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Released by: Dark Sky Films
Released on: 4/25/2006
Director: Eijiro Wakabayashi/Koji Ota
Cast: Tatsuyo Umemiya, Joji Oka, Takashi Kanda/Sonny Chiba, Kappei Matsumoto, Shinjiro Ebara
Year: 1959/1961
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The Movies:
Two of the better known Teleworld imports from the Japan of the late fifties and early sixties blast their way onto DVD for the first time in North America thanks to Dark Sky Films and their continually eclectic catalgoue of titles. While both were popular episodes during Mystery Science Theater 3000's reign of terror, it's nice to see them without the commentary from Crow and company, even if they were pretty funny.
PRINCE OF SPACE
Our first feature owes much to the serials that were popular during the Second World War in the U.S.A. as at times it feels almost episodic in nature. In the film, a gang of sinister alien invaders are hell-bent on taking over the Earth so that they can get their evil mitts on a secret rocket fuel that was created by Dr. Mackin, a brilliant scientist. The hook nosed leader of the alien race, The Phantom Of Krankor (Joji Oka), commands a veritible army of similar looking aliens and punctuates every thing he says with his evil laugh in typical supervillain fashion.
Earthlings, being the spunky folk they are, don't really see eye to eye with Krankor so in order to bend them to his evil will he kidnaps Mackin and a few of his scientist buddies to hold hostage. Thankfully a shoeshine boy named Wally is one hand - he has the ability to turn into The Prince Of Space (Tatsuo Umemiya), a tights wearing champion of justice ala Billy Batson and Captain Marvel. Not only is The Prince Of Space a champion of justice, but he's also big into hanging out with little kids and showing off all the cool stuff he can do in front of them.
At any rate, The Prince Of Space is on the job so he gets into his rocket, flies off to Krankor's home planet, fights a monster or two and saves the day. Everyone cheers and the Earth is safe for scientists and pre-pubescent boys once again.
About as goofy as sci-fi/superhero movies get, Prince Of Space is a fast paced and fun ride, even if sometimes it's for all the wrong reasons - you tend to be laughing at the film, not with the film. The monsters are pretty low rent and the special effects pretty much piss poor but those who appreciate the campy charm that this tends to offer movie buffs of a certain ilk should definitely get their rocks off with this one.
INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN
The second film is famous to cult movie fans not so much because of its content but because it's an early starring role for Sonny Chiba. Before he went on to crack skulls and rip of the balls of evildoers everywhere in films like The Streetfighter and The Killing Machine, he had the good fortune to play the Space Chief in this film (he'd have been twenty-one or twenty-two at the time).
Aliens from Neptune have set their sights on Earth and when they arrive, they decide to kidnap some of the young boys of which there seem to be so many. A meek scientist who is secretly a superhero named The Space Chief isn't happy about this and he shows up in his spacemobile to put a stop to their ways, and conflict ensues. This just serves to anger the Neptune Men, who proceed to lay waste to various areas of Japan (look for an appearance of a Hitler banner in some of the stock footage used!) to show them they mean business.
Space Chief isn't going down like a bitch, however. He amps up the spacemobile and soon heads off towards the sky where he engages in spacemobile to spaceship combat with the evil aliens in an attempt to save the day and make the world save for small boys and scientists everywhere.
Anyone expecting the intense martial arts action or infamous brutality of some of Chiba's better known films might be a bit taken aback by just how completely kid friendly this motion picture is, but that doesn't mean it isn't a whole lot of fun anyway. As tame as it is (it makes Terror Beneath The Sea look x-rated in comparison), seeing a baby faced Chiba in a superhero costume battling cornball aliens does make for a good time and as hokey as it is, the movie is almost as much fun than Prince Of Space. The main flaw in the film is that there is a large stretch in the beginning where Space Chief just disappears from the movie completely and we're left with the annoying Japanese boys running around getting into trouble, which isn't quite as entertaining as Chiba fighting aliens.
Video/Audio/Extras:
While both films are presented in anamorphic 1.78.1 widescreen transfers, neither were really composed for that kind of presentation and as such there are a few instances where the aspect ratios do definitely look compromised (Prince Of Space was shot fullframe while Invasion Of The Neptune Men was wider at 2.35.1 - they did this with their release of Terror Beneath The Sea as well, and it's a completely annoying trend that I hope they'll stop in the future). Aspect ratios aside, this is an otherwise fine presentation. The images are strong and clear and there aren't any problems with mpeg compression and only some light edge enhancement and aliasing appears on the screen at any given time. There is some mild print damage and a bit of grain here and there but it's not overpowering or distracting in the least. Had Dark Sky gone to the efforts of framing the films properly this release would have score considerably higher.
The films are presented with decent Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtracks, dubbed into English. Quality is alright, but it's nothing spectacular either as there is some hiss in a few scenes and the occasional pop or two that creeps into the mix. For the most part though, the dialogue is clean and clear and things are fine. Optional English subtitles are provided for each film but not for the extras. It would have been nice to see a Japanese language option included, but that didn't happen.
This isn't so stacked in terms of supplements but in between features Dark Sky throws up some concession stand commercials and a few trailers (all for Dark Sky properties either already released or coming to DVD soon) in order to recreate the fun of the drive-in experience, which is a nice touch.
The Final Word:
Aspect ratios aside, this is an otherwise fine presentation of two completely off the wall sci-fi films from the Far East. Plenty of wacky bad guys and noble heros make Prince Of Space/Invasion Of The Neptune Men a lot of fun and it's nice to have them in good, if flawed, presentations on DVD.