Warning From Space (1956)

[Scott]

WARNING FROM SPACE (1956) - You'll like this Japanese Sci-Fi/Horror with aliens that look like human size starfish with a big eye in the middle. You have to see the aliens talking amoungst themselves at the beginning of the film. They come to earth to warn us about an approaching planet that seems much more like a Sun as it gets closer the tempetures rise, the weather goes crazy, animals start to die off, and the people evacuate Tokyo. Not sure why they are madly rushing to leave the city as this is a very large Solar object that will destroy the entire planet if it hits. Again great stuff from Japan.

[Yaddo42]

Looking at the starfish thing, and reading about the aliens talk amongst themselves, are they seated around a large table in pairs, like at some kind of conference? I haven't seen this but if that's the scene I'm thinking of, then I've seen part of the "conference" used in various commercials. I guess it stands out and is fairly cheap to use.

[Scott]

Actually in this film they are stranding in conference. The star outfits are hilarious ! The poster misrepresents the size. They are really only human size and they later take on human form to warn humanity.

[Yaddo42]

That seems to be the same one. One commercial had fake subtitles for the film crossed out with the message for the real ad "written" in on top of it. I think it was something like an Ad Council PSA about recycling, trying to say they were so commited to recycling that they were even recycling this old movie to make the commercial. While I liked the ad, I guess by their logic rappers are environmentalists since they "recycle" old music when they use samples of other peoples work.

[Dave Munger]

I'm sure I've seen this. I can remember that near the end the Earth people try do deflect the runaway planet with nuclear bombs, which just flash like little lighningbugs and have no effect. I don't remember the ending though, maybe kind of like When Worlds Collide?

[JohnL]

There's at least one other Japanese movie which features a bunch of aliens holding a conference at the start; Evil Brain from Outer Space. Apparently this film was put together from parts of a Japanese serial, and there were at least three others in the series (which I never saw). It's possible that they tacked the alien conference scene at the start of all four films to explain how the hero ended up on Earth. Here's a review of two packages which contain two films each;

Starman Volumes 1 & 2

The one I recall seeing had the creatures with the fangs and weird Mickey Mouse ears.

[Scott]

I've been wanting to see STARMAN stuff. I may have seen it, but not sure.