SUPU JAIANTSU – JINKO EISEI TO JINRUI NO HAMETSU (1957)
aka Super Giant 5
Article 5333 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-31-2016
Directed by Teruo Ishii
Featuring Ken Utsui, Utako Mitsuya, Hiroshi Hayashi
Country: Japan
What it is: Super Giant short

Super Giant does battle with Space Nazis who have an artificial satellite orbiting the Earth.

This is the fifth of the nine-part Super Giant series from Japan that was edited into the four “Starman” movies; this one marked the first half of ATTACK FROM SPACE. That was one of the more coherent of the Starman movies, and it appears that may be due to the fact that the sixth short was a direct sequel; in fact, this one ends on a cliffhanger. My copy didn’t have English subtitles, but that’s all right; if I want to know what’s going on, I can consult ATTACK FROM SPACE, but I don’t think I really need to know any more than that it’s Super Giant versus Space Nazis. I have to admit this one is a bit disappointing taken on its own; there’s only one fight scene, and it’s not one of the better ones, though I do notice how the sound effects work overtime to make it sound like there’s actually a fight going on instead of people doing gymnastic routines. This one just has too much time of Super Giant flying around in outer space, a visual image that gets old pretty fast. If I remember ATTACK FROM SPACE, I’m willing to bet the sixth episode in this series will be an improvement.