Warning From Space (1956) by #KôjiShima
w/#KeizôKawasaki #ToyomiKarita
Aliens travel to earth to warn people of an oncoming catastrophe. To prevent panic about her appearance, one alien takes the form of a popular singer.
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#SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn
Warning From Space (1956) is a Japanese movie. I don’t think I saw too many Japanese movies when I was a kid. One or two, perhaps, but I don’t believe any of them were on my favourite late night show, Not Quite Classic Theatre.
Of course, the most famous Japanese horror films were probably those starring Godzilla and his fellow Kaiju. I somehow missed those movies when I was a kid. I always wanted to see them, especially King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963). I thought that looked super cool, but I didn’t get the opportunity until I was much older.
This is my way of saying that I am no expert on Japanese horror and science fiction movies. I had heard of Warning From Space (1956), but I knew nothing about it until one week ago, when I screened it at the home drive-in…
The movie starts off with what appears to be starfish shaped aliens, having a meeting about contacting Earth. They note that the Japanese islands are the perfect place to do it (how convenient for the makers of this movie). They want to start by contacting the scientists, especially the one named Dr. Kamura.
So, what do these aliens want?
I was a little confused as to their purpose, but it seemed like the aliens wanted to warn the earth scientists about a destructive weapon they were developing. I know I’ve been saying this a lot in this blog, but Warning From Space seemed, at first, to be another version of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).
Somewhere down the line, it seemed to switch gears and become about warning the scientists about a planet that is on a crash course with Earth – and urging them to fire all of their nuclear weapons at it to try to knock it off course.
This seemed like a bit of a contradiction to me. “Stop developing that destructive weapon!” And then moments later: “Use all the destructive weapons you’ve got to save your asses!”
But maybe I wasn’t understanding the finer points of this story.
But it gets weirder…
About 23 minutes into the movie, we’re suddenly watching an old-fashioned song and dance number. It’s like something out of a lavish Hollywood musical. When the number ends, the performers look up and scream at something. This is followed by a news report about a monster interrupting the performance, and the star of the show being taken to the hospital in shock.
Shortly after this, a starfish alien returns to the mothership to meet with the other starfish aliens. They mistakenly think her mission has been completed, but she tells them that she has failed to make contact with any earth scientists because they all view her as a monster.
She suggests an alternative method of making contact. She suggests taking the form of an earthling, and shows them a photograph of the singer – the star of the song and dance show. Long story short, the female alien transforms herself into an exact duplicate of the famous earth singer.
This is probably the best part of the movie. It’s inspired lunacy if I’ve ever seen it. But in spite of its brilliance, I somehow didn’t feel like they had quite as much fun with it as they should have had. Still a great idea, and some good moments come out of it.
Anything else worth noting about Warning From Space?
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the starfish aliens are a campy delight, and any scene featuring them is a definite highlight of the movie. If they were on screen more often, Warning From Space might be top tier Not Quite Classic Cinema.
So what’s the verdict for Warning From Space?
Perhaps because I don’t have a lot of nostalgia for Japanese science fiction, as I never saw much of it when I was young, I don’t feel a big connection to Warning From Space. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have its good points. It was apparently Japan’s first colour science science fiction film, and it seems like it had a bit of a budget, so it’s quite well done in its own way. I loved parts of it, like the starfish aliens and the alien disguised as singer plot line.
But at almost 90 minutes, it’s considerably longer than most of the movies I’ve been watching at the home drive-in – and it did feel a little long to me.
Warning From Space (1956) is #NotQuiteClassicCinema with an emphasis on “not quite” – not quite bad enough to be a camp classic, not quite good enough to be an undiscovered gem. It’s an acceptable time passer, and definitely worth a look at at least once – and I should point out that some people love it way more than I do, so if it sounds like something you’d be into, you should definitely give it a chance. As for me, I’m glad I finally saw it after all these years, but I doubt that I will have to revisit it on a future #FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn.
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn
Warning From Space (1956) by #KôjiShima
w/#KeizôKawasaki #ToyomiKarita
Aliens travel to earth to warn people of an oncoming catastrophe. To prevent panic about her appearance, one alien takes the form of a popular singer.#SciFi #NotQuiteClassicCinema pic.twitter.com/ATM3JKNjtF— Angus Kohm (@AngusKohm) July 13, 2024
