic The Hidden Fortress, a film that George Lucas has stated strongly influenced his creation of the Star Wars saga.

I wasn’t paying attention to that. It was also the year that Toho released Honda’s sci-fi epic The Mysterians.

When I saw this as a kid, I was totally awed by the giant robot, the ray guns, the explosions, the flying saucers, the city swallowed up by the earth, the giant flood, and the spaceships—it was almost too much to take in at once.

Add to that the fact that the whole reason for the Mysterians coming to Earth in the first place was to use our women to reproduce and replenish their dying race!

I saw this film over and over again. That was one of the advantages of having a dad who was a part-time manager at a neighborhood movie theater in Columbus, Ohio. I could see movies multiple times—and the popcorn was free.

Oddly enough, The Mysterians is probably responsible for both my love of electronic gadgets and my continued fascination with Japanese cinema, both serious and not so serious. I vividly remember saving up the money I earned from cutting grass and taking those hard-earned dollars downtown to the Sun Appliances store, a local Columbus distributor. There, they displayed what seemed at the time like hundreds of gleaming, freshly imported transistorized devices from Japan. I can still recall the squeak of the Styrofoam packaging surrounding the miniature reel-to-reel Japanese tape recorders I loved to play with. Heck, I can even remember how these early Japanese transistorized imports smelled!

But I digress. This is a movie review. After all these years, how does this film hold up?

I’m happy to report that my memories of the movie still hold up well. Some of the special effects are still amateurish (though now I appreciate the work that goes into miniature construction, thanks to all the DVD commentaries I’ve heard). The dubbing into English is still atrocious, and the music remains a constant, grating martial pounding. And that giant robot? It still looks ridiculous with its pointy nose and the tiny rotating antenna on top of its head.

But you know what? I don’t care. I love this film! Seeing the dirigible-like hovering spaceships take off and slowly trundle through the air, and watching the toy tanks shoot blanks at the giant spinning dome—these are simply a concentrated phantasmagoria of the basic “Us vs. Them” cinema that has defined pop science fiction through the decades.

Certain themes now seem quaint—women scream and faint, elderly scientists solemnly speak about the fate of humanity, astronomical observatories (and astronomers) play important roles, military leaders bark orders to attack, and crowds scream and run through the streets. These all evoke a simpler, though not necessarily more innocent, time.

The film’s physical design holds up well. This was Toho’s first color CinemaScope film, and director Honda takes full advantage of the widescreen ratio, filling scenes with fascinating, wall-to-wall action.

The technology still looks impressive, too. The Mysterians’ giant domed headquarters spins as it moves above and below ground. The Dome’s control room, with its gleaming colored tubes and machines, is a visual treat. The giant “marcolite” ray-amplifying devices, with their huge dish antennas and tank-track wheels, are beautiful to watch as the film details the step-by-step process of launching them via giant, multi-stage winged rockets onto the battlefield. It’s like seeing a classic issue of *Strange Adventures* or *Mysteries in Space* comics come to life!

This is a violent film, filled with (off-screen) death and (on-screen) destruction. It was only a little more than a decade earlier that Japan saw its cities burned to the ground in return for the war its leaders had initiated. Older Japanese viewers of this film at the time—parents who took their kids to see this stuff—would have recognized and shivered at the fire, the panic, the houses disintegrating in the face of advanced technology. The fact that the Americans and the United Nations are instrumental in defeating the Mysterians is secondary to the fact that it’s Japan, not New York, that gets trashed here and in so many other movies of this type.

The only comparable American film of the era I can think of is George Pal’s *War of the Worlds*, which in many ways duplicates the massive death and destruction of *The Mysterians*. A major difference, though, is that in *War of the Worlds*, you can see the wires holding up the Martian War Machines. In *The Mysterians*, there’s not a wire to be seen, despite the multitude of flying saucers (some of the coolest on record, in my opinion), rocket ships, F-86 Saber Jets, Hawk/Honest John/Nike missiles, and F-104 Starfighters whizzing through the air.

The DVD

And there are extras on the DVD in addition to surround sound and multi-language soundtracks! Wow!

My favorite is the commentary. Two Toho special effects technicians are interviewed, one of whom was personally acquainted with the people who made this film. They put the film into the context of *Godzilla*, *The Smog Monster*, and other monsters and films. They also wax wistful about how environmental regulations now prevent some of the things they used to do. This conversation is initiated when one notes that the Mysterians’ costumes were actually made out of scratchy, unhealthy fiberglass.

Periodically, they admit they know little more than we do, but there are a few interesting gems. My favorite? There appears to be serious consideration of producing a remake!

Other extras include a music-only soundtrack (I’ll pass on that), a series of black-and-white stills, pages of the original storyboards, and several beautifully painted illustrations showing designs for costumes, the Mysterians’ headquarters dome, and the giant ray gun machines.

Finally, there’s a series of previews for other Toho films, including one called *Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People*, which I’m definitely going to have to rent.