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Scientists discover that a star, Gorath, 6000 times the mass of earth,
is approaching our solar system, & ultimately earth itself. So a
rocket is sent up to explore this star, but Gorath's gravitational pull is
too strong, causing the rocket to crash.
To avoid Gorath destroying earth, scientist Tazawa (Ryo Ikebe) suggests
2 strategies: First to send up another spaceship & try to blow up
Gorath, & second to build a gigantic rocket drive on the South Pole 6
try to rocket the earth out of its set orbit & thereby evade Gorath.
The first strategy (blowing up Gorath) proves futile, the only effect
is that astronaut Kanai (Akira Kubo) looks straight at (& into) the
explosion, which causes his mind to snap & him to lose his memory.
Even back on earth, when Takiko (Yumi Shirakawa), the woman he loves,
takes care of him, that fails to trigger his memory.
Building a rocket drive for earth seems to be more successful, as soon
the earth slightly alters its orbit ... bjut then a giant walrus that
seems to have been frozen in the Antarctic ice but was thawed up by the
heat of the rocket drive, wreaks ahvoc & ultimately has to be shot
down by Tazawa & company.
As Gorath approaches earth, it simply sucks up the moon & causes
massive tidal waves that desstroy Tokyo, but ultimately, the rocked drive
proves strong enough to just evade Gorath ... 6 seeing Gorath pass by
earth - instead of crashing into it - retriggers Kanai's memory at long
last. Now all that's left to do is to steer the earth back into its normal
orbit ...
Despite some nice elements - a star sucking up planets in its path, a
rocket powere earth, & of course massive destruction thanks to special
effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya - this is one of Inoshiro Honda's least
appealing efforts of the time: Too much time is spent on irrelevant human
subplots - like Kanai's lovelife & his amnesia, & scientists just
arguing -, while the main plot (the possible destruction of earth) takes
back seat a tad too frequently to really entertain (& there is
massive entertainment value in the destruction of earth).
By the way, the giant walrus was put into the film at the behjest of
Tomoyuki Tanaka, Inoshiro Honda opposed the idea. In retrospect, Honda
seems to have been right, since all the export prints miss the
walrus-scenes. & to tell you the truth, the walrus scenes look quite
crappy, too.
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find Gorath at adultvideouniverse.com
