Way, way back in the 1950s, Godzilla,
King of the Monsters arrived from Japan and set off a
cycle of “kaiju” monster movies, which included such creatures as Gamera, Rodan,
Mothra and more. English-dubbed
theatrical runs took place, sometimes with American actors “cut into the action”
(Raymond Burr, for example) to make the domestic market more responsive to
these Japanese imports.
Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution
expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new Hi-Def Blu-ray release
planned for one of these kaiju creature
features that, for whatever reason, didn’t get a domestic theatrical showcase
run, but instead went the dubbed-to-TV route — released theatrically in Japan
in 1956, but not seen here until 1963.
The film in question is director Koji Shima’s Warning
From Space, which features “starfish
creatures” that are able to assume human form.
Unlike, Rodan and Godzilla, these kaiju
are actually trying to help mankind avoid the impending disaster of a rogue planet
(Planet R) smashing into Earth.
Arrow Video has targeted Oct. 13 as the street date
for Warning From Space. Included here are the Japanese (with newly
translated English subtitles) version and the first-ever hi-def transfer of the
American release of the film, which includes a newly-restored English-dub
track. There is also a newly-prepared
commentary by Stuart Galbraith IV, author of “Monsters are Attacking Tokyo!”
Of note, Warner
From Space was the first kaiju story to be filmed in color.
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