Japan's first color sci-fi had starfish aliens

Warning from Space was made in 1956 by the Japanese studio Daiei, and it is usually described as Japan's first science fiction film shot in color. Its aliens are giant one-eyed starfish designed by Taro Okamoto, an avant-garde painter who later created the Tower of the Sun, the symbol of Expo '70 in Osaka.

Strange lights appear over Tokyo. The visitors, called the Pairans, know that a starfish with one big eye would cause a panic, so one of them takes the shape of a popular singer to talk to the scientists. Her message is that a rogue planet is heading for Earth.

Why color was the big deal in 1956

Daiei had tried Japanese-made color film and found the results severely lacking. It then launched a regular color program, and according to a history of the studio it became the first Japanese company to use color on more than an experimental basis.

Science fiction was the showcase. The Variety reviewer praised the "good special effects plus a fine use of color" as the flaming planet nears Earth.

The painter who designed the aliens

Okamoto is credited with the Pairans' design and with the film's color direction. On screen the Pairans are roughly human-sized and friendly, though some posters and stills sold them as giants rampaging through a city. The film shows the starfish turning into the singer, Hikari Aozora (played by Toyomi Karita), in time-lapse.

Why the aliens chose Japan

In the original Japanese version the Pairans land in Japan because they believe only the Japanese understand the destructive power of an atomic bomb. Nuclear weapons fail to stop the rogue planet, so the Pairans rescue a kidnapped Japanese scientist, Dr. Matsuda, and help him build a bomb around a new element called Urium. It destroys the planet.

Critic Janne Wass notes that the American television version drops that reason and says only that Tokyo Bay seems best suited for landing. The film was never released theatrically in the United States, and the title Warning from Space belongs to the television dub.

It is for anyone curious what a studio did with its first big color budget in science fiction, and what a painter does when asked to design an alien race.

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