Message From Space From Shout! Factory 4/16/13

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Looks like a DVD only release as of this writing.

Pre-order link!

105 minute running time listed.

Cover art!

[JoeS Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoeS]

The galactic success of STAR WARS opened the gates for countless imitators and attempts to cash in on its success (the long gestating feature version of Star Trek being one of them). MESSAGE FROM SPACE was one of the first and, relatively, most expensive of them.
A Japanese production, it features Sonny Chiba (to whom this post is dedicated, RIP) in a starring role as Prince Hans (as in Han S-?) who helps lead a ragtag bunch to save their world, including a Princess (Shihomi Etsuko). Vic Morrow (and a few other English-speaking actors) was brought in for the international marketplace. Morrow's gruff General Garuda joins the rescue mission after receiving a glowing orb in his drink at a low-rent Mos Eisley Cantina knock-off (the orbs resemble walnuts). Of course, there's also a talking droid, an evil warlord and lots and lots of star-fighter type space battles.
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku (THE GREEN SLIME, BATTLE ROYALE), the story fuses the obvious Star Wars influences with Japanese folklore (Fukasaku made a more martial arts version of the basic tale as LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI. The 'samurai' structure is most famous in the U.S. from the Kurosawa seven samurai (it's also interesting that another of the more famous Star Wars knockoffs, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS) also took it's cues from similar source material (that screenplay was by John Sayles). Fukasaku keeps things moving and the vision of the spaceship in the form of a Galleon ship preceded space sails several years in advance of NASA.
MESSAGE FROM SPACE was the joint venture of three Japanese film companies including Toho and Toei, and showed some production moxie. Still, coming to theaters in the wake of STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE 3RD KIND showed the chasm that was building in the special effects domain. The U.S. release poster touted “Space flying objects technical unit" and "SuperSpace Sound" in order to try and jazz things up - at least in the advertising! It's a B movie all the way, but, some fun can be had in the margins.