a.k.a. Chikyu Boeigun
company: Toho Co. Ltd
year: 1957
runtime: 88′
country: Japan
director: Ishiro Honda
cast: Kenji Sahara, Akihiko Hirata,
Takeshi Shimura, Yumi Shirakawa,
Momoko Kochi, Yoshio Tsuchiya
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Back in the late 1950′s when Toho Co. Ltd’s sci-fi production schedule was not dominated by the an increasingly absurd Godzilla franchise, the company was taking honest chances at creating films the likes of which the world had never seen – it was the half decade of creative fruitfulness that gave us such classics as RODAN [1956], THE H-MAN [1959], and THE SECRET OF TELEGIAN [1960], not to mention the noble misfires of VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE [1958] and BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE [1959]. Without a doubt, the biggest science fiction project of that time period was THE MYSTERIANS – the first Japanese sci-fi effort to be filmed in scope and color and presented in 4-track stereophonic sound. Produced by the legendary Tomoyuki Tanaka, directed by Ishiro Honda, and featuring spfx direction from Eiji Tsuburaya and a score by Akira Ifukube, THE MYSTERIANS was a cinema spectacle to rival anything put out by Hollywood at the time.
Scientist Shiraishi [Akihiko Hirata] seems to have resigned himself from the social life of other Earthlings – after breaking his engagement to Hiroko [Momoko Kochi] and relocating to an isolated village, he spends his time obsessing over a scientific theory. He believes that the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter were once the fifth planet – which he calls the Mysteroid. Soon strange things are happening around the town – forest fires and unexplainable phenomena of nature. When a landslide completely destroys the town, Joji [Kenji Sahara] investigates, discovering odd residual radiation that seems to appear and disappear at will. Hot on the trail of the mysterious radiation, Joji sees a gigantic robotic monster [named Mogera - based on the Japanese word for mole (mogura) - but never referenced as such in the film] emerge from a mountainside. Soon the beast is rampaging through rural Japan, crushing buildings beneath its massive bulk and scourging the land with heat rays.
The military is quick to act and eventually lures the monster into falling into a gully, destroying itself. While the military is indisposed, Joji and his girlfriend Etsuko [Yumi Shirakawa] – Shiraishi’s sister – notice a small fleet of flying saucers in the distance, leaving Joji to believe that there was more to the recent events and the monster than just happenstance. His boss, Dr. Adachi [Takeshi Shimura], agrees – having read Shiraishi’s unfinished report on the dead planet Mysteroid, Adachi has begun to suspect that the surviving Mysterians have their sights set on Earth. His sighting of a few unidentified objects coming from beyond the dark side of the moon is his only evidence until a mysterious dome rises out of the ground at the base of Mt. Fuji . . .
Residing within it are the surviving race of people Shiraishi referred to as the Mysterians – having left Mysteroid for greener pastures after it was destroyed by a massive atomic war. They gather the top scientific minds in Japan and reveal their intentions – all they request is for ownership of a small piece of land and the permission to intermarry with human women, several of whom, they admit, they have already taken into their custody. What’s more, Shiraishi [having not been killed in the landslide earlier] has allied with the alien race in hopes that they can prevent what he sees as an inevitable atomic war among human kind. Seeing that the Mysterians have already taken for themselves exactly what they came to ask for, the governments of Earth make a swift decision to go to war with them. The first two attacks, the first utilizing standard weaponry and the second a pair of flying battleships known as the Alpha and Beta, prove to be complete and utter failures, forcing Earth scientists to go back to the drawing boards.
Soon the Mysterians reveal their true intentions – they increase their claim to a stretch of land a full 75 miles in radius, intent on expanding their base on Earth and taking all of the people of the planet under their control. Worse still, they have taken both Etsuko and Hiroko hostage. The nations of Earth band together to come up with a solution and find one just in time – the Markalite FARP cannon [huge dish arrays on treads that not only fire their own powerful heat rays but direct those of the Mysterians back at their source]. Joji locates a secret entrance to the Mysterian’s dome and, finding an unlikely ally in the converted Shiraishi, rescues the kidnapped women, just in time for Earth’s final assault on the Mysterian stronghold to begin . . .
Like much of Toho’s early science fiction output [and, most famously, the original GOJIRA], THE MYSTERIANS is a nuclear parable. The Mysterians, having blown themselves to smithereens a full hundred thousand years before, have found their gene pool depleted, thusly leading to their attempts to conquest Earth and take its women. The Mysterians earnestly announce themselves as pacifists while only moments later noting that they both have and are willing to use hydrogen bombs should the need arise. The message here is rather clear – the people of Mysteroid have learned nothing from the great cataclysm they brought upon themselves and, as Shiraishi states during the conclusion, “The tragedy of the Mysterians is a good lesson for us!” In the end, the Mysterians show themselves to be a pathetic [if pitiable] people who, having destroyed their home world, are doomed to an eternity of searching the reaches of space for a new one.
From a more political perspective, the Mysterians appear to be a thinly veiled target for anti-American sentiments that were strong in a Japan just a few years after the official end of the occupation [a prime example of these sentiments is the thoughtful Kaneto Shindo film CHILDREN OF HIROSHIMA from 1952, which lost favor with its producers in light of the revisionist HIROSHIMA, which postulated the bombing as a cruel and racist scientific experiment]. The Mysterian demand for land for their military installations as well as their desire to intermarry with Japanese women rather clearly relate to social perceptions of the occupying forces at the time – even their name is distinctly un-Japanese.
The early science fiction films from Toho – particularly from 1954 to 1962 – double as militaristic fantasies in which the Japanese military is still on top [it may be international cooperation that produces the fantastical Earth weapons in THE MYSTERIANS, but it's the Japanese who implement them], with ample focus on honorable self-sacrifice in the face of seemingly unsurmountable enemies. In the midst of the first attack on the Mysterian battle dome a lone tank breaks rank and charges only to be engulfed in a sink hole while, at the conclusion of the film, Shiraishi makes his turn for the good side and bravely sacrifices himself to ensure that the Mysterian’s Earth outpost is destroyed. There is considerable focus on martial self-sacrifice in early Japanese science fiction [as there was in American films from the time as well - remember young scientist Matt Cochran, who dies to stop a premature nuclear reaction in 1947's building-of-the-bomb docu-drama BEGINNING OR THE END], no doubt a reaction to the banning of the glorification of militarism under the occupation.*
As with the majority of the fantasy films helmed by Ishiro Honda, the path to success [that is to say, the way to avoid the complete and utter destruction wrought either by the Mysterians or our own actions] is cooperation. THE MYSTERIANS features a number of international conferences, with the Japanese title for the film referring directly to the fabricated military branch of the United Nations known in the film as the Earth Defense Force. There is also considerable cooperation to be seen between the governments of the world and top scientists, with new inventions [electron cannons and the Markalite FARPs for instance] making their way into the fold on a more or less regular basis. It’s Honda’s unflinching message of hope in human unity [no doubt influenced heavily by the destruction he witnessed during and in the aftermath of World War II] that lends his films such charm in spite of their seeming naivety.
The cast for the film is peppered with Toho regulars and actors who would later become such – none are given terribly much to do aside from Akihiko Hirata, here playing a role that is very much a continuation of the troubled character of Serizawa, whom he played in the original GOJIRA. Taken in by the technological wonders the Mysterians promise, the character of Shiraishi is eventually disillusioned, finding what he thought were a peaceful people to, in fact, be a pack of space wolves [as the wonderful DVD Savant so aptly termed them in his article[s] on the film] taking what they see fit. In the end he turns on his new allies – it is he, and not the joint attack of the Markalite FARPs and the Alpha/Beta warships, that spells doom for the Mysterian’s earthly fortress. Yoshio Tsuchiya also puts in an interesting early sci-fi performance as the constantly masked Mysterian commander – a role he requested in spite of being offered higher billing parts. The Kurosawa regular would go on to play a number of villainous parts in Toho fantasy films, including the possessed Iwomura in BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE [1959] and the tragic Mizuno in THE HUMAN VAPOR [1960].
THE MYSTERIANS proved another major stepping stone for special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, continuing to hone his art-form with this, his first color and scope production. While budgetary constraints would lead to limitations beginning in the mid 1960′s, the work on display here is high class all the way, with the emergence of Mogera from a hillside and the first revelation of the Mysterian battle dome being two of the most memorable moments in all of Japanese science fiction. An early shot showing a host of people gazing across a lake at a forest ablaze is almost too convincing! If there’s a complaint to be made it’s with the optical work, which was still a bit cumbersome at this point in Toho’s history – such shots announce themselves with a flurry of scratches, dust, and debris. Cinematographer Hajime Koizumi takes his first turn at work in scope with THE MYSTERIANS, making top use of the beautiful matte work and panoramic vistas created by the special effects team and production designer Teruaki Abe [of MOTHRA [1960], GORATH [1962], and THE LAST WAR [1961] fame]. Last but not least is composer Akira Ifukube, contributing one of the finest scores of his lengthy career – from the heavy and somber themes accompanying Mogera to the intense battle marches that dominate the final half hour, his scoring here is tops.
All in all, THE MYSTERIANS is a top class science fiction production and, in my opinion, the very best that Toho would produce in its early golden age [though I'd wager 1962's GORATH as a close second]. It should go without saying that this, currently available as a low-cost R1 release from Media Blasters, is necessary viewing. Highly recommended!
* The two paragraphs preceding the asterisk are shamelessly inspired by Glenn Erickson’s two reviews of this film at DVD Savant – both are highly recommended reading, as is Glenn’s site to begin with.
