Invaders from Space

This fusion of episodes 3 and 4 of "Space Giant" finds the Japan's man of steel, in his see-through and suggestively padded costume, battling Salamander Men from the Planet Kulimon in the Moffit galaxy (I kid you not). The invaders have the ability to change their appearance (or, sometimes, most of their appearance) and are spreading a deadly contagion by disguising themselves as an avant-garde dance troupe. Weird beyond belief, the film is full of acrobatic 'fight' scenes in which none of the kicks or punches seem to make contact but that include lots of back flips and cart wheels. At one point children are pursued by a Kulimonian disguised as a nurse (a creepy scene) who then seems to turn into a cackling witch. While much more lively than the leaden Atomic Rulers (the first Starman movie), there are some tedious moments (e.g. the flying saucer chase scene) and the special effects are laughable. I don't know how much has been lost in translation, but apparently the 'Salamander Men' were actually 'kappa', a Japanese mythological water sprite (which fits their look but not the Moffit Galaxy backstory). There may be other cultural tropes that I am missing (at times the Salamander Men make-up resembles 'slit-mouth', a motif that occurs in Japanese horror). The film is hard-to-rate, being a definite 10 for fans of weird cinema but probably unwatchable for most everyone else.

Starman is kind of like Doctor Who, only Japanese, I'd say. He's like him because he's an extra-terrestrial being whose job is to protect the human race from alien invaders, only Starman's a little more hands on than the Doctor. Which is to say, he's not averse to giving the invaders a good kicking for their trouble. In fact, in this film, he actually kicks an alien spaceship's head in not once, not twice, but three times! From the inside! These aliens are the Salamander men and they've started their invasion the usual way, by spreading a deadly disease to anyone who attends their surreal dance routine they perform on stage. They also go out their way to track down various scientists who are working on cures for the disease, or know where all the Earth's secret weapons are stashed. As with Starman's Evil Brain from Outer Space, almost everyone encountered on Earth is a scientist, doctor, or a small child.

These salamander dudes are pretty creepy when in disguise as humans (and appear like ghosts when they feel like it). They also breathe radioactive mist that can control humans. While trying to steal some scientists, Starman thinks he'll take in a show and gets drawn into a teleporting fight with the Salamanders, which results in an even bigger fight in a swamp. This is only the first half of the film! The latter half goes all Ju-On on us as an especially creepy Salamander turns up to take care of kids who have stumbled upon the alien's plan to follow a scientist to the secret Earth weapon stash (and when I say stumbled, I mean the aliens just told the kids about it). This leads to a half salamander lady chasing kids about for ages and the kids stumbling on the alien's weakness.

All this of course leads to a big showdown, where the aliens have a weapons that disrupts Earth's orbit (causing random objects to float in the air), a battle where Starman takes on loads of Salamanders and even stops mid air for a punch up with a guy (closely followed by an underwater punch up)…aw man.

Starting with the surreal good alien committee meeting at the start, and fill with crazy imagery from start to finish, Invaders From Space is yet another utterly bonkers entry into the Starman series. Crazy rubber suits for the Salamanders, Joker-like grins on the half-aliens, dance routines, people melting, aliens causing water to explode, time running backwards, alien spaceships where the controls seem to be shadows on the wall. This film has it all. Fast paced and mental. I love these films.

And RIP Starman. I'm just discovering your films now. Your vibrations will live on.

INVADERS FROM SPACE stars Ken Utsui as Starman, who must save humanity once again! This time, those pesky salamander men from the planet Kulimon have released a plague upon the Earth. Watch as Starman flips, flies, and bounds his way into our hearts!

Without Starman, no butterfly-collecting youths are safe from the Kulimonian hordes! See him utilize his spectacular ballet fu on these dreaded men in amphibian pajamas!

Watching this movie is like finding out that your brain is made of cotton candy! You'll never be the same again, seeing salamander men everywhere you look! Even in the mirror!...

Out of the four films edited together from the Japanese television series, this one is by far the best. While the costumes look fairly basic in places, there are also frequent moments where the costume design suitably capture the overall creepy atmosphere of the film. The sound works well in helping to establish atmosphere, and while a traditional story structure still isn't possible due to being formed from multiple TV episodes, there is an overall plot and several cases of setting up a climax that actually pays off. An additional bonus is there seems to have been more effort into creating the fight scenes, with better choreography and better editing, giving a more convincing appearance than the usual festival of minions throwing a punch, missing and consequently falling over.

In conclusion, if you're going to watch the Starman films, watch this one last. Otherwise the others will not live up to expectation!

Hard to believe, perhaps, but before director Teruo Ishii turned to the sleaze and violence of pinku cinema he was director of children's TV series Sûpâ jaiantsu (Super Giant) in which Ken Utsui played Starman, a humanoid alien with incredible powers (well, he can fly with the help of a very visible harness) who is sworn to protect the human race from danger. In Invaders From Space, a feature cobbled together for the US market from several episodes of the series, Starman battles the evil salamander men of Kulimon (sp?) who release a deadly disease in Japan as part of their evil plan for world domination.

The film opens on a planet 2 billion miles away where a council of incredibly daft looking aliens elect to send Starman to Earth; if the rest of the film was this unintentionally funny, I was in for a grand time. Sadly, despite the equally amusing introduction of the first salamander man, Invaders from Space quickly descended into tedium, a disjointed, episodic adventure with extremely repetitious fight scenes between Starman and his scaly foes, most of which look more like elaborate dance routines than desperate battles to the death.

And talking of dance, let's not forget the unnecessary avant-garde number in a theatre where the salamanders are posing as stage performers. Or the bit where several supposedly cute Japanese kids find themselves threatened in the woods by the athletic aliens busting their moves. I guess if modern dance is your thing, there's a remote chance that you might find this interesting, but I found myself seriously struggling to stay awake.