Uchu Kara no Messeji

Message from Space
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Japan 1978
produced by
Toru Hirayama, Akira Ito, Yosuke Okada, Naoyuki Sugimoto, Tan Takaiwa, Simon Tse, Banjiro Uemura, Yoshinori Watanabe for Tohokashinsha Film Company, Toei
directed by Kinji Fukasaku
starring Philip Casnoff, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mikio Narita, Vic Morrow, Etsuko Shihomi, Makoto Sato, Peggy Lee Brennan, Sonny Chiba, Eisei Amamoto, Masazumi Okabe, Isamu Shimizu, Tetsuro Tanba, Noboru Mitani, Junkichi Orimoto, Harumi Sone, Sanda Sugiyama, Seizo Fukumoto, Jerry Ito
story by Kinji Fukasaku, Shotaro Ishinomori, Masahiro Noda, screenplay by Hiro Matsuda, music by Ken-Ichiro Morioka, special effects by Shotaru Ishinori, Minoru Nakano, Masahiro Noda, Tetsuzo Osawa, Noboru Takanashi, Nobuo Yajima

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Because their world has been conquered by evil Lord Rokseia (Mikio Narita), Princess Esmeralida (Etsuko Shihomi) and Urocco (Makoto Sato) make an escape by spaceship (that looks suspicously like a sailship, really) to find some heroes to help them save the planet, heroes that will be made known to them by glowing walnuts.

The bunch of heroes the walnuts find are an unlikely army to win a war with though, disgraced and alcoholic general Garuda (Vic Morrow), his naive robot Beba (Isamu Shimizu), spoilt rich girl Meia (Peggy Lee Brennan), carefree speed pilots Aaron (Philip Casnoff) and Shiro (Hiroyuki Sanada), and shady barowner Jackie (Masazumi Okabe) - but not only are they an unlikely army, they all turn the Princess and Urocco down, all but Jackie, who promptly leads them into a trap that has the princess fall captive to Rokseia's men. It's only when the earth is attacked by Lord Rokseia and general Garuda made our planet's special ambassador that our heroes change their mind, rush to the aide of the Princess's folks, pick up samurai-like Han (Sonny Chiba), a former ruler of Rokseia's planet and now his sworn enemy, along the way, are almost betrayed by Urocco, but ultimately manage to destroy Rokseia - who dies in a sword duel with Han - and his army and battlefleet in a big space battle, even if that also means destroying the planet of Princess Meia (of course after everyone is evacuated though).

Then our heroes decide to stay with Princess Meia and her people to help them find a new home ...

Obviously made as a cash in on the then enormously successful original Star Wars, Message from Space is a silly little film based on a script hardly worth the paper it was written on (just like Star Wars) - but it's also good, silly fun: There are these great plastic sets and costumes that look like something right out of a comic strip, there is plenty of sci-fi action, and the pre-CGI miniature work is actually first rate. That all said, the film is still kiddie fare and hardly worth a director of Kinji Fukasaku's format, but that said, you might still be entertained ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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