Sayonara Jupiter (1984)

[LSD Jellyfish]

I recently watched Sayonara Jupiter (1984). I must admit, I didn’t watch it because I was interested in the movie, but rather did it to check a box of remaining Toho films I haven’t seen. I thought it was okay, although I don’t disagree with its detractors.

It’s very slow, taking a lot of time to painfully show off different SFX sequences. For example, the opening scene of the ship docking. However, this was made way past 2001 A Space odyssey, and with the exception of one specific scene, many of these SFX moments barely show any action or something exciting.

Then there’s what appears to be a lot of filler. There’s a bizarre fist-fight between Mr. Honda and the Irish Captain. Later on, there’s a scene where a dolphin, aptly named Jupiter, saves a boy from a shark before being killed. The symbolism is clear here, but ultimately, it’s such a bizarre scene that could have been cut. It feels like they inserted a lot of uninteresting action to keep the film moving, but it just pads the film out. These two factors, the drawn out SFX sequences, and pointless action, make the film boring.

Then the film has a lot of issues with tone and characterization. Most of the non-Japanese actors are pretty bad, and despite the amount of them aren’t important. The character of Booker is just there to have someone die and feel sad about, despite only appearing for a few scenes prior and barely sharing any connection with Honda.

Finally, there’s Jupiter, the planet. I get that in many ways Jupiter was intended to be a salvation for humanity, but because the film never shows how bad humanity has it, it doesn’t seem that important. The plan to turn Jupiter into a second sun is never elaborated on (other than the fact that they are doing it), and it just seems like the audience should feel sad solely because we are told to. Worse, Jupiter has some mystery connected to it (the Jupiter Ghost), and other than allow for a plot convenience, it’s never explained or even fully connected to the main problem of the film (the black hole).

Still, I couldn’t hate it. I actually really enjoyed a lot of the weirdness of the film. There’s a cult in the film that lives in a paradise, and for some reason the way they shot all of that is really hypnotic. It’s pure raw 80s aesthetic, and I absolutely loved each moment they cut away to the bizarre paradise they lived in. Likewise, the space ghost, and the few moments they spend in Jupiter’s atmosphere are a mysterious treat.

And there are some really tense moments. I liked the scene where the Irish Captain and Hirata are killed by the blackhole. It’s so horrific conceptually, and it’s very suspenseful. I love the scene after where the black hole is discovered by the investigator, and the inciting panic.

This was a film with a lot of potential, but fell flat in many ways. Anyone else see this?

[Chaos Reincarnation]

I've seen it and I pretty much feel the same way. With how much I've seen its name came i I kinda thought there would be more too it? It's a nice film to look at, but it's definitely in my sleep-aid section.

[LSD Jellyfish]

With how much I've seen its name came i I kinda thought there would be more too it?

Yes, so much missed opportunity to make the film more tense/climactic. It needed a scene or two of a mostly abandoned outer colony being completely destroyed by the black hole, and the climax with the cult trying to sabotage the plan needed to be much more elaborate. There’s very little stress in the finale other than “oh no a group of six people are trying to blow the project up. There’s implied continual accidents, but we never see them, and the sense of time is all screwed up.

It’s funny because Godzilla vs King Ghidorah 1991 has a much more fun “blow up the computer” scene midway through the movie.

[G-Matt]

As I may have stated before, this is one of my guilty pleasure movies. I know it's very flawed, but still there's a certain type of fascination to be found in it. It's one of the most international Toho scifi movies; besides Japanese and English, there's also German and French (as far as I remember) being spoken. Also, the effects look good and the music is pretty nice.