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Sixties
Movies
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{3}
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The
mainstay and best-known of the Japanese science fiction films
of the Sixties are undoubtedly the Kaiju Eiga or 'monster
movies' but there were also quite a few other science fiction
productions which did not quite fall into this category.
Some of those films are listed here and may, depending on
your point of view, be considered to be Kaiju Eiga. Likewise,
some of the films on my Kaiju Eiga page may not - it's a personal
perception, but most of the productions will be listed on
one or the other. If it isn't, please let me know.
The original Japanese productions were unmercifully cut and
overdubbed for the U.S. market, often released containing
new footage with American actors to change the focus of the
story line so, depending on which version you have seen, the
story outline given may not exactly match up to what you remember.
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Dai
Sanji Sekai Taisen : Yonju-Ichi Jikan No Kyofu
(Third World War: 41 Hours
of Horror)
aka The Final War
aka When World War III Breaks Out
aka Jikan No Kyofu
TOEI
Shigeaki Hidaka
Jane Elliot, Noribumi
Fujishima, Yajoi Furusato, Carl Hansen, Michiko Hoshi
Yoshiko Mita, Yukiko Nikaido, Frank Reynolds, Tatsuo Umemiya
Jack Wilson VIII
This is not the same film as 'Sekai Daisenso', also
known as 'The Final War'. The USA accidentally detonates a nuclear
device over South Korea. The North/South Korea retaliations escalate,
with the USA and USSR drawn into the conflict on a global scale,
ending with most of the world being wiped out - only Argentina is
left. The final scenes are shot in heavy rain as a memorial service
is held for most of mankind.
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Denso
Ningen
aka
The Secret Of The Telegian
aka The Telegian
TOHO /
HERTS-LION
Jun Fukuda
Koji Tsuruta,
Tadao Nakamaru, Akihiko Hirata, Yumi Shirakawa, Hideyo Amamoto,
Shoichi Hirose
Seizaburo Kawazu, Nadao Kirino, Akira Kitano, Tatsuo Matsumura,
Fumito Matsuo
Fuyuki Murakami, Yutaka Nakayama, Tadashi Okabe, Senkichi Omura
Shin Otomo, Yutaka Sada, Sachio Sakai, Takamaru Sasaki, Ikio Sawamura
Together with a scientist, a soldier is left for
dead by his so-called 'friends' at the end of the war. They manage
to survive somehow and, bent on revenge, find themselves an underground
laboratory where they perfect a teleportation device. They use the
instrument to help them achieve their objective as they kill off
their double-crossing ex-colleagues.
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Gas
Ningen Daiichigo
aka The Human Vapour
aka The First Gas Human
TOHO
Ishiro Honda
Yoshio Tsuchiya, Kaoru Yachigusa,
Tatsuya Mihashi, Keiko Sata, Bokuzen Hidari, Hisaya
Ito
Yoshifumi Tajima, Yoshio Kosugi, Fuyuki Murakami, Takamaru Sasaki,
Minosuke Yamada
Tatsuo Matsumura, Ko Mishima, Kozo Nomura, Ren Yamamoto
A convicted criminal agrees to take part in some
scientific experiments which leave him with the ability to turn
his body into a gaseous form. This allows him to escape and continue
his life of crime with virtually no chance of being recaptured.
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1961
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Uchu Kaisoku-sen
aka Invasion From A Planet
aka
Invasion Of The Neptune Men
aka Space Greyhound
TOEI
Koji Ota
Sonny
Chiba, Kappei Matsumoto, Shinjiro Ebara, Mitsue Komiya
Ryuko Minakami
Space
Chief, in his jet-propelled car, defeats an invasion attempt by
sluggish aliens from the planet Neptune who have a penchant for
nosecone-shaped helmets. Presumably the hero worked for the fashion
police.
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1962
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Sekai
Daisenso
aka The Last War
aka The Final War
TOHO
Shue Matsubayashi
Frankie Sakai, Nobuko Otowa, Akira Takarada,
Yuriko Hoshi, Yumi Shirakawa
A series of accidents, mistakes and false alarms in the missile
bases of the super-powers brings them to the edge of World War III.
The accidental collision of two of their aircraft over the North
Pole is enough to trigger off the final conflict and the film documents
the ensuing battle and its effect on mankind
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Yosei
Gorasu
aka Gorath The Mysterious Star
aka Astronaut 1980
TOHO
Ishiro Honda
Ryo Ikebe, Akihiko Hirata, Jun Tazaki,
Yumi Shirakawa Takashi Shimura, Kumi Mizuno
A spaceship flies through a mysterious cloud and
picks up some alien organic cells. Once back on Earth, the cells
multiply and reconstitute into the monster Gorath. A red hot planet
is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth and scientists
set off large explosions in the Antarctic to shift the Earth from
its orbit and out of the planet's path. These explosions wake the
sleeping monster which proceeds to interfere with their attempts
to save the Earth. It is eventually destroyed and the planet is
saved, but not before being devastated by tidal waves and global
warming.
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1963
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Matango:
Fungus Of Terror
aka Curse Of The Mushroom People
aka Matango
AIP / Toho
Ishiro Honda
Akira
Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kenji Sahara, Hiroshi Tachikawa
Yoshio Tsuchiya, Miki Yashiro, Hideyo Amamoto, Jiro Kumagai, Akio
Kusama
Yutaka Oka, Keisuke Yamada, Kasuo Higata, Katsumi Tezuka, Haruo
Nakajima
A
group of tourists become shipwrecked on a strange island and are
forced to eat an exotic type of mushroom to avoid starvation. They
slowly succumb to the effects of the plant and start turning into
mushrooms themselves. A lone survivor escapes to tell his tale but,
soon after, discovers mushroom-like growths erupting on his face.
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1966
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Garibah
No Uchu Ryoko
aka Gulliver's Travels Beyond The Moon
aka Gulliver's Voyages In Space
aka Space Gulliver
MASEO KURODA / TOEI
Yoshio Kuroda
An animated sci-fi film featuring
a boy who sets sail with a toy soldier and Gulliver in search of
the Star of Hope.
Their adventures include saving a planet which has been taken over
by runaway robots.
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Kaitei
Daisenso
aka Terror Beneath The Sea
aka Water Cyborgs
TOEI
Hajime Sato ( aka Terence Ford
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Shinichi Chiba, Peggy Neal, Franz
Gruber, Gunther Braun, Andrew Hughes, Erik Nielson
Mike Daning, Hideo Mudata
The movie, which mixes several different 'genres',
features a mad scientist in charge of a vast underwater city. He
invents an apparatus to turn people into amphibians, who he proceeds
to put under mind control, and uses them in his plans for global
domination. The real stars of the film are the futuristic devices
used by the scientist to control his fantastic habitat.
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1968
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Konchu
Daisenso
aka War Of The Insects
aka Genocide
Norman
Cooper, Kazui Nihonmatsu
Robert
Garner, Charles Harris, Gaby Harrold, Kathy Horan, Alan Rogers
Chico Roland, Diana Roos, Shizumi Shindo
A
girl who was a prisoner in Nazi Germany's Auschwitz death camp,
discovers that she has the power to control swarms of insects. She
uses this power to crash a plane carrying an atom bomb. All the
insects on Earth become wild and start attacking humans, resulting
in Armageddon.
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Gamma
Sango Uchu Daisakusen
aka The Green Slime
aka Battle Beyond The Stars
aka Death And The Green Slime
TOEI / SOUTHERN CROSS FILMS
Kinji Fukasaku
Robert
Horton, Richard Jaeckel, Luciana Paluzzi, Bud Widom, Ted Gunther,
Robert Dunham
David Yorston, William Ross, Linda Hardisty, Ann Ault
This
first official American-Japanese co-production tells of a space
mission to destroy a huge meteorite which is on a collision course
with Earth. Green slime from the asteroid is transported back to
a space station where it grows into snake-like creatures which emit
violent electric shocks. The station is eventually evacuated ( after
most of the crew have been killed ) and then exploded to destroy
the alien creatures.
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Kyuketsuki
Gokemidoro
aka Goke Body Snatcher From Hell
aka Goke The Vampire
SHOCHIKU
FILMS
Hajime
Sato
Teruo
Yoshida, Tomomi Sato, Eizo Kitamura, Hideo Ko, Kathy Horan
Yuko Kusunoki, Kazuo Kato, Hiroyuki Nishimoto, Masaya Takahashi
A
plane crashes in the desert leaving the survivors stranded. Unknown
to them, an alien spacecraft is nearby from which emerges a blob-like
alien that proceeds to sneak up on one of the men and oozes into
his brain through a gash on his head. The man is turned into a homicidal
vampire that kills all the other survivors apart from the captain
of the plane and a stewardess who escape into the desert and, eventually,
to civilisation. The blobs catch on to the 'oozing' idea and they
all decide to have a go. Apparently has a shock ending and is not
a half bad film despite the 'Fifties' storyline.
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1969
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Ido
Zero Daisakusen
aka Latitude Zero
Don
Sharp Productions / National General Pictures / TOHO
Ishiro
Honda
Joseph
Cotton, Cesar Romero, Akira Takarada, Masumi Okada, Richard Jaeckel
Patricia Medina, Mari Nakayama, Akihito Hirata, Wataru Omae, Hikaru
Kuroki
Linda Haynes, Susumu Kurobe, Burr Middleton, Haruo Nakajima
An
advanced undersea civilisation battles the legions of the evil Malic
who has plans
to rule the world with his flying lions and giant rats.
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Buchamukure
Daihakken
aka Computer Free-For-All
TOHO
Kengo Furusawa
Hajime
Hana, Hitoshi Ueki, Kei Tani, Hiroshi Inuzaka, Eitaro Ishibashi
Senri Sakurai, Shin Yasuda
This
is believed to be a Japanese comedy Sci-fi. Storyline unknown.

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