From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Message From Space released in 1978.
Starring:
Sonny Chiba, Etsuko Shihomi, and Vic Morrow.
Directed by:
Kinji Fukasaku
Genre:
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating:
PG
Budget:
$5.5 million US dollars estimated
IMDb Rating is currently:
4.9
My Rating:
7.5
The Synopsis is:
The Julucians are on the brink of annihilation by the evil Gavanas and have sent out 8 liabe seeds, that kinda look like walnuts, out into space to find 8 unlikely heroes that will save them.
Enjoyment:
I absolutely love old sci-fi movies and the lower the budget the better. For years I had seen this picture floating around the internet and never knew what film it was from, and if I found it I figured that would have to suffer through subtitles to enjoy it.
A few months before I began reviewing movies I got the chance to see this film without knowing a thing about it except for seeing the poster and I went in with the lowest of lowest expectations.
To be completely honest as not to get your hopes, I’ll let you know right away that this is a film with great qualities that I admire, but it’s not a great film. It definitely falls under the category of guilty pleasures.
I loved this film after just watching it for the first few minutes of narration. An I still had no Idea that this was the movie, I’d been looking for until I finally saw the villain and freaked out.
The best way for me to describe this movie is to tell you that it is as if Star Wars, Voltron, and Flash Gordon gave birth to this film. I just love it.
Pacing:
At 1h 45min it's not too long, but it feels long because the filmmakers were going for an epic space tale.
In some places, the editing is hilarious but what can you do, when you can’t tell the difference between reality and a dream sequence.
It lacks grace, but that is one of the elements that make this film so much fun to watch for me.
*THE REST OF THE REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. *
Story:
The most striking thing about this film is how much it is always compared to Star Wars. And there is no denying that. The story stems from traditional Japanese chambara also known as samurai cinema, which Star Wars also borrows.
So let's address the elephant in the room, Right off the bat, the similarities in the story to Star Wars includes.
- There is a princess dressed in white that can fight, with a purpose to save her people.
- The princess who needs help from heroes and she gets captured. (and I have to say that most stories have princesses who do the very same thing).
- There is a female character named Meia, similar to Leia, who is a self entitled and from a wealthy family.
- There is a male character by the name of Hans, similar to Han Solo.
- The patriarch character sacrifices himself as an example to the younger generation to teach them honor.
- There is a robot with a number in his name, mainly a 2.
- There is a cantina / bar scene.
- There is a reactor to blow up.
- There is a planet that blows up.
- There’s space travel.
- And a space battle.
What’s unique to the story in this film includes:
- There are 9 heroes and not just 3.
- The call to duty comes from a prop, the liabe seeds and not from a family lineage.
- There is narration and no text crawl.
- There is a planet that is a spaceship.
- There is a machine that sees into people’s memories.
- There are two evil elder mother characters, a prominent Japanese genre trope.
- Not only a planet is blown up but they upped the ante and blew up a moon as well.
- One of the characters are sold into slavery.
- There is a space ship that actually looks like a ship used on water.
- There is an actual lengthy sword fight in the film.
- There are several ground battles.
- And many more graphic deaths in this film.
Many people said that they had trouble following the story, but I seem to follow it fine, and maybe it was because I was sold on it as soon as I heard the opening narration.
“The planet Julusia, is on the verge of death. Once the home of proud people, living in peace, it has been conquered by the Gavanas, mighty invaders in space.”
Sold!
It’s a little heavy handed to spoon feed your story like that right in the beginning with exposition, but it set up the world and their conflict right away, much like Star Wars' title crawl.
After that, you have to bear with the language of the script to decipher what words are being dubbed.
And that is because the script was created by non English speaking writers.
There is a lot that is lost in translation in their attempt to convert the language.
If you’ve seen any of the films coming from Japan and Hong Kong at about this time, this film retains that kinetic energy of language, character tropes and a fast paced frenzy.
So your comprehension of what is going on, may depend on your familiarity with this genre of films and english dubbed films in general. Or your willingness to try to understand it. The translations can be quite funny at times.
The story feels convoluted and random in the beginning as it is trying to set up the characters and it doesn’t really start coming together until about 30 minutes in.
And we do experience the hero’s journey with many of the characters, including a refusal of the call to be the hero, then finally accepting it.
The title Message From Space comes from the brief moment 54 minutes into the flick when the villain sends a message to Earth to surrender, a subplot that brings all of the heroes together.
Challenge:
The challenge here are the Gavanas, led by Emperor Rockseia the 22nd and his mother the Grand Empress. They have decimated Julucia and it’s people simply to control it.
In pursuit of keeping control, Rockseia learns about Earth and decides "it is the only suitable place for the grand conqueror of the universe."
That’s when things get really spicy and he goes all out defending his turf on Julucia and threatening the Earth.
Rockseia is a smart villain, but he had been told several times by his mother to do things that end up biting him in the tushy later.
His troops are pretty hard core and really cool looking, but they aren’t completely thorough.
For instance, they attack Shiro, Maia, Aaron, Jack and Uroccoco, the heroes in the film. They blast the area, but none of the ships. They steal Jack in a tractor beam, but left the rest of them. Why did they do that? It seemed a little lazy for the convenience of the plot.
Empathy:
What I like about this film is that it’s not about one character at all. There is no lead. Some people found this confusing. But I thought that it made the story bigger and brought to light that even the smallest contribution to the outcome makes everyone a hero, thus making all of the characters important. Many films forget to do this.
As I said before we have about 9 heroes.
On planet Jullucia, the very proud leader Kido, sends eight liabe Seeds into space. The legend says that these seeds will fall into the possession of the chosen ones… heroes that will save their people.
Kido sends his granddaughter, the Princess Emeralida, and a brave warrior by the name of Unrocco to bring the heroes back to fight the Gavanas on Jelucia.
The princess is beautiful and courageous swaddled in white garb that stays pristine through her adventures. Her character is the most pure and dedicated to her cause no matter the stakes. She proves her worth in the battle at the end of the film using swords and guns to lead her people to victory.
The first two to receive the liabe seeds are Shiro and Aaron two young hot riders (hotrodders)having fun in space doing stunts with their small ships. They kinda remind me of Apollo and Starbuck from the original Battlestar Galactica TV series which debuted in 1978.
Shiro is fun loving and supportive friend, that kinda goes with the flow. Even Though he's young he seems to be grounded, but not as fleshed out of a character as Aaron.
Aaron is fun loving too, but he whines a lot and has a bit of a temper sometimes. He maybe acting out because he is hiding the fact that he has fallen instantly in love with the princess.
It’s so hidden, we never really know until it’s mentioned in a dream sequence and he seems to get sentimental when he see’s a scrap of fabric she left behind.
It seems impossible that they would ever get together because they have no visible chemistry and there is an obvious prince in the story for her to eventually fall in love with in the future. But I thought it was a nice touch because, love often doesn’t work both ways.
Maia (pronounced May-ah) is a rich heiress who likes living in the fast lane with the hotrodders. At first she came off as a spoiled nuisance, but her character becomes more likable when she begins to come up with ideas of how she could help the hotrodders use her ship as a docking bay during attacks to surprise the enemy.
I just got so excited for her when she too gets a liabe seed. She had the most heart and courage to want to help the Jelucians.
After leaving his position as a general because he wanted to give is former robot, Beba 1, a proper memorial, General Garuda is the most practical choice that the liabe seeds pick, because he is trained for war.
Garuda, loves to drink and in his drink is where he finds the liabe seed. He initially refuses the call of destiny, but the seeds find him again and he considers it an act of God… ready to help in any way he can.
Garuda’s sidekick is a robot companion, Beba 2, replacing his old one. Beba seems to have no function at all towards helping the Julicians win the battles, but he too gets a liabe seed.
The gang flees the Gavanas only to bump into lone Gavana on a planet in the Bernard system, Prince Hans. Prince Hans is not only a Gavanas warrior but the actual heir of the Gavanas' throne and he is also wearing a liabe seed.
He is also like Garuda a seasoned fighter, and he has the added motivation to fight for the Jelucians because Rockseia killed his parents. He is an excellent hero.
Now, of the 8 heroes that is the most unlikable character, is Jack, who is a typical con man that could be considered important because it is due to his greed trying to sell the princess that leads to Rocksea to desire Earth and that action leads brings the heroes together to defeat him. It's a bit convoluted, but I guess, I'll buy that for a dollar.
I saved the character Unrocco for last because he is extremely dedicated to the cause, but he has a moment when he cracks under pressure. Can’t blame him too much. He’s been hit on the head quite a few times during this adventure and is an unlikely hero in the liabe 8.
Technical:
Every film studio in the late 1970's wanted to make a Star Wars like special effects film, but many studios didn’t want to put up the money it takes to make it happen.
This film was about 5.5 million dollars estimated in US Dollars and the most expensive movie made in Japan up to that time. But to put things into perspective, it took 11 million dollars to make Star Wars.
So it couldn't compete.
Many of the shots of planets in space are simple drawings, and not made to look photo realistic.
But then there were very good miniatures and incredible action sequences. Lot’s and lots of explosions that would make Michael Bay blush.
The costumes were cheap like the costumes of the Jelucians and their plastic vine crowns. Pretty awful and unimaginative. We have a space cop that even wears sunglasses in space, Garuda’s fur coat, Emeralina’s awful swaddling wear, Meia’s costume, the list goes on and on.
But then, there are some of the character designs were creative like the design of Rocksea’s costume and all of the Gavanas. They looked pretty cool.
The music in this film sounds as if it inspired the Masters of the Universe music with flutety marching themes, whenever the bad guys are around.
Speaking of Masters of the Universe Skeletors' helmet and Rocksaia's helmet. Are very similar.
Performances:
All of the performances are as they probably needed to be, but Vic Morrow really stands out in this film playing the role of Garuda and he is the one you feel is the most realistic character. He brings some gravity to every scene he’s in. In case you didn't know, Vic Morrow is Jennifer Jason Lee's dad.
Theres a cool little cameo from crooner Chris Isaak who briefly appeared as a card-playing gambler, before his career as a singer began.
Best:
Where do I start. I just love the energy in this film, the frenzy and the quick zoom ins, the explosions, just mayhem and I loved all of that kind of malarkey.
Wish List:
I wish this film kept a cinematic musical theme throughout the film instead of mixing in contemporary jingles. They were pretty awful and removed the charm from the scenes they appear in.
I also wish that the princess had been given one of the liabe seeds. I think it would have given her character a little more significance in the story.
The Ending:
I thought the ending was pretty interesting when the heroes decide to stay with the Julucians as they seek out a new home planet. It was unexpected, but definitely anticlimactic after a huge battle sequence with hundreds of explosions.
Summary:
The film was a flop in the us, but it had a cult following, as well as had some influences beyond the box office.
This movie was followed by the television show "San Ku Kai" popular in France and Perú. And parts of this film were used in the video games "Astron Belt" and Galaxy Ranger.
In so in many ways this film is not just another Star Wars rip-off, but it’s own tale with a few elements that pre-dates other Star Wars films.
A few things to show up in later Star Wars films:
- The hologram of the emperor.
- The emperor character
- The more than one fight going on at the same time.
- Tunnel dog fight to the reactor.
- An actual battle on land.
- Bad guy falls to his death with electricity and then explodes.
Again, it’s an acquired taste if you are used to dubbed foreign films and you have an unhealthy obsessive love of home made looking sci-fi films. This charming film from 1978 is just what you need for your weekend low-fi sci-fi marathon.
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it and it’s Retro Nerd Girl signing off.
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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