Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars (1990)

The missing link

Legend of the Stars feels like that missing link between Heisei Godzilla and Heisei Gamera, striking an otherworldly and transcendental balance in re-imagining Ultra Q for a whole new generation and who better to helm it than the franchise's most unique voice, Akio Jissoji. Legend of the Stars could realistically be considered the 2001 of the tokusatsu genre, mainly because this movie is pretty much a metaphysical examination of existence in a similar vein to Kubrick's film, just way more dialogue-heavy. It doesn't always hold together but Jissoji's visualisation is greater than the sum of its shakey parts, his direction and camera work are constantly engaging and ever-shifting with no two shots being the same. Combining aspects of Japanese mythology and a sci-fi mystery, Legend of the Stars is very much worthy of your attention even if you haven't seen the original show, it just drags its feet towards the end as if struggling to fill time and you'll have to put up with some substandard DVD mastering if you want to see it, it's crying out for an HD release. Come on Tsuburaya! Do it!

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