a.k.a. KYUKETSUKI GOKEMIDORO / BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL
Shochiku Co. ltd [1969] 84′
country: Japan
director: HAJIME SATO
cast: TERUO YOSHIDA, TOMOMI SATO,
cast: EIZO KITAMURA, HIDEO KO
“There’s no fun in the world anymore . . .” Matsumiya, the bomber
Flight JA 307 seems destined for disaster from the outset of Hajime Sato’s final film, with it flying through ominous and seemingly endless blood-red skies. The motley assortment of passengers are already on edge – be it from the recent assassination of the British ambassador to Japan or the birds smashing themselves into a bloody pulp on the airliner’s windows. To make matters worse, the pilots receive a message that a bomb may be hidden aboard the plane. Co-pilot Sugisaka heads out into the cabin to check the passenger’s bags, only to stumble upon the political assassin responsible for the British ambassador’s murder. In no time at all, the plane is under the control of the would-be hijacker, who destroys the radio and sends the flight on an impromptu course towards Okinawa.
As the two pilots steer the plane off of its scheduled course, a passenger’s one-way radio reports an unusual development – an unidentified object has entered Japanese air space, with the JSADF and US Air Force both in hot pursuit. Unknown to all aboard, the hijacker has sent the plane straight into the path of the oncoming unidentified object – a pulsing orange UFO that shorts out the plane’s controls and sets one of its engines ablaze. And so, nary 10 minutes into the film, flight JA 307 has crashed into a barren valley well off the beaten path.
