Director: Kazuho Mitsuda
Year: 1966
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: (Alternate DVD Title: The Ruffian From Outer Space/The Rambunctious One From Space) (宇宙から来た暴れん坊 Uchū kara Kita Abarenbō?)
Genre: Tokusatsu TV
Plot:
After the discovery of a strange space rock, the Science Patrol learns that the object has the power to grant wishes, and when a mysterious stranger uses it to summon a giant monster with the Science Patrol relies on Ultraman to deal with the creature.
Story:
This was a rather challenging and disappointing effort. The central premise for the episode is all well and good, revolving around the discovery and study of the rock and its powers, resulting in a fantastic set-up in a traditional style episode. Featuring the Science Patrol going through their tests based on the information given by Hoshino from his own experiences, the revelation sequence at the conference room where they put forth the true extent of its powers is all well and good by filling in the usual set pieces found in the genre.
From there, the extent of the rock's powers is given the usual monster twist when it turns into the monster Gyango. As this is expected due to the type of show, there's not much surprise to see the monster appear once they've built up the rock's powers. However, to serve as the reasoning behind Gyango arriving in the episode this does generate a fair amount of serviceable exposition to account for the creatures strange origins. That it becomes a comedic prankster is a fine twist, simply being content to scare hotel staff or cause guests to freak out instead of being inherently vicious like most kaiju at the time.
However, there's a huge overriding flaw with this setup. There's never any distinct concrete evidence to say how the powers of the rock work, as Hoshino and his friends are clearly wishing aloud for something while they're holding the rock. Same goes for the reporter at the conference when he wishes with the rock to have the girl show up, yet the stranger who gets a hold of it simply speaks commands through a receiver in the room which is incredibly problematic and contradictory to what came before. Plus, when Hoshino and friends stopped thinking of something the rock reverted to normal, meaning the full-size Gyango should've disappeared when he gets knocked out as there's nothing here about the reasoning to have it still exist when the person loses consciousness. This part of the episode is weak and underwhelming.
Special Effects:
There's some decent work in this episode. Starting out with the monster Gyango, this is obviously a reused Bemular suit only with a gnarly new head and psychedelic modifications adorning his abdomen for a truly bizarre creation. There's a rather silly and goofy look to it with the pug-like snout and large eye alongside the rotating radar-dishes/ears or whatever those things are that spin on the side of it's head. His antics don't help much with his gesturing and generally being a pest who tricks people into not attacking while he uses that as an opportunity to attack them instead, but as a costume he's certainly a memorable creation.
Being that it doesn't turn into a kaiju until the final half, there's not a lot of city destruction to be had but it's enough to matter overall. The hotel set for Gyango to become full-size looks okay but is clearly just a hollow shell being used, while the beach-side set used for the final battle is a little better with the entrance to the bay on the camera side and the buildings and the rubble laid out on the ground to allow them to fight is fine enough for a TV show budget.
As well, the rest of the special effects serves this well enough. There's the usual assortment of military vehicles brought in to fight Gyango's full-size form which constitutes the jets and ground tanks that are their usual toys put before the camera. There's also the fact that we get a new look here with the early effects of the rock's powers, showing the creation of the birthday cake layer by layer or the appearance of the rocket through stop-motion animation gives these scenes a different feel. All told, the special effects work well-enough here to balance the goofiness apparent in the rest of the episode.
Acting:
The acting here is not really worthwhile at all. The only person of note is the guest star who steals the meteor but is essentially just a one-note psychotic without much else. Not only is there nothing of his name, but there's also a huge lack of knowledge about what he's doing this for. Stealing a shapeshifting space rock and simply using it to pull pranks on a clueless and unsuspecting hotel staff isn't the most logical and well-thought-out scenarios, really hammering home the underwhelming writing here. The guy is perfect as unhinged and crazy but that's about it. There's nothing else here worth mentioning as the Science Patrol isn't really featured here leaving this to call flat in this area.
Other Factors:
At this point in the series, this is truly the best turn toward comedy as a whole. The initial segments detailing a twisted take on a 'what-if' scenario featuring the discovery that the stone can grant wishes to those around it sets the stage nicely for the kaiju subplot to emerge with some light-hearted scenes of Gyango creating havoc around the hotel. Seeing the creature scare off bell-hops and crash a photo shoot out by a swimming pool is a fantastic series of highly comical slapstick set pieces that are accompanied by the creative camerawork showing the handler laughing hysterically after each successive encounter in a singular box against an orange background causes plenty of striking visual touches during this sequence.
Likewise, once Gyango turns into a massive creature there's a lot more of that comedic atmosphere present. The scenes of the military attacking and Gyango acting as if they're scaring or hurting him with those actions is a nice original touch with the squealing noises and cowering notion really selling the idea that it's terrified. This is carried over into the actual fight with Ultraman as this is absolute comedy gold. From Gyango tricking Ultraman into a take-down maneuver in order to sit on him forcing Ultraman to tickle the creature to get it off, missing charges and landing in the surrounding bay and finally offering up the greatest sucker punch in cinema history, the fight is goofy, delirious and outright hysterical offering the perfect cap to a genuinely funny episode.
Overview: ***/5
Filled with hysterical visual gags while sporting some rather weak writing in the setup for the actual reasoning for everything which really undermines a lot of that comedy. It's overshadowed by many of the following episodes In these areas, making it solely for those willing to look past its flaws or series aficionados.
Comments
Post a Comment