Yôsei Gorasu

Gorath is not the name of a giant Walrus in the Japanese version of this film. Though not badly done, as giant Walruses go, this is not a giant Walrus film. It's as you can see by other reviews a space/disaster film. The Walrus and one other scene of a group of men deciding to spontaneously sing a song while flying in a helicopter are really the only two bad moments in the film. I guess the Walrus is gone from the American print which might be just as well, though the widescreen FX and photography really need to be seen letter-boxed to be appreciated.

Overall this is a pretty large scale disaster film with many, and mostly good, miniatures, a number of them on a very large scale, fleets of ships, the Arctic, Tokyo being flooded etc. The whole film moves much better than the American film WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE and is especially helped by a very good musical score that reminds me of those done by James Bernhard for Hammer horror films.

The killer "star" which gives the films is named Gorath and it is quite well done as are all the space effects. This film will disappoint giant monster fans since the giant monster is only in a couple of scenes, but those who like science fiction films will find a pretty serious and mostly credible film here, one that looks far newer than it's actual age. Recommended to fans of director Honda and certainly those of Japanese Science fiction, those who prefer films that actually work rather than those that are just silly and insane. I enjoy both types and found this film to be well worth checking out, letter-boxed and in Japanese at least. Oh as is typical, even in the Japanese language version, some characters do speak English occasionally

This Japanese take on the kind of story first pioneered by "When Worlds Collide" and done less effectively in later years in "Meteor", "Armageddon" etc. has been called Toho's greatest sci-fi movie ever by some. It's certainly a fairly intelligent effort overall, done with top of the line (for its time) FX. I was glad to see it in its original Japanese format, widescreen with subtitles (and with the rather pointless scene involving giant walrus Magma) and found it quite entertaining overall, certainly the equal of "When Worlds Collide" and light years ahead of the American takes on the story that followed. My only quibble was why Gorath was referred to as a "star", when it is clearly too small to be so categorized, and should have been referred to as a runaway planet (was Toho afraid of getting sued for ripping off "When Worlds Collide" if they categorized it as a planet?).

Fans of the wonderful 1960 disaster movie "The Last Voyage" will recognize George Furness, who played Third Officer Osborne in that film, as the UN Secretary-General. Furness was a lawyer living in Japan who had enough acting talent to not only play westerners in Japanese movies, but to get good roles in American movies shot in Japan like "The Last Voyage" too.

Quite hilarious to watch. So many miniatures were used in the production that it feels a bit like revisiting the toy shop where you used to go as a child. "Yosei Gorasu" tells a variation of a familiar storyline "planet on collision course with Earth" insofar as its logical conclusion is not "blow up the invader" but "try and move the Earth out of the way", and for that purpose, an assembly of huge rocket engines is built in the Antarctic region which normally should take 20 years, but they manage the calculation, transport and construction work in a week or so. While any scientist will cringe, the producers openly admit the end of the world is not so serious after all by adding a giant walrus = a guy in a suit who appears without any reason and attacks a power station. The most impressive scenes are those of the flood sweeping Tokyo: a lot of miniatures again with attention to detail, the best you could do in 1962. Mixed bag, but it has memorable moments.

This film is one of my favorites from Toho's "Golden Age" and one of the three "space operas" directed by Ishiro Honda. A giant asteroid with a huge magnetic field is growing by absorbing everything in its path...a path which puts it on a course to Earth. How will man survive? Easy---through the conviction and determination of Japanese will-power and ingenuity, the Earth is pushed out of orbit after giant engines are built at the South Pole. But is it enough to get the Earth out of the path of Gorath?

One scene that most Americans have never seen is the appearance of MAGMA, a giant prehistoric walrus which was awakened by the heat generated at the South Pole by the massive engines. After some initial destruction, the monster is killed by beams fired from a VTOL vehicle (which would see a new life in the TV series, "Ultraman" as the "Jet Beetle.")

Kumi Mizuno shines as one of the female leads with a great bathtub scene when Akira Kubo comes knocking on her door.

Despite what you'd think being a Toho movie, Gorath isn't a giant beastie in fact dependent on which version you watch there may not be a beastie at all.

Gorath tells the standard story of a meteor heading towards Earth that will destroy the planet and the efforts of its people to prevent catastrophe. The aforementioned beastie only exists in the original Japanese version and was entirely edited out the American version for some reason. Probably best as it brought nothing to the movie and the giant seal monster did look a tad goofy.

The core theme of the movie is a world united, a message that we need more than ever at time of writing.

It follows a very commonly used plot and doesn't bring anything new to the table at all. With all the usual 60's sci-fi tropes it's well below par for a Toho film.

The Good:

That Toho charm

The Bad:

Doesn't look that great even for its time

Really quite boring stuff

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

It was global law that all sci-fi movies needed to have that same sound effect, you know the one!

I understand that Toho had a small talent pool and hired the same people, but why are the most talented ones usually the smaller roles?