Exploring Toho's Classic Science Fiction Films: The Mysterians and Battle In Outer Space

Tokusatsu time. Ishiro Honda's zap zap pew pew space opera films.
The Mysterians: amzn.to/3Bt7l3d
Battle In Outer Space: amzn.to/3MxXuQg
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[@DonnerPassWhisky]

Haven't seen these but definitely going to seek them out now. I also love Japanese films from this post war period where you have traditional cultural things along side western rat pack martinis, cigarettes and western suits.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Nightclub scenes in Japanese gangster films are weird and wonderful.

[@captlazer5509]

Toho Studios can have a Akira Kurosawa samurai film or have Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla. Gotta respect that.

[@terrytalksmovies]

They also did women's films, comedies, children's movies. It was an enormously comprehensive studio. Still is.

[@creech54]

Kinda surprised you hadn't seen these two, given your love of sci-fi and Kaiju. They are both a lot of fun! 🙂

[@terrytalksmovies]

Yep. They're great. I also want to watch more of Daiei Studio's tokusatsu work.

[@ohppig1]

My possibly faulty memory says that the "cultural" parts of The Mysterians was a Tokyo guy's idea of a rural festival and product placement for a Japanese chocolate company. More reliable memory says that producer Toshiyuki Tanaka always wanted a song and dance number in his Tokusatsu films for the female audience. The final battle in Battle in Outer Space is to my knowledge the most ambitious space combat scene before The Empire Strikes Back

[@terrytalksmovies]

It's really ambitious. The battle with the dome in The Mysterians is full-on, too.

[@dogzdad123]

Terry: These classic films from early Toho seem to never to go out of favor. As a kid and as an “older adult” I always stop to watch them whenever showing streaming or TV. I wished there are remastered prints available. Tohoscope is great, but the color saturation/balance is s bit distracting. “They just don’t make them as they used to”😢 BTW: You spoke of Aliens influencing society….is Elon Musk really an alien?

[@leebronock887]

I'm in my sixties and the wife tells me I am an "older kid." Ouch! I like the colour balances in the Showa Era Japanese films because they are not simply "realistic." Some of the 'atmosphere' shots in Japanese historical films are awesome. I particularly remember a sunset in a town shot in a version of "Chushingura" where the colour was so saturated it almost ran down the screen.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Musk isn't an alien. We have our own domestic arseholes on the Earth.

[@JohnOhno]

I don't know how much time you want to spend going deep down rabbitholes, but if you want a deeper understanding of showa era culture & where it comes from, there's this academic cultural studies book named Erotic Grotesque Nonsense by Maria Silverberg that dives deep into the early-showa (1920s basically) cultural trends & how they related to a kind of ambivalence regarding foreign cultural imports & code switching. It stops before WWII, and the dynamics must have changed during and immediately after the occupation in fascinating ways, but I don't know of a book that covers that part. (And a good pairing for Erotic Grotesque Nonsense is Seijun Suzuki's "Taisho Trilogy", all of which prominently feature the slightly less integrated mix of western & japanese styles seen during the previous era, and deal obliquely with the same topics as the book.)

[@terrytalksmovies]

Seijun Suzuki's work is incredibly entertaining. Early Showa Era parallellec Weimar Germany in some ways. But when the fascists took over, both of those cultural trends were smashed.

[@JohnOhno]

@@terrytalksmovies Absolutely! The book is in part about *how* those trends were smashed (basically, how the cultural industry at the time -- mostly the 1920s japanese equivalents of Vogue and House And Garden -- responded to government pressures to make western media & western fashion less trendy at a time when regular people really dug the novelty of imports). Part of it was to reframe stuff that was clearly imported as secretly domestic.

[@taker68]

I guess sci-fi didn't have the bad rep in Japan as it did in Hollywood. When an actor or director did a sci-fi film in Hollywood in the 50s, it was a sign they were on the outs or desperate. Loved both of these films, the first more so than the latter. Also saw Gorath. They combined this alien invasion plot with kaiju plots for Invasion of Astro Monster and Destroy All Monsters. I like how the humans seem to agree to what the aliens what until they get to marrying humans. Deal breaker! I just saw Ozu's Dragnet Girl from 1933 which interested me for being a gangster film and was surprised how Western Japan looked in the 30s. English language signs everywhere, nightclubs and boxing gyms, only one character wearing Japanese clothing. Could have been remade as an American film without very little changes.

[@terrytalksmovies]

From the mid-30s onward until the end of WW2, the Americanisation of Japan was destroyed by the militarism. 1933 was the end of an era.

[@fernandogarajalde4066]

6:09 Takashi Shimura also appears as one of the senior Japanese naval commanders in “Tora! Tora! Tora!” Even though it isn’t sci-fi (but the special effects rival those of similar films in the 1960s) the work that Shimura and the Japanese cast put into it is worthy in comparison with their American co-stars.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Shimura was an acting chameleon. He did all kinds of different roles brilliantly.

[@ardalla535]

Showing scenes from Mysterians without the Markolites is just sad.

[@terrytalksmovies]

I have to be careful of fair use. Not too many video clips or the whole thing gets demonetised.

[@tonyausten6839]

I find it somewhat frustrating when one of the films reviewed is so obscenely expensive that normal collectors cannot afford them. It proves more annoying than helpful. Three-figure prices for a DVD which, looking at eBay, isn't rare is nothing short of criminal. I keep looking to you to speak out, but you sound bought-off by getting these things free to review......we need you a little more on our side.

[@terrytalksmovies]

I bought the movies I reviewed in this video with my own money. If you have a problem with me getting movies to review, your envy isn't my problem. I am fortunate and privileged to get the review copies, but I have worked toward getting to the point where movie distributors respect my opinions and viewpoint. I started my own KZbin channel and bought the cameras and microphones and software to create videos. I talked about movies on a radio station for free for thirteen years, spend fifteen years producing two podcasts and spent forty years reading every movie book I could get my hands on. I don't know what you mean by being more on your side and to be honest, I don't care to know.

[@tonyausten6839]

So no standing up for right against greed. In all my years I do find it sad I can't get people to believe in fairness. People are too happy to sit in their home bubble and not help the less well off. A pathetic generation.

[@emilsitka7590]

The exciting musical score in "The Mysterians" when the the humans are attacking the alien base and the unique mobile tracked parabolic topped weapons reflecting back the energy beams during the final battle both deserve special mention. Made real impression on my 1960's pre-teen mind. Remember it fondly. When I tracked down a copy a few years ago it didn't disappoint. Also Honorable Mention to "Chilly Billy" Bill Cardille of Pittsburgh's' Saturday Late Night's Chiller Theater for the original showing of this and countless others of it's kind. Bill is also remembered as the reporter in the original "Night Of The Living Dead".

[@terrytalksmovies]

Those bombastic brassy musical scores for early Tokusatsu movies are a lot of fun, especially when the little models of tanks and troop carriers start moving out.

[@fernandogarajalde4066]

Terry, thanks for introducing “Tokusatsu” to my lexicon. My Japanese is quite limited to words such as “kaiju”, “Kurosawa” and “gojira”. (I know one of them is the name of a director). 😆

[@terrytalksmovies]

If KZbin let me, I'd do a video about Pinku movies, too. Weird genre. NSFW.

[@thhseeking]

Those miniature sets with things falling into holes are in a way visually similar to the later Gerry Anderson/Derek Meddings special effects.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Aren't they?

[@erikramaekers63]

Eiji Tsuburaya was a genius.

[@terrytalksmovies]

He was. Another guy who changed cinema and influenced the work, for instance, that Gerry Anderson did in the 1960s.

[@rightcheer5096]

I saw BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE at the “Mexican theater,” La Mesa, in Clovis New Mexico, in the ‘60s. I thought it totally rocked, the best science fiction movie I’d ever seen (up until Saturday Night at the Movies broadcast the original DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL a year later).

[@terrytalksmovies]

Don't get me started on best science fiction movies. I usually piss people off by dissing their favourites. 😀

[@nunyabizness6595]

1957. Year of my birth. So of course they are awesome!😮😮😮❤

[@terrytalksmovies]

Same here. I agree.

[@RamZar50]

I too was born in 1957!

[@denniskristos3800]

How about doing an Exploring for Ishiro Honda's other Tokusatsu invasion (from a presumed sunken and extinct subterranean civilization) 1963 flick "Atragon" (Japanese title: "Kaitei Gunkan").

[@terrytalksmovies]

I might do more Honda at some stage. I also have plans for some other classic science fiction flicks when a new release arrives in the mailbox. There's a lot of good stuff ahead.

[@waldorfstatler3129]

Damn extraterrestrials always after our Earth women. What makes them think they are easy? 😂 Ikiru is a masterpiece.

[@terrytalksmovies]

It's our men who are easy.

[@waldorfstatler3129]

@@terrytalksmovies 😂

[@Randall1001]

I agree about these two movies... they're both hugely entertaining and the special effects are amazing. And I totally agree about the Japanese aesthetic at that time, which was soooo cool. The Mysterians is generally considered the more "important" of the two, but I kinda prefer The Battle in Outer Space... it seems less silly I suppose. But both films are a lot of fun. I've also never seen Gorath---or for that matter, Dogora the Space Monster. I have a couple similar sets to the one you held up, but they overlap a bit on selections. I don't know why Gorath and Dogora are so hard to get a hold of... I see them on eBay frequently, but they're always a bit more than I'm willing to pay at the moment. I'm still going to have to grab them at some point.

[@terrytalksmovies]

A lot of second tier Toho stuff is really collectable these days.

[@Randall1001]

@@terrytalksmovies True. And while I haven't heard much about Gorath, my understanding is that Dogora is a pretty damn good movie. One of these days I'll bite the bullet and buy both.

[@terrytalksmovies]

@@Randall1001 Good plan.

[@themagus5906]

I loved "The Mysterians" (Earth Defense Force) on TV when I was a kid, and am now lucky enough to own the Tokyo Shock DVD of the film. (It's now out of print.) It's fun to watch on a big widescreen TV with a good sound system, although the original "Perspecta-Sound" isn't there. I also remember seeing "Battle in Outer Space" in the theater back then, along with stuff like "Invasion of Astro-Monster" and "Destroy all Planets" in the front row. Boy, those were the days......

[@terrytalksmovies]

First viewings in a cinema really embed movies into our memories.

[@szeltovivarsydroxan9944]

I've been a huge fan of Godzilla and Toho kaiju movies since the early 90's, but I only have seen The Mysterians a few weeks ago for the first time, and it blew me away! It's such a fantastic, entertaining sci-fi film!

[@terrytalksmovies]

Deliciously kooky movie. Have fun!

[@JohnMinehan-lx9ts]

Very insightful comments on post-war Japan. (Also, "groovy" is a underused word . . . .)

[@terrytalksmovies]

Groovy needs resurrecting!

[@d.bcooper7819]

Fascinating review. I’m totally new to the genre of film. Thanks for what you do Terry.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Enjoy the exploration of tokusatsu.

[@jackfriend4u]

i think i enjoy some of these type of Toho films, rather more than the better-known Kaiju franchises. The Yokai Ghost films and the Daimajin (giant stone "gods") are amongst those, though they were by the Daiei Motion Picture Company. The 1950-60-early 70's saw some really fun and crazy fantasy films come out of Japan. amongst my faves are "Matango" (probably best NOT watched while eating mushrooms!), and The H-Man (Toho). The Godzilla film that I do keep returning to is one of the least successful /popular of the lot but it's just such a silly, trippy piece from 1971 called "Gojira vs Hedorah" (the Smog Monster) that it deserves cult status, and if anyone were doing some sort of fun, eco/conservation fundraiser it would be the best film to show! these few decades of what i call the 3 M's (Make-up, Models and Miniatures) are close to my heart even though i didn't really see any of them till several decades after they'd been produced/released, but i had seen (as a kid) the various works of Gerry Anderson which gave me an appreciation for this physical style of effects. Admittedly, as an adult I saw them (the Japanese tokusatsu) under what i'd describe as "2 Bongs and a 6 Pack" conditions, but there's a certain naive charm that makes them very watchable. "Visual and NOT too abysmal" !

[@terrytalksmovies]

Daiei did some really interesting flicks, including some more serious works.

[@BobPond-l7z]

I have the Toho collection, it's really good stuff. When I started to find the discs that had the original films as well as the American versions... What a revelation! They were for the most part completely different movies. I like Raymond Burr, but what a difference to see the original Gojira. Rodan and Mothra as well. Who knew?

[@terrytalksmovies]

The originals are so much more powerful without the American gatekeepers editing the local references out of it. Japanese cinema, ungutted, is never not worth watching.

[@garfieldsmith332]

Thank you for an excellent review. Both are great films. I saw them in theaters when first release in Canada. They still hold up well today and are worth viewing. Both have excellent music scores. The space battle scenes in "Battle" were sort of 'borrowed' by George Lucas for Star Wars. The film The War in Space (1977) is sometimes considered to be a 4th movie in the series. That three dvd set of TOHO Sci-Fi is an excellent disk and a great value. Enjoying your reviews so much I subscribed.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Thanks Garfield. I appreciate it.😀

[@williamthompson286]

You're absolutely right the aesthetic of these movies is quite beautiful. Do you think they had an influence on Gerry Anderson's work? I read somewhere that Stanley Kubrick watched some Japanese sci-fi movies while doing research for 2001.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Kubrick probably did. Derek Meddings and the team Anderson created HAD to know what Japan was doing. The aesthetic is too similar to Toho's minatures for it not to be.

[@jackfriend4u]

i shoulda said the 4 M's! ...models, make-up ( inc prosthetics) miniatures and Mattes. kinda hard to find modern day movies that use practical in camera effects, and yet sometimes they're so much better looking than CGI... I know each of them takes a lot of work and effort and i'm not sure "realism" is always the intention. i don't have any trouble seeing/knowing that a special effect is handmade and even consciously unrealistic (such as Dario Russo's Danger 5 series) though i do wonder if it can be distracting if the director is actually trying to make something sober and serious, rather than whimsical and charming. i had one friend call out during a Doctor Who episode, "Oh that looks so fake!" to which i had to reply, "yeah an alien monster impersonating a stone gargoyle would NEVER look like that!" he punched me in the arm and i probably had it coming, lol! but it does remind me how spoilt we are by big budget effects and the expectation they create...that all subsequent productions must go that next step further in quality and detail.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Basic special effects are never a problem for me if they're the best a production can do. If the story and characters engage then it's easy to forgive SFX limitations.

[@portland-182]

You might like to glance at the 1980 puppet show 'Star Fleet' aka 'X Bomber' for some more practical 'Tokusatsu' style space action.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Thanks for the tip. 😀

[@dlee827]

I've seen those films and they are enjoyable. I think that The Mysterians was an influence on Gerry Anderson's series, especially Captain Scarlet (and its Mysterons) and UFO, not least for the air and spacecraft.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Absolutely.

[@Skaramine]

I always heard that Battle was a sequel to the Mysterians. Good old American distributors... or it is just a myth.

[@terrytalksmovies]

If you want it to be, it can be. 😀

[@colinwatt9387]

Can't sleep, feeling wretched with man flu, what to do with my time? Ah, Terry talking about Toho movies? Just the tonic I need.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Always happy to help, Colin.

[@CassandrashadowcassMorrison]

The Mysterians shares two leads with Gojira so the fact that you never saw them reduces your ranking as a kaiju and sci-fi fan to zero. KZbin should remove your channel!

[@terrytalksmovies]

I haven't watched Gojira since I did my Godzilla 24 hour marathon. Takashi Shimura turned up in a lot of films.

[@ZANGOJOE]

I enjoyed your take on Toho's original two science fiction movies. You really seem to understand and appreciate these movies for what they are with every nuances. The movie with Moguera is originally called "Earth Defense Force". And in terms of the media of today, this gem of a film had quite the impact on it.

[@terrytalksmovies]

One of the great things I did in Japan was visit the outside of Toho Studios. 😀

[@ZANGOJOE]

@@terrytalksmovies That must have been pretty great. I want to do that too one day.

[@brunozeigerts6379]

Saw Battle in Outer Space during one of those 'bad movie marathons.' I remember actually enjoying it. Mysterians... yeah, guilty pleasure. Got a kick out of it... Battle in Outer Space is on Tubi... don't know if any streaming service carries The Mysterians.

[@terrytalksmovies]

I doubt that any streamers have it. There might be a good copy on KZbin.

[@brunozeigerts6379]

@@terrytalksmovies I've checked... just ads. I don't buy DVDs any more, unless it's something like The Maxx, that I can't get any other way. Might make an exception if I see Mysterians.

[@RamZar50]

I watched The Mysterians (1957) when I was a kid in the 1960s and was so blown away that I remembered it throughout the years. I tracked down the DVD about 10 years ago and watched it again for the second time after 40 years. It does not hold up well at all! Another movie released around that time, that is, Forbidden Planet (1956) is still pretty awesome!

[@terrytalksmovies]

Forbidden Planet may be the best science fiction movie of the 1950s.

[@RamZar50]

@@terrytalksmovies Agreed!

[@brunozeigerts6379]

There was also Warning from Space(not to be confused with Message from Space) about aliens trying to warn the people of Earth about a coming collision with another planet. Or Atragon, a live action movie about a advanced submarine fighting underground aliens. (remade as Super Atragon, maybe?)

[@terrytalksmovies]

Atragon is fun, as is Latitude Zero. Tokusatsu movies are the gift that keeps on giving.

[@brunozeigerts6379]

@@terrytalksmovies I once went to (ahem) torrent site and found two entries for Latitude Zero. One said 'subtitled' and was slight longer, so I figured it must be in Japanese. I downloaded it and... it was a Brazilian movie about a woman at a restaurant beside an abandoned coal mine. Interesting... and disturbing stuff, but not what I was looking for. The English one was the right one. It's also on Tubi and I think Amazon has it.

[@BeoZard]

The Mysterions has been a favorite of mine since I was just a little guy.

[@terrytalksmovies]

It works!

[@joseluisherreralepron9987]

I have "The Mysterians" on DVD and it's great. I have "Battle in Outer Space" on a double-feature Blu ray with one of my favorite Honda films, "The H-Man" from 1958. Lovely stuff.

[@terrytalksmovies]

The H-Man also works as a police procedural. I love the look of mid-Showa Era Japan.

[@joseluisherreralepron9987]

@@terrytalksmovies It's a bizarre, heady mix of gangster film and sci-fi...and it works beautifully. I really enjoy watching Japanese sci-fi in Japanese with subtitles; it just makes more sense and avoids the cringey dubbing of US prints.

[@alphawoolf5981]

I saw Battle In Outer Space while on vacation to Disney World late at night as a kid. I stayed up while everyone was asleep and loved every minute of it!

[@terrytalksmovies]

It's really solid basic entertainment. Not much character development but a lot of action.

[@rsacchi100]

I like when Japanese movies give a peak into Japanese doing everyday things. I wonder if the reticence about giving big budget scifi films in the U.S. after Forbidden Planet's box office disappointment left a good opening for Japanese science fiction films?

[@terrytalksmovies]

The Japanese movies distributed in the US were for the bottom end of the market. Drive-ins and budget cinemas. The US big Hollywood studios thought science fiction was for children right up to the 1970s.

[@rsacchi100]

@@terrytalksmovies Pretty much the general population thought the same way. The children grew up and decided they didn't have to look down at science fiction.

[@JAMESLEVEE]

The Myaterians is older than I am (it's also older than rhe laser beam by a couple of years). It's aged well. The rays from the robot's eyes appear to be the same as the skeleton rays from the Martian machines in George Pal's War of the Worlds, but in orange rather than green paint.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Is that related to Gort's death ray in The Day The Earth Stood Still.

[@JAMESLEVEE]

@@terrytalksmovies no. That was more like what a laser turned out to be 9 years later. A tight beam. The Martian machines had 2 weapons. A heat ray fired from the cobra-like periscope at the top, created by superimposing an image of a welding torch melting a wire, and the skeleton ray, which emanated from either side of the craft, which was made with blobs of green paint.

[@JAMESLEVEE]

After watching some excerpts of Moguera attacking, I see that my memory failed me. The beams from its eyes were bluish white.

[@douglasmyers5239]

Thanks Terry that was great. Watched both movies in the cinema and again on TV. Have them now on DVD. You hit it perfectly. They are great movies. Yes Honda needs a bio pic.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Honda and his SFX guy Eiji Tsuburaya changed cinema.

[@PhiloYT1]

Terry, The Mysterians was heavily advertised on TV during kids' shows in 1957 and all us kids wanted to see it. But it was the big robot with Japanese Air Force jets attacking it that got our attention. I don't think I ever got to see it. After Rodan and Godzilla, my parents were done with "Tokusatsu."😆

[@terrytalksmovies]

Tokusatsu is a deep rabbit hole. Enjoy.

[@leebronock887]

Hmmm. Is that where Richardson got the eponymous character of "Mole Flanders?" [I'm a sucker for underground jokes.] I also like the idea of Tokusatsu Ramen, with the cartoon character of the little kid with the bowl of soup and a lamp on the run printed on the packet. Made from mechapork bones no doubt. Interplanetary conspiracies are a blast! Stay safe.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Will do. I prefer tonkatsu ramen or maybe a good beef bento box with a side of natto.

[@leebronock887]

@@terrytalksmovies I too like tonkatsu ramen. Indeed, I have two cases of it in my Prepper Pantry. Natto now, that's an acquired taste, like marmite. It all started when a friend of a friend introduced me to umeboshi, (which I avidly consume whenever I can find it within my "price range.") Stay safe and keep that bento box handy.

[@terrytalksmovies]

@@leebronock887 There's a ramen joint 800 metres away. All is well.

[@davidmouser596]

I was a kid when The Mysterians was double billed with Destroy All Monsters (both great). Just a note, Battle For Outer Space was originally intended to be a sequel to the Mysterians but for some reason the studio changed their minds?

[@terrytalksmovies]

The studio changed their mind because the original actors weren't available.

[@davidmouser596]

@@terrytalksmovies I'm guessing the studio just didnt want to pay what the actors where really worth. Same issue with Hammer, they where always trying to replace Cushing & Lee but the USA distributor told if they where not in the film then they didnt want it;)

[@terrytalksmovies]

@@davidmouser596 not really. The actors were just busy AF. Toho's output was prolific at the time across a number of genres.

[@unclepatrick2]

First saw Mysterians on a local tv station one Saturday night in the early 70s. It would be mid 2000 that I saw it again . Battle in outer Space was one that always seem to be on TV here in the 80’s I now have both on DVD , including the same Toho DVD set you have Terry .

[@terrytalksmovies]

That box set of Toho is superb. You get to choose whether to watch the English dub or the Japanese version.

[@unclepatrick2]

@@terrytalksmovies I usually do the Japanese version with English subs .

[@terrytalksmovies]

@@unclepatrick2 agreed. I prefer the whole movie with the original voices.

[@hhvictor2462]

A really good copy of The Mysterians is hard to find. By good copy I mean hi quality wide screen resolution, background audio heard loud enough, and English dubbed,

[@terrytalksmovies]

Yep. I was lucky to find an online copy of the OG Japanese version with subtitles.

[@anthonymunn8633]

There was a DVD of it in the states many years ago,with the Japanese voice track as well as Toho's "international" dub track included,as opposed to the cut American version.

[@windupgamecat]

The British Film Institute did an excellent DVD of it some years back.

[@DavidJohnson-of3vh]

These are fun flix!

[@terrytalksmovies]

They are. Imaginative and silly at the same time.

[@bethd1480]

I was also surprised you hadn't seen these before. I think The Mysterians was on TV at least once a month when I was a kid on one of the Friday/Saturday nights horror movies show. On your DVD with Battle in Outer Space is one or my favorite Japanese Horror films - "The H Man" - scared the heck out of me as a child.

[@terrytalksmovies]

The H Man is brilliant, too. A police procedural with a science fiction twist.

[@eliruizjr4432]

It would be nice to have The Mysterians on blu ray! Is that ever going to happen?

[@terrytalksmovies]

Who knows? It may have had a blu-ray release in Japan but physical media is very expensive and less extensive up there.

[@eliruizjr4432]

@Terry Talks Movies I'll have to buy this on DVD if I want to watch it soon. There seems to be more than one version available in the States. I'll have to research to see if there are any differences between them.

[@terrytalksmovies]

@@eliruizjr4432 try to get the Japanese version with subtitles.

[@eliruizjr4432]

@@terrytalksmovies Will do thanks!

[@trull122]

I love you bro!

[@terrytalksmovies]

Thanks @Griff!

[@benefitthirteen]

I believe I mentioned this before, but a while back we watched a collection of Toho Kaiju/SciFi movies. It was originally intended to be Godzilla-centric, but rapidly spiraled out of control to include so many others (chronologically of course), including these two very good films. When you talk about the difference between original and English language versions, it can get pretty interesting. In "Invasion of Astro-Monster" (which I saw as "Monster Zero" as a kid), there's a scene with Nick Adams' character Glenn rushing into a room and ultimately confronting the character Namikawa. Won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but when you watch it subtitled vs dubbed, it's crazy how differently the meaning and emotions play out between the two.

[@terrytalksmovies]

There's a nuance to the original Japanese versions that gets lost. The OG Gojira shows that. The people fleeing Godzilla were flashing back to the bombings during WW2 as they evacuated.

[@Nedski42YT]

I saw Battle In Outer Space on TV back in the 1960's and I really liked the "rocket plane interceptors." They were scale models of the North American Aviation X-15 high speed research rocket plane. It was the beginning of the space age and all things space related were cool to me! Also really impressive to me were what looked like giant radio-telescopes shooting lightning bolts at the alien flying saucers. I don't recall ever seeing The Mysterians. I'll have to get a copy. Here in the USA there was a band called ? (Question Mark) and The Mysterians. They had a big hit in 1966 called 96 Tears. According to their Wikipedia article they took their name from the movie and were inspired by it.

[@terrytalksmovies]

96 Tears is a banger. Emo before emo existed.

[@carlrenzi]

I saw both movies when I was a kid as a double feature. For some reason, probably because I was so young, I thought they were one movie and only years later did I realize they were two different movies.😀 Thanks for these reviews.Take care of yourself.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Thanks @carlrenzi. You too.

[@kaboombox1581]

Even though I’m only familiar with these films with the English dubs, I’ve always loved them, especially for the model and miniature work.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Finding the subtitled version is worth it. The cuts are longer, too.

[@tobyhines7587]

Love to watch these movies back in the day. I really enjoyed,The Mysterians, I always remember the earth ray weapons having a large reflector bounce back the beams of The Mysterians

[@terrytalksmovies]

Yep they did judo on the death ray!

[@adambenton9673]

These look amazing. Going to look up where I can stream them here in the states🤘

[@jltrem]

Internet Archive.

[@adambenton9673]

@@jltrem Thank you!

[@jltrem]

@@adambenton9673 You're welcome.

[@terrytalksmovies]

Is that the US version or the original?

[@jltrem]

@@terrytalksmovies Battle In Space is Japanese version. Looks like Mysterians are dubbed.

[@josepherhardt164]

I'm so disappointed. I kept waiting for Question Mark to show up and sing "96 Tears." Just looked him up on the wiki of pedia. ? and the Mysterians _did_ actually name their band after this movie.

[@terrytalksmovies]

I can't use copyright music on the channel, sorry. 😀

[@josepherhardt164]

@@terrytalksmovies Wasn't expecting it. 'Twas merely a joke. Perhaps not a _good_ joke, mind you ... :)

[@PuncherOfAbs]

I HEARD THEY VISITED DISNEY STUDEIOS AND SAW THE OXBERRY. AND BOUGHT ONE TOHO.

[@terrytalksmovies]

We had the options of Tokyo Disney and Universal Studios in Osaka but we decided to go to a Ninja Museum in Iga Prefecture instead.

[@PuncherOfAbs]

you monster from space

[@terrytalksmovies]

Yog?

[@PuncherOfAbs]

Yes when ever my phone is full The spell check miss spells words or changes the sentence structure just as I’m sending .... it’s incredibly annoying. Yes yog. Sorry for the typo’s

[@PuncherOfAbs]

most likely before the visit to disney where they saw the oxberry. and had to get one.

[@terrytalksmovies]

What's an oxberry?