is a tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....

 SF

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

/superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

 film produced by Toei Company Ltd.

Toei Company

is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a...

 (as "New Toei") in 1961. The movie starred then 22-year old Sonny Chiba

Sonny Chiba

, also known as Sonny Chiba, is a Japanese actor, singer, film producer, film director and martial artist.Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience.- Early life :Born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka,...

 as the intergalactic superhero Iron-Sharp. (When listed in the credits in the Japanese version, "Iron Sharp" was played by "?", a gimmick often used in many similar Japanese superhero shows at the time) , this is the only appearance of Iron-Sharp (who's dressed in silver tights, helmet, cape, carries a ray gun and rides a car-like rocketship), who is called "Space Chief" in the US version. In either case, this film is similar to many a show in the Toei Superhero

Toei Superheroes

Toei Superheroes are superhero shows produced by Toei Company Ltd., which has done the biggest number of live-action tokusatsu superhero shows in Japan...

 genre from the same period, like Planet Prince

Planet Prince

is a 1958 tokusatsu superhero television series. Created by veteran writer Masaru Igami and produced by Nippon Gendai and Senkosha, the series aired on NTV from November 4, 1958 to October 6, 1959, with a total of 49 episodes . It was created to capitalize on the success of the Super Giant serials...

(Toei's movie version).

Plot

Shinichi Tachibana, a scientist/astronomer who is, in reality, the superhero "Iron-Sharp" (Space Chief in the English dub) is friends with a group of children. When the children are almost attacked by a mysterious group of metallic aliens (called "Neptune Men" in the US version), Iron-Sharp drives away the aliens. Even in human form, Tachibana is resourceful, as he helps the Japanese government invent a protective electric space barrier to block the aliens from entering the Earth. When the aliens can stand no more defeat, they announce that they will strengthen their invasion of the Earth (or at least Japan, for that matter), throwing the world into a state of fear and panic. The invasion begins, and the aliens destroy cities with their awesome mothership (which launches smaller ships from within). Iron-Sharp comes to the rescue, destroying multiple enemy ships. Japan launches a nuclear missile at the mothership, destroying it.

US release

The US version was titled Invasion of the Neptune Men and went directly to TV after being cropped to fullscreen from its 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This version also deleted some of the opening, that explained the naming of Iron Sharp and a scene where both American and Soviet ambassadors suspect each other's countries of causing the nuclear explosion.

The film was later featured on the movie-mocking show Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....

in 1997, where it was subjected to some unusually brutal jokes (such as calling Space Chief "Space Dink", "Space Feeb", "Space Loser", and "Ineffectual Chicken-Headed Bachelor", among other things ["Hey, you know, Space Chief should actually consider going up into space sometime." "Yeah, he's more like Lower-Atmosphere Chief." "Barely-Off-The-Stupid-Ground Chief."]. The ship the Neptunians flew around in received little better treatment, first described in the riffing as "a pre-fab Lutheran Church," then remarked as possibly running on coal, or, as Crow quipped, "So, they glued wings to a fuel filter."). As MST3K's central concept revolves around attempts to torture an average Joe and his robots into insanity with bad movies, Invasion of the Neptune Men is significant by genuine effectiveness. The crew is borderline suicidal by the third host segment, only being saved by a surprise visit from the Phantom Dictator/Chicken Man of Krankor from Prince of Space. Host Mike and robot Crow leave the theater for a few moments, and only came back when madwoman Pearl Forrester shuts off the oxygen supply to the rest of the satellite. They were particularly disgruntled by the film's overly long climax which consisted of repetitive and vague footage of space ships flying around and shooting at each other, pointing out the number of ships destroyed by "Space Chief" do not seem to reduce the amount of ships he keeps fighting in subsequent scenes.

The film was also featured on the nationally syndicated horror host

Horror host

Horror hosts are a particular type of television presenter, often tasked with presenting low-grade films to television audiences. This tradition is primarily American, though there have been a few international hosts over the years.-Film Packages:...

 show Cinema Insomnia

Cinema Insomnia

Cinema Insomnia is a nationally syndicated American television series presented by horror host Mr. Lobo.- Format :Typically, Mr. Lobo opens each episode by promising to screen a well-known horror or science fiction classic ; however budgetary limitations, acts of God or other circumstances...

.

A multi-story picture of Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 with some Japanese writing (along with Mein Kampf

Mein Kampf

Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...

, mistransliterated as Mine Kampf) is clearly visible on the side of one building before it is destroyed. MST3K passes by with ordinary riffing ("They took out the Hitler Building! Where is everyone going to see Hitler memorabilia?" and "What's next? The Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 Mall? Followed by the Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...

 Petting Zoo").

No such leniency was given to the use of actual World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 bombing footage for some of the "destruction of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

" scenes. The writers for MST3K found its incorporation into a kids' movie to be abhorrent. The footage was not broadcast in the MST3K version, but caused some of the riffing, such as Servo's breakdown, to be especially harsh.

Production

The alien mothership prop was actually 6 feet (1.8 m) long. It was designed by veteran Toru Narita, best known for his design work on Ultra Q

Ultra Q

is a tokusatsu SF/kaiju series made in the tradition of Toho's many tokusatsu sci-fi/horror films.Produced in black and white by Tokyo Broadcasting System/Tsuburaya Productions, this is actually the first of the long-running Ultra Series, and was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System from January...

, Ultraman

Ultraman

is Japanese television series that first aired in 1966. Ultraman, the first and best-known of the "Ultra-Crusaders," made his debut in the tokusatsu SF/kaiju/superhero TV series, , a follow-up to the television series Ultra Q...

, Ultra Seven

Ultra Seven

is tokusatsu SF TV series that aired on Japanese TV in 1967. Created by Eiji Tsuburaya, this follow up to Ultraman went on to become one of Japan's greatest fantasy TV series...

and War of the Gargantuas

War of the Gargantuas

The War of the Gargantuas, released in Japan as , is a 1966 Kaiju film, sequel to Frankenstein vs. Baragon.It introduces two giant, hairy humanoids called Gargantuas, which spawned from the discarded cells of Frankenstein's monster from the previous film and are described as brothers...

. At the same period, he was an art director for the Toei superhero series National Kid

National Kid

National Kid was a TV series produced by Toei Company in 1960, and was partly a merchandising from Panasonic, then called National. The series was not very famous in Japan or the rest of the world, except for Brazil, where it was very popular, and is still heard of....

.

Stock footage from the film was used in the music video for Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...

's "Testify."

Cast

• Shinichi Tachibana/Iron Sharp - Sonny Chiba
• Dr. Tanigawa - Kappei Matsumoto
• Yoko Tanigawa - Ryuko Minakami
• Kenichi Tanigawa - Teppei Yamamoto
• Tatsuo Ito - Masami Nakamura
• Saburo Hayashi - Nobuyuki Ezawa
• Tadashi Ine - Masao Kawakami
• Yanagita, Bachelor of Science - Shinjiro Ebara
• Tadao Murase - Kogo Ozono
• Hajime Chiba - Kimio Yamamuro
• Dr. Tamiya - Junji Masuda
• Dr. Yoshimoto - Hidemichi Ishikawa
• Saito, Bachelor of Science - Mitsue Komiya
• Yukichi Yamagata - Seiichiro Kameishi
• Eiji Shindo - Shiro Okamoto
• Defense Chief Takita - Takashi Kanda
• Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitomi - Gozo Soma
• Dr. Enomoto - Seiho Shirakawa
• Staff Chief Miyake - Ken Sudo
• Garrison Chief Mikami - Koji Sahara
• Major Murai - Tadashi Minamikawa
• Guard - Kenji Kawai
• Reporter #1 - Kosaku Okono
• Reporter #2 - Yuji Kitamine
• Reporter #3 - Shiro Oki
• Reporter #4 - Akira Moriya
• Railway worker #1 - Satoshi Tamai
• Railway worker #2 - Masuzumi Okabe
• Lieutenant General Inukai - Akikane Sawa
• Colonel Fujimoto - Rinichi Yamamoto
• Washington Broadcast Station Chief - Harold Conway
• Karimasu - Koji Sekiyama
• Alien #1 - Kenji Todoroki
• Alien #2 - Yoshiko Matsuoka
• Alien #3 - Akiyoshi Takenaga
• Alien #4 - Koji Sawada
• Alien #5 - Keitaro Suzuki
• Alien #6 - Junji Watanabe
• Alien #7 - Tsuneo Yamanaka
• Announcer - Kenji Miyako
• Dr. Yabe - Akira Katayama