I saw this first on MST3K, but there is a clearer version of the original, with English subtitles, called "Iron Sharp," at the Internet Archive.
Surprisingly, it's terrific!
First off, the opening credits image is an erupting volcano, not the art shown in the version used by Best Brains.
Secondly, it's clear at the start that the kids are dreaming this up after science class. Once you get that, the movie is MUCH more enjoyable.
Even the running. The kids, of course, but then the reporters, and finally the scientists and soldiers -- all running around like panicked children (the power room explosion/Dr. Tanigawa's being attacked): adults wouldn't act like that anywhere except in youngsters' imagination.
I don't think Mr. Tachibana is really meant to be Iron Sharp/Space Chief; the two are linked in the boys' minds. And since their imagination is running the story ("Level 5 clearance," as MST3K put it), it looks like the two characters are the same.
Space Chief/Iron Sharp actually says, when they ask who he is (I'm quoting from memory), "I think you know my name better than I do." Big clue, that: and that scene ends with them naming him (in English, another surprise).
The movie also addresses some serious issues of the day (in the 60s, I was about the same age as those children). For instance, the aliens almost start WWIII, and only the kids and Dr. Tanigawa know it. Then there's the nuclear explosion -- here followed by pictures of the destroyed town -- as well as duality about the first signs of the coming age (big power lines, for example, and the microwave tower).
Yes, the Hitler building is still in there. It makes more sense in this version: they're breaking with the past.
Oh, I just like this a lot. It's deeper than expected. You might want to check the subtitled version out.
Unlike the OG English-version "Prince of Space," also at archive.org, there is quite a bit of additional footage in this Internet Archive file, including an ending that balances the early scene where the boys first imagine Iron Sharp (and is much different in mood from what you would expect if the director had really intended that the devastating "Crispix" flyer attack, etc., was real).
Finally, there is an underlying theme, expressed by one of the kids at the end, that Japan shouldn't let the US and USSR get ahead of them in space exploration.
And IRL they didn't.
I'd guess this movie inspired a lot of young people in the 1960s to embrace the new technology and helped get the Japanese miracle going during the rest of the century.
Surprisingly, it's terrific!
First off, the opening credits image is an erupting volcano, not the art shown in the version used by Best Brains.
Secondly, it's clear at the start that the kids are dreaming this up after science class. Once you get that, the movie is MUCH more enjoyable.
Even the running. The kids, of course, but then the reporters, and finally the scientists and soldiers -- all running around like panicked children (the power room explosion/Dr. Tanigawa's being attacked): adults wouldn't act like that anywhere except in youngsters' imagination.
I don't think Mr. Tachibana is really meant to be Iron Sharp/Space Chief; the two are linked in the boys' minds. And since their imagination is running the story ("Level 5 clearance," as MST3K put it), it looks like the two characters are the same.
Space Chief/Iron Sharp actually says, when they ask who he is (I'm quoting from memory), "I think you know my name better than I do." Big clue, that: and that scene ends with them naming him (in English, another surprise).
The movie also addresses some serious issues of the day (in the 60s, I was about the same age as those children). For instance, the aliens almost start WWIII, and only the kids and Dr. Tanigawa know it. Then there's the nuclear explosion -- here followed by pictures of the destroyed town -- as well as duality about the first signs of the coming age (big power lines, for example, and the microwave tower).
Yes, the Hitler building is still in there. It makes more sense in this version: they're breaking with the past.
Oh, I just like this a lot. It's deeper than expected. You might want to check the subtitled version out.
Unlike the OG English-version "Prince of Space," also at archive.org, there is quite a bit of additional footage in this Internet Archive file, including an ending that balances the early scene where the boys first imagine Iron Sharp (and is much different in mood from what you would expect if the director had really intended that the devastating "Crispix" flyer attack, etc., was real).
Finally, there is an underlying theme, expressed by one of the kids at the end, that Japan shouldn't let the US and USSR get ahead of them in space exploration.
And IRL they didn't.
I'd guess this movie inspired a lot of young people in the 1960s to embrace the new technology and helped get the Japanese miracle going during the rest of the century.