SuperMegaMonkey
John Averick: ChronosCat: ChronosCat: ChronosCat: ChronosCat: |
1962-03-21 11:41:21 GorathAlternate Titles: Calamity Star Gorath
For a while i didn't think we'd include this one. But there is a runaway planet Gorath in Final Wars, and there is an appearance of a daikaiju (albeit an extremely brief and gratuitous appearance). So we should cover it. And in any event, it won't take long, since literally nothing happens the entire movie. Won't take long to review maybe. I think it took several lifetimes to watch. The premise of this movie is that a runaway "star", some 6,000 times the mass of the Earth, named Gorath, is flying into our solar system and is going to hit our planet. To avoid that, the people of Earth, but mostly Japan, get together to build a nuclear powered thruster at the South Pole that moves the Earth out of Gorath's path. And... they do that. It's a complete success. There's no drama along the way. No warring political factions. No complications (except, briefly, the kaiju). There are a few plot points that seem like they might be leading to something, but they all turn out to be non-issues: 1) We first visit Gorath through the eyes of a crew of astronauts that were originally going to investigate Saturn. Once they get into space, they get orders from a man with an evil sounding voice who tells them to go further out into space to investigate Gorath instead. The space ship, Rocketship J-X1, winds up getting too close to Gorath and getting sucked in by its gravitational pull. Back on Earth, the Japanese government wonders who overrode the astronauts' original orders to go to Saturn, and no one knows for sure (or really seems to care). At the end of the movie, a Rocketship J-X2 goes out to investigate Gorath. They manage to collect the data they were sent for, and then on the way back they stop at a space station. The same evil voice guy tells them to go back to Gorath to get more information. Then the space station, and two others near it, fly back to Earth. It all seems very mysterious, as if there's something sinister going on. But nothing ever comes of it. 2) The information that J-X2 was sent to collect has no bearing on the film. The plan to launch the thrusters to move the Earth is initiated while they are away, and that plan works fine. No information learned on J-X2's mission in any way aids the mission or causes anyone to change course. 3) One bit of information from the J-X2 mission does at least get talked about, but again it has no bearing on anything. J-X2 discovers that Gorath has grown in size since initial discovery, and it's now 6,200 times the mass of the Earth. Because of this, a younger scientist on Earth wants to add more thrusters so that the Earth can move further way. But an older UN scientist vetoes that plan. The older scientist says "The UN knows nothing short of divine intervention will save us. The younger generation doesn't understand that." In the end, no additional thrusters are added, but the Earth turns out to be just fine. 4) One of the J-X2 astronauts gets amnesia during the expedition. He later gets his memory back. Now for our kaiju. He's called Maguma, although he's not named in the film. He's just a giant walrus. The idea is that the thrusters in the South Pole melt the ice and unleash this prehistoric beast. It is impossible to convey how out of place Maguma is in this film. This film is filled with people drearily mumbling technical jargon. There is no hint of it being a giant monster movie. And then suddenly, there's Maguma. The best part is that i kept Maguma a secret from Min, so i got to experience her reaction. I'm absolutely correct there. They are crazy. Here he is, starting with his menacing flipper: Just as out of place as Gorath is the laser shooting plane that defeats him. They initially bury him in rubble, but when that doesn't work... ...they just cut him in half with the laser. Those six minutes stirred us from out stupor, but after that it was back to nothing, nothing, nothing. Amazingly, it was those six minutes that were cut from the American release of the film. They should have cut everything else and left that. Here's Gorath: And here's the Earth being thrusted out of its orbit. There is also a little disaster porn as Gorath approaches. Some of it is in Bugs Bunny territory, like the rings getting sucked off of Saturn. And then there's the somewhat more realistic depiction of rising tides on Earth. If you're worried about Earth getting psuhed out of its regular orbit (as you should be!), there's a few lines at the end to put you at ease: "Now we face our biggest problem... We must put the Earth back on course. Otherwise we don't know what will happen... it will take twice the nuclear energy but we must do it." We wondered about that the whole movie since it seems like a very big concern, but at least they do address it, sort of, in the end. I'd kind of like to think that this isn't really Earth but some alternate planet; like maybe they just kept floating away and eventually became the third planet of the black hole that figures into the final Showa Mechagodzilla movies. Speaking of such speculation, it's worth noting that i see online that most people seem to think the movie takes place in 1980. That makes sense, since even before the flight to Gorath they were planning for a flight to Saturn. And they do mention the 1980s in the film, but only in a weird kind of way. There's a really weird scene where one of the main characters runs into two other characters in the street on Christmas wearing a robot suit. And he tells them that his suit is the sort of thing that Japan is going to need to explore space in the 1980s. It didn't quite sound like he meant that it was the 1980s, and he's only joking about the suit. And Toho made no effort to change people's hair or clothing styles, or the styles of the cars, or anything else, to make it look like it's not the 1960s. But it must be meant to take place in the future. Beyond the space flight capabilities (including space stations), there is an interesting theme to the movie. It's a common theme for Toho sci fi movies, about the world uniting behind a common threat (we saw it very clearly in Battle In Outer Space, for example). Even while the characters imply that Japan is putting the rest of the world to shame in terms of their technological work in preparation for Gorath, the fact that the world is working together is repeatedly emphasized. And when the J-X2 is heading out for its mission, they pass three space stations, each run by a different country, and it's noted that the space stations used to be parked far away from each other but now they stay close. And they attribute that to the work of the United Nations. It's said that the "yellow, brown, and white nations" used to compete with each other, but now the United Nations has brought them together. Since that hadn't happened by 1962, the movie must have been intended to take place in the future of the 1980s. Although, for what it's worth, we're posting this entry in 2015 and the United Nations has yet to unite all the countries of the worlds. This movie made no sense. By that, i mean, it's like someone went to the trouble of coming up with a plot that could be complex and suspenseful, with a mysterious villain and everything. But in the end, they decided to go with the endless scenes of people talking to each other about nothing. Not even the giant walrus could save this film. One final notable thing is the cast of the movie. It includes every Toho actor you can think of. From major repeat actors like Jun Tazaki, Ken Uehara, Akihiko Hirata, Kenji Sahara, Akira Kubo down to the guy who will play Dr. Who in King Kong Escapes and people who've played bit parts like fishermen and taxi drivers. Instead of the usual Drinking Game (which is entirely inapplicable for this movie although you will need to find some way to get through it), here's a super ironic screenshot of sad-faced Takashi Shimura asking someone else to cheer up. Best scene ever. Monsters Appearing: Maguma CommentsLove Min's reaction to Maguma. Posted by: Anonymous | December 14, 2016 12:56 AM For me, the strangest thing about this movie was how calmly the world population seems to be taking the impending likely end of the world. Where are the people uselessly stockpiling food, hiding in bunkers, or rioting in the streets? Regarding when the movie takes place, in my copy there were a few shots near the beginning of the film of what appeared to be newspapers. The first one was dated 1979, the second 1980, and the third 1982. Posted by: ChronosCat | February 7, 2018 11:57 PM Comments are now closed. |
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