Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro
Tags: anti war

Plot synopsis:
Air Japan flight JA307 is enroute from Tokyo's Haneda airport south
to Itami Airport in Osaka. As stewardess Kuzumi Asakura [Tomomi Sato] announces the
flight plan, which will take them over the island of Oshima and the city
of Suzuka, the pilot notices an unusual blood red color to the sky around
them. That's when the trouble starts.One by one, the passengers begin seeing bloody birds flapping their
wings against the windows as though in fear. The pilot [Hiroyuki Nishimoto] receives a radio
message to the fact that there may be a bomb aboard and is ordered to
return immediately to Haneda. Co-pilot Sugisaka [Teruo Yoshida] is ordered to check the
bags of each of the passengers, giving the excuse that a bag containing
confidential documents may have mistakenly been loaded on this flight. All
bags are clean and only one man [Hideo Ko] has no bag, but Kuzumi notices an
unaccompanied suitcase under a bench. Sugisaka opens it and finds not a
bomb but a rifle. The man without a suitcase suddenly pulls a gun on
Sugisaka and then orders the pilot to change course to Okinawa. To show
that he means business, he fires through the cabin a shot that knocks over
a transistor radio breaking the news that a UFO has just been spotted over
Japan and that Japanese and US Air Force fighters are in pursuit. Suddenly
a large luminous object is spotted directly in front of the airplane. It
passes overhead but knocks out the airplane's gauges, sparking a fire in
the engines. Air Japan flight JA307 goes down on what looks like an
uncharted desert isle.Sugisaka is the first to awaken but the pilot is dead as well as the
hijacker. Kuzumi is next to recover. Together, Sugisaka and Kuzumi check
for more survivors. There is Mrs Neal [Kathy Horan], an American Vietnam War widow;
Senator Mano [ Eizo Kitamura] of the Constitutional Democratic Party; weapons exporter Tokiyasu [Nobuo Kaneko] and his wife Noriko [Yuko Kusunoki], who flies into Mr Mano's arms when she finds
that she has survived the crash; Psychiatrist Momotake [Kazuo Kato]; space biologist
Professor Sagai [Masaya Takhashi]; and the young man who called in the bomb threat (whom
they lock in the cockpit). Taking stock of the airplane, they find that
they are out of water, have no food nor any idea of where they are. What's
worse is that a radio announcement says that a search has not uncovered
any trace of the downed airplane, so the search has been discontined.As Sugisaka worries about surviving, and Mano worries about his
upcoming election, and Tokiyasu worries about himself, and Sagai offers
scifi explanations, and Dr Momotake studies survival instincts clashing
with egos, the hijacker suddenly revives, grabs Kuzumi as a hostage, and
runs out into the night where they come upon a luminous spaceship. Kuzumi
crouches behind a rock, but the hijacker steps into a clearing to get a
better look. Suddenly, his face goes blank and he begins walking toward
the spaceship. A dark blob crawls along the ground towards the hijacker.
When she sees the hijacker's forehead split open from nose to hairline,
Kuzumi screams and passes out.Sugisaka finds Kizumi passed out behind the rock and carries her back
to the airplane. In order to get Kuzumi to tell what she saw, Dr Momotake
hypnotizes her. Kuzumi tells how the dark blob crawled into the hijacker's
skull through the split in his forehead. Tokiyasu doesn't believe her, but
Dr Momotake assures him that Kuzumi is telling the truth. Sagai points out
that it could be a flying saucer and backs up his suspicion with the fact
that reports of UFOs have increased ever since the bombing of Hiroshima,
giving extraterrestrials ample opportunity to invade the Earth while we
are preoccupied with senseless wars. While everyone bemoans the horrors of
war, the kid who called in the fake bomb threat goes berserk, not wanting
to believe Kuzumi's story. He attacks Dr Momotake, who falls off the
cliff. Waiting at the bottom is the hijacker. He latches on to Momotake,
bites his neck, and sucks out all his blood, turning Momotake a bright
shade of blue.A few hours pass as the survivors discuss the need to find water in
the morning. Suddenly, there comes a knock on the door. Mano and Tokiyasu
don't want to open it, but Sugisaka does anyway. As he descends the
stairs, he sees the hijacker lying on the ground and notices the big scar
on his forehead. Mrs Neal, whose husband was killed by a napalm blast to
the face, rushes to the hijacker and begs for the others to help him.
Against their better judgement, they carry the hijacker inside and dress
his wound.Mano is becoming extremely thirsty, thanks to the bottle of whiskey
that Tokiyasu gave him. Now, when Mano wants a drink of water from
Tokiyasu's canteen, Tokiyasu refuses. It seems that Mano and Tokiyasu have
been greasing each others' palms, Tokiyasu funding Mano's campaign and
Mano promising to pressure the committee to accept Tokiyasu's weapons bid,
a promise that Tokiyasu had no intention of keeping. In revenge, Tokiyasu
picks up a rifle and forces everyone out into the night then locks himself
in the safety of the airplane. But he forgot one person...the hijacker.Tokiyasu's screams can be heard outside the airplane. Suddenly, the
screams stop and the locked door swings open. Everyone rushes inside to
find Tokiyasu dead on the floor, all the blood drained from his body.
Noriko begins to laugh, exclaiming that she is now free from here
husband's abuse, but her laughter soon turns to tears when she thinks
about the way he died. When no one is looking, the hijacker comes out of
hiding and carries Noriko off to the spaceship. When the others notice
that Noriko is missing, they go in search of her.The sun is rising, and Noriko can be seen standing on a ridge. She
raises her hand to speak, but it is not her voice. It is the Gokemidoro
speaking through her. They have come to invade the earth, says the voice,
and to exterminate the human race. That said, the Gokemidoro have no more
need for Noriko's body, so she plunges off the cliff. By the time her
fellow passengers get to her broken body, she has disintegrated into a
shriveled old cadaver.Once again, the passengers get into an argument about whether or not
there are such things as extraterrestrials who would evade the earth.
Professor Sagai theorizes that the Gokemidoro have taken over the
hijacker's body and turned him into a vampire. Mano thinks that is
balderdash and challenges them to show him a vampire. Sagai agrees that he
would like to see one, too. The only way to do that is to sacrifice one of
them to the Goke. But who will it be? Mano suggests Mrs Neal, because a
foreigner will be less problems later. Mrs Neal screams that she doesn't
want to die. Sugisaka is against the entire idea. A knocking on the
cockpit door and a cry for water remind them of the kid who made the bomb
threat, so they let him out. Mrs Neal grabs a rifle and locks Sugisaka and
Kuzumi into the cockpit. Mano and Saiga shove the kid outside. Then they
line up in the windows to watch the hijacker slowly advance. The kid pulls
out the bomb he's been hiding and vows to blow up the plane unless they
let him back in. They don't, the hijacker continues to advance, and the
bomb goes off, killing the kid and blowing a large opening in the side of
the airplane.It's now evident that the plane can no longer provide cover, so
they'll have to get moving. But the bomb blast has wounded Professor
Sagai. Mano could care less and runs off. Mrs Neal follows him. When the
hijacker catches up with them, Mano pushes Mrs Neal towards the hijacker
in order to save himself. Mrs Neal shoots at the hijacker a number of
times but keeps missing. Finally, the hijacker grabs her, fastens his lips
to her neck, and sucks her dry.Back in the airplane, Sugisaka and Kuzumi are packing up supplies
while Sagai bemoans his loss of faith in humanity. As Sugisaka assures him
that they must believe in human goodness, they hear a shout outside. It is
Mano, and the hijacker is not far behind him. Sugisaka and Kuzumi go out
to help Mano, but he quickly runs inside the plane, locking the door
behind him. The hijacker turns on Sugisaka and Kuzumi. While Mano watches
from inside the plane, Sugisaka tosses a bucket of airplane fuel at the
hijacker, then sets him on fire.The Gokemidoro crawls out of the burning hijacker, creeps into the
airplane through the bomb hole, and makes its way into Professor Saiga's
forehead. Saiga drinks his fill on Mano, then turns to Sugisaka and
Kuzumi, who try to run. Saiga follows until they are stopped by a
landslide that knocks Saiga from the hill they are climbing. Sugisaka and
Kuzumi keep running, while Saiga makes his way back to the spaceship. Once
Saiga is there, the Gokemidoro crawls out of his skull, reducing Saiga to
a pile of dust.Sugisaka and Kuzumi keep running until they come out on a highway
where they see cars lined up at a tollbooth. Everyone in the cars is dead.
Everyone in the city is dead, too. The voice of the Gokemidoro can be
heard, giving the same message it spoke through Noriko...that they have
come to invade the earth and to exterminate the human race. Cut to footage
of mushroom clouds.Epilogue: Sugisaka and Kuzumi are wandering on rocky terrain. Sugisaka
wonders why this had to happen. Pan from the earth to outerspace where a
whole fleet of Gokemidoro spaceships are headed towards us. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

Review: This is a slick, well-done horror/sci-fi that blends many elements and does it well.There's some vampires, people's minds being taken over, driven insane, killing each other, invading aliens with sinister plots, and a lot of innocents in peril.
The movie opens with a UFO sighting, and a plane being knocked out of the sky and forced to crash land in the wilderness.
Even if you have to watch a pan & scan dubbed copy, it is well worth catching.By the way, the English-language version is called GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL.
'Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell' is the perfect example of a low budget horror movie transcending its limitations, coming up with something surprisingly creepy and surreal..
Thanks to Quentin Tarantino homaging 'Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell's blood red sky in 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1' I can finally get to see this obscurity on DVD in Japanese with English subtitles, instead of a badly dubbed fading old VHS tape.
Okay, this is a b-grade movie and the effects are pretty lousy (especially the plane crash sequence), but to say it's a bad movie is far from the truth.
For me it's the perfect example of a low budget horror movie transcending its limitations,  coming up with something surprisingly creepy and surreal (See also William Castle's 'The Tingler', Herk Harvey's 'Carnival Of Souls', Coffin Joe's 'At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul',etc.) The opening is terrific - a plane flies through an eerie red sky and birds throw themselves at the windows in sheer terror.
On the ground the survivors are initially worried about the basics, like water and rescue, plus the presence of a suspected assassin, but pretty soon they also have to contend with a bizarre alien invasion!
The acting is generally quite good, the alien will freak you out, and there's several interesting references to the Vietnam war, which was unexpected and gave the movie quite a unique background (can you remember any American SF movies of the 1960s even MENTIONING Vietnam?).
Making a left to go to Okinawa when the plane is Hijacked be prepared to be surprise My first hint this was going in another direction then I thought is when the lone American turns out to be a widow of a GI who was just killed in Vietnam and she was on her way to claim his body.
The alien is a life form which takes control of a person by entering the body, and then turns that person into a vampire, who drains its victims of all blood.
The last of the J-horrors produced late in the decade, the pulp sci-fi magazine elements are presented in searing colors and psychedelic effects, giving this film an unforgettable visual impact.
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968) ** (out of 4) Japanese horror/sci-fi, which is a mixture of The Blob and Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires.
The special effects are good and the alien/vampire creature is pretty good but that's about all this film has to offer..
If you're a fan of Japanese cinema, vampire films and sci-fi flying saucer invasions, you won't want to miss this one..
The survivors of a plane crash in a remote area are attacked by blob-like alien creatures that turn their victims into blood-thirsty vampires.n a contemporary review, the Monthly Film Bulletin reviewed an 83 minute English-dubbed version of the film.
The review described the film as an "Uninspired mélange of flying saucers and vampirism" that was "woodenly directed and bogged down by long stretches of melodramatic dissension among the characters which acts as an uneasy springboard for much preaching and moralizing about why mankind deserves to be taken over by invaders from another world." That is terribly unfair.
This is a Grade B Japanese sci-fi-/horror flick, and another version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Maybe those who dissed Nicole Kidman for her performance may find what they are looking for here.The effects are cheap, and the acting is lame, and there are plot holes you can fly a 747 through, but that is not the point.I hear the red sky was so amazing that Quentin Tarantino used it in a Kill Bill movie.
No, it's not Lost, it is an invasion.The politics of war and hate are woven throughout this film from the flashbacks to the Vietnam War, the war widow on the plane, mushroom clouds, the arms dealer and politician also among the passengers, and the assassin, who becomes the first victim.
That's something I haven't seen in a Japanese film.It all ends with a new Adam and Eve, or in this case Sugisaka and Kuzumi, Maybe they will populate the Earth with people not intent on killing each other..
Intriguingly, the Janus logo which preceded the opening titles suggests this may be forthcoming on DVD from Criterion (I haven't yet purchased the other cult Japanese horror they've released, JIGOKU [1960], due to the defective first pressing of that film's disc; having watched GOKE, I wonder whether I should take the plunge nowhoping that I end up with a corrected copy).Admittedly, the plot of the film isn't all that original: the English title, obviously, implies a certain kinship with Don Siegel's 1956 classic  while the gelatinous alien which possesses the human body through the face(!) is also redolent of THE BLOB (1958); but maybe its influences actually came from European genre efforts  as a matter of fact, two Italian films I've just watched have a good deal in common with it, namely CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959; the oozing creature, again) and PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1965; the remote setting, the 'body snatcher' element, the vivid color scheme and even the final apocalyptic revelation)!
Besides, the fact that the narrative revolves around a handful of passengers from a crashed plane also brings to mind the oft-used 'hazardous situation' plot line of classic Hollywood films such as FIVE CAME BACK (1939), STAGECOACH (1939) and the like; under pressure of hunger, thirst, isolation and the imminent threat of alien takeover, all the basic natures of the various characters come to the boil  leading most of them inexorably towards their doom!
This mish-mash of elements ensures a stylish and entertaining ride  but it's all filtered through the innately weird sensibilities of Japanese cinema (not to mention the country's first-hand experience of nuclear fall-out, which unmistakably pre-occupied most of their sci-fi entries), giving it a distinctive creepiness; the final reel  peppered with red-tinted newsreel footage of devastation and violence  has the two lone survivors finally reaching civilization, only to be met with a less than comforting sight..
Also a very terrible movie, but interesting none the less.The plot: A terrorist/assassin is hijacking a plane, but before that can happen, the pilot is blinded by a flying saucer and he crashes.
It's an incredible Japanese horror movie which is an airplane disaster movie/vampire movie/alien invasion movie/apocolypse movie.
The film begins with a Japanese airliner losing control when they see a blood red sky, evil birds, and a UFO, crashing into a desert.
This strange, colourful Japanese sci-fi/horror film has something for everyone: terrorists, assassins, plane crashes, vampires, flying saucers, alien blobs, and a great downbeat ending.
Forced to crash-land on a deserted island, a flight-crew finds their chances for survival hindered by their constant squabbles for control as well as the ravenous blob-like alien species on the island with them and must find a way of stopping them and get off alive.This here was quite the enjoyable if overall flawed horror effort.
Instigating a plot-thread about a damaged plane, the strange gas- cloud following them and the potential UFO sighting all within the first part of the film sets this one off on a seemingly wild bent even before bringing along the hijacker that causes them to crash the plane, and when that gets them not only stranded on the island but also forced to confront the potential of something else stuck there with them it's a rather strong and impressive set of circumstances that bring this along.
Followed by the crash and the first instances of the realization of the island being inhabited by something with the discovery of the alien ship there that infects the one passenger, it creates quite an appealing and generally wild atmosphere that carries on to the other scenes throughout here of the passengers being abducted and taken to the spaceship on the island where they also get infected with the virus-like being that turns them into the deadly creatures.
That gets carried on nicely here with the aliens coming after them repeatedly in the final moments of this one and generating quite a few tense scenes including where he attacks them on the plane, a chase through the mountains on the side of the crash-site and the thrilling final battle around the plane where they finally manage to overcome the creature, these here work nicely and give this one a lot to really like overall.
This is because this genre-bending film is a vampire, alien invasion, airplane disaster and anti-war film!!!
However, given the lousy special effects, horrid writing, cartoon-like characters, limp direction and rotten acting, the film was destined for failure.
Enjoyed this film which concerned an airplane which is flying with a group of people and find themselves being controlled by the power of outer space beings that seem to control their plane and their lives.
There are hints about the A Bomb dropped on Japan and also the fact that war creates suffering and horror, and also Viet Nam. This plane crashes into a desert and the outer space people invade those people on the plane and some of these people experience a creature that has a big glob that seems to enter his head and he turns into a vampire that seeks the blood of everybody living on earth.
This film goes into great detail about war that has occurred on earth and it brings outer space people who want to establish a more stable way to bring peace and less strive on earth, however, blood seems to be their only essential item they need to obtain daily..
It's a Japanese sci-fi horror B-movie.
Look, the whole point of this flawed-but-interesting film is that the invading aliens (Gokemidoro) are a metaphor for the United States.
That's why "space vampires." One of the few alien invasion flicks where the bad guys are ACTUALLY the good guys.
I don't recall the moment in Kill Bill cribbed from Goke: Bodysnatcher from Hell (a scene of plane in blood red sky), like many other details it was lost for me, just another colorful bauble in that magpie's nest of a film, but with renewed interest Goke can now be seen as it should, in pristine widescreen subtitled form.
It begins impressively on a plane mid sky, all around turns blood red and birds fly to bloody smears on windows, then comes a UFO fly pass and system failure leading to a crash.
Cool cheapo effects including a model plane, ominous colored lighting and a silvery alien slime creature, cool opening and absolute dynamite finale with enough to sustain between, overall memorably unusual atmosphere, its fun stuff that grew on me all the more thinking on it after.
A motley assortment of people survive a plane crash only to find themselves under attack by alien blob creatures that turn their victims into vicious predatory vampires.
The surprise bummer ending packs a devastating punch as well as makes a powerful statement that since human beings are already destroying themselves with things like war and assassination we basically deserve to be eradicated by an extraterrestrial race.
Further enhance by garish widescreen cinematography, a shivery score, and several striking surreal visuals (for example, the plane flying across a blood red sky), this one overall rates as an excellent little creepfest..
During the landing the pilot is killed but both Sugisaka & Asakura survive along with eight passengers, Mano (Eizo Kitamura) a top brass politician, an American lady named Mrs. Neal (Kathy Horan), Mr. Tokuyasu who owns a company that makes weapons & his wife Noriko Tokuyasu (Yuko Kusunoki, by the way I took these spellings directly off my sub-titled DVD & they are correct, the IMDb is wrong), the original bomber, Dr. Momotake (Kazuo Kato) a psychiatrist, Saga (Masaya Takahashi) who claims he is a researcher in space biology & the assassin.
If being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no food or water & surrounded by a bunch of a-holes wasn't bad enough they learn of an alien invasion that intends to wipe out the entire planet...This Japanese production was directed by Hajime Sato & I really liked it, it's eerie, creepy & atmospheric.
The script by Kyuzo Kobayashi & Susumu Takahisa has a great central idea, body jumping blob like aliens, a plane crash to isolate our human victims, birds committing suicide & a strong recurring moral message that war is bad.
Plane crashes into desert, OK, then the survivors have no food or water and a hideous blob-like thing oozes into a man's brain and turns him into a vampire.
This is a really scary movie with lots of scary, nightmarish scenes inside of an alien spaceship where blobs ooze in and out of mens heads by making gashes in there skulls with this horrible sound..
Alien Blob-Like Creatures Feasting on Japanese Airline Passengers.
This film begins with a Japanese passenger airplane on a routine flight over the Pacific Ocean when the pilot suddenly gets instructions to return to Japan because a suicide bomber might be on board.
Unfortunately, the alien spaceship also lands on this same small island and inside it is a malevolent blob-like creature who has no high regard for the human species.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that was a grade-B sci-fi film from start-to-finish which included a rather obvious anti-war message thrown in for good measure.
Most Japanese sci-fi B-movies of the '60s are played for fun, focusing on the surreal aspects of the plots and delivering a barrel-load of laughs at the same time.
Not so GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL, a film with a mission: to relay the horrors of warfare (in particular, the then-current Vietnam War) and to act as a warning against further conflict.
Nevertheless, it's a bloody good film, fun and enjoyable and delivering a shed load of tense character showdowns a la NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as a group of survivors variously reveal themselves to be heroic, insane, stuffy, psychotic, or just plain evil.The direction is tight and confident throughout, utilising maximum effect from the basic settings and focusing on characterisation, which is no bad thing.
In fact, a lot of the violence in this film makes for particularly uncomfortable viewing, especially a burnt body which is clearly inspired by images of napalm victims.Typically for a Japanese film, such moments are countered by cheesier bits, in this film an alien blob-type creature which burrows into the foreheads of its victims, turning them into vampires.
The American star (appearing for the world audience, no doubt) has a surprising character twist whilst the others are all very good in their respective roles, especially weird-looking Hideo Ko who plays the villain.Special effects in the film are colourful and a lot of fun, with crashing planes, a full-scale UFO invasion, and lots of icky slimy bloody bits.
A surreal combination of a kiddie sci-fi film and a far more adult horror, I doubt you'll find anything else quite like this..
Admittedly I just fell in love with the two-line summary I read somewhere ("The survivors of a plane crash in a remote area are attacked by blob-like alien creatures that turn their victims into blood-thirsty vampires") but the film is much more than that.
A Japanese airplane with a versatile selection of passengers on board (a sniper murderer, a businessman with his butt-licking assistant and his wife, a youthful prankster, an American tourist) crashes during a sinister night when the skies are blood red and birds spontaneously commit suicide by flying into the plane's engine.
On this island, there is an even more dangerous threat: Blob-like creatures invade the minds (through a head-vagina) of the survivors, turning them into blood-thirsty murderers.It's a shame this terrifying sci-fi/horror flick goes so unnoticed, forgotten by time.
The actors excellently display the desperation and fear that the situation provided and it's just another element that helps to make this one of the better Sci-Fi films to come out of Japan in the 1960s.Fans of Mario Bava's 'Planet of the Vampires' or, even, the old 'Lost in Space' series should most definitely give this film a look.Final verdict: 8/10..
Goke's objective is admirable: the destruction of the Human Race- and the ending of the movie is great-, but some of the lines are hysterical.
This 1968 apocalyptic Japanese sci-fi/horror classic (the opening shot of the aeroplane against a blood-red sky ripped-off by Tarantino) seems like a hybrid of the over-hyped TV hit "Lost", Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead" and Jenkins/LaHaye's "Left Behind" (accept no Christian deity 'raptures' any Bible-thumping drones here).As the British Ambassador to Japan is assassinated, the Vietnam war and other conflict rages; the 'End Times' appear to be upon us.
Our survivors, now besieged in the plane-wreck, must co-operate but human selfishness (as usual) gets in the way, and they are picked-off one by one by the un-seen Gokemidoro; superior alien beings who've concluded humankind a hateful pest to be eliminated.With excellent, dateless FX and beautifully pessimistic conclusion "Goke Bodysnatcher From Hell/Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro" is a gem which belongs in every 'Weird Cinema' Fan's collection..
This could possibly be due to the English translation offered in the version I watched; my summary line is from pilot Sugisaka (Teruo Yoshida) to Miss Asakura (Tomomi Sato) after he crash lands their hijacked, UFO-blinded airplane.