The spaceship AAB Gamma is dispatched from Japan to the planet Mars to investigate reports of UFOs seen near the Red Planet. When the spaceship arrives, it comes across a mysterious alien vessel that suddenly sprays the AAB Gamma with spores. Samples are returned to Earth, where one of them begins to develop. The spore grows into a giant, lizard-like creature that is named "Guilala". The monster begins a reign of destruction through Tokyo. It spits fireballs, feeds on nuclear fuel, turns into a flying, burning sphere, and destroys all aircraft and tanks in its path. Guilala is finally defeated by fighter jets laden with bombs, which coat it in a substance called "Guilalalium". This causes Guilala to shrink down to its original spore form. The government promptly launches it back into space, where it will circle the Sun in an endless orbit.
Produced by: Wataru Nakajima & Shochiku Ofuna Studios Production Assistants: Akihiko Shimada, Saburo Muto Written and Directed by: Emi Motomochi, Morita Ishida, Yoshimizu Nihonmatsu Supervision: Ryu Mitsuru Photography: Shizuo Hirata and Chitora Ogoshi Production Designer: Shigemori Shigeta Music: Taku Izumi Lighting: Tadashi Tsubuki, Toshifumi Takahashi Edit: Yoshi Sugihara Recording: Hiroshi Nakamura Articulation: Takashi Matsumoto Assistant Directors: Keiji Shiraki, Shigeru Ito Equipment: Shojiro Ota Optical Technology: Tomohiro Ishikawa Progress: Masayuki Fukuyama, Tatsuo Ogihara Development: IMAGICA Production Chief: Makoto Naito
Special Effects
Supervision: Keiji Kawakami Art Director: Taro Fukuda Produced by: Japan Tokusatsu Co., Ltd. Director: Hiroshi Ikeda Sponsored by
Watanabe Confectionery
Release
The X From Outer Space was released in Japan on 25 March 1967. The film was never released theatrically in the United States, but instead was released directly to television in 1968 by American International Television. The Criterion Collection released The X from Outer Space on DVD through their Eclipse label under the title When Horror Came to Shochiku. This DVD set offers both an English subtitled and a dubbed version of the film. This boxed set was released on November 20, 2012.
Reception
Film historian Chuck Stephens described the film as having "a well-deserved reputation as one of the silliest and, as a consequence, most beloved rubber-suit monster movies ever made". Sight & Sound described the film as a "harebrained kaiju epic" that was "Cheesy, rich in comic non sequiturs and scored with an unpredictable mishmash of 1960s pop and bossa nova. X fits comfortably into one's stoned best-bad-movie rental evening".
