Invasion of the Neptune Men

Infobox Film | name = Invasion of the Neptune Men


caption = Theatrical poster for "Invasion of the Neptune Men" (1961)
director = Koji Ota
producer = Hiroshi Okawa
writer = Shin Morita
starring = Sonny Chiba
Kappei Matsumoto
Shinjiro Ebara
Mitsue Komiya
Ryuko Minakami
music = Michiaki Watanabe
cinematography = Shizuka Fujii
editing = Ryohei Fujii
distributor = Toei Co. Ltd.; Walter Manley Enterprises Inc. (US TV release)
released = 1961 (Japan)
runtime = 82 min., 74 min.
language = Japanese
English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:63598
imdb_id = 0055562nihongo|"Invasion of the Neptune Men"|宇宙快速船|Uchū Kaisokusen|Space Hypership is a tokusatsu SF/superhero film produced by Toei Company Ltd. (as "New Toei") in 1961. The movie starred then 22-year old Sonny Chiba as the intergalactic superhero Iron-Sharp. (When listed in the credits in the Japanese version, "Iron Sharp" was played by "?", a gimmick often used in many similar Japanese superhero shows at the time) As of 2008, this is the only appearance of Iron-Sharp (who's dressed in silver tights, helmet, cape, carries a ray gun and rides a car-like rocketship), who is called "Space Chief" in the US version. In either case, this film is similar to many a show in the Toei Superhero genre from the same period, like "Planet Prince" (Toei's movie version).

Plot

Shinichi Tachibana, a scientist/astronomer who is, in reality, the superhero "Iron-Sharp" (Space Chief in the English dub) is friends with a group of children. When the children are almost attacked by a mysterious group of metallic aliens (called "Neptune Men" in the US version), Iron-Sharp drives away the aliens. Even in human form, Tachibana is resourceful, as he helps the Japanese government invent a protective electric space barrier to block the aliens from entering the Earth. When the aliens can stand no more defeat, they announce that they will strengthen their invasion of the Earth (or at least Japan, for that matter), throwing the world into a state of fear and panic. The invasion begins, and the aliens destroy cities with their awesome mothership (which launches smaller ships from within). Iron-Sharp comes to the rescue.

US release

The US version was titled "Invasion of the Neptune Men" and went directly to TV after being cropped to fullscreen from its 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It was later featured on the movie-mocking show "Mystery Science Theater 3000" in 1997, where it was subjected to some especially brutal jokes (such as calling Space Chief "Space Dink", "Space Feeb", "Space Loser", and "Ineffectual Chicken-Headed Bachelor", among other things ["Hey, you know, Space Chief should actually consider going up into "space" sometime." "Yeah, he's more like Lower-Atmosphere Chief." "Barely-Off-The-Stupid-Ground Chief."] . The ship the Neptunians flew around in received little better treatment, first described in the riffing as "a pre-fab Lutheran Church," then remarked as possibly running on coal, or, as Crow quipped, "So, they glued wings to a fuel filter."). The SOL crew considered the movie so bad that by the third host segment they were actually borderline suicidal (until they were rescued from their depression by a surprise visit from the Phantom Dictator of Krankor from "Prince of Space"). Later on, Crow and Mike actually left the theater for a few moments, and only came back when Pearl Forrester shut off the oxygen supply to the rest of the satellite.

Tom Servo seems especially disturbed by the film. For example, at one point, he tries to make the film seem like The Magnificent Ambersons before breaking down and saying, "It's NOT The Magnificent Ambersons! I don't even LIKE The Magnificent Ambersons!!!" Also, when Crow asks for a stock footage song, Servo says, "I know a song about stock footage. It goes like this...doo-do, dah-do-do-do...EAT IT MOVIE! TAKE THIS STUPID LITTLE COCKAROACH OF A FILM, ROLL IT UP SOOOO TIGHT, AND THEN RAM IT RIGHT UP..." before being stopped by Mike.

Trivia

*The alien mothership prop was actually convert|6|ft|m long. It was designed by veteran Toru Narita, best known for his design work on "Ultra Q", "Ultraman", "Ultra Seven" and "War of the Gargantuas". At the same period, he was an art director for the Toei superhero series "National Kid".
*Actual World War II stock footage was used for some of the destruction of Tokyo scenes, most obvious when a multi-story picture of Adolf Hitler with some Japanese writing (along with "Mein Kampf", mistransliterated as "Mine Kampf") is clearly visible on the side of one building before it is destroyed. This, obviously, sets off a line of riffing in the MST3K version. "They took out the Hitler Building! Where is everyone going to see Hitler memorabilia?" (The writers for the show considered it especially abhorrent that World War II bombing footage was incorporated into a kids' movie, which is why some of the riffing, such as Servo's breakdown, was especially harsh.)

External links

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