The War in Space

"The Space War to Decide the Fate of All Mankind!"

1977 1h 31m JA

😐

6.0

MID

⭐

IMDB

★6.0TMDB · 28★5IMDB · 643

AdventureScience FictionAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The year is 1988, and in the midst of recovering from a near-miss with a large comet, Earth finds that there are much worse matters at hand: the sudden arrival of a strange army of aliens and their fleet of unstoppable warships.

“The Space War to Decide the Fate of All Mankind!”

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Cast

Kensaku Morita
Koji Miyoshi
Yuko Asano
Jun Takigawa
Ryō Ikebe
Professor Masato Takigawa
Masaya Oki
Reikai Muroi
Hiroshi Miyauchi
Kazuo Fuyuki
Hideji Ōtaki
Dr. Matsuzawa
Katsutoshi Atarashi
Tadashi Mikasa
Akihiko Hirata
Defense Countermeasure Supreme Commander Oshi

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jun Fukuda
Writers: Ryuzo Nakanishi, Hideichi Nagahara, Tomoyuki Tanaka
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

49 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Mysterians Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jun Fukuda, shot by Yuzuru Aizawa. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michiko Ikeda shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Kensaku Morita and Yuko Asano and Ryō Ikebe carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The Space War to Decide the Fate of All Mankind!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0076902 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jun Fukuda directs. Yuzuru Aizawa behind the camera. Michiko Ikeda cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
249 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Part of the "The Mysterians Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Jun Fukuda, shot by Yuzuru Aizawa. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Michiko Ikeda shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Kensaku Morita and Yuko Asano and Ryō Ikebe carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "The Space War to Decide the Fate of All Mankind!".
8IMDB entry: tt0076902 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 28 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Yuzuru Aizawa
Editing: Michiko Ikeda
Production design: Kazuo Satsuya
Sound: Matsuo Ohno
Runtime: 91 min · 1h 31m
Status: Released
Budget: $2,000,000
Box office: $4,000,000
Return: 200% of budget
Original language: JA
Certification (US): 12
IMDB: The War in Space (1977)
IMDB rating: 5/10 · 643 votes
MPAA: TV-PG

Part of

The Mysterians Collection

In Japan, scientifically advanced invaders from the war-destroyed planet Mysteroid cause an entire village to vanish, then send a giant robot out to storm the city by night, after which they request a small patch of land on Earth and the right to marry earthling women, claiming to be pacifists. Mankind must decide whether to capitulate or to resist. The nations of the Earth unite in a common cause to fight off an invader from outer space.