Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. My name is Rob.
Speaker 3: Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we got a
Speaker 3: firecracker for you. We're going to be talking about message
Speaker 3: from Space. So I suggested doing this on the show
Speaker 3: after I think it was like a week or two ago,
Speaker 3: there was one night where I was cooking and we
Speaker 3: just wanted to put on a movie on mute, and
Speaker 3: we were looking around for various space operas and this
Speaker 3: option came up, this nineteen seventy eight Japanese space opera movie.
Speaker 3: It looked kind of interesting, so we set it going
Speaker 3: and it was just a powerful and beautiful assault on
Speaker 3: the eyes of disco colors, variety show atmosphere and powerful
Speaker 3: adventures in space. And I was so excited to go
Speaker 3: back and actually watch it and it did not disappoint.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a perfect selection for a weird house cinema. Now,
Speaker 2: some of you might be asking, what is weird house Cinema.
Speaker 2: Maybe you've seen it popping up in the feed of
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow your Mind to Science and Culture podcast. Well,
Speaker 2: it is a late Friday night celebration of weird films
Speaker 2: and maybe a dash of science and culture as well.
Speaker 2: You can think of these episodes as the mysterious space
Speaker 2: nuts cast off into a science and culture podcast feed
Speaker 2: as a call to adventure for weird film fans.
Speaker 3: Okay, so let's start with the elevator pitch on message
Speaker 3: from space? What's the deal with this movie?
Speaker 2: Okay? Is a nineteen seventy eight a Japanese space opera
Speaker 2: falling hot on the heels of nineteen seventy seven Star Wars,
Speaker 2: and basically this is the plot in the Andromeda Galaxy,
Speaker 2: the peaceful planet of Jelusia has been conquered by the
Speaker 2: warrior Gavanas Empire, who then turned the planet into a
Speaker 2: weapon like turn it into a spaceship. The Glusians are peaceful,
Speaker 2: but they need some help. So what do they do?
Speaker 2: They cast out eight space nuts what are they? Liabe
Speaker 2: seeds to call forth the warriors who will save them
Speaker 2: and ultimately save the Earth as well.
Speaker 3: There is so much examining of nuts in this movie,
Speaker 3: people just holding nuts up to the light and talking
Speaker 3: about their nuts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's important to note that these nuts glow
Speaker 2: and with magic. These nuts also just randomly appear. You
Speaker 2: might be about to eat a tomato and whoa, there's
Speaker 2: suddenly a space nut in there. You're drinking your eighth
Speaker 2: bourbon of the day and WHOA, suddenly there's a space
Speaker 2: nut in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I think we should start with the obvious thing,
Speaker 3: which is that this is a ripoff of Star Wars.
Speaker 3: This came out in nineteen seventy eight. But it's more
Speaker 3: than a ripoff of Star Wars. It's also a very
Speaker 3: zesty expression of sets and costumes and disco love and
Speaker 3: it has a fabulous energy to it. But it is
Speaker 3: a ripoff of Star Wars. Like so many other films
Speaker 3: in the late seventies, after Star Wars came out You've
Speaker 3: Got a Star Crash one of my favorites, there were
Speaker 3: a lot of different Star Wars clones created in different
Speaker 3: countries around the world. There's famously Turkish Star Wars. I
Speaker 3: know there are some others.
Speaker 2: Battlestar Galactica can kind of be thrown into this general category. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it is important to compare it to these
Speaker 2: other films, because, for instance, Turkish Star Wars is a
Speaker 2: ridiculous film that actually takes footage from Star Wars and
Speaker 2: uses it in the film, So there's like that level
Speaker 2: of ripping off Star Wars. There's Star Crash, which Star
Speaker 2: Crash is a lot of fun. This one, Let's see
Speaker 2: It had David Hasselhoff, Christopher Plummer, Caroline Monroe in it.
Speaker 2: But it's entertaining, but it also just feels kind of
Speaker 2: shoddy the whole way through. It feels very much like
Speaker 2: a ripoff, you know, I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the script feels very much like a first draft.
Speaker 3: There's a great scene where the movie has Marjo Gortner
Speaker 3: in it, who is an actor with a unbelievably weird
Speaker 3: life story. He was like a child tent revival preacher
Speaker 3: when he was I don't know, seven years old or something,
Speaker 3: and then he dropped out. I think he went into
Speaker 3: the the hippie movement and tried to emerge it to
Speaker 3: have an acting career. So he's in this movie, as
Speaker 3: I don't know, as a space hero who's got like
Speaker 3: a like a ring that blasts people with lasers. And
Speaker 3: there's a great scene where he's fighting a bad guy
Speaker 3: and he says, these deadly rays will be your death.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a It's a fun film in and of itself,
Speaker 2: but I feel like it is important to sort of
Speaker 2: pit to to pinpoint Turkish Star Wars and Star Crash
Speaker 2: and then talk about Message from Space because Message from
Speaker 2: Space again very much trying to cash in on the
Speaker 2: Star Wars craze. But it is it is weird enough
Speaker 2: in its own right, and it is it is different
Speaker 2: enough and just enough ways to where it does feel
Speaker 2: like a self contained, weird universe. I mean, there are
Speaker 2: times in the film where it does come just a
Speaker 2: little a little too close to Star Wars and you
Speaker 2: can't help but snicker at it. But there's just other
Speaker 2: just crazy stuff in this film.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, it definitely gets close when you're getting
Speaker 3: into the character names such as Sonny Chiba playing Prince
Speaker 3: Hans and I can't remember the actress's name at the moment,
Speaker 3: but you have Princess May in the movie and it,
Speaker 3: I mean you can see where they're going.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's also a there's a particular musical number that
Speaker 2: keeps playing in the film that is like as close
Speaker 2: as possible to John Williams Star Wars as you could get.
Speaker 2: Maybe too close, I don't know, it feels just way
Speaker 2: too close.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, The very opening of this movie of mess
Speaker 3: It's from Space, begins with the Princess Leiah theme from
Speaker 3: Star Wars. I mean it's not exactly, but like the
Speaker 3: first five or six notes of the melody are identical,
Speaker 3: and then after that it's still pretty similar, but there
Speaker 3: are little variations. So you remember the Princess Leiah theme
Speaker 3: it plays, you know, and and that just comes again
Speaker 3: and again throughout the movie. You have what are obviously
Speaker 3: storm troopers in this movie, but they're kind of metal
Speaker 3: instead of white.
Speaker 2: Well, I will say the storm troopers look really awesome
Speaker 2: in this They do seem to have two varieties. You
Speaker 2: have these the sort of you've referred to them as
Speaker 2: like crab hat troopers, and they look really cool because
Speaker 2: they have this kind of space Samurai motif and granted,
Speaker 2: and Samurai motif is part of the armor motif in
Speaker 2: Star Wars itself, but here it is it is created
Speaker 2: by by you know, Japanese costume crews, and it seems
Speaker 2: to take on its own kind of uh, you know,
Speaker 2: futuristic air. And then they're also the I think far
Speaker 2: more terrifying stormtroopers that tend to be in the background
Speaker 2: behind those guys with these heavy gas masks on and
Speaker 2: they they look they look really cool, like I was
Speaker 2: seeing that they have like a real Death Trooper vibe
Speaker 2: to them. And of course this film Message from Space
Speaker 2: is also just filled to the gills with space battles,
Speaker 2: lots of model spaceships, but really well done. I mean
Speaker 2: they were Star Wars. We have to remember nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 2: Star Wars like really broke through and created like a
Speaker 2: new standard for miniature based space action special effects. And
Speaker 2: this film does not equal that level of special effects,
Speaker 2: but I feel like it it manages to reach a
Speaker 2: very comfortable level, like the people who did this were
Speaker 2: not figuring out for the figuring it out for the
Speaker 2: first time, so the you know, the explosions, the scale
Speaker 2: model use, it looks really good in my view, made
Speaker 2: not the Star Wars level, but but a comfortable level
Speaker 2: a few steps below.
Speaker 3: I think there are a certain type of sci fi
Speaker 3: space practical effects, especially using miniatures and models, that are
Speaker 3: really effective despite not looking realistic. They're effective in the
Speaker 3: same way the sets of the Cabinet of Doctor Kaligari are.
Speaker 3: So you might have sets in a German expressionist movie
Speaker 3: that don't look at all like reality they are expressive,
Speaker 3: they're they're a work of art. And the special effects
Speaker 3: in these types of sci fi movies I think are
Speaker 3: sort of like that. They're you know, you're not going
Speaker 3: to think, wow, is that a real spaceship flying through space?
Speaker 3: But they're they're beautiful nonetheless.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And and I'll say two other things. One about
Speaker 2: just the way the set. The sets are fantastic in
Speaker 2: this film. They're huge, and they often feel like what
Speaker 2: if you had a Star Wars or a Flash Gordon,
Speaker 2: you know, space opera set, and then a disco paintball
Speaker 2: bomb went off, yes, and colored everything. You feel like
Speaker 2: you're in a kaleidoscope at times.
Speaker 3: Yes, if you throw all together Star Wars, Disco seventies
Speaker 3: Variety show and Japanese decorative motifs all together, and it
Speaker 3: creates something that is really fabulous to look at throughout.
Speaker 2: I'll also say that all of the acting in this
Speaker 2: film is terrific. Everybody seems to be playing their character
Speaker 2: as if that character is consistently slightly too drunk, and
Speaker 2: it's it's fabulous. It creates this kind of unhinged vibe.
Speaker 2: And it also there are plot choices that seem to
Speaker 2: work well with this, with this kind of vibe, because generally,
Speaker 2: in a film like I'm trying to remember the exact
Speaker 2: you know, prescribed structure, when do your characters usually get
Speaker 2: the call to adventure? And when do they accept that
Speaker 2: call to adventure?
Speaker 3: Oh? Well, you know, in the classic story, you would
Speaker 3: say in Star Wars, it's the hero's journey, right, it's
Speaker 3: very Joseph Campbell inspired. So I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 3: fifteen minutes in the hero gets the call to adventure,
Speaker 3: and then he initially rejects it, but then there's a
Speaker 3: turning point that burns a bridge to his past, and
Speaker 3: then he has to come back and accept the call
Speaker 3: the second time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, meanwhile, message from space. Most of the film is
Speaker 2: devoted to people and slowly receiving the call to adventure
Speaker 2: and then even more slowly accepting that call. I don't
Speaker 2: think all calls to adventure have been received and accepted
Speaker 2: until like the last twenty minutes of the film.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Sonny Cheeba doesn't show up until like twenty
Speaker 3: minutes until the end. I can't believe it. And the
Speaker 3: hilarious thing is, so you take an actor who's as
Speaker 3: charismatic and wonderful as Sonny Cheeba, and you say, I
Speaker 3: think the way we should show him is like behind
Speaker 3: a bulky helmet, so you can't really see his face
Speaker 3: in a scene that's like shaded with a red gel,
Speaker 3: so in fact, you can't really see anybody's face. It's
Speaker 3: like a really really sad just abuse of sunny Chiba.
Speaker 3: But I don't know it works.
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, well, before we get into a more detailed discussion
Speaker 2: of who's in this and who made it, why don't
Speaker 2: we have just a little splash of the trailer audio.
Speaker 4: Here from a captive planet two million light years away
Speaker 4: came a desperate plea for help message runs space on
Speaker 4: the verge of extinction. The leader of the persecuted Delusians
Speaker 4: sends his beautiful granddaughter, who finds the eight legendary brave
Speaker 4: adventurers go alone can stop the annihilation.
Speaker 2: Do you know where ever it is?
Speaker 3: You know where ever lead is?
Speaker 4: What you doing now? I'm a human being from the
Speaker 4: planet never before, As the screen erupted with more specta,
Speaker 4: more excitement, an international cast headed by Vic Morrole.
Speaker 3: I buried my career in.
Speaker 4: All it, Babel one can do it.
Speaker 3: Just to see it again and chosen by the Goods.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it comes through in the trailer,
Speaker 3: but I was thinking the original tagline of this film
Speaker 3: was Who's shooting it?
Speaker 2: Who? It's a question that may arise during the viewing
Speaker 2: of this film, and I did question a number of
Speaker 2: times what the message from space? Actually, I guess the
Speaker 2: space nuts are the message.
Speaker 3: From the magic nuts are the message? Yeah, but they
Speaker 3: are the call to adventure. I mean the scenes where
Speaker 3: the characters are discussing and debating the call to adventure
Speaker 3: almost all involved holding up the nuts, examining them, comparing
Speaker 3: their nuts, and everything like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's there's a lot of space nuts in
Speaker 2: this All right, let's talk about some of the people
Speaker 2: involved here. Okay, So first, first of all, let's talk
Speaker 2: about the director, Director Kinji of Fukusaku. This is a
Speaker 2: guy lived nineteen thirty through two thousand and three, directed
Speaker 2: sixty three projects during his career, and some other titles
Speaker 2: might jump out to more experienced Japanese cinema fans, but
Speaker 2: I think the big one here is probably the movie
Speaker 2: Battle Royale, which came out in the year two thousand.
Speaker 3: Oh, I had no idea this was the same guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was a film. It was kind of like
Speaker 2: a pre Hunger Games kind of Hunger Games thing, kind
Speaker 2: of a mashup of the ideas and Hunger Games and
Speaker 2: Lord of the Flies, in which a futuristic Japanese government
Speaker 2: captures a class of ninth grade students ninth graders and
Speaker 2: forces them to kill each other.
Speaker 3: I think there's some kind of implication that this is
Speaker 3: an expression of political authoritarianism. It's like there's an evil
Speaker 3: fascist government and the way that they keep the people pacified.
Speaker 3: I guess, so you keep the people from rebelling is
Speaker 3: to force one class of ninth graders to kill each
Speaker 3: other on an island. Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how
Speaker 3: that works. It seems to connect to some bread and
Speaker 3: Circus ideas, but yeah, and still not quite clear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was. It was a controversial film
Speaker 2: upon its release, but it was highly successful, one of
Speaker 2: the top ten highest grossing films in Japan, I understand,
Speaker 2: and just and a hit around the world. It's one
Speaker 2: I remember watching at some point after its release when
Speaker 2: it kind of you know, made its rounds over here
Speaker 2: in the United States. But yeah, it's an interesting film.
Speaker 2: And the other interesting thing is he directed it at
Speaker 2: age seventy, like this was really late in his career
Speaker 2: and in his life when he puts out this film
Speaker 2: that I think is is his his greatest achievement in
Speaker 2: terms of reaching an audience and and probably saying something
Speaker 2: too about about you know, the you know, the about
Speaker 2: the culture and government. I have a feeling it probably
Speaker 2: speaks more to Japanese film fans than it does to uh,
Speaker 2: you know, Western fans, unless they're you know, you know,
Speaker 2: super you know, up to snuff on on you know,
Speaker 2: stylistic choices and you know, the voice of Japanese centem
Speaker 2: et cetera. But it's I remember still finding it to
Speaker 2: be an interesting and disturbing film. I also noted looking
Speaker 2: around at IMDb that he directed the PlayStation two horror
Speaker 2: game clock Tower three. Do you remember this one, Joe?
Speaker 3: I never played this. I never had a PlayStation two
Speaker 3: when I was younger.
Speaker 2: Ah, well, I I I had one, and I definitely
Speaker 2: played this game. It was It was a weird survival
Speaker 2: horror game. Your character doesn't even have a weapon most
Speaker 2: of the time, so it's a lot of running away
Speaker 2: from and hiding from monstrous killers.
Speaker 3: Hmm, okay, uh kind of Soma like where you're not
Speaker 3: really fighting, you're just hiding.
Speaker 2: A bit but more but more of a horror theme,
Speaker 2: like more of a this thing is looking for me,
Speaker 2: and you would like try and distract it with other
Speaker 2: things in your environment, So a bit of that. Like,
Speaker 2: it definitely has connections to other survival centered horror games
Speaker 2: that came out in its wake.
Speaker 3: Interesting. I mean, I wouldn't have predicted that from Message
Speaker 3: from Space, though I don't mean to. I mean, we're
Speaker 3: gonna make a lot of jokes about Message from Space.
Speaker 3: But again, I want to emphasize that it I do
Speaker 3: not necessarily think it is a failure. Like it is
Speaker 3: funny and absurd in many ways, but it has a
Speaker 3: really strong momentum, It drives forward, and there's real skill
Speaker 3: behind the camera in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's consistently entertaining, it's hard to look away,
Speaker 2: and all the performances are wonderful in their own right.
Speaker 2: So let's get to one of those performances.
Speaker 3: Oh question, question, Okay, what if you made a Star
Speaker 3: Wars movie but the hero of the movie was Karl
Speaker 3: from Aquitine Hunger Force. Because that's what we've got here.
Speaker 2: Basically, Yeah, we have Vic Morrow as a general Garuda,
Speaker 2: which is a great name as well, but tying in
Speaker 2: a you know, an Asian mythical creature into his title here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Vic Morrow, I guess you would describe him as Carl esque.
Speaker 2: You might describe him as roused our esque or oh,
Speaker 2: what's the name of the actor your hero from Halloween
Speaker 2: three season of The Witch?
Speaker 3: Oh, Tom Atkins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of Tom Atkins vibe as Strawberry Burt Reynolds. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so you've probably seen Vic morro in something. He was
Speaker 2: a staple of film and television for decades, from a
Speaker 2: small part in nineteen fifty five Blackboard Jungle to the
Speaker 2: tragic nineteen eighty three production of Twilight Zone, the movie
Speaker 2: in which a helicopter accident claimed his life and the
Speaker 2: life of a couple of child actors as well. But
Speaker 2: prior to that he was involved in a lot of mainstream,
Speaker 2: often TV projects, and often international projects. And I think
Speaker 2: I probably know him best from some of his appearances
Speaker 2: in international B movies all particular note there was both
Speaker 2: of them directed by Zog Castellari. The first is nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty one's The Last Shark, which is a Jaws ripoff
Speaker 2: an Italian Jar Jaws rip off in which Moro basically
Speaker 2: plays Quint from Jaws.
Speaker 3: This is funny because it hits on the two big ones.
Speaker 3: Which movie do you think was ripped off? More? Star
Speaker 3: Wars or Jaws? There may be the two most ripped
Speaker 3: off movies in history. Oh maybe add on Aliens those three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like it's got to be Jaws, because
Speaker 2: with Jaws, all you really need to do is get
Speaker 2: some people in swimsuits at the beach or out on
Speaker 2: the water, and you just have that one special effect
Speaker 2: you've got to shoot for. But the special effects threshold
Speaker 2: is I feel higher with I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean there's a certain threshold with shark movies, and
Speaker 3: the Last Shark does not appear to pass it. They
Speaker 3: have a shark puppet that does does not look good folks.
Speaker 3: It has a kind of funny bulge in its neck
Speaker 3: that gives an almost frog like throat sack kind of appearance,
Speaker 3: but could also be interpreted as just a jowly old man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I also remember in this one again it's
Speaker 2: it's very Jaws esque, like it feels very much like
Speaker 2: a remake in many respects, But there are scenes where
Speaker 2: the shark is like attacking a boat and it's like
Speaker 2: an explosion, Like they clearly just set off an explosive
Speaker 2: device in a boat to show what the shark's attack
Speaker 2: would do.
Speaker 3: There are good scenes like this in Message from Space too,
Speaker 3: though with the scenes where things just blow up for
Speaker 3: no reason. You can tell something gets like hit with
Speaker 3: the sword and it blows up.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, if you like explosions, you will love Message
Speaker 2: from Space.
Speaker 3: But the there was another Castellari movie.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah yah. He directed a film titled The Bronx Warriors,
Speaker 2: which which is fabulous. It was featured on Mystery Science
Speaker 2: Theater three thousand back in the day. It also stars
Speaker 2: one of my favorite Italian B movie actors, George Eastman.
Speaker 2: But it's a yeah, post post apocalyptic New York City
Speaker 2: hell movie, strongly influenced by Escape from New York and
Speaker 2: The Warriors. It's a fun one to watch because they
Speaker 2: filmed a lot of it in New York City. So
Speaker 2: if you if you have enjoyed going to New York
Speaker 2: in the past and hoped to return in the future
Speaker 2: like me, or perhaps you live there, it's a fun
Speaker 2: It's a fun one to watch because they filmed some
Speaker 2: key scenes out on Roosevelt Island, and you can go
Speaker 2: to Roosevelt Island today. You can take the you can
Speaker 2: even take the cable car over there, and you can
Speaker 2: see some of the very places they filmed, including the
Speaker 2: Wrenwick Ruins, which looked the same today essentially as they
Speaker 2: looked when they filmed The Bronx Warriors.
Speaker 3: I've never thought of this before, but somebody should put
Speaker 3: together a B movie tour of New York. It's just
Speaker 3: all of the best locations and sites from the iconic
Speaker 3: B movies we love.
Speaker 2: That would be That would be wonderful. There's so much
Speaker 2: you could cover, and I imagine a lot of it
Speaker 2: has vanished at this point, but some of it's still there,
Speaker 2: like the Renwick Ruins. So anyway, Vic morro is in
Speaker 2: this and he plays a mercenary enforcer named Hammer, which
Speaker 2: I think we can easily trace the DNA of that
Speaker 2: character to Escape from New York like it's it's clearly,
Speaker 2: you know, patterned on the Levan Cleef character in Escape
Speaker 2: from New York.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, okay, now, maybe we should mention a few
Speaker 3: more of the actors. Of course, we've already talked a
Speaker 3: bit about Sonny Cheeba, who is a fabulous actor. I
Speaker 3: think a lot of American audiences might know him best
Speaker 3: for some of the later performances in his career in
Speaker 3: American movies, like he was in Kill Bill Part one
Speaker 3: playing Torri Hanzo. He's fabulous in that part. He's also
Speaker 3: got a part in The Fast and the Furious three
Speaker 3: Tokyo Drift, which is a beautiful fantasy film.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask you about this because I
Speaker 2: haven't seen any of the Fast Furious movies, but I
Speaker 2: know you were a connoisseur.
Speaker 3: I would say, and I'm not the first to observe this.
Speaker 3: Other people have said the same. The best thing to
Speaker 3: do with The Fast and the Furious movies is stick
Speaker 3: to the odd numbered ones. So, like, the first one
Speaker 3: is bad, but it has a very seductive place in history.
Speaker 3: It evokes this just like pre nine to eleven, you know,
Speaker 3: New Millennium kind of thing where everything was a little
Speaker 3: bit sweaty and orange and like, I don't know, we
Speaker 3: were just going to be racing cars for the rest
Speaker 3: of eternity. It's also I think it's about stealing DVD
Speaker 3: VCR com okay, and then the second movie, I don't
Speaker 3: remember it's just like a crime car movie. It doesn't
Speaker 3: have Vin Diesel in it, so it loses a lot
Speaker 3: of the appeal. Then the third one decides it's very different.
Speaker 3: The third one suddenly becomes kind of an otherworldly fantasy
Speaker 3: film set in Japan. There's it has a great villain
Speaker 3: named the Drift King who has this perfect villain face.
Speaker 3: He's wonderful. And after I saw that one for weeks,
Speaker 3: I was just boy crazy for the Drift King. And
Speaker 3: then the fourth one's no good. The fifth one things
Speaker 3: then the rock shows up and things really get moving.
Speaker 3: But I would say, actually, of the entire series, the
Speaker 3: third one is my favorite, even though it doesn't have
Speaker 3: Vin Diesel in it. Which one is Tokyo Drift though,
Speaker 3: that's the third one, This Tokyo Drift, that's the one
Speaker 3: with Sunny Chiba.
Speaker 2: And it's centered around a scooty thing you do with
Speaker 2: the car, right, Yeah, it's like what a Toko drift is.
Speaker 3: It is about drifting. Drifting is the major theme of
Speaker 3: the movie, and it's about how you make a car
Speaker 3: move laterally to the direction the wheels normally go in.
Speaker 2: Okay and so he plays a villain of some kind
Speaker 2: of a heavy or a wise hero.
Speaker 3: He's like a I think he's a mafia boss basically.
Speaker 2: Okay, that that makes sense.
Speaker 3: But Sunny Cheeba is he's a wonderful actor, amazingly charismatic,
Speaker 3: just a fantastic you know, you can't take your eyes
Speaker 3: off him on screen. And it's again, I feel like
Speaker 3: it's kind of sad in this movie that he doesn't
Speaker 3: show up until toward the end, and even then he
Speaker 3: doesn't get a lot of close ups and he's behind
Speaker 3: a lot of just equipment that's around his face. I
Speaker 3: just feel like, you know, you have Sonny Chiba on cast,
Speaker 3: you should you should give him a little more, a
Speaker 3: little more intimacy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it does make no mistake. Sonny Chiba is
Speaker 2: Slash was an international martial arts star. Like he was
Speaker 2: very much a guy who made a huge name for
Speaker 2: himself in Japan and then that and then then was
Speaker 2: able to cross over into America. Like One film of
Speaker 2: note is nineteen seventy four's The Street Fighter, which went
Speaker 2: on to become like a big grindhouse hit in the
Speaker 2: United States. It's notable for a number of reasons, mainly
Speaker 2: because it's just Sonny cheeba, you know, kicking butt the
Speaker 2: whole time, but it features X ray finishing moves where
Speaker 2: like he punches somebody and then it's and then it's
Speaker 2: an X ray footage of that skull cracking, which is fabulous.
Speaker 2: This is something that I think would much later get
Speaker 2: picked up by the Mortal Kombat video game. That's used
Speaker 2: in other films as well. But it's a great special.
Speaker 3: Effect that's really good. Now. One of the other performances
Speaker 3: that I would like to call out from this movie
Speaker 3: is the actress playing Princess Maya, Peggy Lee Brennan, who
Speaker 3: didn't really do much else. I looked her up. She
Speaker 3: was in an episode of Mash, she was in a
Speaker 3: few movies. She didn't have a very extensive film career,
Speaker 3: but she has the most joyful, rambunctious Penny Marshall Laverne
Speaker 3: Chipmunk energy in this movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it might be my favorite performance in the film.
Speaker 2: It's very spunky, and like all the performances, it feels
Speaker 2: like the character is consistently just a little bit too drunk,
Speaker 2: but in a good way. Like every time she's on
Speaker 2: the screen, there's this this kind of manic energy that
Speaker 2: that that works really well.
Speaker 3: She likes.
Speaker 2: She brings an energy to the to the room or
Speaker 2: the spaceship cockpit, whichever it may be. Oftentimes in this
Speaker 2: film you have to stop and ask yourself, am I
Speaker 2: supposed to be in space right now? Because you'll feel
Speaker 2: like you're in a in like an overly decorated home
Speaker 2: room in a high school, or or you know, or
Speaker 2: some other strange location. But any rate, anytime Peggy ly
Speaker 2: Brennan is in the room, it's it's gonna be fun.
Speaker 3: Peggy le Brennan is never on the mix setting. She
Speaker 3: is always on the liquefy setting. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, another star of note, a huge star of Japanese
Speaker 2: cinema and also a crossover star in this is hero
Speaker 2: Yuki Sonata, playing Shiro the rough Rider, one of the
Speaker 2: two basically one of the two Luke Skywalkers in the film. Yes,
Speaker 2: he would go on to become a major Japanese star.
Speaker 2: He starred in such major Western productions as The Wolverine.
Speaker 2: He's in HBO's West World, He's in Sunshine, He's an
Speaker 2: Avengers Endgame, he is going to play Scorpion in the
Speaker 2: next Mortal Kombat movie that they are making. And the
Speaker 2: crazy Thing about him is you look up pictures of
Speaker 2: him and he's like, you know, super handsome Japanese actor.
Speaker 2: He is sixty years old and it looks like he's
Speaker 2: maybe thirty five or something. You know, this guy has
Speaker 2: to be a vampire. That's my only guess.
Speaker 3: He drank from the Kiyanu fountain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Sonata is Yeah, he's keeping it together. He
Speaker 2: is my new aging hero, like I want to age
Speaker 2: like Sonata does.
Speaker 3: Well, I feel like maybe it's time to jump into
Speaker 3: a full breakdown of the plot to the extent that
Speaker 3: that's possible, because this movie is, like I said, it's
Speaker 3: very fun, it's a feast for the eyes, but the
Speaker 3: plot is borderline incomprehensible. I tried to pay close attention
Speaker 3: so I could explain what's happening, but it's rough.
Speaker 2: Yeah I have. I watched this with my wife the
Speaker 2: other day and we did an Amazon Prime watch party
Speaker 2: where we invited some folks from the Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: your Mind a discussion module to join us. You know,
Speaker 2: whoever was available to on short notice and had the
Speaker 2: necessary technologies and accounts to do so. So we had
Speaker 2: a handful of people in there and consistently the question
Speaker 2: that came up was what is happening? What right? And
Speaker 2: then also just trying to keep count of how many
Speaker 2: space nuts were supposed to be sent out, how many
Speaker 2: had actually been received, and then how many had been accepted.
Speaker 3: So, okay, okay, sort of luck.
Speaker 2: And breaking this down, Joe, I wish you luck.
Speaker 3: Well, you've got to come with me. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to do it alone.
Speaker 2: I'll try and help, but you know, it's it's it's
Speaker 2: more of a stream of consciousness sort of thing.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, okay. So we're gonna start at the beginning,
Speaker 3: the beginning of this film. As we've said, we open
Speaker 3: with the Princess Leiah theme from Star Wars. It's just
Speaker 3: playing the Star Wars music and then you get this
Speaker 3: bone rattling, deep voice narration that's kind of Don Lafontaine
Speaker 3: meets James Earl Jones. It sounded so familiar to me.
Speaker 3: I was like, I know, I have heard this voice before.
Speaker 3: And then you called out what who it might be?
Speaker 3: I'm not sure, but did you look this up?
Speaker 2: I haven't looked it up, but there's this I mean
Speaker 2: I've looked I've looked it up in the past. But
Speaker 2: basically there was this cool mix that I came across
Speaker 2: several years ago, that that took some audio samples from
Speaker 2: an old Solar System documentary in which this very smooth,
Speaker 2: velvety voice is talking about the rings of Saturn.
Speaker 3: It sounds exactly like the same guy, so I really
Speaker 3: wonder if it's the same narrator. But anyway, the narrator
Speaker 3: explains the situation here almost as if the opening narration
Speaker 3: could have been a text crawl that goes across the screen.
Speaker 3: And so what's covered in this narration, Well, we find
Speaker 3: out that what you're looking at at the beginning is
Speaker 3: the planet Jelusia, which I have to say does not
Speaker 3: look inhabitable. It looks like a rocky hell without an atmosphere.
Speaker 2: It reminds me of the caves of Mars in Santa
Speaker 2: Claus versus the Martians, because you also have an old
Speaker 2: guy who's a lot like Chochum in Santa Claus versus
Speaker 2: the Martians. You know who. In Santa Claus versus the Martians,
Speaker 2: he's talking about the children of Mars. They have no
Speaker 2: Santa And in this he's talking about all the bad
Speaker 2: stuff that the Govnant the Govanas are doing to them.
Speaker 3: Right so the Govanas are bad. They have conquered the
Speaker 3: planet Jelusia. We're told that the Govanas are steel skinned,
Speaker 3: so we mentioned earlier they're like stormtroopers, but instead of
Speaker 3: white armor, got this like metal and green armor.
Speaker 2: And silver paint on their skin.
Speaker 3: Yes. Yes, And then there is a tribe of people
Speaker 3: who wear wreaths on their heads just like leaves, and
Speaker 3: I guess these are supposed to be the Jelusians. They're
Speaker 3: kind of space druids in a way.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: They don't like being conquered by the Govanas. I think
Speaker 3: maybe the Govanas are going to kill them eventually. I
Speaker 3: wasn't exactly clear on that, but they want to get
Speaker 3: rid of their Gavana problem. So their leader is a
Speaker 3: guy I think named Keto. He's also just called grandfather,
Speaker 3: so usually he's grandfather. This is character, yes, and the
Speaker 3: elder explains that their only hope is to throw eight
Speaker 3: magic nuts into space and these eight magic nuts are
Speaker 3: called liabe Seeds, and they will seek out heroes who
Speaker 3: can help the Jelusians fight for their freedom. And a
Speaker 3: couple of the Jelusians go out to follow the magic
Speaker 3: nuts I guess to figure out who they're seeking out,
Speaker 3: and these Jelusians who followed them are Princess Emmerlita and
Speaker 3: a strong young fighter named Uraco, and they fly off
Speaker 3: in a space ship that looks like it could be
Speaker 3: like the Santa Maria. It's a wooden galleon with masts
Speaker 3: and rigging, which is a great.
Speaker 2: Choice, straight up a wooden sailing ship. Yeah, flying through space.
Speaker 2: It's one of the just it is one of the
Speaker 2: truly weird and wonderful choices in this movie. To make
Speaker 2: one of the space ships be a ship, be a
Speaker 2: sailing vessel.
Speaker 3: One thing that I think is very interesting. A ripoff
Speaker 3: choice that was made here was to take the Princess
Speaker 3: Lea character from Star Wars and just split her character
Speaker 3: in half into two different characters. So what are the
Speaker 3: characteristics of Lea and Star Wars. Well, she sort of
Speaker 3: has two different faces she presents to the world. One
Speaker 3: is the sort of sort of passive, elegant, you know,
Speaker 3: white robe, headgear, soft spoken, and then her other half
Speaker 3: is she's a tough, spunky fighter who sticks up for Well,
Speaker 3: what they did is they just split that into two
Speaker 3: different characters. So Princess emmer Aalita is wearing a long
Speaker 3: white robe, and she's very sedated. She you know, seems
Speaker 3: to be on Xanax or something. And then the other
Speaker 3: half is the character Maya in this movie, who is
Speaker 3: the tough, spunky fighter half of Princess Leah. And I
Speaker 3: wonder what prompted that decision to just like make it
Speaker 3: two characters instead of one.
Speaker 2: M Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I didn't think
Speaker 2: about this as much when I was watching it, because
Speaker 2: certainly the princess imer Alita is is kind of your
Speaker 2: stereotypical princess character.
Speaker 3: You know, she just needs rescuing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she just needs rescuing, She needs help, and she
Speaker 2: reacts to things going on around her and otherwise doesn't
Speaker 2: really affect the plot all that much, while while the
Speaker 2: other character that the Maya is going to be, you know,
Speaker 2: far more action oriented.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's the end of the garbage fly boy half
Speaker 3: of La. Yeah. So then we meet the real bad guys,
Speaker 3: the Govanas. As we've explained, great costumes, storm troopers with
Speaker 3: horned helmets, all that stuff. Their leader, Rock Saya, is
Speaker 3: some kind of king. They refer to him as your majesty.
Speaker 3: We've talked about his amazing horseshoe crab helmet, it's got
Speaker 3: the legs sticking out the side. And Darth Crabhead here
Speaker 3: is very angry that the space galleyon is leaving Jelucia,
Speaker 3: and he explains, and I wrote this quote down, I
Speaker 3: know they're going out of the universe to seek help. Whoa,
Speaker 3: they're going there out of the universe.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of moments in this film where
Speaker 2: I feel like there is either some confusion or some
Speaker 2: translation issues concerning galaxy, Solar System, and universe. Yes, what
Speaker 2: things are are you capable of exiting and injuring? And
Speaker 2: which ones even make sense in a far future space opera?
Speaker 3: Yes, I think it doesn't really make sense in this movie,
Speaker 3: But somebody should make a movie about characters who go
Speaker 3: out of the universe to seek help. Oh, but then
Speaker 3: we haven't mentioned this character yet. After this, we meet
Speaker 3: the who for me is maybe actually the absolute star
Speaker 3: of the film, the greatest of all time, Darth Crabhead's mother,
Speaker 3: who is also painted silver and red. She has no teeth.
Speaker 3: She likes to like call about things. Darth Crabhead and
Speaker 3: mother are essentially giving a speech about how together we
Speaker 3: will bring order to the galaxy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's a wonderful and weird choice that I
Speaker 2: can only I can only imagine is drawing upon some
Speaker 2: existing tropes in Japanese storytelling in Japanese cinema. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I like I say, I'm not an expert on Japanese
Speaker 2: film by any stretch, but I know we do see.
Speaker 2: I mean, you see a lot of witch like characters
Speaker 2: and wise old women and dangerous wise old women show
Speaker 2: up in stories around the world. But you know, I think,
Speaker 2: I think of how you often see this trope in
Speaker 2: Miyazaki films, generally oftentimes on both sides, where you have
Speaker 2: the good and the bad duality represented in old women.
Speaker 2: So so I don't know this. Yeah, this grandmother is
Speaker 2: very interesting though, because she she kind of has that
Speaker 2: Bobby Yaga look with a big fake nose blue to
Speaker 2: her face, and she has the most awesome death metal
Speaker 2: wheelchair I've ever seen. It seems to be made out
Speaker 2: of of bleached xenomorph bones and is made for gladiatorial combat.
Speaker 3: It's wonderful, It's really good. There are actually a couple
Speaker 3: of evil crones in this movie. We'll get to another
Speaker 3: one in a bit, But so Okay, So after all that,
Speaker 3: we meet the we meet the heroes of Julusia, we
Speaker 3: meet the bad guys. Then we cut to somewhere else.
Speaker 3: I think it's some other planet. It's not Earth, it's
Speaker 3: somewhere I don't remember the name of it. You cut
Speaker 3: to a rich girl in a luxury spaceship, and this
Speaker 3: is finally Maya. I don't think she's actually a princess,
Speaker 3: but she's kind of a princess because she is like
Speaker 3: the heiress to a fortune. She's got a very rich
Speaker 3: father who I don't think we ever meet.
Speaker 2: But in a way, it's kind of fitting that. Like
Speaker 2: she's a Western style princess. So she's not an actual princess.
Speaker 2: She just comes from privilege and money.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. But she's in her luxury spaceship which is
Speaker 3: being chauffeured around through space, and she looks out the
Speaker 3: window and sees space fireflies. I think we're told that
Speaker 3: they're actually radioactive atomic dust. That's what the attendant says.
Speaker 2: So you catch him in your hand, is what you did, right?
Speaker 3: They do that later, and then the luxury ship gets
Speaker 3: buzzed by a couple of cocky space racers that are
Speaker 3: known as rough Riders. Basically again, these are a couple
Speaker 3: of guys from the Fast and the Furious franchise but
Speaker 3: in space and their names are Aaron and Shiro.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Hiro of course is played by Sonata and
Speaker 2: the other one. I looked him up. He's basically an
Speaker 2: American or a Western actor that they had some other credits,
Speaker 2: but not you know, clearly I didn't add him to
Speaker 2: the notes, so he didn't impress.
Speaker 3: Me all that much. Yeah, he didn't really stick in
Speaker 3: the mind. No offense if you're listening. But Mayo, we
Speaker 3: find out, is also a rough rider at heart. Because
Speaker 3: she does not want to be sitting there in the
Speaker 3: Chauffeur luxury spaceship. She tries to grab the wheel and
Speaker 3: like race around with the other two guys. As I
Speaker 3: said earlier, she has a very For some reason, she
Speaker 3: really reminded me of Penny Marshall from Laverne and Shirley. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But anyway, the rough riders, Aerin and Shiro end up
Speaker 3: crashing their ships while they are playing chicken with the
Speaker 3: space police. And when the two of them get they
Speaker 3: like jump out of their ships with fire extinguishers and
Speaker 3: start yea dousing them and they examined the hulls of
Speaker 3: their crash ships, and they find what there are magic
Speaker 3: nuts inside our ships, so they've each got a magic nut.
Speaker 3: Then we cut to somewhere else entirely. I don't know
Speaker 3: if this other place is supposed to be Earth or
Speaker 3: some other planet. I'm not sure what it is. But
Speaker 3: we meet Vic Morrow now now again. Try to picture
Speaker 3: a gruff, mustachioed, hard drinking sort of Carl from Aquitine General.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the hard drinking is key, because I feel like
Speaker 2: almost every scene he's in he is is he he's nursing,
Speaker 2: you know, a finger of Scotch or bourbon or something,
Speaker 2: has some sort of a dark amber liquid in a
Speaker 2: glass that he has almost finished.
Speaker 3: He's general getting hammered, and he's in the middle of
Speaker 3: conducting a rocket launch. That is is we find out
Speaker 3: a funeral for a robot. Yes, yes, so his his
Speaker 3: first robot was named Beba one, and somehow this robot
Speaker 3: was destroyed. But he loves and cares for Beba one,
Speaker 3: and so he put Beba One's robot corpse into this
Speaker 3: spaceship to send it into space to become a satellite
Speaker 3: that's orbiting the planet. A sort of as a Viking
Speaker 3: funeral for his dead robot. He keeps it. He always
Speaker 3: pronounces it robot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like like Zoidberg does in Futurama.
Speaker 3: Yeah. But then he also he gets chewed out by
Speaker 3: the high command. They're like, what a wasteful use of
Speaker 3: a rocket to just give a funeral to a robot.
Speaker 3: No one cares about robots. You have done wrong. But
Speaker 3: this doesn't.
Speaker 2: He loves robots. He is a friend of robot kind
Speaker 2: is Beba too points out, and I got the sense
Speaker 2: more than friends. I feel like like there's yes, there's
Speaker 2: a romance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, Beba. So he's got a new robot.
Speaker 3: It's Beba too. Beba one was the one that's a
Speaker 3: satellite now and Beba two is constantly saying, like, you know,
Speaker 3: you have done us such an honor, You've been so
Speaker 3: kind to robots and so Later, General Garuda is getting
Speaker 3: drunk in a bar. As we mentioned, he's getting drunk
Speaker 3: in every scene he's in, and he finds a magic
Speaker 3: nut in his whiskey. Now I have to say, also,
Speaker 3: this bar that he's in is kind of the high
Speaker 3: light of the movie. Imagine a really raunchy disco most
Speaker 3: slicely cantina with variety show fire underneath it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's quite a scene. It was
Speaker 2: one of I think it was the first scene where
Speaker 2: we're like, oh, yeah, this this, this movie's got it
Speaker 2: like this this this, this one is is definitely setting
Speaker 2: itself apart from Star Wars.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And so they Gruda and Baba two go outside
Speaker 3: and Baba one looks up and sees something in the
Speaker 3: sky and he says, look, Beaba one has now become
Speaker 3: a star. And Vick Morrow's like, eh, forget it, forget it,
Speaker 3: Baba two, and Baba two says, Baba two cannot forget.
Speaker 3: No robot can forget your kindness to robot kind It's wonderful. Uh.
Speaker 2: I have to say, first of all, Baby Ta two
Speaker 2: looks amazing in this, Yes, and like there's certainly the
Speaker 2: Star Wars esque in its design, but it's a it's
Speaker 2: it's a cool costume. It's you know, evidently like a
Speaker 2: little person wearing a robot costume. But it looks really good.
Speaker 2: I I totally bought it as a robot. But then
Speaker 2: we have to say something about General Garuda's costuming in this,
Speaker 2: because he's consistently in an amazing costume drifter. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: well sometimes he's in kind of the space admiral costume,
Speaker 2: and then he puts on this enormous coat and hat
Speaker 2: that I felt like he was. It was like he
Speaker 2: was leaving to go try out for a role as
Speaker 2: a as a time lord.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It had kind of a doctor flo vibe to it.
Speaker 2: And then later he has this sil like unflattering silver
Speaker 2: shining costume that he ends up wearing as well. But
Speaker 2: he's he's always wearing something interesting or a little too interesting.
Speaker 3: Oh there's one scene where he's dressed as Austin Powers,
Speaker 3: just full of Austin Powers. It's like a oh he
Speaker 3: had a neck red velvet suit with the frilly cravat. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but so we got to go back. We got to
Speaker 3: do it in order so somebody else finds a nut.
Speaker 3: We've got to chart all of the nut findings. This
Speaker 3: this shady guy named Jack. I don't remember how we
Speaker 3: meet him. I guess he's friends with the two rough
Speaker 3: riders who are trying to earn money now to repair
Speaker 3: their ships. The shady guy named Jack is also trying
Speaker 3: to get money. He's this dude who's dressed kind of
Speaker 3: like a Fredo Corleone type in a barbershop quartet hat
Speaker 3: and he finds a nut when he bites into a
Speaker 3: tomato like an apple and cracks a tooth on a
Speaker 3: nut inside. But the movie doesn't even stop to examine
Speaker 3: why was he biting into a tomato like an apple?
Speaker 3: Is that a thing people do?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a fruit. Go for it, you know.
Speaker 3: Also, I have to say about Jack. If you're picturing
Speaker 3: anytime we say anything about Jack, you have to know
Speaker 3: that when in whatever scene we're talking about, he has
Speaker 3: also mentioned at least two or three times that something
Speaker 3: is going to get them three years in space jail.
Speaker 2: One of the endits. So Jack has consistently amusing on
Speaker 2: an also semi obnoxious character who's clearly supposed to be
Speaker 2: some sort of a criminal. And I think the Fredo
Speaker 2: Corleoni comparison is totally correct. But I also feel like
Speaker 2: this has to be I'm mostly sure that this is
Speaker 2: a standard character trope in Japanese cinema because I feel
Speaker 2: like I've seen this exact character in other films. He
Speaker 2: has a real loop in the third quality, which is
Speaker 2: this kind of criminal or spy character you see pop
Speaker 2: up in an early Miyazaki film. So I feel like
Speaker 2: this is a stock character that we have encountered in
Speaker 2: Message from Space.
Speaker 3: He brings a different level of I don't know what
Speaker 3: you would call it. He mugs for the camera in
Speaker 3: a way that no other characters do. Nobody else like
Speaker 3: makes a face straight into the camera lens. But Jack does.
Speaker 2: And I kept expecting him to die or that he
Speaker 2: would turn out to be like a minor adversary. But no,
Speaker 2: he's I mean, he's got a he's got a lot
Speaker 2: of space nuts.
Speaker 3: He's good to Oh, Rob, were you doubting the nuts?
Speaker 3: You can't deny the nuts. He's got a nut.
Speaker 2: I doubted the nuts a lot during this film because
Speaker 2: it didn't seem like they were working.
Speaker 3: The longest you got to put your faith in the nuts.
Speaker 3: They're not going to find somebody who's not a hero
Speaker 3: of Jelusia.
Speaker 2: May the nut be with you.
Speaker 3: So for some real I can't remember why they do this,
Speaker 3: but for some reason, some of the heroes go swimming
Speaker 3: in space, like they fly their spaceships up to where
Speaker 3: the space fireflies are, and then Maya and the two
Speaker 3: rough Riders and maybe also Jack. I don't remember who
Speaker 3: all goes, but they get out of their space ships
Speaker 3: and then they just go swimming in space, like paddling
Speaker 3: their arms, I think, not quite realizing that you can't
Speaker 3: do that in space because there's nothing to push against.
Speaker 2: I have to say. So this film does have moments
Speaker 2: where they seem to acknowledge that, yes, you're weightless in space,
Speaker 2: but there are moments where it seems like there's this
Speaker 2: universal gravity in space, which I'm kind of nostalgic for.
Speaker 2: Like I think it was episodes of ThunderCats that I
Speaker 2: watched as a kid where they had some scenes where
Speaker 2: space is treated like a place where there is a
Speaker 2: firm up and down and if you're pushed out of
Speaker 2: a spaceship, you will fall, And I kind of want
Speaker 2: to see that explore, Like it's completely ridiculous, it has
Speaker 2: no basis in actual reality, but I kind of want
Speaker 2: to watch something now that is clearly set in a
Speaker 2: universe that has this kind of wonky use of gravity.
Speaker 3: Okay, So at this point in the movie, we are
Speaker 3: sort of assembling the Nut heroes, Like all the Nut
Speaker 3: heroes are getting together and meeting one another. So we
Speaker 3: have Princess Imoralita and Urako, the Jelusians from the beginning,
Speaker 3: they meet up with the two space racers Aaron and Shiro,
Speaker 3: with Jack, the Fredo Corleone Creep with Maya, and with
Speaker 3: General Garuda and Beba two, so they're all together now.
Speaker 3: And then there is one of the strangest parts of
Speaker 3: the movie was this weird subplot where the Jilusians Uraco
Speaker 3: and Emmeralita and Jack, the three of them like go
Speaker 3: off into the desert to hunt for other nutbearers and
Speaker 3: they think they can find somebody else who's got a
Speaker 3: magic nut and they meet with this old Crone in
Speaker 3: a hut and it turns out to be a trap
Speaker 3: because this evil Crone and her son who is just Greedo.
Speaker 3: He's Greedo from Star Wars.
Speaker 2: They try to get kind of a creature from the
Speaker 2: Black Lagoon vibe from him.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, Black Lagoon and Greedo. They try to kill
Speaker 3: Uraco and then they're going to force Emmeralita to marry
Speaker 3: her Gredo son. She explains he was born on the
Speaker 3: planet Pluto. No one loves him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. Like his whole weird appearance is
Speaker 2: based on the fact, well, he was born in Pluto.
Speaker 3: Okay, so oh no, Emeralita is gonna have to marry
Speaker 3: the Greedo son. But then Imperial stormtroopers burst in. They
Speaker 3: just like kick through the wall and they kill Grito
Speaker 3: and they kidnap the Crone and Immeralita and Urako is
Speaker 3: left behind. He's left for dead, but you find out
Speaker 3: he's still alive. And then there's a sequence where I
Speaker 3: would say, in one of the droopiest parts of the movie,
Speaker 3: where where the only one of the only parts where
Speaker 3: the where it really kind of lags is suddenly we
Speaker 3: have dream sequences, multiple dream sequences for multiple Nut heroes.
Speaker 3: We see their dream where they get killed, like, uh,
Speaker 3: there's some dream where immer Aalita is stabbed by a
Speaker 3: crabhead stormtrooper and it makes a sound like a ketchup
Speaker 3: bottle squirt and and and we find out it's just
Speaker 3: all these the different Nut heroes like Maya and the
Speaker 3: rough Riders hanging out in this house together and they're
Speaker 3: all having the same dream.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Though it is in the sequence that we first see
Speaker 3: Maya in a new outfit where she's dressed like Luigi
Speaker 3: and I like that. But then we cut to the
Speaker 3: bad guys, so Xa, remember Darth Crabhead and his mother.
Speaker 3: They have Princess Imilita and the Crone on their spaceship,
Speaker 3: and Roxeya and mother use a machine to mind read
Speaker 3: the Krone and then through examination of her memories, they
Speaker 3: see planet Earth, and they immediately decide we must have
Speaker 3: planet Earth, we must conquer its beauty.
Speaker 2: Yes, this green planet, yeah, I refer to.
Speaker 3: So they fly the planet Jelusia itself through space to Earth.
Speaker 3: There's like a part where it shows the planet just
Speaker 3: kind of like farting. It's like all this green gas
Speaker 3: is coming out of one side of it and that's
Speaker 3: making it fly through space. And then it reaches Earth
Speaker 3: and they fight a big battle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is a big battle. I mean, there
Speaker 2: are at least two huge space battles in this picture,
Speaker 2: and this is one of them. And it's great. It's
Speaker 2: the use of scale models and explosions like actual fireworks,
Speaker 2: except most to the time they look pretty good. You
Speaker 2: don't get that sort of gamera bad gamera movie a fact,
Speaker 2: where like an oversized flame is melting a toy truck.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I thought the space battles look look
Speaker 2: pretty good in this film, but it's Yeah, it's a
Speaker 2: huge battle.
Speaker 3: It's wonderful, and of course Earth loses. The Govanas win
Speaker 3: and the Earth Suddenly the movie gets very weirdly, like
Speaker 3: the scope changes. We get this geopolitical view and everything
Speaker 3: moves very fast, and we learn about is there narration
Speaker 3: I don't recall. Somehow we learn about there's a new
Speaker 3: sort of a premiere elected to govern all of Earth.
Speaker 3: And this guy he comes to oh, General Garuda Vic
Speaker 3: Morrow is now on Earth, still drinking. I think he's
Speaker 3: just like in a restaurant somewhere drinking. And this guy
Speaker 3: comes to him and he's like, Earth is on the
Speaker 3: verge of annihilation. We can't let that happen. We need
Speaker 3: your help. He appeals to General Garuda not to abandon
Speaker 3: his magic nut response ability. And then meanwhile, I don't
Speaker 3: remember exactly how this happens, but some of the other
Speaker 3: Nut heroes crash on a red planet that is not Mars.
Speaker 3: They say it is part of the Bernardi Star system.
Speaker 3: They don't explain what that is, but here they finally,
Speaker 3: in the last act of the film, meets Sonny Chiba.
Speaker 3: And the deal with Sonny Chiba is he's playing a
Speaker 3: good Gavana Skuy, so he's the same species as the
Speaker 3: steel skinned guys who are conquering everything, but he's a
Speaker 3: good one and his name is Prince Hans. He explains
Speaker 3: that he is heir to the Gavana's throne and that
Speaker 3: Rokxea was my undoing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he has like a horn broken off on
Speaker 2: his helmet that helps signify all of.
Speaker 3: This, right. So then the next so I guess he joins,
Speaker 3: and somehow we find out he's a nut hero as well,
Speaker 3: and then we cut back to the bad guys. So
Speaker 3: I think the Earthlings have like three days to negotiate
Speaker 3: terms with the Gavanas for their surrender, and the person
Speaker 3: chosen to go up to negotiate with with Darth and
Speaker 3: Mother is Vic Morrow is General Garuda. He gets sent up.
Speaker 3: He's decked out wearing the full Austin Powers outfit, and
Speaker 3: they for some reason, the bad guys at this point
Speaker 3: have Vegas Jack captured and one of them insults him somehow,
Speaker 3: like the crabheads start laughing at Vegas Jack, and this
Speaker 3: makes Vic Morrow like incensed, and he stands up for
Speaker 3: Jack's honor because he is an Earthling and challenges an
Speaker 3: entree level level stormtrooper to a duel, which is one
Speaker 3: of the strangest parts of the movie.
Speaker 2: The yeah, the this du I do have to say this,
Speaker 2: when we're comparing this film to Star Wars, I think
Speaker 2: it arguably has better sword play than Star Wars does.
Speaker 3: Than the first first Star Wars.
Speaker 2: The first Star Wars film for nineteen seventy seven is
Speaker 2: not known for its its wonderful play. I mean, yes,
Speaker 2: it's a very memorable lightsaber battle, but the actual fight
Speaker 2: choreography is not top notch.
Speaker 3: No, if you compare it, like, you watch the lightsaber
Speaker 3: battles in Empire and they're exquisite, amazing. Yeah, you watch
Speaker 3: the one in the original Star Wars. It's just it's
Speaker 3: it's kind of weak by comparison.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen people try to explain it reht kind
Speaker 2: of by saying, well, you have to realize that Obi
Speaker 2: Wan and Darth Vader at this point they were just
Speaker 2: so serious about killing each other. There was no stylistic
Speaker 2: flourish to their to their the way they combat at
Speaker 2: each other. But that's just that's too much of a stretch,
Speaker 2: even for me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't buy it. But this isn't a duel
Speaker 3: with swords. This is a duel with laser guns.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, well, yeah, that's right. We have the
Speaker 2: cowboy style laser gun duel. It's later that we have
Speaker 2: a lot of sword play, yeah, with Sunny Chieba's character. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's all terrific.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good. But of course Vic Morrow he wins.
Speaker 3: Even though the other guy tries to dishonorably cheat and
Speaker 3: shoot Vic Moore in the back, he misses, and then
Speaker 3: and then he loses the duel. Vic Morrow shows mercy
Speaker 3: and doesn't kill the stormtrooper. But then, of course Darth
Speaker 3: Crabhead is cruel himself and he says, I was disgraced
Speaker 3: by this coward and he kills him and he says like.
Speaker 2: He throws the gun over his head. Yeah, and there's
Speaker 2: this wonderful scene where like the stormtrooper behind him is
Speaker 2: like scrambling to catch it. It feels like like kind
Speaker 2: of a blooper. But they're like, we got it. We're
Speaker 2: not reshooting that.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And then and then rok Seya, he says, as
Speaker 3: a demonstration of our power, just to like show Earth
Speaker 3: we mean business, we're going to destroy the moon. And
Speaker 3: then they do.
Speaker 2: It's a warning shot and they blow up Earth's moon
Speaker 2: and they be like, all right, tell us, well's what's next.
Speaker 2: So that, of course is ridiculous for a number of reasons. Clearly,
Speaker 2: destroying the Earth's moon would be far far more than
Speaker 2: just a mere warning shot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think Earth would basically be screwed.
Speaker 3: And I like, how after this, of course, the bad
Speaker 3: guy's in the end, and it's like, oh, everything's going
Speaker 3: to be great. But the elimination of Earth's moon, just
Speaker 3: the effects on the tides like that would have disastrous
Speaker 3: effects on coastal marine ecosystems would probably cascade out to
Speaker 3: other ecosystems. There would just be mass extinctions. But then
Speaker 3: also I was reading an article about this on the
Speaker 3: Royal Museum's Greenwich website that was addressing what might happen
Speaker 3: if there were no moon. Without a moon, it seems
Speaker 3: like the Earth's tilt on its axis as it goes
Speaker 3: around on its orbital plane might not be stabilized, so
Speaker 3: suddenly like you might not get seasons, or the seasons
Speaker 3: wouldn't be consistent, and you just have like ridiculous unpredictable
Speaker 3: levels of climate change. It would you know, absolutely decimate
Speaker 3: life on Earth.
Speaker 2: And then also doesn't the Gavana's planet blow up in
Speaker 2: close proximity to Earth?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I haven't even talked about like the fragmentation
Speaker 3: of what would happen if you blow up the Moon
Speaker 3: blow up this other planet. So I think not the
Speaker 3: most plausible part of the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, eventually, through some other plot machinations, all of our
Speaker 3: heroes end up getting captured by the Gavanas, and we
Speaker 3: learned that there was a trader among the Nut heroes,
Speaker 3: and it was Uraco, the Jilusian warrior.
Speaker 2: From the beginning, I was so utterly shocked that it
Speaker 2: wasn't Jack. I just knew it was going to be
Speaker 2: criminal Jack there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 2: I even called it. I'm like, it's Jack, It's got
Speaker 2: to be Jack. But it wasn't.
Speaker 3: No, Fredo was loyal. I knew it was you, Roco.
Speaker 3: And but then Roco, he like his heart is melted
Speaker 3: when he sees the nuts again, they all like talk
Speaker 3: about their nuts and hold the nuts up, and he
Speaker 3: discovers that Beba two, the robot, has his own nut,
Speaker 3: and it seems like the fact that even a robot
Speaker 3: could have a magic nut melts Urraco's heart, and it
Speaker 3: turns him back to be loyal to the nut heroes again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he makes it he's ultimately a terrible trader
Speaker 2: because he he'd he barely betrays.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So then there's a big battle. All the heroes
Speaker 3: are trying to escape and it comes down to a
Speaker 3: duel between Hans played by sunny Chiba and the bad
Speaker 3: guy Roxeya the Darth Crab. They have a great sword fight.
Speaker 3: Hans calls Roxeia a dog that deserves to die. And
Speaker 3: it's kind of hard to explain what's going on with
Speaker 3: their swords. So they're not lightsabers, they're just regular metal swords.
Speaker 3: But whenever they stab someone with one of these metal swords,
Speaker 3: a flash of colored light shoots out. So I'm not
Speaker 3: sure exactly how these things are supposed to work.
Speaker 2: Some sort of light injection saber or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but of course Hans wins, sunny Chiba stabs Darth.
Speaker 3: He throws them out the window, like literally smashes through
Speaker 3: the glass. And I don't know if they're supposed to
Speaker 3: be in the vacuum of space or on Jelusia. I
Speaker 3: guess it's on Jelusia, but Jelusia doesn't look like it
Speaker 3: has an atmosphere once again. And then finally they're escaping
Speaker 3: the planet Jelusia as it's exploding and they see the
Speaker 3: grand father from the beginning, remember him, and yeah, He's like, Immi, Alita,
Speaker 3: do not weep at my death. He says, you young people,
Speaker 3: you have to find another planet. You got to go
Speaker 3: to another corner of the stars and find a new planet,
Speaker 3: establish a civilization where joy and peace will rain. Sounds easy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean that would be the sequel, I guess.
Speaker 2: But but I mean also it does tie into this,
Speaker 2: if you know, if we're to discuss the themes of
Speaker 2: this movie. Granted, this one's a little light on thematics,
Speaker 2: I think, but for the most part, it's saying war
Speaker 2: is bad, peace is good, and you know, you should,
Speaker 2: you should, you know, focus on building a peaceful future. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like these these vibes are are are fairly
Speaker 2: obvious in this film.
Speaker 3: I think there's something about redemption too. We see redemption
Speaker 3: of Raco after the robot nut melts his heart, and
Speaker 3: then we also see a redemption for Vegas. Check like
Speaker 3: he's kind of a heel most of the movie, but
Speaker 3: then in the end he comes through and he's a
Speaker 3: good guy and he wants to be a part of
Speaker 3: building the new Jelusia. And Immeralita tells Jack the Fredo character,
Speaker 3: that he would be wonderful on the new Jelusia. Everybody's
Speaker 3: going to Jelusia and it's going to be great. And
Speaker 3: then finally, one of the best moment at the end
Speaker 3: of the film, I thought was that Beba too, the robot,
Speaker 3: somehow his hand gets blown off. I don't remember how
Speaker 3: that happens, but he laments that he can't go back
Speaker 3: to Earth to get a purple heart for his wound.
Speaker 3: And then vic Morrow's like, forget about your purple heart.
Speaker 3: There are more beautiful dreams in space, so keep your
Speaker 3: eyes on the stars. And that that's pretty much the end.
Speaker 2: There's never a dull moment getting there though, you know
Speaker 2: it's you're confused at times, but that you're always entertained.
Speaker 2: Let's see. So we've discussed some of the themes in this film.
Speaker 2: We've discussed some of the science already about the idea
Speaker 2: of destroying Earth's noon as a warning shot and how
Speaker 2: devastating that would be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's you destroy you Earth's moon. That's not the
Speaker 3: warning shot. That's pretty much do death blow. Let's see
Speaker 3: some other things we might briefly touch on. I mean,
Speaker 3: there is a hint of pan spermia and the idea
Speaker 3: of sending out space nuts to sort of grow heroes
Speaker 3: and bring them back to you. Pant spermia being the
Speaker 3: idea that life could originate on one planet and spread
Speaker 3: to another planet or moon or what have you via
Speaker 3: ejecta from that planet. I think there's an interesting theme
Speaker 3: that is sort of implied in the fact that we
Speaker 3: have a lot of these people who are maybe not
Speaker 3: very serious. They're kind of thrill seekers, kind of screw
Speaker 3: ups who get nuts, and then when they get a nut,
Speaker 3: that the nut causes them to mature and to accept
Speaker 3: responsibility and to become a hero. And this is a
Speaker 3: theme that you find in a lot of these classic adventures,
Speaker 3: that like having responsibility put on your shoulders causes you
Speaker 3: to to grow up and to become and to learn
Speaker 3: to sacrifice for others.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I mean even Vic Morro's character Garuda, you know,
Speaker 2: he's like an old, old, kind of jaded character, but no,
Speaker 2: he gets the he gets the nut and it it
Speaker 2: reignites his passion, you know.
Speaker 3: What do you make of General Garuda's love of robots?
Speaker 3: Like why does he treat robots like people? But nobody
Speaker 3: else does? I guess the nut heroes also they respect
Speaker 3: Beba two. But the idea is that like his commanding
Speaker 3: officer is like mad at him for respecting robots.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's it's on one hand, it forecasts
Speaker 2: the direction they took Lando Carissian in the Solo movie
Speaker 2: that came out, where it's implied that he has this
Speaker 2: very close relationship with this with this particular robot.
Speaker 3: You know. Oh I didn't see that. I didn't get
Speaker 3: to that part.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I mean I enjoyed Solo. It's got it's
Speaker 2: got a lot of good stuff in it. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: but one of them is the the Lando loves Robots
Speaker 2: plot element, which which which I liked. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't know exactly why why Garuda is singular in his
Speaker 2: love of robots. Is it just because he's he's like,
Speaker 2: he's worked, he's served alongside robots. I don't know.
Speaker 3: He's this battle hardened, grizzled, old tough, hard drinking, you know,
Speaker 3: leathery man who has a soft spot in his heart
Speaker 3: for robots. Yeah, maybe maybe it's because he can't get
Speaker 3: along with people, but he needs companionship, and a robot
Speaker 3: can sort of fill that void. The the robot is
Speaker 3: the peg that fits his hole.
Speaker 2: Now, another another part of the plot that we might
Speaker 2: briefly discuss some science around is the idea of taking
Speaker 2: another planet and turning it into a spaceship, of moving
Speaker 2: a planet from one system to another, in this case,
Speaker 2: to conquer Earth.
Speaker 3: I think you would encounter some severe problems about this.
Speaker 3: So the idea is clearly that there's a reaction engine.
Speaker 3: It's like throwing gas off one side of the planet
Speaker 3: like a rocket to move the planet. I don't know
Speaker 3: how much gas you'd have to throw off to like
Speaker 3: move a planet at a reasonable speed to get there
Speaker 3: within people's lifetimes and to leave the gravity of the
Speaker 3: host star. It seems like actually the more reasonable proposition
Speaker 3: would be to move the star. And most of the
Speaker 3: propositions I've seen over time to navigate around space like
Speaker 3: that are actually to create stellar engines, not planetary engines,
Speaker 3: like one idea. I don't know if this is actually
Speaker 3: all that plausible, but one that's at least been proposed
Speaker 3: is something called a Scatov thruster, and that would be
Speaker 3: something that would be built by like a Kardashev level
Speaker 3: two type civilization that creates this giant mirror that you
Speaker 3: would put on one side of a star that would
Speaker 3: reflect the radiation pressure that the star puts out back
Speaker 3: at the star, thus moving it. And then of course
Speaker 3: if the star moves, it carries with it everything that's
Speaker 3: orbiting around it. So you could at least potentially, you know,
Speaker 3: in theory, move a whole solar system somewhere else.
Speaker 2: That way, so scientifically grounded is that you say. So.
Speaker 2: Message from Space wonderfully weird, very watchable, entertaining film, ultimately
Speaker 2: very lighthearted. Like my son who is in third grade,
Speaker 2: he didn't watch all of this, but he came in
Speaker 2: for a little of it and he was loving it.
Speaker 2: He was like, this is great, look at all these
Speaker 2: space ships.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, if you want to check out Message from Space yourself,
Speaker 2: it is, as of this recording available on Amazon Prime,
Speaker 2: at least in the United States. You can like stream
Speaker 2: it there. You can also pick it up as a
Speaker 2: very nice DVD or Blu ray with some wonderful cover art.
Speaker 2: So there are numerous ways to watch Message from Space
Speaker 2: to receive the message from space, and yeah, we recommend.
Speaker 3: It, Mother commands you.
Speaker 2: Yes, all right, Well, we're gonna go ahead and wrap
Speaker 2: up this episode of Weird House Cinema right here. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we'd love to hear from everybody about this. What are
Speaker 2: your thoughts on Message from Space? Do you have some
Speaker 2: additional thoughts on Japanese cinema, Perhaps you're super immersed in
Speaker 2: the realm of Japanese cinnamon, you have some thoughts on
Speaker 2: some of the things we pinpointed in this film.
Speaker 3: Do you have a favorite Star Wars ripoff?
Speaker 2: Yeah, favorite Stars Star Wars ripoff, favorite Sony Chiba film.
Speaker 2: We'd love to hear your thoughts on any and all
Speaker 2: of it. And also, you know, if there are weird
Speaker 2: films out there you'd like us to consider in the future,
Speaker 2: let us know about that. Like I say, we try
Speaker 2: and keep the idea of weird film kind of broad,
Speaker 2: you know, like it's not necessarily We're not necessarily talking
Speaker 2: about bad films or good films. Cheap films are expensive films,
Speaker 2: you know. Art films are just you know, pure popcorn fodder.
Speaker 2: We try and cast the net wide and see what
Speaker 2: kind of strange things show up. When we drag that
Speaker 2: net back in.
Speaker 3: So join us next week to talk about Forrest Gump.
Speaker 2: No, yeah, Forrest Gump is a great example the sort
Speaker 2: of film will never cover.
Speaker 3: That is the anti weird house.
Speaker 2: Yeah that is. That's the normal house cinema pick of
Speaker 2: the week. There, Weird House Cinema is going to continue
Speaker 2: to come out on Fridays and the Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind Feed Tuesdays and Thursdays will remain core episodes
Speaker 2: of Stuff to Blow your Mind, so, you know, science
Speaker 2: and culture focused with maybe a little weird film thrown
Speaker 2: in there from time to time, but it won't be
Speaker 2: the driving force. If you would like to check out
Speaker 2: other episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind or Weirdhouse Cinema,
Speaker 2: head on over to the Stuff to Blow your Mind Feed.
Speaker 2: You can find us wherever you get your podcasts, wherever
Speaker 2: that happens to be. We just have to ask the
Speaker 2: you rate, review and subscribe. If you go to stuff
Speaker 2: to Blow Yourmind dot com, that will take you to
Speaker 2: the iheartlisting for our show, and if you click on
Speaker 2: store on that page, you'll go to our t shirt
Speaker 2: store where we have several different designs. You know, our
Speaker 2: logo or some monsters. There's a really cool new one
Speaker 2: that was put together by a listener that has this
Speaker 2: Pandora theme going on, so it's Pandora opening her box
Speaker 2: and out of it. All of these strange and challenging
Speaker 2: ideas are emerging, as well as some mythological motifs. That's
Speaker 2: a real fun one. I recommend you check it out.
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth
Speaker 3: Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch
Speaker 3: with us with feedback on this episode or any other
Speaker 3: to suggest topic for the future, just to say hello,
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuffed blow your
Speaker 3: mind dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.