Yuku free message boards
Username or E-mail:
Password:
Forgot
Password?
Sign Up
Grab the Yuku app
Search:
Classic Horror Film Board
>
Japanese Giants
>
MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978)
0 Points
Search this Topic:
Remove this ad
«Prev
1
2
3
4
Next»
Jump
Add Reply
Forum Jump
Welcome to the CHFB
Forum Guidelines
CHFB TURNS 20!
Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards
Universal Horrors
The Universal Monsters Blu-Ray Collection
Golden Age Horror
Kong - 8th Wonder of the World
Silent Horror
Poverty Row
The World of Sherlock Holmes
Murder and Mystery
Thrills and Chills
'50s Horror and Sci-Fi
'60s Horror and Sci-Fi
'70s Horror and Sci-Fi
Hammer Horror
The Psycho Ward
Foreign Horror
Japanese Giants
Horror and Sci-Fi of Recent Decades
Current Films
Second Takes on Films of the 2000s
Independent Films and Documentaries
Coming Soon
TV Terrors
Classic Horror on DVD, Blu-Ray and Streaming
Stream and Stream Again
Horror Film Books and Magazines
Horror by Candlelight
Horror Comics and Fantasy Art
Monster Toys and Collectibles
Classic Horror Movie Memorabilia
Horror Music
Old Time Radio and Audio Horror
Classic Horror Online
CHFB Member Reviews
Our Favorite Horror Hosts
Classic Disney Scares
Horror Film Stars
Men Behind the Monsters
Monster Kid Memories
General Horror and Sci-Fi
Horror Tech
Movie of the Day
Off Topic Discussions
Classic Horror News and Events
Birthdays and Holidays
DVR / TiVo Alert
Final Farewells
Classic Horror Polls
Classic Horror Classifieds
Monster Kids Helping Monster Kids
<< Previous Topic
Next Topic >>
Re: MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978)
Author
Comment
Hachigatsu
#1
[-]
Nov 8 10 9:09 AM
Reply
Quote
More
My Recent Posts
Waver Boy, you lack the proper context to fully appreciate how MESSAGE FROM SPACE came about, because you suffer from STAR WARS blindness. Uchujin65 pretty much hits it on the nose — SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO was first broadcast in 1974 and became a hit feature film in 1977 — breaking all previous box-office records a year before STAR WARS was released in Japan (July, 1978) — and the Japanese were, at that time, producing tons of science fantasy television shows (at an unprecedented rate that has never been duplicated before or since), over sixty of them between 1971 and 1979, alone. Many of these shows had plenty of the trappings of things you would see in STAR WARS — from funny little comedic robots, to masked villains, armored henchmen, and spaceship-flying superheroes.
Speaking of STAR WARS, we have to remember that Lucas borrowed liberally from Japanese fantasy films (including YAMATO), which he viewed while he was in Japan soliciting companies there to produce visual effects for his space picture. In the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS issue of Cinefantastique magazine, there was an article/review of MESSAGE in which one of the producers claims that Lucas got the design idea for Darth Vader from one of their television characters — Musha Kamen from an early episode of SECRET TASK FORCE: GORANGER (1975-77). Lucas was also well aware of SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO.
Gordon Romstar said, "I swear George Lucas came home from a college party hammered ,caught the Magic Serpent on late night TV and then the Star War "mythology" was born."
I've been telling people that for years! I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and THE MAGIC SERPENT played many, many times on local television in the late 1960s/early 1980s... George had to have seen it at some point. Still, MESSAGE FROM SPACE owes more to the literary origins of the long-novel,
Satomi Hakkenden
and Toei's own television history that featured masked fedual, and super-scientific, heroes — than it does to STAR WARS. Plus, the Japanese had the same access to science fiction novels and other stories, which were also inspirations to George in creating STAR WARS, such as
The Lensman
series, which we can find the origin of the Death Star — Free Planets. And so, on...
I'm not saying that MESSAGE FROM SPACE is the greatest film, ever (Variety's lengthy, and positive, 1978 review opened, "If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the makers of STAR WARS should be highly flattered"), but any space opera in which Sonny Chiba plays a sword-weilding intergalactic knight in shining armor, is good by me!
August Ragone
Author
EIJI TSUBURAYA: MASTER OF MONSTERS
Blog
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND GODZILLA
<< Previous Topic
Next Topic >>
Add Reply
Forum Jump
Welcome to the CHFB
Forum Guidelines
CHFB TURNS 20!
Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards
Universal Horrors
The Universal Monsters Blu-Ray Collection
Golden Age Horror
Kong - 8th Wonder of the World
Silent Horror
Poverty Row
The World of Sherlock Holmes
Murder and Mystery
Thrills and Chills
'50s Horror and Sci-Fi
'60s Horror and Sci-Fi
'70s Horror and Sci-Fi
Hammer Horror
The Psycho Ward
Foreign Horror
Japanese Giants
Horror and Sci-Fi of Recent Decades
Current Films
Second Takes on Films of the 2000s
Independent Films and Documentaries
Coming Soon
TV Terrors
Classic Horror on DVD, Blu-Ray and Streaming
Stream and Stream Again
Horror Film Books and Magazines
Horror by Candlelight
Horror Comics and Fantasy Art
Monster Toys and Collectibles
Classic Horror Movie Memorabilia
Horror Music
Old Time Radio and Audio Horror
Classic Horror Online
CHFB Member Reviews
Our Favorite Horror Hosts
Classic Disney Scares
Horror Film Stars
Men Behind the Monsters
Monster Kid Memories
General Horror and Sci-Fi
Horror Tech
Movie of the Day
Off Topic Discussions
Classic Horror News and Events
Birthdays and Holidays
DVR / TiVo Alert
Final Farewells
Classic Horror Polls
Classic Horror Classifieds
Monster Kids Helping Monster Kids
Share This
Email to Friend
del.icio.us
Digg it
Facebook
Blogger
Yahoo MyWeb
«Prev
1
2
3
4
Next»
Jump
Classic Horror Film Board
>
Japanese Giants
>
MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978)
Click to subscribe by RSS
Click to receive E-mail notifications of replies