The Mysterians(Japanese:地球防衛軍,Hepburn:Chikyū Bōeigun,lit. 'Earth Defense Force')is a 1957 Japaneseepicscience fiction filmdirected byIshirō Honda, with special effects byEiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed byToho Co., Ltd., it is the first Honda-Tsuburaya collaboration filmed in both color andTohoScope, and starsKenji Sahara,Yumi Shirakawa,Momoko Kōchi,Akihiko Hirata,Yoshio Tsuchiya,Susumu Fujita, andTakashi Shimura, withHaruo NakajimaandKatsumi Tezukaas Moguera. In the film, Earth's defense forces unite to combat an extraterrestrial race that desires to intermarry with human women and settle on the planet.
Inspired by the success of big-budget science fiction films in Japan and the United States, Toho executives became keen on producing a science fiction epic of their own. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka recruited science fiction writer Jōjirō Okami to develop the story, which Shigeru Kayama [ja] later adapted for Takeshi Kimura's screenplay. Honda stated that three companies were involved in the film's production, which was the most in any tokusatsu production that he directed.
The Mysterians was released theatrically in Japan on December 28, 1957, as a double feature with Sazae's Youth. It was a box office success in Japan upon its release, earning ¥193 million against its ¥200 million budget during its original theatrical run, making it the tenth highest-grossing Japanese film of 1957, and leading Toho to produce two further space-themed science fiction epics: Battle in Outer Space (1959) and Gorath (1962). An English dub of the film was produced by RKO Radio Pictures and distributed in the United States by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on May 27, 1959, where it grossed $975,000 and reportedly received mostly positive reviews. Western film critics praised Tsuburaya's special effects, but some criticized the plot as confusing and juvenile.
AstrophysicistRyoichi Shiraishi, his fiancée Hiroko Iwamoto, his sister Etsuko, and his friend Joji Atsumi attend abonfestival in a village at the foot ofMount Fuji. During the festival, Shiraishi rushes out to investigate a sudden forest fire that has flared up nearby and he disappears during the confusion. The next day, Atsumi meets his mentor, Dr. Tanjiro Adachi, the headastronomerat the local observatory. Adachi hands him an incomplete report written by Shiraishi regarding a newly discovered asteroid he believed was once a planet between Mars and Jupiter, dubbed "Mysteroid". However, Adachi repudiates his radical theory.
Meanwhile, the village where the festival was held is completely wiped out by a massiveearthquake. While investigating the area, Atsumi and a group of police officers stumble upon a giantrobot, Moguera, which bursts from the side of a hill. It emits rays that destroy most of the investigation team; only Atsumi and the lead policeman survive. The robot then advances to a town near Koyama Bridge and met by heavy resistance from theJapan Self-Defense Forces. However, their artillery has no effect on Moguera, and the robot continues its rampage until it is destroyed by explosives detonated by the military near the Koyama Bridge.
After Atsumi briefs officials on what has been learned about the robot at theNational Diet Building, astronomers witness activity in outer space around the Moon. They alert the world to this discovery, and an alien gigantic dome aliens emerges shortly from the ground near Mt. Fuji. Dr. Adachi and five other scientists agree to hold a conference in the dome after a mysterious voice asks them to do so during an observation of the dome by a military and scientific entourage. The men are formally ushered into the dome, where a scientifically advanced humanoid alien race known as the "Mysterians", reveal their demands from the people of Earth: a two-mile-radius strip of land and the right to marry women of Earth. The Mysterian Leader reveals that thousands of years ago their planet—Mysteroid, once thefifth planet from the sun—was destroyed by anuclear war. Although some Mysterians were able to escape to Mars before their planet was rendered uninhabitable,strontium-90left the aliens' population deformed and they thus desire to interbreed with women on Earth to produce healthier offspring and keep their race alive.
Japan quickly dismisses their requests and begins themobilizationof its armed forces around Mount Fuji. Shiraishi—who vanished during the forest fire—reveals that he has sided with the Mysterians for their technological achievements. Without hesitation, Japan quickly launches a full-scale attack against the Mysterians' dome, but their modern weaponry is no match for the Mysterians' technology. This setback causes Japan to plead with other nations to join forces in eradicating the Mysterians threat. The nations around the world respond and issue another raid on the Mysterians' dome, which also fail despite deploying newly developed airships.
The Mysterians then increase their demand, asking for a 75-mile-radius of land. The humans develop a new weapon, the Markalite FAHP (Flying Atomic Heat Projector), a gigantic lens that can reflect the Mysterians' weaponry. Meanwhile, the Mysterians kidnap Etsuko and Hiroko, causing Atsumi to search for them and locate a cave entrance to a tunnel under the Mysterians' dome.
In the meantime, several Markalite FAHPs are deployed, and the final battle against the Mysterians' base of operations commences. Atsumi enters the dome and finds the women kidnapped by the Mysterians, alive and unharmed in an unguarded room. He takes them back to the tunnel, where he finds Shiraishi, who admits the Mysterians deceived him and truly have no good intentions. In a final attack on the base from the inside, Shiraishi sacrifices himself while the Markalite FAHP continue their assault. In the midst of the battle, a second Moguera deployed by the Mysterians is disabled after one of the FAHPs falls on top of it. As Adachi and the women reach safety in the hills above the Mysterians' occupied land, the dome collapses and explodes. While some of the surviving Mysterians flee into space in their spaceships, Dr. Adachi comments on the need for continued vigilance.
