Warning from Space Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Warning from Space Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 27, 2020

Would you be frightened to the point of near hysteria by seeing a human sized starfish made out of “plushy” fabric, with a giant blue eye in the center of its body? That question, as absurd as it sounds, is perhaps salient to at least part of the kind of weirdly amusing Warning from Space, a film which evidently never received much of an official theatrical exhibition in its native Japan, but which still holds the honor of being the first science fiction film shot in color in that country. Almost unavoidably goofy seeming to modern day eyes in either its original Japanese form or its retooled and rejiggered English language version (both are available on this Blu-ray), Warning from Space offers a gaggle of starfish like aliens, called Pairans, who are very intent on making contact with Earthlings, although the Japanese and English language versions reorder certain scenes in that regard (it’s perhaps notable that the Japanese language version delays the “arrival” of the aliens until well into the film, while the English language version actually begins with the aliens). The need for contact initially might strike some as being in somewhat the same vein as the one seen in Robert Wise’s iconic The Day the Earth Stood Still, in that the Pairans “discuss” (in their own language, with burnt in Japanese subtitles in the Japanese version, helpfully in English in the English language version) the fact that Earthlings have “blundered” long enough and need some assistance. That may lead to some inferring that the aliens are, like Carpenter and Gort in the Wise film, “anti-nuke” emissaries sent to warn our planet about its own incipient stupidity which the rest of the universe is sick of having to deal with. While there is indeed rampant stupidity on hand in Warning from Space, the “nuclear” element actually ends up saving Earth, which would seem to be a rather odd plot point coming from a Japanese film relatively soon after the devastation wreaked on that nation by atomic bombs during World War II.

The basic plot is fairly simple, but it's adorned with so many sidebars and tangents that the underlying premise of the Pairans trying to warn Earth about an impending collision with another planet almost fades into the background at times. The film attempts to weave this unabashedly preposterous story around a scientist named Dr. Komura (Bontarô Miake), who works at an observatory where his assistant, Toru Itsobe (Keizô Kawasaki) has been tracking what seem to be a horde of unidentified flying objects, clearly visible through the site's telescope. Komura's daughter Taeko (Mieko Nagai) is less concerned with any potential influx of starfish shaped aliens than she is in getting her makeup just right before she sees Toru.

When the Pairans are unable in their original form to convince Earthlings that they've come to help, they transform one of their members into a copy of local showgirl Hikari Aozora (Toyomi Karita) because — well, if you’re still asking questions this far into the plot summary, this may not be the film for you. In one of the film's oddest and least logical elements, nuclear power is both decried (in a very similar formulation to The Day the Earth Stood Still), but also weirdly relied upon to solve everything at the climax. A subplot involving a kidnapped scientist and his "super weapon" seems positively needless, given the surplus of other story machinations the film offers.

As silly as Warning from Space is, it's almost fun in a parlor game sort of way to compare the English and Japanese versions of the film. For instance, when Dr. Komura gets off of a train early in the film, he's met by a journalist trying to get information on the sightings of UFOs in and around Tokyo. In the English language version, they simply head off to a bar, but in the Japanese language version, the journalist asks the scientist if he's headed to his usual destination (i.e., the bar), something that is admittedly very minor, but which tends to at least offer a bit of character background. There are also some interesting differences in the whole "nuclear" subtext of the film, with the Japanese version making it clear the Pairans chose to make contact in Japan because of the devastation of the atomic bombs, while the English language version just kind of elides the whole situation, simply stating that Japan has been "chosen" for contact.

There is so much that makes so little sense in Warning from Space that at times it almost seems like you're watching an Ed Wood science fiction "spectacular" through an idiomatic Japanese prism. Aside from the almost gobsmacking duality vis a vis "weapons of mass destruction", even more ostensibly mundane plot points like the kidnapped scientist's method of survival during a long captivity leave huge chunks of information unexplained. Also why the aliens seem to be capable of all sorts of superpowers, including metamorphosis and telepathy, and yet have such a hard time actually getting we admittedly dunderheaded Earthlings to listen to them is an open question as well. There is going to be perhaps unabashed laughter from some in the film's repeated use of people freaking out if they catch even a glimpse of a starfish alien. Kind of hilariously in that regard, the film really doesn't ever even show the starfish in any major way in these "hysterical reaction" shots, something that might have upped the ante in terms of angst at not knowing what the humans were getting worked up about. Unfortunately, as soon as most viewers see the gigantic, fluffy creatures with the adorable blinking blue Cyclops eye, my hunch is the overriding sentiment might not be to panic as the characters in the film do, but to want to hug the Pairans in a close encounter of an unspecified kind.

Warning from Space Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warning from Space is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. Arrow's insert booklet has the following information on both the Japanese and US versions:

The original Japanese version of Warning from Space is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 [sic] with its original mono soundtrack. The High Definition master was supplied by kadokawa Pictures. Additional quality control and optimization took place at R3store Studios and Bad Princess Productions. Due to the condition of the film masterial, some photochemical issues remain, such as occasional density fluctuation and flicker.

The dubbed American version was reconstructed by Arrow Films using the HD master of the Japanese version as the source for the majority of the video. An archive SD master of the American version was used as a cutting guide. The English dubbed audio was restored and conformed from the original optical track by Deluxe. Selected 35mm internegative film elements, including English language opening credits and specially shot inserts of English language newspapers, were scanned at EFILM and restored by R3store Studios. The original optical soundtrack and selected 35mm elements were accessed through the kind courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, in association with Kadokawa Pictures.

Additional picture grading, restoration and audio remastering work supervised by James White and James Flower, Arrow Films.

As even Arrow's own verbiage above probably demonstrates, this is not an optimal presentation despite whatever absolutely commendable "optimization" was undertaken to improve things. I'd frankly say that the density fluctuations and flicker are more than merely occasional, and the swings in color temperature can be a bit distracting at times. The entire palette, while reasonably robust in its best moments, could veer back and forth between a brown hue and an undertone more toward the blue side, while looking faded generally, as can perhaps be made out in some of the screenshots accompanying this review. Grain is fairly chunky throughout, and can add to an almost cross-hatched appearance. It often attains a clumpy yellow appearance, something that becomes especially noticeable against brighter backgrounds (look at the sky in screenshot 1 for one example.) Some of the brightly lit outdoor material, including some nice autumn lakeside material, is among the best in terms of overall warmth of the palette and good detail levels.

Note: Screenshot 19 is from the US version. I'm assuming they optically enlarged frames with Japanese subtitles running down the side (as in screenshot 18 from the Japanese version) to eliminate them. Kind of humorously, the US version also plays the same footage forward and backward, I guess to pad the time a little.

Warning from Space Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warning from Space features an LPCM Mono track in the original Japanese. While obviously a product of its era, and suffering from some very slight distortion in some of the more bombastic cues (as in a brass drenched nightclub scene), generally speaking there's no real damage to report here in terms of distractions like pops and cracks. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. The film does feature a recurrent high frequency whirring noise that is used for a variety of things, including zooming UFOs, and that can sound a bit brash at times. Optional English subtitles are available.

Warning from Space Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Select Scene Commentary by Stuart Galbraith is advertised as being "scene specific", but it's actually what might more correctly be termed "partial" in that it lasts for the first 65 or so minutes of the film. When the commentary ends, the disc is authored to revert to the Main Menu. Galbraith provides a lot of biographical and production data. There are a couple of clear differences in audio quality as if this might have been done in a couple of sessions or edited together later.


• Warning from Space US Version (1080p; 1:28:02) features LPCM Mono audio in English and optional English SDH subtitles. As mentioned above in the main body of the review, this restructures the film in terms of when certain scenes are presented, and even the translations into English sometimes differ markedly from the subtitles translating the Japanese language version.


• Theatrical Trailers

  Teaser Trailer (1080p; 2:28)

  
  

  Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 3:05)

• Image Gallery (1080p; 8:00)

Arrow's insert booklet contains the usual nice supply of essays, stills, cast and crew information, and technical data.

Warning from Space Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Frankly my granting of "even" a 3.0 for Warning from Space may be a bit on the generous side, considering how illogical and at times unintentionally funny the film is. But lurking under the silliness are some kind of important issues, including Mankind's ability to destroy itself with nuclear weapons; the fact that the film doesn't seem to know how to intelligently handle such information may only add to its unintended humor for some. This is a real curiosity that encounters some hurdles in the video department, but which has decent audio and some enjoyable supplements.