is a 1968 Japanese
science fiction horror film
This is a list of science fiction horror films.
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*'' 4D Man'' (1959)
*'' 9'' (2009)
*'' 9'' (2019)
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*''The Omega Man'' (1971)
*'' Outland'' (1981)
*''Outpost'':
**'' Outpost'' (2008) ...
directed by Hajime Sato. The film is loosely based on the 1967
tokusatsu
is a Japanese term for live action film or television drama that makes heavy use of practical special effects. ''Tokusatsu'' entertainment mainly refers to science fiction, War film, war, fantasy, or Horror film, horror media featuring such te ...
series ''Gokemidoro'', produced by
P Productions
is a Japanese production company, which has produced anime and tokusatsu television programs, with minor work in motion pictures. It was founded in 1960 by the late TV producer Tomio Sagisu (also known as Soji Ushio). The company exists today as ...
.
Plot
After a radio message about a
bomb threat
A bomb threat or bomb scare is a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, injuries, and/or incite fear, whether or not such a device actually exists.
History
Bomb threat ...
against the plane, co-pilot Sugisaka checks the passengers' bags for the bomb, which are cleared apart from one man who had no bag.
Stewardess
A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are primar ...
Kuzumi opens an unaccompanied suitcase under a bench, finding a rifle. The man pulls a gun on Sugisaka and orders the pilot to fly to
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
. He shoots out the plane's
transistor radio
A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. Following the invention of the transistor in 1947—which revolutionized the field of consumer electronics by introducing small but powerful, convenien ...
just as it breaks the news about a
UFO
An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
over Japan with Japanese and
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
fighters in pursuit. A luminous object streaks past overhead, knocking out the airplane's control and causing an engine fire to erupt. The aircraft crashes on an uncharted deserted island.
Only a handful of people survive the crash: Sugisaka; Kuzumi; Mrs. Neal, an American widow; Senator Mano of the Constitutional Democratic Party; weapons exporter Tokiyasu and his wife Noriko; psychiatrist Momotake; space biologist Professor Sagai; and the young man who called in the bomb threat. The hijacker suddenly sits up, grabs Kuzumi, and escapes into the jungle, encountering the spaceship. Kuzumi hides, but the hijacker steps into a clearing and walks to the spaceship as if he was called to it. A dark blob oozes towards the hijacker, whose forehead is split wide open, causing Kuzumi to scream and pass out.
Sugisaka finds the unconscious Kuzumi and carries her back to the plane. Dr. Momotake later hypnotizes her to recount the events in the jungle. The teenager who called in the bomb threat attacks Dr. Momotake, who falls off the cliff where he comes across the hijacker, who then kills him by draining his blood.
As the survivors discuss finding water, a knock at the door is heard. Sugisaka opens it to find the hijacker lying on the ground with a big scar on his forehead. The survivors carry the hijacker inside and dress his wound. Tokiyasu then uses the rifle to force everyone out of the plane and locks himself safely inside with the hijacker. Right after, Tokiyasu's screams are heard, and the door unlocks. Everyone goes inside to find Tokiyasu dead, drained of all blood. The hijacker appears and carries Noriko off to the spaceship. At sunrise, Noriko is seen standing on a ridge. She speaks, but with the voice of the alien, the Gokemidoro. It is revealed that the Gokemidoro has invaded Earth, intending to eradicate the human race. Noriko then plunges off the ridge, shriveling into a cadaver.
The passengers argue about whether
extraterrestrials would invade Earth. Professor Sagai theorizes that the hijacker turned into a vampire. Mano challenges them to prove there are vampires, causing the others to plan to sacrifice someone to the Gokemidoro. The survivors shove the teenager outside as the hijacker slowly advances towards him. The teenager pulls out the bomb he has been hiding and threatens to blow up the plane unless they let him back in. They do not, and the teenager triggers the bomb, killing himself and blowing a large opening in the airplane, wounding Professor Sagai. Mano runs off with Mrs. Neal. When the hijacker catches up with them, Mano pushes Mrs. Neal to the hijacker to save himself. Mrs. Neal shoots several times but misses. The hijacker kills her.
Mano escapes back to the plane with the hijacker right behind him. The remaining survivors leave the plane to help Mano, but he runs past them, locking the plane door behind him. While Mano watches from inside the airplane, Sugisaka tosses a bucket of airplane fuel at the hijacker, then sets him on fire.
The Gokemidoro crawls out of the burning hijacker, creeps in the plane, and enters Professor Sagai's forehead. Sagai drains Mano, then turns to Sugisaka and Kuzumi, who escape. Sagai follows until he is swept off a hill by a landslide. Sugisaka and Kuzumi keep running while Sagai goes back to the spaceship. Once there, the Gokemidoro crawls out, reducing Sagai to dust.
Sugisaka and Kuzumi reach a highway, finding every human in the cars and the city dead. The Gokemidoro informs them that no one will be spared.
In the epilogue, Sugisaka and Kuzumi are wandering on rocky terrain. In orbit around Earth, a whole fleet of Gokemidoro spaceships await the order to attack.
Cast
*
Teruo Yoshida
Teruo (written: 輝雄, 輝男, 輝夫, 辉夫, 昭雄, 照雄 or 照夫) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese footballer
*, Imperial Japanese Navy admiral
*, Japanese karateka
*, Japanese sumo wres ...
as Ei Sugisaka
* Tomomi Sato as Kazumi Asakura
*
Eizo Kitamura
is a Japanese visual technology company, founded in March 1968, which manufactures display products and other solutions for markets such as business, healthcare, graphics, air traffic control, and maritime. The company is headquartered in Ha ...
as Gôzô Mano
* Hideo Ko as Hirofumi Teraoka
* Kathy Horan as Mrs. Neal
*
Yuko Kusunoki as Noriko Tokuyasu
* Harold Conway as the Ambassador
* Kazuo Kato as Dr. Momotake
*
Hiroyuki Nishimoto
was a Japanese actor and voice actor. He began acting in the theatre company Bungakuza and later co-founded Gekidan Kumo (劇団雲 "Cloud Theatre Company") in 1963. Nishimoto then joined Theatre Company Subaru in 1976. He provided the voice o ...
as the airplane captain
*
Nobuo Kaneko
was a Japanese actor. His wife was actress Yatsuko Tanami. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1950 and 1993.
Career
Kaneko was a versatile character actor, playing roles ranging from comedic buffoons to hardened yakuza bosses. He is es ...
as Mr. Tokuyasu
* Masaya Takahashi as Toshiyuki Saga
* Toshihiko Yamamoto as Matsumiya
*
Keiichi Noda
is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Yamaguchi Prefecture. He is affiliated with Aoni Production. His real name is .
He is most known for the roles of Tetsuya Tsurugi in ''Great Mazinger'', Gantsu Sensei in '' Ganbare!! Robocon'' a ...
as Gokemidoro (voice)
Release
''Goké, Body Snatcher from Hell'' was released in Japan on 14 August 1968. It was released by Pacemaker Films in the United States in 1977. When released to U.S. television and home video, the film was re-titled ''Body Snatcher From Hell''.
It was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
by
the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
in a box set on November 20, 2012.
Other films in the box set included ''
The X from Outer Space
is a 1967 Japanese science fiction '' kaiju'' film that was directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu and stars Eiji Okada and Toshiya Wazaki.
Guilala returned in a 2008 Shochiku sequel of sorts called '' Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit''.
Plot ...
'', ''
The Living Skeleton'', and ''
Genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
''.
Reception
An article on Turner Classic Movies written in 2006 calls ''Goké, Body Snatcher from Hell'' a "masterpiece" of 1960s sci-fi that has won a cult following.
In a contemporary review, the ''
Monthly Film Bulletin
''The Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991, when it merged with ''Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a ...
'' reviewed an 83-minute English-dubbed version of the film.
The review described the film as an "Uninspired mélange of flying saucers and vampirism" that was "woodenly directed and bogged down by long stretches of melodramatic dissension among the characters which acts as an uneasy springboard for much preaching and moralizing about why mankind deserves to be taken over by invaders from another world."
See also
*
List of horror films of 1968
A list of horror films released in 1968.
References
Citations
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External links
Horror films of 1968on Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of informat ...
*
List of Japanese films of 1968
A list of films released in Japan in 1968 (see 1968 in film).
List of films
See also
* 1968 in Japan
* 1968 in Japanese television
References Footnotes
Sources
*
*
*
External linksJapanese films of 1968at the Internet Movie Databas ...
Notes
References
Footnotes
Sources
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External links
*
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* {{tcmdb title, id=490320
1968 films
1968 horror films
1960s science fiction horror films
Japanese aviation films
1960s Japanese-language films
Tokusatsu films
Alien invasions in films
Mass murder in fiction
Japanese science fiction horror films
Shochiku films
Films scored by Shunsuke Kikuchi
Films set on airplanes
Japanese vampire films
1960s exploitation films
1960s Japanese films