Warning from Space

A small ship travels to a rotating space station. Aboard the station, a group of starfish-like beings called Pairan discuss how to warn humans of an impending disaster, deciding on contacting Japanese scientist Dr. Kumara. Meanwhile, flying saucers are spotted over the skies of Tokyo, baffling scientists. A journalist tries to get a statement from Dr. Kumara about the sightings, but Kumara replies that there is not enough evidence to formulate a hypothesis. At an observatory, Professor Isobe spots an object in his telescope apparently releasing smaller objects.

Isobe discusses his findings with Kumara and a physician, Dr. Matsuda, who believes they should get photographs via a rocket. The photographs they retrieve, however, turn out to be unclear, though they deduce the object has a high energy output. In the meantime, the extraterrestrials have been unsuccessfully attempting to contact humans. They begin appearing in lakes and rivers, frightening local fishermen and sailors. One of the aliens manages to secure a photo of Hikari Aozora, a famous Japanese entertainer. Their plan is for one of the aliens to mutate into the form of Aozora. Back aboard the space station, one of the Pairan leaders, Ginko, volunteers herself. Her starfish form is slowly mutated into a human form.

File:Warning from Space Pairans.jpg

On Earth, Toru, Isobe's son, discovers the disguised alien floating in the water. After her rescue, she exhibits superhuman characteristics such as jumping ten feet and materializing in different places without walking. Soon, she disrupts Dr. Matsuda's work on a nuclear device, explaining she understands the complex equations he was writing and warning against the effects of a device, leading him to believe she is not human. Shortly afterwards, as the team of scientists discuss her abnormal traits, the camouflaged Ginko appears and reveals her true identity, explaining she is from Paira, a world on the same orbit as Earth but on the opposite side of the Sun. She then continues to reveal her mission, to warn Earth of an imminent collision of a rogue planet, which is dubbed "Planet R" by the media. They send a formal letter to the World Congress, which treats their communication with silent contempt (Japanese: mokusatsu). Only after they show Planet R and its rapid acceleration in the telescope does the World Congress launch its nuclear weapons, which ineffectively explode on its surface.

In the meantime, a group of spies have abducted Matsuda and are attempting to steal his formula to the nuclear device the disguised Pairan warned him about. Matsuda does not comply and is eventually tied to a chair in a remote building. As the Earth's atmosphere heats up due to the approaching world, Ginko again arrives to learn why Planet R is not yet destroyed. They locate Matsuda through Pairan technology and gather the formula for the device. The scientists then all watch as the nuclear device is shot from the space station and destroys Planet R, cooling the atmosphere and removing the threat. Ginko then changes back to her original form aboard the space station.

• Keizō Kawasaki as Dr. Toru Itsobe
• Toyomi Karita as Hikari Aozora / Ginko
• Bin Yagisawa as No. 2 Pairan
• Shōzō Nanbu as The Elder Dr. Itsobe
• Bontarō Miake as Dr. Kamura
• Mieko Nagai as Taeko Kamura
• Kiyoko Hirai as Mrs. Matsuda
• Isao Yamagata as Dr. Matsuda

After the success of Toho's 1954 film Godzilla, which depicted a giant dinosaur attacking Tokyo, many Japanese film studios began to produce similar monster films, including Warning from Space.{{cite book|last=Prakash|first=Gyan|date=2010|title=Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City|page=112|location=Princeton|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0691146447|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qo3DoD_MDBIC&q=noir%20urbanisms&pg=PA112|access-date=April 28, 2011}}{{cite book|last=Ryfle|first=Steve|date=1998|title=Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G"|page=[https://archive.org/details/japansfavoritemo0000ryfl/page/65 65]|location=Toronto|publisher=ECW Press|isbn=1550223488|url=https://archive.org/details/japansfavoritemo0000ryfl|url-access=registration|quote=Japan's favorite mon-star.|access-date=April 28, 2011}} Along with other films such as Shintōhō's Fearful Attack of the Flying Saucers and the American Forbidden Planet, Warning from Space became part of a fledgling subgenre of films based around science fiction creatures.{{cite book|last=Ragone|first=August|date=2007|title=Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters: Defending the Earth with Ultraman, Godzilla, and Friends in the Golden Age of Japanese Science|page=52|location=San Francisco|publisher=Chronicle Books|isbn=978-0811860789|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVOH5aEaGI0C&q=eiji&pg=PA52|access-date=April 28, 2011}} The film also used the theme of atomic bombs that was present in many films at the time,{{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Jerome Franklin|date=2002|title=Atomic Bomb Cinema: The Apocalyptic Imagination on Film|page=462|location=New York|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=0415936608|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qBJVN11yIB8C&q=atomic+bomb+cinema|access-date=April 30, 2011}}{{cite book|last=Lifton|first=Robert Jay|date=2000|title=Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism|page=257|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0805065113|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s6ZszhuzrrkC&q=%22spacemen+appear+in+tokyo%22&pg=PA257|access-date=May 22, 2011}} but showed how the weapons, which devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a decade earlier, could be put to good use.{{cite book|last=Lifton|first=Robert Jay|date=1991|title=Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima|page=363|location=London|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=080784344X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CYqugorTJ68C&q=death+in+life:+survivors+of+hiroshima|access-date=April 30, 2011}} Still others noted the film used another common theme of cosmic collisions in the style of earlier films such as the 1931 film End of the World, which depicted a comet on a collision course with the Earth.{{cite book|last=Lupiáñez|first=Manuel Moreno and Jordi José Pont|date=2002|title=De King Kong a Einstein: La Física en la Ciencia Ficción|location=Barcelona|publisher=Edicions UPC|page=258|language=es|isbn=8483013339|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ma7pFIj1830C&q=%22Asalto+a+la+Tierra%22&pg=PA258|access-date=May 22, 2011}}

The Pairan aliens were designed by the prominent avant-garde artist Tarō Okamoto,[http://www.taromuseum.jp/introduction/introduction.html Introduction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728115217/http://www.taromuseum.jp/introduction/introduction.html |date=July 28, 2011 }}. Taro Okamoto Museum of Art (in Japanese). Retrieved May 22, 2011. which used a single eye that is common among science fiction aliens.{{cite book|last=Westfahl|first=Gary|date=2005|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, Volume 2|page=871|location=Westport|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=0313329524|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JXnz9x9sO4C&q=greenwood%20science%20fiction%20fantasy%20warning%20from%20space&pg=PA871|access-date=April 28, 2011}} Although official film posters showed the Pairan aliens towering over buildings, the actual cinematic version of the aliens were on the scale of humans, at about two meters.{{cite book|last=Baxter|first=John|date=1997|title=Stanley Kubrick: A Biography|page=200|location=New York|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=0786704853|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PKMZ4_i60LYC&q=stanley%20kubrick%20baxter&pg=PA200|access-date=April 28, 2011}} Walt Lee reports that Gentaro Nakajima's novel, on which this film was based, was in turn based on the Japanese folktale Kaguya-hime. The film was one of fourteen Japanese color pictures produced in early 1956,{{cite book|last=Hasegawa|first=Saiji|date=1964|title=Japan Trade Guide With a Comprehensive Mercantile Directory|page=207|location=Tokyo|publisher=Jiji Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbAQAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Uchujin+Tokyo+ni+arawaru%22|access-date=May 22, 2011}} but the first color Japanese science-fiction film.

Its plot to depict appearances of extraterrestrials and astronomical object bears similarities to classic productions such as End of the World (1931), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), When Worlds Collide (1951), and The War of the Worlds (1953).{{refn|There exist several similarities in plots between Warning from Space and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was released in the United States on February 5, 1956, a week after the release on Warning from Space in Japan.|group="note"}}{{cite web |author= Randall Cyrenne |date= 2020-11-29 |title= Warning From Space |url=https://animatedviews.com/2020/warning-from-space/ |website= Animated Views |access-date=2025-01-19}}

The Japanese title of Warning from Space bears the term "appear" (現わる, arawaru); it had been repeatedly used by Daiei Film at that time including The Invisible Man Appears,{{refn|The Invisible Man Appears and Rainbow Man (jp) were the first post-war science fiction films in Japan, and were produced under Masaichi Nagata and involved Eiji Tsuburaya and Sadamasa Arikawa (jp) and Shuzaburo Araki (jp) in productions with their aims to join Daiei Film.|group="note"}} and the Japanese title of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which later influenced the production of Gamera, the Giant Monster.Shuntaro Ono (jp), December 28, 2018, Geistesgeschichte of Gamera: From Showa to Heisei, pp.21-23, p.69, Takanashi Shobou (jp)

Warning from Space was released in Japan on 29 January 1956.{{cite book|date=1996|title=The Japanese Filmography|publisher=McFarland|isbn=0-89950-853-7|last=Galbraith|first=Stuart|author-link=Stuart Galbraith IV|page=303}}

Daiei also hoped to find a foreign market for Warning from Space, though the company found difficulty in selling it.{{cite journal|last=Shoemaker|first=Greg|date=1979|title=Daiei: A History of the Greater Japan Motion Picture Company|journal=The Japanese Fantasy Film Journal|issue=12|page=14|url=http://www.historyvortex.org/HistoryDaiei.html|access-date=April 29, 2011}} Nevertheless, the film played at both King Cinema in Rangoon, Burma{{cite journal|date=1958|journal=Far East Film News|issue=January 17|page=21}} and Tai Khoon Theatre in Sandakan, Malaysia, in 1958.[http://www.malaysiadesignarchive.org/?p=1244 Leaflet: Warning from Space]. Malaysia Design Archive. Retrieved April 29, 2011. The film did help Daiei achieve some success in the genre.{{cite journal|last=Sewell|first=Keith and Guy Mariner Tucker|date=1995|title=The Gamera Saga|journal=G-FAN|issue=14|url=http://www.historyvortex.org/GameraSaga.html|access-date=April 29, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720033539/http://www.historyvortex.org/GameraSaga.html|archive-date=July 20, 2011|df=mdy-all}} It was passed for release, anglicized as Warning from Space, by the BBFC in the United Kingdom in 1957,[http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/0/BF39107A21F8A0A2802566C8004C0252?OpenDocument Warning from Space] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525030038/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/0/BF39107A21F8A0A2802566C8004C0252?OpenDocument |date=May 25, 2011 }} BBFC. Retrieved April 27, 2011. and later in the United States in 1963.{{cite book|last=Young|first=R.G.|date=2000|title=The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies|page=663|location=New York|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=1557832692|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QoJ4jTghUPYC&q=ali%20baba%20zombies&pg=PA663|access-date=April 28, 2011}} The film was also released as The Mysterious Satellite in some areas.Galbraith, Stuart (1994). Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. McFarland. p. 308. It was shown in the U.S. by American International Television later in the 1960s as Warning from Space.

The film was released in Spain as Asalto a la Tierra, and in France as Le Satellite Mystérieux.{{cite book|date=2005|title=Un Siècle de Cinéma Fantastique et de SF|page=467|location=Paris|publisher=Éditions Le Manuscrit|isbn=2748160738|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ssuY_eVBE8C&q=%22Le+Satellite+mysterieux%22&pg=PA467|access-date=May 22, 2011}} Arrow Video released the film on Blu-ray in 2020.{{cite web|url=https://kutv.com/news/entertainment/new-dvd-blu-ray-and-digital-release-highlights-for-the-week-of-october-12-18-2020|title=New DVD, Blu-ray and digital release highlights for the week of October 12-18, 2020|date=October 14, 2020|last=Painter|first=Ryan|work=KUTV|access-date=February 12, 2021}}

The film was one of many early Japanese monster films quickly produced after the success of Toho's Godzilla in 1954. After release, the film was met with negative reviews, with critics calling it "bizarre" and accusing it of using science fiction clichés.

In a contemporary review, "Neal." of Variety stated that the film was done with "candor and simplicity which makes it a good entry of its type" with "good special effects plus a fine use of color during the near approach of the flaming planet which nearly destroys the earth."{{cite book|author=Neal.|page=127|title=Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews|year=1985|editor=Willis, Donald|isbn=0-8240-6263-9|publisher=Garland}}

From retrospective reviews, a review included in the book A Guide to Apocalyptic Cinema, author Charles P. Mitchell called the film "bizarre" and gave it two stars.{{cite book|last=Mitchell|first=Charles|date=2001|title=A Guide to Apocalyptic Cinema|page=276|location=Westport|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=0313315272|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bmmrKvOwa_IC&q=%22warning+from+space%22+bizarre&pg=PA276|access-date=April 28, 2011}} Similarly, in a 1978 issue of the magazine Cue, viewers were warned "don't watch it."{{cite journal|date=1978|title=Warning from Space|journal=Cue|volume=7|issue=1–6|publisher=Cue Publishing Co.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qkcQAQAAMAAJ&q=%22warning+from+space%22|access-date=April 28, 2011}} In the 1986 Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies by Phil Hardy and Denis Gifford, the film is accused of using the science fiction clichés of flying saucers and atomic bombs.{{cite book|last=Hardy|first=Phil and Denis Gifford|date=1986|title=Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies|page=163|location=Minneapolis|publisher=Woodbury Press|isbn=083000436X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LUnye2DKaywC&q=exploiting|access-date=April 28, 2011}} Gyan Prakash, in his book Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City, called the film "charming." The film was noted for its misleading characterization of astronomers, with one author observing that it advanced the cinematic portrayal of astronomers as scientists in lab coats peering through an enormous telescope.{{cite journal|last=West|first=Michael|s2cid=118465727| title=Public Perception of Astronomers: Revered, Reviled and Ridiculed|journal=Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union |volume=5 |issue=S260 |pages=411–419|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|date=May 28, 2009|arxiv=0905.3956|doi=10.1017/s1743921311002596}}

In his biography of Stanley Kubrick, author John Baxter traces Kubrick's interest in science fiction films, which led to his 2001: A Space Odyssey, to the Japanese kaiju films of the 1950s, including Warning from Space, with its "nameless two-metre-tall black starfish with a single central eye, who walk en pointe like ballet dancers." Baxter notes that despite their "clumsy model sequences, the films were often well-photographed in colour... and their dismal dialogue was delivered in well-designed and well-lit sets."

{{see also|Gamera}}

Expertises and sound effects from Warning from Space were used for Gamera films where Shima's nephew and student Noriaki Yuasa participated in Warning from Space as an extra.Steven Sloss, 2021, [https://www.arrowfilms.com/blog/features/the-invincible-noriaki-yuasa/ The Invincible Noriaki Yuasa], Arrow Films Later, a book being advised by Yuasa and others included a script, which was based on a scrapped Gamera film due to the bankruptcy of Daiei Film, featuring various Daiei Film characters such as Gamera and other kaiju, Pairan, The Whale God, and Nezura.OMEGA Flying Squadron, Yasuyoshi Tokuma (jp) (issuer), Noriaki Yuasa (adviser), Niisan Takahashi (adviser), Masao Yagi (jp) (adviser), 1995, Gamera is Strong!, pp.82-87, Tokuma Shoten The 1994 comic series Giant Monster Gamera involved an extraterrestrial race based on Pairan.Kenichiro Terasawa (as Masumi Kaneda) (jp), July 15, 2024, [https://x.com/KanedaMasumi/status/1812547641424937247 徳間康快社長が平成ガメラ第1作発表会で突然「ゴジラ対ガメラも考えている」といったのは漫画の後書きに関連。], Twitter (X)

Warning from Space influenced many other Japanese science fiction films, such as Eiji Tsuburaya's Gorath{{cite web |website= 空想特撮愛好会 |title=宇宙人東京に現わる |url=http://park8.wakwak.com/~tokusatsu/uchujin.htm|access-date=2025-01-18}}{{cite web |author= Glenn Erickson |date=2020-09-29 |title=Warning from Space |url=https://trailersfromhell.com/warning-from-space/ |website=Trailers From Hell |access-date=2025-01-18}} and Ultra Q where Toru Matoba (jp) later joined Tsuburaya Productions. The film, along with other 1950s tokusatsu science fiction films, influenced director Stanley Kubrick, who would later direct 2001: A Space Odyssey.{{cite web |author= Arun Starkey |date= 2021-05-12 |title=How Carl Sagan influenced Stanley Kubrick masterpiece '2001: A Space Odyssey' |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-carl-sagan-influenced-stanley-kubrick-2001-a-space-odyssey/ |website= Far Out |access-date=2025-01-18}} Gamera vs. Viras, which was also released in 1968, instead bears similarities to 2001: A Space Odyssey for its depictions of spaceships and technologies.

Critics have also noted plot similarities to the later films such as Invasion of Astro-Monster by Toho, in that a friendly planet warns Japan of the atom bomb and subsequently assists in celestial defense,{{cite book|last=Derry|first=Charles|date=2009|title=Dark Dreams 2.0: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film from the 1950s to the 21st Century|page=78|location=Jefferson|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-3397-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=loUaJC9VBMUC&q=dark%20dreams%202.0&pg=PA78|access-date=April 28, 2011}} and The Day the Earth Caught Fire,{{cite web |author= Colin Edwards |date= 2021-05-12 |title= 'Warning from Space' or — The Day the Earth Went Cute? |url=https://colinedwards.medium.com/warning-from-space-or-the-day-the-earth-went-cute-558f2f3976d7 |website= Medium |access-date=2025-01-19}} while the release of Invasion of the Body Snatchers in the United States, the film bearing resemblances to Warning from Space, was a week after the Japanese release of the Daiei Film production.

The Pairans' asteroidean appearance is similar to that of a later pentagrammic creations; Starro, a villain from DC Comics' Justice League,{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Murphy |date=2005 |title=The Justice League Companion: A Historical and Speculative Overview of the Silver Age Justice League of America |page=1944 |location=Raleigh |publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |isbn=1-893905-48-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QxJPl_R0FtwC&q=%22warning%20from%20space%22&pg=PA1944 |access-date=April 28, 2011 |display-authors=etal}}{{cite book |last=Renee |first=Misiroglu and Michael Eury |date=2006 |title=The Supervillain Book: The Evil Side of Comics and Hollywood |publisher=Visible Ink Press |isbn=0-7808-0977-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vHtAAAAMAAJ&q=%22warning%20from%20space%22 |access-date=April 28, 2011}} and the Decarabia in the Megami Tensei franchise.[https://astoundingbeyondbelief.tumblr.com/post/165626007584/mostrogigante-tokumon-jaw8jaw-warning-from September 22, 2017] The 1978 film Superman: The Movie introduced spinning rings which resemble parts of Pairan's space ship in Warning from Space.

• List of Japanese films of 1956
• List of science fiction films of the 1950s
• The Invisible Man Appears

{{reflist|group="note"}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{IMDb title|0049900|title=Warning from Space}}
• {{Internet Archive film | WarningFromSpaceImproved1 | Warning from Space }}
• [http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1956/cf000460.htm Warning from Space] at the Japanese Movie Database

{{Koji Shima}}

Category:Films set in Tokyo

Category:1956 films

Category:Films directed by Koji Shima

Category:1950s science fiction films

Category:Japanese science fiction films

Category:Daiei Film tokusatsu films

Category:Space adventure films

Category:Daiei Film films

Category:American International Pictures films

Category:Films with screenplays by Hideo Oguni

Category:Films produced by Masaichi Nagata

Category:Fiction about rogue planets

Category:1950s Japanese films