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Urutora Q - Uchuu Kara no Okurimono
episode 3 / Ultra Q - The Gift from Space
Japan 1966
produced by Tsuburaya Productions/TBS
directed by Hajime Tsuburaya
starring Kenji Sahara, Ureo Egawa, Yasuhiko Saijo, Hiroko Sakurai, Yoshifumi Tajima, Haruya Kato, Tadashi Okabe, Jun Tazaki, Koichi Sato, Shiro Tsuchiya, Naoya Kusakawa, Ryusuke Saijo, Saburo Kadowaki, Seiji Ikeda, Tetsuo Kinjo, Junpei Natsuki, Shigeo Kato, Yukio Kawamata, Kenzo Echigo
written by Tetsuo Kinjo, special effects by Kaimai Eizo
TV-series Ultra Q
review by Mike Haberfelner
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On the flight home from a photoshoot, Yuriko (Hiroko Sakurai) and hger
regular pilot Manjome (Kenji Sahara) witness a strange object descending
into the sea, and upon checking back with the Japanese space authority,
they learn that this was the very unexpected return of a thought lost
Martian probe. Inside the probe, the space authority finds two golden eggs
- which they decide to put into a safe next to a lot of money - and of
course that safe is cracked the very night, and the very robber (Koichi
Sato) who was first and foremost after the money takes the eggs as well,
taking them for gold nuggets. Then he stops by Manjome's office and forces
him to fly him to the mountains. In the struggle that ensues, he loses one
of the eggs though. In the mountains, the robber meets an accomplice to
split the money, but in the process he loses the other Martian egg, it
rolls into some hot springs, grows to giant size, and from it emerges a
giant slug that promptly kills the two baddies, then terrorizes the
neighbourhood before retreating into some caves. Yuriko, Manjome, and
their colleague Ippei (Yasuhiko Saijo) come to investigate, and while the
locals don't dare come near the caves, our heroes enter them, find the
dead baddies, their money - and of course also the monster that, once
startled, goes after them, and especially after Manjome, who lures it to
some cliffs from which it falls into the sea, and apparently being
allergic to salt water it melts into nothing. There's a problem though,
Ippei since has found the other egg in Manjome's office and made it into a
pendant, that once exposed to heat grows to enormous size, and before you
know it, another giant slug hatches ... Now what's really nice
about this episode is that it carries a pacifist message and does so
light-heartedly. And one just has to love a giant slug of course,
especially when this creature can be lured to fall over some cliffs. The
plot itself though doesn't always make sense and is based too much on
coincidence, but if you're ok with that - and one really shouldn't expect
too much from Ultra Q in terms of clever plots - then
you'll probably enjoy this one more than you might expect ...
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