MovieChat Forums > Chikyû Bôeigun (1959) Discussion > Is this an attack on Zionism?

Is this an attack on Zionism?


Refugees from an ancient civilization occupy a small part of Japan and demand only this small patch of territory PLUS some human females for "breeding stock," as radiation had killed off their women. The Mysterians assure the Japanese people these are their final demands. The second demand compels Japan to fight the invaders, but the alien's superior technology quickly defeats the Japanese. As Japan races to develop technology to defeat the aliens, the Mysterians occupy more territory and increase their demands, claiming their NEW demands are all their final demands. "The Mysterians" can be seen as either an allegory on Hitler or Jewish refugees and Zionism. After all, NAZIism conceived the "Aryans" with "territorial conceits" of a "Master Race" justifying seizure and occupation of someone else's land and "Zionism" conceives of a "chosen people" justifying seizure and occupation of someone else's land. The NAZIs used "blitzkrieg" to invade and occupy Poland while the Zionists used Western technology and capital to occupy Palestine. The film never asks the moral question as to whether or not the Mysterians demands are justified. In "The Mysterians," the world unites to stop the Mysterians invasion of Japan. While the allies united to stop the NAZI occupation of Poland, the League of Nations and United Nations justified the Zionist invasion of Palestine. However, since Japan was an Axis power and had supported the NAZIs, and could also be understandably unhappy with the division of Germany and the continued occupation by the US of bases in Okinawa and mainland Japan, I cannot help but wonder if the writer(s) of "The Mysterians" was taking a swipe at US and UN imperialism.

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Could be criticism to any form of imperialism, war, racism and colonialism. Depends how the viewer look at it and makes up his/her mind. Also criticism on the dark side of science [already in classic literature like "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, Jules Vernes and HG Wells].

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The Japanese themselves had only been thirteen years away from imperialist expansionism of their own resulting in two atom bombings when this film was made. The main point of the story, as in several other Ishiro Honda films, was the world uniting against a common foe. Some of the technology that defeats the Mysterians comes from the United States. And BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE throws in the Soviet Union as part of a force that repels alien invaders.

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