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Sayonara Jupeta
Bye-Bye Jupiter
Jupiter Inferno / Operation Jupiter / Sayonara Jupiter
Japan 1984
produced by Sakyo Komatsu, Tomoyuki Tanaka (executive) for Kabushika Kaisha, Toho
directed by Koji Hashimoto, Sakyo Komatsu
starring Tomokazu Miura, Dangely Diane, Miyuki Ono, Rachel Huggett, Paul Tagawa, Kim Bass, Marc Panthona, Irwin Ron, William H. Tapier, Akihiko Hirata, Masumi Okada, Hisaya Morishige, Andrew Hughes, Jean Karcewski, Leonard Krause, Taiga Mori, Tatsuya Okamoto, Nobushi Takeuchi
screenplay by Sakyo Komatsu, based on his novel, music by Kentaro Haneda, special effects director: Koichi Kawakita
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Our solar system, the 2100s: Eiji (Tomokazu Miura) heads a mission to
turn Jupiter into a second sun, to give light and energy to the outer
planets, to make them inhabitable for the population of the earth that has
long gone out of bounds. Of course, there's a cult back on earth, the Jupiter
Church led by singer Peter (Paul Tagawa) that's of the opinion that
Jupiter is to be left alone, and it regularly sabotages Eiji's mission.
Interestingly, one of the core members of the Jupiter Church is Eiji's
girlfriend Maria (Dangely Diane). Then a black hole is discovered heading
directly for our sun, and hitting Jupiter in its path. So now a new plan
is deviced, to blow up Jupiter to change the black hole's trajectory to
avoid the sun to be swallowed up. Of course, the Jupiter Church is against
this as well and intensifies its acts of sabotage, so much so that Eiji
pays Peter a visit to ask him to stop - but Peter doesn't seem to
understand, or want to understand for that matter. Anyways, a ring of
space vessels that are to explode the Jupiter is set up around the planet,
and of course, a quartet of Church members infiltrates one of them to blow
it up ahead of time to deem the mission a failure. And of course, this
mission is led by Maria, and of course, by mere coincidence they choose
the very vessel Eiji's on. Maria and company almost succeed, too, but
ultimately it all culminates in a shoot-out during which Maria realizes
her love for Eiji is greater than for the Jupiter Church's cause, and the
both of them stay behind on the vessel to make sure it explodes at the
right time, even if that means letting their own lives in the process. Now
one thing, the special effects in this movie are pretty first rate for its
time, and a far cry from what you've come to expect from Toho
science fiction movies, especially of the giant monster variety - excerpts
of one of which, Ghidrah,
the Three Headed Monster, are actually shown on a television one
of the characters watches. And also in theme, this film is much more
serious and sombre than what has come to expect from Japanese science
fiction - and that's one of the problems of the film, it's maybe too
serious, lacks any kind of relief. The other problem is, it stuffs too
many topics in its already hefty 130 minute running time, topics that
could all easily be made into their own movies, but that are only hastened
through it his one. That said, the film's still worth a glance, it's
intelligent - despite the science by now being pretty out of date -, it's
well crafted, and again, it features great effects work. It's no
masterpiece, but interesting in the best possible way.
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