From Beyond Television: Ultraman Episode #2

Ultraman Episode 2: BLAST THE INVADERS (SHINRYAKUSHA O UTE) ***

Directed by Toshihiro Iijima

"Why don't you go live on Mars!"

Late one night, a UFO is spotted over Japan. After a run-in with a strange, insectoid creature that leaves a few humans in suspended animation, a Defense Council meeting is held as to what to do with this potential menace from another world. Captain Muramatsu decides the best way is to attempt to communicate with it. When this goes sour, the aliens take control of Arashi's body and declare their true purpose -- to colonize the Earth with their own race, billions of which, are already here.

The second episode of ULTRAMAN is simplicity with its tale of invaders from outer space. Virtually every interplanetary conqueror attacked Earth (mostly in Japan) in the 1960s and 70s. This one, known as Alien Baltan, became one of the most popular Ultra adversaries. An insectoid creature with scissor-like claws that emit red freeze beams and explosive attacks, the Baltans fled their homeworld after their own scientists destroyed it with nuclear testing. Possessing the ability to shrink their bodies into bacterial forms, they can maneuver virtually undetected. The bug-crustacean-like beings can multiply itself via holographic imagery. Over 2 billion (60 billion in the dubbed version) of them live aboard their invisible ship.

Toru Narita (blueprint for Sanda and Gaira from WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS) designed the Baltan (see sketch at left) while Sasaki Kimyo (masks for Ultraman and U7) modeled the monster on Ryosaku Takayama's existing suit for the Semi-human Cicada alien from episode 16 of ULTRA Q, 'Garamon's Counterattack'. Narita was reportedly dissatisfied with the final result for some of his creations, including Baltan and those enormous scissor claw hands of his. Takeshi Sato was inside the suit for the popular alien's debut.

 

Baltan appeared once more in the original ULTRAMAN in episode 16, and many other times over the course of the Ultra shows that followed. Additionally, as a testament to the monsters popularity, Tokyo's Billboard Live News featured a collaboration between French pop singer Sylvie Vartan and Alien Baltan in their February issue from 2013. The magazine featured information on the origins of the popular unfriendly alien and an interview with this episodes director, Toshihiro Iijima.

 

Screenwriter Senzoku Kitaotoko (director Iijima under a pseudonym) keeps things moving at a fair clip, if offering up some muddled details. At one point the alien that has taken over Arashi's body states they're only on Earth to repair their ship, but a few seconds later, he exclaims they're going to take over the planet. The episode is unnecessarily told in flashback while acting as a comedic showcase for Nihei Masaya, who plays Ide (Ito in the English version; seen in above picture). Some of his schtick is genuinely funny, and other bits are just goony. The framing device of Ide's inability to go to sleep leading to a black eye is forgotten about till the last minute. It adds nothing to the story aside from cementing Ide as the clown prince of the Science Patrol.

Where this episode excels is in its exciting finale culminating in an aerial dogfight between Ultraman and Baltan. It's not just two models of the two beings suspended on wires chasing each other, they clash and brawl in flight. Some of Matoru Toba's photographic shots are very creative and are rarely, if ever seen much again in later shows. Some of these eye-catching moments include shots where the camera is fixed above the miniature cityscape. Ultraman flies below as Alien Baltan fires on him. The camera is almost always shooting the flying scenes from the same angle every time, so seeing shots like these are intriguing in comparing with later shows. 

For the first time Ultraman battles a foe at night. The nighttime duels always had a surreal quality about them. Ultraman also debuts his X-Ray Perspective Beam (akin to the high beams on your car) to find the invisible ship of the Baltans.

There was definitely some experimentation going on that would dissipate over the years. ULTRAMAN was a series that got progressively better with each episode. Other Ultra programs would fluctuate in terms of quality and energy. This first Ultra hero show was primarily consistent. Each succeeding episode would feature little nuances in its SPX shots that seemed to vanish in later years.

MONSTERS: Alien Baltan

WEAPONS: Spider Shot

To be continued in Episode Three: SCIENCE PATROL, MOVE OUT!!!

Monster Island Musings From Author, Beverly Gray

My Thoughts on Japanese Movies, With Monsters and Without

By Beverly Gray

My passion for Japanese filmmaking began when I discovered the work of the great director, Akira Kurosawa, whose career began in earnest just after the end of World War II. His first significant effort, a charming but threadbare production that shows the impact of post-war scarcity, was The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail. This 1945 jidaigeki (“costume drama”) followed an Edo-era general and his troops who disguised themselves as monks to outwit an enemy border patrol. One of the leading players was Takashi Shimura, a dignified and soulful actor (1905-1982) who racked up over 200 motion picture credits. Shimura was featured by Kurosawa in more than twenty films: he played the Woodcutter in Rashomon (1950) and the central role of a dying bureaucrat in Ikiru (1952), earning himself a BAFTA nomination as Best Actor in a Foreign Film.

Takashi Shimura with Ishiro Honda while shooting (clockwise) GODZILLA (1954), THE MYSTERIANS (1957) and FRANKENSTEIN VS. BARAGON (1965); photos: ishirohonda[.]com.

In 1954 Shimura rode into pop culture history as the leader of The Seven Samurai. That very same year, he was the wise scientist Yamane in the original Godzilla. To make his monster-movie credentials complete, he appeared in several more atomic monster and sci fi films including GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN (1955), THE MYSTERIANS (1957), MOTHRA (1961), GORATH (1962), GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964), and FRANKENSTEIN VS. BARAGON (1965). No one can say that Shimura’s career lacked diversity.

My former boss, Roger Corman, had little to do with Japanese monster movies. But—as I detail in my updated biography, Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires,Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers—he pounced on a Japanese special-effects flick, 1973’s The Submersion of Japan, and edited it into something Americans would watch. Part of the transformation involved a new name, which was tested in one of Roger’s infamous polls of high school students. The polling results were hardly a surprise. As Allan Arkush, then a film editor and now a successful TV director, told me, “Are you going to go see Tidal Wave or The Submersion of Japan? It’s not a contest.”

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Beverly Gray served as Roger Corman’s story editor at both New World Pictures and Concorde-New Horizons, collaborating on 170 low-budget features. She is also a journalist and teaches screenwriting workshops through UCLA Extension. Her first book, Roger Corman: An Unauthorized Biography of the Godfather of Indie Filmmaking (2000) was an LA Times bestseller. Her other published works include Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon...and Beyond, and two expanded versions of her Corman bio, which has been tastefully retitled Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires,Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers. The latest edition, bringing Roger into the present day, is now available as both an ebook and a paperback. You can converse with Beverly online at Beverly In Movieland. This is the site of her twice-weekly blog, Beverly in Movieland, which covers movies, moviemaking, and growing up Hollywood-adjacent.