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Released by: Discotek Media
Released on: January 30, 2007
Director: Koji Hashimoto, Sakyo Komatsu
Cast: Dangely Dianne, Akihiko Hirata, Rachel Huggett, Andrew Hughes, Tomokazu Miura, Hisaya Morishige
Year: 1983
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The Movie:
Sayonara Jupiter (also known as Bye-Bye Jupiter) was reportedly made by Toho to beat Hollywood's 2010 to screens. Co-directed by Koji Hashimoto (the man who directed Godzilla 1985) and writer Sakyo Komatsu (this is his only directorial credit but he wrote all kinds of great genre movies including Matango and Virus) the film, like 2010, deals with an expedition to Jupiter but whereas 2010 was only mediocre, Sayonara Jupiter is flat out bad.
Set in the 22nd century, the film tells us how the United Earth Federation (or, the U.E.F. for short) has started to colonize other planets in our solar system so that they can be used by humans for various purposes. For example, they're currently supervising a project on Mars where the ice caps are being mined for drinking water. When that expedition begins, a team discovers strange markings that they soon figure out are a primitive drawing showing how a spaceship crashed on the planet years before indicating that there might be alien life in the area.
When the scientists discover all of this, they decide to stall their plans to move on to Jupiter where they hope to turn the planet into a second sun for Earth by igniting the gasses that reside on the surface. A space station, The Minerva, has been in orbit around Jupiter for some time now so the U.E.F. sends a team of scientists, lead by Dr. Honda (Tomokazu Miura), from that station down to Jupiter to make sure that there isn't any alien life there before they turn it into a sun. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the U.E.F. big-wigs soon discover that there's a black hole en route to the area and that the only way they can prevent it from swallowing the Earth is to toss Jupiter into it's center instead. To make matters worse, there's a gang of hippies, The Jupiter Church, screwing everything up! Damn hippies.
Sayonara Jupiter is a sort of fabulous disaster. The script by Sakyo Komatsu (who adapted it from his own novel) is a big convoluted mess that introduces too many subplots and supporting characters for its own good. The dialogue is completely static and unrealistic and many of the characters are poorly written stereotypes without any legitimately distinguishing characteristics to make them the least bit interesting. On the other hand, the movie looks really good. The special effects are great for the time and the cinematography is slick and very polished. There are a couple of truly claustrophobic moments towards the end of the film that work well and the concept is an interesting one even if it isn't at all exploited the way that it should have been in the movie. When we finally get around to dealing with the aliens, it's all very rushed and we're not given much of a reason to be interested in them other than the fact that the movie wants us to know that they're aliens in the first place.
Adding to the strange vibe that the picture has going for it are a few puzzling inserts. At one point we see a prolonged clip of a beach duel taken from an old Toho samurai film and more than once we're bombarded with unusual and out of place clips of Godzilla and King Ghidorah duking it out (presumeably this is a metaphor?) from Ghidrah The Three Headed Monster.
Ultimately, it's a movie that 'could have been.' The pacing is poor, the characters dull and uninteresting and the story rather puzzling. On the other hand, it looks fantastic and those who enjoy 80s style special effects and miniature work will probably take a lot away from this as the visuals are creative and exciting. A mixed bag, to be sure but not a completely worthless one on that level at least.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is solid. Color reproduction is quite strong and black levels are nice and consistent. While some fine detail does look a little soft, this is a pretty nice image we've got on this disc. Edge enhancement is there but never overpowering and for a low budget sci-fi movie, things look just fine.
Discotek has supplied Japanese language tracks in both Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and the original mono, as well as the film's English dub. Optional subtitles are available in English and you have the choice of activating the English slates option as well, which is a nice touch. The clarity is slightly sharper on the Japanese track than the English track but all three options sound pretty good, with the 5.1 track spacing out the effects during the space battles and making the shoot outs a little more fun.
First up is a half hour long Making Of Special documentary that was produced by Toho Video. Presented in Japanese with English subtitles, we're treated to some interesting behind the scenes footage, miniature test footage, and a brief history of where this movie fits in alongside other effects-heavy Toho pictures like Godzilla. It's presented fullframe and might have originally shown on television. It's well narrated and uses plenty of clips from the movie to illustrate various points.
Another Sayonara Jupiter is an interesting essay from Yuko Weisser which lends some insight into the significance of the movie at the time of its release. Rounding out the extra features are the film's original theatrical trailer, trailers for other Discotek Media DVD releases, a nice photo gallery of promotional material, and an essay on the history of the movie courtesy of Sakyo Komatsu himself.
The Final Word:
Sayonara Jupiter is pretentious, strange and rather pointless and it's interesting more as a legitimate cinematic oddity than anything else. Some unintentional camp value is there and the effects are great but the story doesn't really jive like it should. Discotek has done a nice job on the DVD release, however, and those who have wanted to see the movie for years now finally have a nice, legitimate DVD to dig on.