Fugitive Alien

In an alternate future universe where everyone is Japanese no matter what world they come from, Earth is under attack from hostile planet Valnastar whose marauding 'wolf-raiders' are sent to wipe out humanity; but when one of the alien attackers, a curly-blonde-wig-wearing wolf-raider by the name of Ken (Tatsuya Azuma), is ordered to kill a defenceless woman and her young son (also named Ken—must be a popular name throughout the universe of the future) he resists, accidentally killing a comrade in the process.

Branded a traitor by his own race, Ken (the alien, not the boy) flees for his life, but must abandon his craft in space when it is damaged in a fire-fight. Luckily for Ken, he is soon picked up by a passing Earth ship, the Bacchus 3, whose happy-go-lucky crew have no idea that he is a wolf-raider; they patch him up and make him welcome. Eventually, Ken comes clean to Captain Joe (Jô Shishido), who decides to keep schtum just so long as the fugitive alien joins his crew. Ken agrees, to the chagrin of moody pilot Rocky but much to the delight of cute computer boffin Tammy (Miyuki Tanigawa).

Ken's first mission with the Bacchus crew is to rescue a captive Colonel from a high-security alien prison, a task that takes every ounce of his incredible strength and all of his amazing fighting skills to overcome all obstacles (plus a few handy gadgets hidden on his fetching, red PVC, all-in-one space jumpsuit), including Ken's girlfriend Rita (was the writer of this nonsense a fan of UK soap Coronation Street, perchance?) who just happens to be the sister of the guy Ken accidentally killed and who is now gunning for revenge.

Cobbled together from a short-lived Japanese TV series, Fugitive Alien is hard to endure despite plenty of ridiculously bad action and lots of unintentional humour. The embarrassingly inept space dog-fights (clearly inspired by Star Wars, but severely lacking their technical excellence) and unexciting shoot-outs are extremely repetitive, the editing is random, the pacing stodgy, and the dubbing awful. Some of the model shots of the Bacchus are pretty cool but the ship's interior could have done with a little more attention to detail (the dashboard boasts dials that read 'Space Speed' and 'Cabin Air Presser'). After 100 or so excruciating minutes of incomprehensible rubbish, viewers are presented with the words 'To Be Continued' and the horrible realisation that this is only half of the story.

I've never seen an MST3K episode—I believe that all films, no matter how bad, deserve more a bit more respect than that—but I can understand how this sort of thing would prove irresistible to such a show. Fortunately, for movie purists like myself, Fugitive Alien is available minus comedic robot commentary as part of a 50 film sci-fi DVD box set, meaning it can be enjoyed exactly as enterprising American film distributor Sandy Frank originally intended when he snapped up the rights for a song.

This "movie" is really just several episodes of a Japanese TV show stringed together, and it shows. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! This was obviously Japanese television's attempt to cash in on the success of "Star Wars." This movie is really badly dubbed as well. Although I think it would be bad subtitled as well.

On the positive end, it was turned onto a really funny MST3K episode. So it's not a total loss!

I very short lived TV series packaged into a movie brought to us by Sandy Frank; who has brought the Gamera films and Time of The Apes overseas. This movie(?) actually isn't all that painful. The plot makes sense, and you can actually tell who the characters are. So it is watchable, just rediculous. Several things aren't explained. Like who exactly these Wolf Raiders are, why they wear wigs to the battlefield, and several behavoiral patterns that just make you go "huh?". Also the hero has the strengh of ten men and can stop forklifts at full acceleration, yet falls down from a clean punch.

The most frustrating thing i found with this movie and plenty of the Sandy Frank films i've seen is this "failed plan" thats in each movie. Here's an example: Our hereo is trapped in prison, so he supports himself up against the top corner of the cell hiding from view. The guard is about to open the door to search the cell and inadvertantly let the captive go. But he spots his foot first, as says "get down from there." end scene. What was the point of that scene? Next he ties an explosive to a cell door to bust it open, and it fails. So we watch him carefully take his time and wire another two explosives to open the door. Another waste of time! It's just disguised film padding.

This movie stands on it's own as something to pass time on a rainy day, but the MST3K version is golden. Probably my favorite episode ever because of Joel Hodgson's dead on and hilarious impersonation of Captain Joe from the movie. No matter which version you watch I'll guarantee you'll be quoting "haa-hahahahahaha-haha-haaahahahaYOU'RESTUCKHERE!"

FUGITIVE ALIEN is a film apparently edited together from episodes of an obscure 1978 Japanese television series hastily made on the cheap in the post-STAR WARS rush for sci-fi flicks. It goes without saying that the result doesn't make much sense, and it doesn't even have a conclusion - the antics would continue in STAR FORCE: FUGITIVE ALIEN II, which thankfully I haven't seen as yet. Not that I'll be rushing out to buy a copy, because FUGITIVE ALIEN is a pretty abysmal film. Abysmally dull, that is. Although there are space battles, lasers, and people killing each other with would-be light sabers, FUGITIVE ALIEN is one big bore.

For a start, it looks cheap. The interior of the ship is cheap, the planets are cheap, and the special effects are horrendously tacky and inferior. Sure, cheap effects can be a lot of fun, but not here. They just look cheap, poor and unremarkable, with little or no imagination being used on them. People are shot with lasers, flash blue for a couple of seconds and then drop down dead. An effect already clichéd by 1978, when the TV series was made. Watch out for the model spaceship which actually turns transparent for a moment when flying through space. There aren't even as many explosions as you would expect from a Japanese movie.

Another problem is the film's running time - at 103 minutes, it's overlong, and drags incessantly. It invariably feels episodic in nature, with three or four sub-plots (one for each episode) to make things that little bit more confusing. At points the film threatens to becoming an amusing sci-fi variant of the hit TV series THE FUGITIVE, but it always lapses back into mediocre sci-fi action the next minute.

Scenes are ripped off directly from STAR WARS (another bad scene, another guy coming up and saying "I don't like you") and gadgets are stolen from Bond and other assorted spy movies. Sure, a few things are weird - background turning blue, people shining white in dream sequences, the space raiders wearing blonde wigs for some reason under their helmets - but it's never enough. And with cardboard cut-outs for the characters, it's hard to keep watching. I would only recommend this to be watched by small children who are really easily pleased by what they see on television.

This 'tv movie' was produced by taking episodes of a Japanese sci-fi show, stringing them together, and dubbing the voices -- and the plot -- using voice talent who sound like the guys on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 This made the viewing very confusing, because I was watching this as an episode of that show. This made it even odder than usual, even for that show.

It seems to be about Tatsuya Azuma, a member of a military group of aliens. He's kicked out of the organization because he won't kill people from Earth. This doesn't seem to stop him from getting involved with other operations of this alleged organization, although he seems to compensate by occasionally killing one of his former associates.

The special effects are decent for television of the era. The only actor whom I recognized was Jô Shishido as "Captain Joe".