Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku (The X from Outer Space; Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell; The Living Skeleton; Genocide) (Criterion Collection)

long-awaited treasure... and a great price for the product
I've been waiting years and years for 3 of the 4 of these films to be released domestically. Now, not only has that happened, it's via Criterion, the films are NOT dubbed (hooray) and THEY LOOK ABSOLUTELY STUNNING.

LIVING SKELETON in particular benefits SO much from the treatment here. My goodness... the black-&-white cinematography is GORGEOUS. I'd only seen a 4th generation video of it. Once. And while that whet my appetite it in no way prepared me for this. Mind you, the stunning, restored, crisp print showcases the less-than-stunning, rubber and plastic skeletons and bats which appear throughout the movie. However, the whole film is so, so like a sleepwalking trance, that the very Japanese fantasy elements, which are still, on one level, laughable, are, in my opinion, forgiveable. Wacky, dream-logic maze of strangeness and self-destruction. And the lead actress is HAUNTINGLY beautiful.

GENOCIDE, too, looks marvelous and captivates despite its curious tone,...

WOW
I have only seen two these before X From Outer Space & Goke and have waiting a long time for them to come because they are both fantastic, but I was amazed that the other two are just as great too. WOW is all I can say if you enjoy japanese sci-fi horror you really need to scoop these up. ProgMark

Velveeta from the Western Pacific
It's a shame the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 crew never got to these four films produced by the Shochiku Company in the late 60s. As mentioned by at least one other reviewer, if you can get past the B movie technical aspects (or, perhaps, wallow in them) you'll find some subtle and rather nuanced messages contained in these movies -- the anti-Americanism, anti-imperialism, and perhaps racism of Genocide, for instance. The only one that didn't work for me was The X from Outer Space, which largely devolved into a boring and repetitious set of destructive scenes by a guy in a rubber chicken outfit. I don't know that I'd buy these at full price, but if you can find this set at a discount or through your library, I believe you can find a few hours of entertaining distraction here. And if you're a devotee of science fictional cheese, particularly the Asian variety, then you've got to experience these films for sure.

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