The War in Space (1977)

Earth is attacked by alien spacecraft from Venus. But a Japanese scientist has constructed a space craft, the Gohten, with which he may save humanity.

FILM FUN FACTS:

Despite being produced as a Japanese answer to Star Wars, The War in Space contains only a few parallels to the Hollywood blockbuster. The Space Beastman strongly resembles Chewbacca, although he is a villain instead of a hero. Conversely, it is the heroes who are responsible for destroying a planet instead of the villains. Two weapons share traits with a lightsaber: the Space Beastman's axe, which absorbs laser fire as Luke Skywalker's lightsaber did in the original film, and the Gohten raiding party's laser knives, which glow blue when engaged. Both effortlessly slice through objects as well. The Land Rover's R2 Antenna may have also been a reference to R2-D2.

This was the last Toho tokusatsu film to be shot in the 2.35:1 (CinemaScope) aspect ratio before Godzilla 2000 (1999). This was also the final Toho tokusatsu film to be shot in anamorphic widescreen. (All subsequent Toho tokusatsu movies shot on film were in spherical lens, with either a hard-matte or digital cropping, which causes much film grain when cropped into their intended aspect ratio.)

The film takes place in 1988.

War in Space feels like it's at least ten years older than it actually is. With plenty of stock footage from other similar movies, and a mostly stock story, it still manages to be enjoyable. Good model work, as usual. Fun sets and costumes. And some trippy music for spice. But things really get good when the horned Chewbacca shows up. Oh, yeah.

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