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Battle in Outer Space

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Battle in Outer Space
File:Battle in Outer Space.jpg
Battle in Outer Space (1959)
Directed byIshirô Honda
Written byJojiro Okami
Shinichi Sekizawa
Produced byTomoyuki Tanaka
StarringRyo Ikebe
Kyôko Anzai
Koreya Senda
Minoru Takada
Leonard Stanford
Harold Conway
Yoshio Tsuchiya
CinematographyHajime Koizumi
Edited byKazuji Taira
Music byAkira Ifukube
Distributed byToho
Release dates
Japan December 26, 1959
United States July 8, 1960
Running time
93 min.
90 min. (USA)
Country Japan
LanguagesJapanese
English

Uchū Daisensō (宇宙大戦争, lit. "Great Space Battle") is a tokusatsu film produced and released by Toho Studios in Japan in 1959, and distributed world-wide (sans Far East Territories) in 1960 by Columbia Pictures under the title Battle in Outer Space. The screenplay was written by Shinichi Sekizawa (from a story by Jojiro Okami) and was brought to the screen by Toho's well-known kaiju eiga specialists, Ishirô Honda, Eiji Tsuburaya, Tomoyuki Tanaka, and composer Akira Ifukube.

Battle in Outer Space is a loose sequel to The Mysterians (1957), jumping ahead several years to 1965, when Etsuko Shiraishi and Dr. Adachi, among others, are now heavily involved in the United Nations Space Science Center in Tokyo. Rather than have the Mysterians return to Earth for this sequel, a new, more sinister race was created: The Natal, diminutive and aggressive beings who wield powerful anti-gravity weapons and mind-control devices.

U.S. release

Battle in Outer Space was released in America by Columbia Pictures in July 1960, and was also available for theatrical bookings packaged at the top of a double-feature with David Bradley's low-budget space opera, 12 to the Moon.

New York Times film critic Howard Thompson gave Battle in Outer Space a mixed, but generally positive review, stating, "The plot is absurd and is performed in dead earnest... some of the artwork is downright nifty, especially in the middle portion, when an earth rocket soars to the moon to destroy the palpitating missile base... the Japanese have opened a most amusing and beguiling bag of technical tricks, as death-dealing saucers whiz through the stratosphere... and the lunar landscape is just as pretty as it can be."

Cast

Production Credits

File:Battle in Outer Space US.jpg
Lobby card for the 1960 US release

References

Bibliography

  • Battle in Outer Space at IMDb
  • Battle in Outer Space at AllMovie
  • "宇宙大戦争 (Uchū Daisensō)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
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