a review of 天外来信

2024 CULT MOVIE CHALLENGE WEEK 2: KINJI FUKASAKU WEEK There's definitely a certain je ne sais quoi to how Fukasaku manages to shoehorn some of the key tangible components of the previous year's big era-defining blockbuster into this extremely silly kiddie space adventure while still retaining that sense of tokusatsu style with the space battles and model/miniatures work. Unfortunately, it doesn't all quite come together as a continuously engaging, fun film watching it now. There's a lot of weird narrative dead ends, and characters who just kind of appear and disappear at random places in the story, and even the combined charisma of Vic Morrow, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Sonny Chiba (in two roles?) can't combat the utter drippiness of everyone else in the cast.