Japan’s Shochiku Studios were well known for evocative dramas by the likes of master directors Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi, but in the late 1960s, the studio decided to dive into the financially lucrative monster/horror genre that other Japanese studios had been milking for more than a decade. The result was the four low budget entries included in this latest Eclipse box from Criterion. As films, these four movies are occasionally laughably poor with often cheesy special effects and juvenile plots borrowed from scores of movies that came before. And yet, there’s an endearing amateurishness and earnestness about them that make them strangely worthy of attention.
When Horror Came to Shochiku: Eclipse Series 37
The X from Outer Space/Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell/The Living Skeleton/Genocide
Directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu et al
Studio: Criterion/Eclipse
Year: 1967-1968
Aspect Ratio: 2.24:1-2.50:1 anamorphic
Running Time: 88/84/80/84 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: Dolby Digital 1.0 Japanese
Subtitles: English
MSRP: $ 59.95
Release Date: November 20, 2012
Review Date: November 18, 2012
The Films
The X from Outer Space – 2.5/5
When their mission to Mars gets sidetracked by an ornery UFO and some curious space spores which have attached themselves to the outside of the spaceship, astronaut Lisa (Peggy Neal) brings a sample inside, and the team brings it back to Earth. Unknown to them, inside is a space monster which grows larger and stronger by absorbing energy all around it. The huge creature which they name Guilala lays waste to Japan, and the only possible way to stop the rampaging beast is to bring an element back from the moon which can block the creature’s ability to absorb energy around it. But can Captain Sano (Shunya Wazaki), his girl friend Michiko (Iitoko Harada), affable communications expert Miyamoto (Shinichi Yanagisawa), and Lisa get to the moon and back in time to stop the destruction?
It’s probably better to turn off the critical radar and just settle in with this knuckleheaded adventure tale if one wants to exit with his sanity intact. So what if no one on the mission takes orders or the tedious love triangle between the captain and the two females in his orbit is given little or no development? Sure, the outer space special effects couldn’t be more low rent, and the science in the film is laughable (a hole in the fuselage is easily patched with no worries about oxygen or pressurization). Of course the rubber-suited monster (which gives the marionette in The Giant Claw a run for its money as the all-time worst movie creature) tramples around obvious miniature sets and toy cars, missiles, and tanks (at one point a tiny rubber tree it steps on springs miraculously back to life without snapping). But it’s all innocent fun from a much earlier time and easy enough to excuse as the studio’s first effort at doing something different.
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell – 2.5/5
When a flying saucer causes an Air Japan jet to crash land in the desert at the very moment it’s being hijacked, the few survivors wonder if they’ll be rescued. The hijacker (Hideo Ko) wandering in the desert comes upon the alien saucer and has his head split open and an alien presence enter, an alien who sucks the blood from any human it comes into contact with. With the survivors arguing among themselves what the best course of action would be, it’s easy for the alien to begin picking them off one at a time.
The screenplay by Susumu Takahisa and Kyuzo Kobayashi has its basic premise locked down fairly tightly, but otherwise the writers haven’t imbued their characters with much in the way of intelligence as the group to a person seems oblivious to what’s happening right before their eyes (of course, even once they’re aware of the monster, nothing seems to kill it including fire, bullets, crushing by rocks, or falling from a great height). No acts of kindness or human goodness are going to be awarded in this negative enterprise either so the movie leaves the viewer with a rather sour taste in his mouth (an antiwar rant at one point stops the film dead in its tracks). Some of the acting by leads Teruo Yoshida who plays the heroic pilot and Tomomi Sato as a flight attendant is good, but Eizo Kitamura as a crooked politician chews all of the scenery around him, and Nobuo Kaneko as his dupe isn’t much better. Special effects can be cheesy, but a couple of moments as bodies disintegrate after the alien leaves them certainly prove effective.
The Living Skeleton – 3.5/5
When the freighter Dragon King is hijacked by a group of thieves out to steal the millions in gold bullion it’s carrying onboard, young wife on the ship Yoriko (Kikko Matsuoka) is raped and then killed along with the rest of the crew. Three years later, each of the bandits, some of whom have done well with their invested millions while others have squandered theirs, begin dying under strange circumstances. Yoriko’s sister Saeko (Kikko Matsuoka) and her boy friend Mochizuki (Yasunori Irikawa) see what appears to be the lost freighter offshore and go diving where they see numerous skeletons underwater suggesting that the spirits are not at rest and are seeking vengeance on those who killed them.
The best of the four films in this package, the film is part ghost story and part mystery, and like the best of Agatha Christie’s works, people and things are not always what they seem. There are some genuine surprises to be had in the Kikuma Shimoiizaka-Kyuzo Kobayashi screenplay and just when the supernatural elements of the story appear to have rational explanations, the writers pull a fast one and we end up with a ghost story anyway (the ending is messy and could have used a rewrite, and since when do bats signify spirits in a ghost story; this isn’t Dracula). Kikko Matsuoka and Yasunori Irikawa are a handsome couple, and Masumi Okada does outstanding work as a priest who’s trying to help Saeko keep herself grounded what with the murders and whispers about Yoriko’s ghost being seen prowling around.
Genocide – 3/5
When a U.S. Air Force bomber carrying an H-bomb flies into a vast sea of insects, three members of the crew manage to parachute to safety, but the H-bomb goes missing. Amid the U.S. servicemen searching for their bomb comes the mysterious deaths of two of the surviving crew members and the arrest of the suspicious Joji Akiyama (Yusuke Kawazu) who had been in the vicinity of their deaths having an affair with the lovely Annabelle (Kathy Horan) while his newly pregnant wife Yukari (Emi Shindo) waits patiently back home. Dr. Nagumo (Keisuke Sonoi) suspects the deaths were caused by a new strain of poisonous insect rather than by Joji, but while he follows through with more experiments and tests, the killer swarm threatens to get out of hand the longer it takes to get answers.
This is a dark, dark doomsday scenario coming from the pen of Susumu Takaku, and along with his killer insects (they look just like ordinary honeybees) and a mad scientist in disguise, there are also lectures on the horrors of the atomic age, the inherent foolishness of the Cold War between East and West, and even additional diatribes against the Holocaust. It’s all completely over the top without any restraint in the acting and with special effects that are mostly pretty bogus even the near-final image of a mushroom cloud with mankind’s last hope somehow far enough away from it to ensure the survival of the species (though how she managed to get far enough away for safety is a question best saved for another day).
Video Quality
The X from Outer Space – 3.5/5
The film has been presented in this transfer with an aspect ratio of 2.24:1 and has been anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions even though the image is completely windowboxed. Sharpness is the transfer’s weakest aspect: it’s never razor-sharp and some of it is irritatingly soft. Color is decently presented without possessing vivid hues. Flesh tones are accurate throughout. Black levels of space never blend into the black bars which surround the image. The white subtitles are easy to read. The film has been divided into 11 chapters.
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell – 3.5/5
The theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented with anamorphic enhancement. Though sharpness is improved from the previous film, there’s still a bit of inherent softness in the image. Colors can be bold and sometimes the intense orangy-reds bloom just a bit with a trace of banding noticeable, too. Otherwise, flesh tones are accurate. The print used for the transfer displays some damage at infrequent intervals, and there are more than a few dust specks on display. Black levels aren’t optimum either. The movie has been divided into 9 chapters.
The Living Skeleton – 3/5
The only black and white entry in this set, the 2.50:1 aspect ratio is faithfully delivered in an anamorphic transfer. Black levels aren’t very deep for the most part, and contrast is sometimes a bit milky, too. But the picture is in pretty good shape apart from one sequence where hundreds of little scratches run along the right side of the frame. There is also some aliasing to be seen in tight line structures on occasion. The movie has been divided into 9 chapters, and the white subtitles are always easy to read.
Genocide – 3.5/5
The best looking of the four transfers, this 2.47:1 anamorphically-enhanced transfer boasts strong color and believable flesh tones. Sharpness again is not always optimum, but the transfer is clean from age-related artifacts found in the other movies in the set. Black levels are only okay. The white subtitles are always completely legible, and the movie has been divided into 11 chapters.
Audio Quality
The X from Outer Space, Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell – 3.5/5
The Dolby Digital 1.0 Japanese sound mix for all of the films is typical of its era with dialogue, sound effects, and music blending together harmoniously in the single track of limited fidelity. With much of the dialogue post-synched in these movies, there isn’t a great deal of vivacity to the audio encode, but the pop music of Taku Izumi’s score for The X from Outer Space comes across well without distortion as does the music for the other film. There is also an English-dubbed Dolby Digital 1.0 track for The X from Outer Space, but I confess I didn’t listen to it except to check that it was present. There is no age-related hiss or other audio artifacts to mar the listening experience.
The Living Skeleton, Genocide – 3/5
The Dolby Digital 1.0 sound mix for The Living Skeleton has some light hiss throughout the presentation while Genocide has some flutter from time to time. There are equal parts ADR-based dialogue and direct recording in both films with the usual poor consistency results when combined. Music sometimes is a bit distorted at the upper levels of volume but generally sounds fine though with very little on the low end.
Special Features
1/5
Criterion’s Eclipse series doesn’t include bonus features, but each of the four slimline cases included in the set have interesting and informative liner notes by writer Chuck Stephens.
In Conclusion
3/5 (not an average)
Allegedly favorites of Quentin Tarantino, the four films contained in When Horror Came to Shochiku include two mostly camp exercises in sci-fi/horror and two more seriously-themed films which, while generally flawed and sometimes unsatisfying in sections, manage to offer a fair share of entertainment value.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
