The Mysterians (1957)

Some aliens can't take the heat

Only a few years after Godzilla stomped through Tokyo and Rodan stirred up trouble, Japan had to deal with aliens. The Mysterians wanted to set up housekeeping on the island and to mate with Earth women. They had a giant robot and destructive ray while the humans had two plucky scientists.

Shiraishi Ryoichi is convinced that aliens are lurking in the area around Mt. Fuji. Most of his colleagues think he needs a vacation, until strange events begin to take place in his village. When an underground alien fortress rises up for all to see scientists Adachi Tanjiro and Atsumi Joji realize Ryoichi had been right all along. The Mysterians blew up their own planet during a terrible war and are looking for a new place to hang out. They also need to breed with Earth women because they have been unable to reproduce healthy children on their own since their war. Needless to say, the Earthlings aren’t ready to acquiesce to the Mysterians’ demands and start to work on building a weapon to counter the deadly ray gun the aliens use.

This was another Toho film directed by Honda Ishiro with music by Ifukube Akira. The miniatures and overlays were all well done. This was before many of the miniature towns started looking like cardboard boxes as they stretched the Godzilla franchise out on smaller and smaller budgets. There were also some real-world military weapons and planes interspersed throughout the film. The Mysterians had one of the first big screen TVs, 10 years before Capt. Kirk on the starship Enterprise. Shimura Takashi, famous for his work in Kurosawa Akira films, played in several of these Honda films, this time as the lead scientist. Hirata Akihiko, the hero of the original Godzilla, played a more morally complex character in this film. As with other films in the early years of the Toho monster flicks, there was a moral lesson to be learned. An all out nuclear war would all but ensure humankind's destruction so another way of combating the Mysterians had to be found.

The Mysterians had its moments. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see a giant laser fight in front of Mt. Fuji? Where the film lacked for me were the Mysterians. They were a little too mysterious in their colorful Power Rangers costumes. We never see their faces or hear their diabolical plan for world domination. Most of the film was from the scientists’ point of view and their assumptions that the aliens were up to now good. The film could have also used more of Moguera, the giant robot. For a 1957 sci-fi film, the special effects were sufficient as was the acting, surprisingly. I just needed a little more menace from the creatures who arrived from their blown-up planet via Mars, via the moon.

3 October 2024

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