Battle in Outer Space | |
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Directed by | Ishirō Honda |
Produced by | Tomoyuki Tanaka |
Screenplay by | Shinichi Sekizawa |
Story by | Jotaro Okami |
Starring | |
Music by | Akira Ifukube |
Cinematography | Hajime Koizumi |
Edited by | Ichiji Taira |
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Release date
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Running time
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93 minutes |
Country | Japan |
Battle in Outer Space (宇宙大戦争 Uchū Daisensō?) is a 1959 Japanese science fiction film produced by Toho Studios. Directed by Ishirō Honda and featuring special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, the film starred Ryo Ikebe, Koreya Senda and Yoshio Tsuchiya.
The film was released theatrically in the United States in the summer of 1960 by Columbia Pictures.
In 1965, a series of mysterious and devastating incidents are happening on Earth. These incidents range from a railroad bridge levitated off the ground causing a train wreck in Japan; an ocean liner lifted out of the Panama Canal by a waterspout, destroying it; severe flooding in Venice, Italy; and the destruction of the J-SS3 space station.
A UN-connected international meeting is called at the Space Research Center in Japan. Major Ichiro Katsumiya, Professor Adachi and Dr. Richardson open the conference and describe the disasters, adding that the survivors suffered from extreme frostbite. Dr. Richardson theorizes that some unknown force lowered the temperatures of the objects so as to lower the Earth's gravitational pull, thus making the objects easier to lift, regardless of their size and weight. Katsumiya determines that such an action could only be accomplished by a force beyond the earth.
Dr. Ahmed, an Iranian delegate at the meeting, reacts as though suffering from a severe headache and slips away. Ahmed walks outside to a courtyard in a daze. Etsuko Shiraishi sees him and watches in horror as he is enveloped in a red light coming from the sky. Astronaut Iwamura comes in and Etsuko tells him what happened but Ahmed is nowhere to be seen. Back at the conference, it is believed that aliens might be behind the disasters and it is suggested that the Earth be prepared militarily.