Cover Art

Credits

Director: Hajime Sato Starring:Teruo Yoshida, Tomomi Sato, Hideo Ko, Masaya Takahashi and Nobu Kaneko Screenplay: Kyuzo Kobayashi and Susumu Takahisa Music: Shunsuke Kikuchi Tagline:'A fiendish vampire from a strange world in outer space drains his victims' blood and turns them into weird corpses!' Country: Japan AKA:Goke the Vampire; Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro

The story is simple; a passenger airline is hijacked in mid-flight and forced into the path of an oncoming alien spacecraft, this causes the crew to lose control and the plane crashes in a barren wasteland, leaving a small handful of survivors. However, the real fun begins when one of their number becomes infected with an alien parasite and the motley crew begin to get picked off one-by-one.

I shan't reveal any more of the plot than that, as that would spoil your enjoyment of seeing the story unravel. Although at its core this is an alien invasion movie, the filmmakers wisely choose to keep things on a small scale and go for a more claustrophobic feel, rather than trying to be over-ambitious and attempt an epic. The film obviously draws much of its inspiration from American sci-fi movies of the period, but manages to create something spellbinding and utterly unique. The film is also daringly peppered with anti-war statements, most notably referencing the Vietnam War, which was raging at the time. There are also some brave references to the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima, which must have been quite controversial at the time (and possibly still would be in a Japanese flick).

Don't be deceived though, this not just some cheesy B-Movie, this is far more than that. The film uses the plot of an alien invasion to make some bold statements on the human condition and relies more on character development than on the extra-terrestrial activities – and it does so to great effect. It's fascinating to watch the survivors as they struggle to remain alive; old wounds and rivalries come to the fore and more than a few skeletons-in-the-closet are revealed. As the alien threat increases, the more the group starts to fragment and turn on each other.

The film has a surprisingly conventional narrative and lacks the surrealism that would define the newer generation of Asian films. This certainly seems to have taken its cue from American cinema, not that this is a bad thing though, far from it, it benefits from this approach.

The director, Hajime Sato, cites Mario Bava as an influence and this shows. To me, this seems to have not only been inspired by American alien invasion movies, but also by Bava's Planet of the Vampires, and can be seen in the use of lighting and set design, not to mention the vampiric tendencies of those infected by the alien entity. However, despite this obvious influence, Sato creates his own vision, which stands alone as a compelling and involving human drama, with otherworldly overtones.