is a 1957 Japanese epic science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd., it is the first Honda-Tsuburaya collaboration filmed in both color and TohoScope, and stars Kenji Sahara, Yumi Shirakawa, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Susumu Fujita, and Takashi Shimura, with Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as Moguera. In the film, Earth's defense forces unite to combat an extraterrestrial race that desires to intermarry with human women and settle on the planet.
Inspired by the success of big-budget science fiction films in Japan and the United States, Toho executives became keen on producing a science fiction epic of their own. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka recruited science fiction writer Jōjirō Okami to develop the story, which later adapted for Takeshi Kimura's screenplay. Honda stated that three companies were involved in the film's production, which was the most in any tokusatsu production that he directed.
The Mysterians was released theatrically in Japan on December 28, 1957, as a double feature with Sazae's Youth. It was a box office success in Japan upon its release, earning against its budget during its original theatrical run, making it the tenth highest-grossing Japanese film of 1957, and leading Toho to produce two further space-themed science fiction epics: Battle in Outer Space (1959) and Gorath (1962). An English dub of the film was produced by RKO Radio Pictures and distributed in the United States by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on May 27, 1959, where it grossed and reportedly received mostly positive reviews. Western film critics praised Tsuburaya's special effects, but some criticized the plot as confusing and juvenile.
Plot Astrophysicist Ryoichi Shiraishi, his fiancée Hiroko Iwamoto, his sister Etsuko, and his friend Joji Atsumi attend a bon festival in a village at the foot of Mount Fuji. During the festival, Shiraishi rushes out to investigate a sudden forest fire that has flared up nearby and he disappears during the confusion. The next day, Atsumi meets his mentor, Dr. Tanjiro Adachi, the head astronomer at the local observatory. Adachi hands him an incomplete report written by Shiraishi regarding a newly discovered asteroid he believed was once a planet between Mars and Jupiter, dubbed "Mysteroid". However, Adachi repudiates his radical theory.
Meanwhile, the village where the festival was held is completely wiped out by a massive earthquake. While investigating the area, Atsumi and a group of police officers stumble upon a giant robot, Moguera, which bursts from the side of a hill. It emits rays that destroy most of the investigation team; only Atsumi and the lead policeman survive. The robot then advances to a town near Koyama Bridge and met by heavy resistance from the Japan Self-Defense Forces. However, their artillery has no effect on Moguera, and the robot continues its rampage until it is destroyed by explosives detonated by the military near the Koyama Bridge.
After Atsumi briefs officials on what has been learned about the robot at the National Diet Building, astronomers witness activity in outer space around the Moon. They alert the world to this discovery; soon after, a gigantic dome emerges from the ground near Mt. Fuji. Dr. Adachi and five other scientists agree to hold a conference in the dome after a mysterious voice asks them to do so during an observation of the dome by a military and scientific entourage. The men are formally ushered into the dome, where a scientifically advanced humanoid alien race known as the "Mysterians", reveal their demands from the people of Earth: a two-mile-radius strip of land and the right to marry women of Earth. The Mysterian Leader reveals that thousands of years ago their planet—Mysteroid, once the fifth planet from the sun—was destroyed by a nuclear war. Although some Mysterians were able to escape to Mars before their planet was rendered uninhabitable, strontium-90 left the aliens' population deformed and they thus desire to interbreed with women on Earth to produce healthier offspring and keep their race alive.
Japan quickly dismisses their requests and begins the mobilization of its armed forces around Mount Fuji. Shiraishi—who vanished during the forest fire—reveals that he has sided with the Mysterians for their technological achievements. Without hesitation, Japan quickly launches a full-scale attack against the Mysterians' dome, but their modern weaponry is no match for the Mysterians' technology. This setback causes Japan to plead with other nations to join forces in eradicating the Mysterians threat. The nations around the world respond and issue another raid on the Mysterians' dome, which also fail despite deploying newly developed airships.
The Mysterians then increase their demand, asking for a 75-mile-radius of land. The humans develop a new weapon, the Markalite FAHP (Flying Atomic Heat Projector), a gigantic lens that can reflect the Mysterians' weaponry. Meanwhile, the Mysterians kidnap Etsuko and Hiroko, causing Atsumi to search for them and locate a cave entrance to a tunnel under the Mysterians' dome.
In the meantime, several Markalite FAHPs are deployed, and the final battle against the Mysterians' base of operations commences. Atsumi enters the dome and finds the women kidnapped by the Mysterians, alive and unharmed in an unguarded room. He takes them back to the tunnel, where he finds Shiraishi, who admits the Mysterians deceived him and truly have no good intentions. In a final attack on the base from the inside, Shiraishi sacrifices himself while the Markalite FAHP continue their assault. In the midst of the battle, a second Moguera deployed by the Mysterians is disabled after one of the FAHPs falls on top of it. As Adachi and the women reach safety in the hills above the Mysterians' occupied land, the dome collapses and explodes. While some of the surviving Mysterians flee into space in their spaceships, Dr. Adachi comments on the need for continued vigilance.
Cast
Themes
Director Ishiro Honda described the film, saying it was "larger in scale compared to Godzilla or Rodan and is aimed to be more of a true science fiction film ... I would like to wipe away the [Cold War-era] notion of East versus West and convey a simple, universal aspiration for peace, the coming together of all humankind as one to create a peaceful society." Reflecting on the period of developing the film, Honda stated that he respected scientists, but "feared the danger of science, that whoever controlled it could take over the entire Earth."
Production Crew
Ishirō Honda – director, co-writer Tomoyuki Tanaka - producer Eiji Tsuburaya – special effects director Koji Kajita – assistant director Yasuaki Sakamoto – production manager Kyuichiro Kishida – lighting Teruaki Abe – chief art director Akira Watanabe – special effects art director – special effects lighting – monster builder Masanobu Miyazaki– sound recording Yasuyuki Inoue, Toru Narita, Yoshio Irie, Takashi Suganuma, Takeharu Ikebuchi - special effects art assistants
Development Inspired by the success of big-budget science fiction films in Japan and the United States (such as the Byron Haskin-directed 1953 epic The War of the Worlds and Fred F. Sears' 1956 film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers), Toho executives became keen on producing a science fiction epic of their own.
Writing
Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka hired sci-fi writer Jōjirō Okami to write the story after reading Okami's novel A Small Box of Lead. Even though Tanaka requested that his story be written as a novel, assuming it would later be published in a magazine, Okami's story treatment for the film was never published. Okami's treatment did not include Moguera, Shiraishi betraying humanity or the Mysterians seeking marriage with human women. Okami was reportedly told by Shigeru Kayama—who adapted it for Takeshi Kimura's screenplay—to the treatment "make it more romantic."
Tanaka liked what he saw in the story and handed it to Shigaru Kayama, who wrote the original Godzilla (1954), to further develop it. Kayama's idea for the Mysterians wanting to mate with earth women to repopulate their dying race was his idea. Tanaka insisted that a monster be included, which was at first a flesh and blood alien monster, an underground reptile creature similar to Baragon. Ishiro Honda, wanting to demonstrate the technological superiority the Mysterians possessed, became the giant burrowing, robot monster Moguera instead. There were other differences in early drafts too, instead of emerging from the ground, the Mysterian Dome was supposed to emerge from a lake. Also, the Mysterians were to have an invisible laser that would shoot down planes when they flew too close to their territory at Mt. Fuji. Earlier drafts also portrayed the decision to form the multinational Earth Defense Force as being more controversial in the eyes of the public.
Takeshi Kimura later turned in four versions of the script in total. It's unknown whose idea this was, it's interesting that even though the film is about an alien storyline, a strong anti-nuclear theme was still injected into the film.
Casting Seven Samurai (1954) costar Yoshio Tsuchiya played the Mysterian Leader in the film. Tsuchiya was unconcerned by the fact that he would be covered in a helmet, glasses, and a costume made of a flameproof fiberglass-like fabric, which was visually striking but uncomfortable, as the fibers could irritate the skin. Ishiro Honda noted that the fabric was adapted from materials being developed at the time for firefighter uniforms. In an interview, Tsuchiya stated: "Toho said no [to casting me in this role], because my face would be covered. I disagreed, saying that being an actor isn't all about just showing our faces. This impressed Honda-san very much, and we formed a relationship, both at work and outside of work" According to director Ishirō Honda, "It was [Tsuchiya's] wish [to play the role], but I also knew him very well, so I thought he would be well cast". In his attempt to compensate, Tsuchiya conveyed emotion though stylized body and head movements, the aliens walk stiffly and shake their bodies when they laugh. Tsuchiya called this “space acting”, to give the alien's an “extraterrestrial” feel, setting the standard for future portrayals of aliens, like the Xiliens from Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965).
The Mysterians was Takashi Shimura's third supporting role in a Toho-produced tokusatsu film, following his role as a paleontologist in Honda's Godzilla (1954) and Motoyoshi Oda's Godzilla Raids Again (1955). Likewise, Godzilla stars Momoko Kōchi and Akihiko Hirata and Rodan (1956) stars Kenji Sahara and Yumi Shirakawa have major roles in the film as Hiroko Iwamoto, Ryōichi Shiraishi, Jōji Atsumi, and Etsuko Shiraishi respectively.
A large amount of foreign actors were cast in minor roles in the film, indicating Toho's overseas ambitions for the Honda-Tsuburaya films. Among the actors cast as United Nations scientists in the film were George Furness, a British lawyer who represented former Empire of Japan defendants at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, and Harold S. Conway, a Tokyo businessman. Their interpreter was Heihachiro Okawa, an actor with a prolific eclectic career in Japan and overseas, who played a bit part in the film as the Defense Headquarters External Relations Director.
Filming The Mysterians marks the first collaboration between Honda and special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya that was shot in anamorphic TohoScope, which the studio had just recently introduced.