On flight JA307 the sky outside the window is eerie with red clouds. The pilot remarks that it looks like they are flying through a sea of blood. Then the pilot receives a radio message saying that a bomb threat was reported. The co-pilot begins checking everyone’s bags. A bird flies into one of the windows. The passenger at the back of the plane says he doesn’t have a bag.
The flight attendant calls the co-pilot into the back area of the plane. A suitcase is under a cot. It’s opened. A vial of acid is dropped. Acid burns through the clothes in the suitcase. A rife is also in the case. Then the man from the back of the plane enters with a hand gun. He takes the flight attendant and the co-pilot to the front of the plane. He orders the plane be diverted to Okinawa. A transistor radio begins a news report of a flying saucer being pursued by the Japanese and the US Air Force. Another bird hits the plane. Then a UFO hits the plane and sets an engine on fire. The plane crash lands on what appears to be a deserted island.
There are a few survivors. The hijacker Hirofumi Teraoka, an American widow, Mrs. Neal, Senator Mano, psychiatrist Momoatake, space biologist Professor Sagai, weapons dealer Tokiysau, his wife Noriko, co-pilot Sugisaka, flight attendant Kazumi Asakura and the teenage bomber.
The hijacker is also an assassin. He kidnaps the flight attendant and runs off. They run into the UFO that downed the plane. The flight attendant falls. The assassin, Teraoka, is pulled toward the UFO. His face splits open and an alien entity enters his head. Asakura is found by Sugisaka and returned to the plane. She is in shock. Momotake hypnotizes her to remember what she saw. Everybody freaks out, especially the teenage bomber. He attacks Momotake. The doctor trips and falls off a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff is Teraoka. He has been transformed into a vampire by the alien entity inside him. He attacks Dr. Momotake and drains his blood.
The assassin Teraoka ends up back at the plane. Mrs. Neal sees Teraoka with the gash in his head and thinks of her husband who died in Vietnam of a head wound. She takes pity on him and convinces the others to let him in. While the rest of the passengers bicker between themselves Teraoka begins to pick them off one by one. If they don’t kill each other first that is.
“Goke: The Body Snatcher From Hell” was released in 1968, 1969 in the US, and was directed by Hajime Sato. The movie is basically an anti-war propaganda film disguised as a science fiction/horror story. Cool. This is no different than such stories as H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”.
The end was a little freaky and it was a wild ride all the way to the end. Suffice it to say, it pretty much doesn’t end well for anybody. It’s action packed and full of color and some good effects. It’s alien invasion, body snatcher, vampire and apocalyptic end of world movie all rolled into one. I’m not surprised that it’s one of Quinton Tarantino’s favorite movies.
It’s low budget but it is well done. The effects are very creative. The characters are bigger than life and at one time or another you pretty much hate most of them.
The film was produced by Shochiku Studios. This is the same filmmakers that did “The X From Outer Space” 1967, “Genocide” 1968 and “The Living Skeleton” 1968. They didn’t do a lot of science fiction/horror type stuff but this one they did well.
Japanese subtitled
English dubbed