The Mysterians (1957)

After a holiday celebration, a small town is rocked by nearby earthquakes, which threaten to swallow the surrounding area. More strange phenomena lead to the emergence of an enormous robot of unknown origin, which begins to attack. The Japanese military are able to destroy the robot, but the fight has just begun, as a mysterious alien race arrive on Earth, with a threatening ultimatum-Give them land and women, or the world will suffer the consequences...

Following the successes of Kaiju films such as Rodan, and of course, Godzilla, Japanese studio Toho was keen to expand its sci-fi oeuvre with their most ambitious movie to date-The Mysterians.

The Mysterians is an extremely impressive movie! As far as looks go, it's your pretty standard 1970s kaiju/tokusatsu film. But that's the thing, it's from the 50s, almost two decades prior to that era of Japanese sci-fi! You can really see the legacy this inspired, from the story, to the visuals, and messages.

The main characters are a likeable enough bunch, though we don't get to know them as much as we could've, and the main group blended together a lot. There's a little bit of romance, though for the life of me I couldn't tell who it was between.

As villains, the titular Mysterians are utter bastards! They cause a few natural disasters, then sic a giant attack robot on the world, then when that's destroyed, they emerge and try and say 'Our bad, it was just a technical error. We're very peaceful, and all we want is some human women, like the ones we've kidnapped already, and we're taking this 5 mile stretch of land. What's that? You're being hostile? How dare you, after we came in peace! I guess we'll just obliterate your armies and cause a few more disasters! Also we now demand 75 miles of land. But we swear we are only pacifists!'

Idealistic but melancholic scientist Riyoichi meanwhile is a total turncoat. After only a single meeting with these aliens, who are clearly invaders, he not only sides with them, ditching his friends and family in the process, but he also has no qualms with them kidnapping his sister to mate with! That particular connection is never actually brought up so I suppose the writer didn't actually think it through, but I sure did, and it made me pray for his death! Luckily he is made to pay for his mistakes, even though he does learn the error of his ways.

His sacrifice at the end is unintentionally hilarious. He begs the others to run away, and to save themselves...and to not misuse science...and to learn from the Mysterians' mistakes. Uhhh, dude, I thought you wanted them to run away before the base blows up, but instead you're giving them a monologue! He just won't shut up!

The giant robot Moguera is a cool presence, although he's very underused. He wreaks havoc for about 10 minutes, before the military succeed in destroying him, and that's it. He's gone, never to be seen again, save for a late re-appearance so fleeting that it's hard to even count.

One aspect of the movie I liked was how it raised the stakes. The first act opens with the disasters, culminating in the appearance of Moguera, then the aliens arrive. Everything feels well paced

The flooding scene near the end felt a bit too much though. Not only was it depressing, it also didn't make sense, since the area was evacuated for 75 miles, so what's a little lake flooding gonna do? I also thought it was rich of the aliens to say "Stop firing or we'll retaliate", so the humans stop firing...and the aliens retaliate! Motherfuckers!

The soundtrack is surprisingly subtle. Too subtle! It took me a while before I suddenly realised 'Hey, where's the music?'. There really isn't much for the first two acts, but once the movie gets going, the music really ramps up, and feels suitably epic, with longtime Toho composer Akira Ifukube doing a bang-up job once again.

The effects in The Mysterians are not only great, but nicely varied. We've got the giant robot Moguera, who's a bit chunky, but has a unique mosquito-like head. Then there are flying saucers, a giant dome, and various weapons and doodads. There's less effort for the aliens in terms of make-up, as we only see their uncovered forms briefly.

The set design is really special. While most of the film takes place in regular buildings, the Mysterian base is stunningly crafted, and there's a great sense of scale. The only problem is we don't see it that much. Less is more, but I kinda wished we'd gotten at least a little more.

Special praise must also go to the production designer! The fashion these aliens choose to wear is bizarre and ridiculous in a way only the Japanese would ever have the courage to do, and likewise, they are perhaps the only people who could ever pull it off. I'm not sure whose idea it was to dress the Mysterians in matching multicolour bikie outfits with capes, but they sure earned their paycheck that day!

The Mysterians is a lot of fun, and while not as good as the movies it would go on to inspire, it's still worth watching, and deserves a lot of credit for what it accomplished for itself, and Toho's future...