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| Ultraseven (1967 - 1968) BD box art |
This Static Age’s spotlight goes to Ultraseven (1967 – 1968), ‘A powerful fighter defends earth from invasion’ as per the front cover tagline of Mill Creek Entertainment’s excellent Region A Blu-ray box-set [Complete Series 03], which contains of all 49 episodes in their original Japanese (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0) with optional English subtitles and a stunning 1080p High-Definition 1.33:1 transfer. The set also comes with a gorgeous booklet that is featuring the ‘The Birth of Ultraseven’ article, an excellent introductory piece to the series, and several guides (hero, episode, kaiju, character, and key technology).
Unfortunately many of the show’s special effects won’t resonate too well
with younger audiences that are more familiar with modern and excessive CGI
that are generally more expensive and a mainstay of current mainstream cinema,
but I come from a very different generation when things were much more simple
(and quite possibly innocent too) and when Toho was telling us that this
Japanese guy in a suit is an alien from outer space, we had no reason to doubt
it.
Another peculiarity that might bother modern audiences is the technology
and powers of Ultraseven that usually becomes available with no explanation and
out of nowhere. Kids today will be confused, but for my generation the beeping
sounds of random computer screens was all the futuristic technology we ever
wanted, and it looked believable enough.
The special effects I most enjoyed were the toy-like miniatures, that
somehow took me back to my childhood. I grew up in the 1980s and back then when
we were kids, instead of wasting our times with soulless video games, we would
play with all sorts of actual toys and create scenarios; they were damn good
times!
Watching the series though it becomes apparent that Tsuburaya
Productions Co. Ltd. upon request by the Tokyo Broadcasting System went for a
more serious approach (compared to some comedic episodes of the previous two
seasons), with intelligent scenarios that would appeal to adult viewers – and
guess what, they were right to do so as the show became a megahit.
The debut episode ‘The Invisible Challenger’ deals with a series of
sudden disappearances of unrelated citizens of Tokyo which call for the
formation of the Ultra Guard team, which in turn has Dan Moroboshi (Koji
Moritsugu) becoming Ultraseven, the mighty alien superhero. The almost
ecological ‘The Green Terror’ has mysterious alien rocks landing in Tokyo and
going as far as transforming a man into a the otherworldly plant monster
Waiell. In ‘Secret of the Lake’ an alien object crashes on a mountain,
releasing a black and white monster with claw-like eyes that make rounds as
they slightly reach out of its head; it now has to face Ultraseven, as well as
another seemingly good-hearted monster, the suit of which wouldn’t be accepted
in the Carnival of Rio. In ‘Max, Respond!’, a mysterious woman is stealing the Ultra Eye
spectacles, and what’s more the Godola insect-like monsters have a plan to
conquer our planet. In the Rod Sterling-styled ‘Vanished Time’, time stops for
a moment and brings Alien Vira to the spotlight, a monster that is interested
in destroying the Ultra Guard. A mysterious shadow appears in ‘Dark Zone’ that
turns out to be a familiar alien. ‘Space Prisoner 303’ is about a very evil and
murderous alien with claws. In ‘The Marked Town’ some people of the city of Kitagawa start acting
weird and occurrences of violence become commonplace (some of these scenes –
such as the bitch-slapping one – are quite uncomfortable due to their harsh
realism); what’s more Ultraseven cannot interfere, until it is revealed that
Metron has polluted – the already cancerous? – cigarettes! ‘Operation Android
Zero’ is about a mysterious woman and an older man that conspire with the aid
of lethal toys. ‘The Suspicious Neighbor’ is a very David Lynch-like episode
that takes us to the Fourth Dimension. ‘Fly to Devil Mountain’ is a
Western-styled episode (complete with horse riding) about a mechanic golden
dragon monster. ‘The Man who Came from V3’ is about the dangers of
fuel-stealing! ‘The Ultra Guard Goes West: Part 1’ and ‘The Ultra Guard Goes
West: Part 2’ are about a series of mysterious murders of foreign tourists and
the eventual attack of the evil robot King Joe. ‘The Eye that Shines in the
Darkness’ has a bullied kid finding a stone that helps him get through his
troubles, but it also unleashes a monster. The spectacular ‘Underground Go! Go!
Go!’ is about Miracle Man, a guy who survived a series of accidents. In ‘Escape
Dimension X’ the Ultra Guard members are transferred to another dimension that
resembles a jungle with several parasitic alien insects. ‘Project Blue’ deals
with the threat of Alien Bado. In ‘Destroy Earthquake Epicenter X’, earthquakes
generate one of the most impressive monsters of the series. ‘Pursue the Undersea Base’ is a spectacular episode featuring the evil battleship robot Ironrocks
that wreaks havoc by the docks. In the spectacular and quite eerie ‘The Human Farm’, UFOs abduct women and implant them with parasites. In
‘Search for Tomorrow’ the Shadow aliens invade, and in the end they also
unleash their monster Gublla that manages to fight even when its head gets
decapitated by Ultraseven. ‘Return to the North!’ is a boring episode that
takes the action to the arctic, but of course conciliation for the viewer comes
in the form of a monster.
‘Showdown at 140 Degrees Below Zero’ is also set in
snow but is much more exciting. Somehow the titular ‘Super Weapon R1’
manages to give birth to a super exciting bird-like monster that Ultraseven has
to take down. ‘Operation Cyborg’ is a very psychedelic episode, although still
monster-centric, as less care is given to the more casual human doings on
screen. In ‘The 700 Kilometer Run’, Dan and his team from the Ultra Guard face
a series of bombings, in a literally exploding episode that is unlike no other,
and also widely satisfying. In ‘The Earthling All Alone’, an alien spy masquerading as an evil
scientist, is also a monster that Ultraseven will have to face. ‘Glory for
Whom?’ is a peculiar episode about a traitor within the forces of Ultra Guard,
and unique and original as it is, it becomes one of the best episodes of the
series. In ‘The Flower Where the Devil Dwells’ Ultraseven has to downside
himself in order to get inside an ill woman, via her nose, and find Dallie, a
spider-like monster. The Ultra Eye does not work in ‘The Strolling Planet’, so
Ultraseven must get creative! ‘The Invading Dead’ are just what they sound
like, alien zombies that even manage to shrink Ultraseven! Standing still and in trance, the habitants of ‘The Vanishing City’ have to face the temporarily evil
side of Ultraseven. ‘Terror on the Moon’ is about the results of a mysterious
explosion.
And now, let’s switch our focus towards some recent series…
The 2nd (and final) season of The Alienist (2018 – 2020) is titled Angel of Darkness, and finds the protagonist group of the previous
season namely the alienist Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel Bruhl), the illustrator John
Moore (Luke Evans), and Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning) who has now left the police
for a career as a private detective, returning in order to tackle a new series
of murders, this time more gruesome than the last as the killer is targeting
infants! More feminist than the previous entry and definitely more eerie, this
8-episode outing is a winner as the series went out with a bang.
The Alienist - Season 2 promotional picture
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| Twin Peaks (2017) promotional logo |
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| Doctor Who - Season 8, featuring Peter Capaldi |
And finally, I enriched my bookshelf with the following additions…
The Bizarro Encyclopedia of Film Volume 1 (2019, Fungasm Press) by John Skipp and Heather Drain
is featuring 26 lengthy articles on a wide range of cult films (the authors’
definition of the term is really broad). Both renowned writers offer knowledge
and passion, resulting in a product that is both informative and entertaining.
I finished the 400+ pages tome in one 10-hour go because I could simply not put
the thing down. It comes highly recommended and I look forward to further
volumes.
We live in wonderful times, since the invaluable The Rialto Report’s
Ashley West and April Hall just co-wrote and published smut legend John Amero’s
autobiography entitled American Exxxtasy:
My 30-Year Search for a Happy Ending (2020, FAB Press). Expectedly, Amero’s
story is awe-inducing, from his early work with the Findlays to producing one
of the first hardcore features, and from gay pornography to primetime
television. It comes highly recommended and I hope West and Hall assist even
more people from the golden age of New York’s 42nd Street to tell
their stories.
Elena Gorfinkel’s dissertation-turned-book lewd looks: American Sexploitation Cinema in the 1960s (2017,
University of Minnesota Press) is one of those wonderful academic books that
although they always remain deep and analytical they also manage to somewhat be
enjoyable as well; it is also a valuable addition to the understudied academic
angle of the pre-hardcore exploitation nudies.
Speaking of these two last porno-centric books, I would also like to add
that I just finished my binge through the entire catalog of episodes of the
wonderful Porno Cultures podcast
(which you can find on Spotify), a very informative (and often entertaining as
well) academic show about all sorts of pornographic material, with a bold focus
on queer writings and projections.
Get books, comics, graphic novels and more at bunny17media.com. Use the code CHC at checkout for 15% off your purchase!
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