Saturday, January 23, 2010

THE LAST DAYS OF PLANET EARTH / Toho - 1974

Wow, what a movie we have today!! It caused tons of controversy at the time as you will notice as you peruse the stills. We were able to get this decent copy of it from TV a few years back. This film is scary, no shit!! Original title is "Nosutoradamusu No Daiyogen" and is obviously based on the phrophecies of Nostradamus.

Tabonga had to renew his copter jock license today, so... I, Rodan, am filling in for the big splinterhead!

Last Saturday Tabonga posted END OF THE WORLD, and, in keeping with that theme, what could be a better follow up?!.. I think, nothing.

After this film's original top grossing release in Japan, it was then banned in the homeland because of two scenes that were reminiscent of the Hiroshima bombing. Toho has since disowned it!! People just can't handle facts and the truth...

Our music composer today is Isao Tomita. Still working today, he had some interesting projects before The Last Day's gig, including SPACESHIP SILICA (TV), ADVENTURES OF SINBAD, WOLVES, PIGS & MEN, SPACE GULLIVER, THE MIGHTY JACK, BLACK LIZARD, MIDAIR CITY 008, BLIND SWORDSMAN'S FIRE FESTIVAL, CLEOPATRA: QUEEN OF SEX, MUTE SAMURAI and RAZOR 2!

So, here's our 'earrific offering' of... THE LAST DAYS OF PLANET EARTH!

Everything starts with scenes familiar today!!

Then, they have to erradicate a new species of a 4' killer slug!!

Fish are mysteriously dying, affecting the fishermen.

Monsterous genetic defects are becoming common.

The creative people get more creative, with cultish overtones.

It snows in Egypt.

Too late to stop the climate change and famine brought on by man's stupidity.

Scientists go to a remote area to find out what happened to a missing expedition and to note anything unusual. One member gets a large parasitic leech on his neck, and within an hour, he goes insane and attacks the others.

Looks like the future's gonna be a barrell full of laughs!

They are then attacked by a horde of slimy mutant freaks and have to seek refuge in a nearby cave...

In the cave, they find a missing colleague, and others, all living hosts for freak plant and animal parasites!!!! Like I said... Barrell full of laughs!

Next thing to happen is a nuclear disaster of biblical proportion.

People are blinded by the intense flash as a huge area of land is scorched.

Here's an interesting pen and ink drawing from Basil Wolverton's 'End Of The World' series he did for the fifties religious publication, The Plain Truth. Quite a similarity!

Worden is right... FTW!!

This group goes out in style, they set themselves on fire at sea.

Others just ride their motorcycles off cliffs banzai style to escape the oncoming destruction.

Things are looking awfully grim...

Then... Retaliation by computers!

Here you go... The new Earth! Have fun, The Donald!!

No, everything's cool, man made it!.. No problemo!

Here's another piece by Basil Wolverton. He's drawn himself as one of the mutant creatures!!

Finally, another drawing from the two-color back cover of Graphic Story Magazine #14.

~ Barrell full of laughs!

15 comments:

Unspecified Jester said...

I laffed so hard I died!!

Anonymous said...

Toho also did an earlier Armageddon flick called "The Last War."

RODAN! said...

Mr. B H - We posted that one on Oct. 13, 2008, so, you can check it out, theme and ending only - Our postings have become more lengthy over time...

Christopher said...

the feel good movie of '74

Greg Goodsell said...

I deeply regret not snatching this film up when it was available domestically on VHS ....

Prof. Grewbeard said...

i like the bit where the sky turns into a mirror...

korla said...

Great Blog! But all the files are gone. Whats going on?

cheers

korla

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Korla,
The last 30 days are working again, along with the jukebox. It seems if you don't pay Box.net anything, you can run out of bandwidth instantly! So much for "Lite!" ♫

Korla said...

Thanks. And all the other links i've tried are working as well. Soooo exciting stuff! I think i have to quit my job to enjoy all of it. A 1000 thanks for your great efforts.
Korla

Guizzo said...

This is a fantastic blog! Thank you for unearthing this film. Any chance of updating the link again, please? This film is impossible to find!!! Thank you!

EEGAH!! said...

I love comments ten years later! Thanx Guizzo! That link was only for a three minute sound clip, and I put it back up for you to enjoy! If you thought it was a link to the whole movie, I'm sorry. I looked around, and found this trailer for you!! Enjoy the end!!

https://archive.org/details/LASTDAYSOFPLANETEARTHTrailer

Guizzo said...

Ha! It feels like time travel!
Thank you for replying so quickly and thank you for the links...
I have since found two copies, for whoever is interested, today or ten years ago ;) ...
The first is a direct download:
rarelust(dot)com(slash)nosutoradamusu-no-daiyogen-1974
The second is a torrent:
monova(dot)to(slash)B0E1D4E7199318078DB0605696D65EA68D5129AC
This torrent has only one seed and it took a while to kick in, probably due to time difference with wherever this generous person is. But it is a better quality file and the original complete cut. It also has an optional commentary track from a film expert. A great package!

Morfx said...

Hey! @Guizzo can you please seed that torrent. I can't find a copy of this movie in good quality anywhere. or if you have another link, please i beg you :)

Guizzo said...

I am not very knowledgeable with torrents and I am unable to re-seed this torrent as I originally got it... However, I really want others to enjoy this rare gem so I created a link to get it directly:
mediafire(dot)com(slash)file(slash)l2eq3vmtj2vb70a(slash)Nostra(dot)zip(slash)file
I will keep this file there for as long as they let me...
Enjoy!

EEGAH!! said...

What a Pal!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??