Watch Goké, Body Snatcher from Hell For Free

To me, this movie is perfection.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Look, the whole point of this flawed-but-interesting film is that the invading aliens (Gokemidoro) are a metaphor for the United States. See, the Japanese were a warlike people whose behavior caused a more powerful race of beings to invade them. AND to suck the life out of their militaristic culture. That's why "space vampires." One of the few alien invasion flicks where the bad guys are ACTUALLY the good guys. "Lord of the Flies" meets "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Worth a look if you can check it out from the library for free.

Most Japanese sci-fi B-movies of the '60s are played for fun, focusing on the surreal aspects of the plots and delivering a barrel-load of laughs at the same time. Not so GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL, a film with a mission: to relay the horrors of warfare (in particular, the then-current Vietnam War) and to act as a warning against further conflict. Despite the wacky plot ingredients and outlandish premise, GOKE is a po-faced thriller with a downbeat message. Nevertheless, it's a bloody good film, fun and enjoyable and delivering a shed load of tense character showdowns a la NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as a group of survivors variously reveal themselves to be heroic, insane, stuffy, psychotic, or just plain evil.The direction is tight and confident throughout, utilising maximum effect from the basic settings and focusing on characterisation, which is no bad thing. The script is in-your-face, dealing with confrontation and relevant contemporary issues, and the director isn't afraid to shock with real-life images of atrocities from Vietnam. In fact, a lot of the violence in this film makes for particularly uncomfortable viewing, especially a burnt body which is clearly inspired by images of napalm victims.Typically for a Japanese film, such moments are countered by cheesier bits, in this film an alien blob-type creature which burrows into the foreheads of its victims, turning them into vampires. They then suck the blood from humans, leaving them blue-tinted shells. The effects for the film are particularly slimy and unpleasant, with the blob a forerunner to the grisly '80s monster flick, and no skimping on the blood. Far from being a film made for the kids, the violence in this film is more in line with the shocking and gratuitous SCARS OF Dracula.The cast here are excellent, all given various meaty roles which require them to act; Yoshida comes off particularly well as the no-nonsense hero whilst Kitamura is dastardly as a politician who reveals his darker side. The American star (appearing for the world audience, no doubt) has a surprising character twist whilst the others are all very good in their respective roles, especially weird-looking Hideo Ko who plays the villain.Special effects in the film are colourful and a lot of fun, with crashing planes, a full-scale UFO invasion, and lots of icky slimy bloody bits. Despite the short 80-minute running time, this packs a lot of action and events into that time, making it fast-paced and utterly suspenseful. A surreal combination of a kiddie sci-fi film and a far more adult horror, I doubt you'll find anything else quite like this.

I saw Goke in a movie theatre in Kilburn, London, in the early 70s. A friend was the theatre's night manager; he and I sat and watched Goke in some sort of dazed disbelief - I suspect that our ingestion of psychotropic substances may have contributed to our great joy in the movie ... that and the remarkable fact that we were the only people in the theatre, which made the whole experience gloriously surreal, totally in keeping with the dreamy tone of the picture and consequently I have never forgotten this wondrous gem of a movie. As I write this it's playing - yes, right now - on TCM. Turner screenings often coincide with a new DVD release so I have my hopes. Meanwhile bombard TCM.com with your requests for the movie. And by the way, another poster comments on a defective first pressing of the Criterion release 'Jigoku'. I bought a copy of this movie on the day of its release and there was nothing wrong with it.

This 1968 apocalyptic Japanese sci-fi/horror classic (the opening shot of the aeroplane against a blood-red sky ripped-off by Tarantino) seems like a hybrid of the over-hyped TV hit "Lost", Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead" and Jenkins/LaHaye's "Left Behind" (accept no Christian deity 'raptures' any Bible-thumping drones here).As the British Ambassador to Japan is assassinated, the Vietnam war and other conflict rages; the 'End Times' appear to be upon us. Flight JA 307 receives warning a bomb may be aboard. A search finds no bomb, but a rifle - belonging to the Assassin (Hideo Ko) who attempts a hi-jacking but a UFO encounter sends the plane crashing into an uninhabited mountainous area.The crash survivors; co-pilot Mr. Sugisaka (Teruo Yoshida) and stewardess Miss Asakura (Tomomi Sato), - these two being the only real decent examples of humanity - with brooding 'space-biologist' Dr. Sagai (Masaya Takahashi), oily politician Mr. Mano (Eizo Kitamura), corrupt arms-dealer Mr. Tokyasu (Nobu Kaneko), his down-trodden young wife Noriko (Yuko Kusunoki), sadistic shrink Dr. Momotake (Kazuo Kato), whiny Vietnam war-widow Mrs. Neal (Kathy Horan), a wonderful anti-American caricature and a dissolute youth (Norihiko Yamamoto) who turns out to be the real bomber.As it transpires the Assassin has also survived and takes Miss Asakura hostage only to once again encounter the Flying-Saucer which brought them down. Lured inside; the Assassin is implanted with a silver, slimy parasite/bio-control device which basically turns him into a vampire! Our survivors, now besieged in the plane-wreck, must co-operate but human selfishness (as usual) gets in the way, and they are picked-off one by one by the un-seen Gokemidoro; superior alien beings who've concluded humankind a hateful pest to be eliminated.With excellent, dateless FX and beautifully pessimistic conclusion "Goke Bodysnatcher From Hell/Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro" is a gem which belongs in every 'Weird Cinema' Fan's collection.