Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell

Pacemaker Pictures theatrical poster for the 1979 U.S release of Body Snatcher from Hell. The film was double-billed with a reissue of Bloody Pit of Horror.

Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (吸血鬼ゴケミドロ, Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro) is a 1968 Japanese science fiction/horror film directed by Hajime Sato and released by Shochiku studios.

Plot

Air Japan flight JA307 is en route from Tokyo to Osaka. As stewardess Kuzumi Asakura (Tomomi Sato) announces the flight plan, the pilot notices an unusual red color to the sky around them.

The passengers also see bloody birds flapping their wings against the plane's windows. The pilot (Hiroyuki Nishimoto) receives a radio message stating there may be a bomb aboard and is ordered to return home. Co-pilot Sugisaka (Teruo Yoshida) checks each passenger's bags, saying that a bag with confidential documents may have mistakenly been loaded on this flight. All the bags are cleared but one man (Hideo Ko) had no bag. Kuzumi notices an unaccompanied suitcase under a bench. He opens it and finds a rifle. The man suddenly pulls a gun on Sugisaka and orders the pilot to fly to Okinawa. To show he means business, he shoots out the plane's transistor radio, just as it was breaking the news about a UFO over Japan with Japanese and US Air Force fighters in pursuit. Suddenly, a luminous object appears directly in front of the airplane. It passes overhead but knocks out the airplane's controls, causing an engine fire. The plane crashes on an uncharted desert isle.

Sugisaka wakes up to find the pilot and hijacker are both dead. He and Kuzumi check for more survivors. They find Mrs. Neal (Kathy Horan), an American widow; Senator Mano (Eizo Kitamura) of the Constitutional Democratic Party; weapons exporter Tokiyasu (Nobuo Kaneko) and his wife Noriko (Yuko Kusunoki); Psychiatrist Momotake (Kazuo Kato); space biologist Professor Sagai (Masaya Takhashi); and a young man who called in the bomb threat (whom they lock in the cockpit). Taking stock, they find that they are out of water or food and don’t know where they are.

The hijacker suddenly sits up, grabs Kuzumi and runs out into the jungle. When the others pursue him they come upon the luminous spaceship. Kuzumi hides, but the hijacker steps into a clearing. Suddenly, he goes blank and start shuffling toward the spaceship. A dark blob oozes towards the hijacker, who’s forehead is suddenly split wide open, causing Kuzumi to scream and pass out.

Sugisaka finds the unconscious Kizumi and carries her back to the plane. Dr. Momotake later hypnotizes her to help her tell them what happened. She saw the dark blob crawled into the hijacker's skull through the split in his forehead. Tokiyasu doesn't believe her, but Dr Momotake assures him that Kuzumi is telling the truth. Sagai points out that it could be a flying saucer. Suddenly, the kid who called in the bomb threat goes berserk. He attacks Dr Momotake, who falls off the cliff. Waiting at the bottom is the hijacker. He bites Momotake on the neck and sucks out his blood, turning Momotake bright blue.

Later, the survivors discuss finding water in the morning. Suddenly, there is a knock at the door. Mano and Tokiyasu don't want to open it, but Sugisaka does anyway. As he descends the stairs, he sees the hijacker lying on the ground with a big scar on his forehead. Mrs Neal rushes to the hijacker and begs for the others to help him. Against their better judgement, they carry the hijacker inside and dress his wound.

Mano has become extremely thirsty. When Mano wants a drink of water from Tokiyasu's canteen, he refuses. Mano and Tokiyasu have been helping each other illegally, Tokiyasu funding Mano's campaign and Mano promising to pressure the committee to accept Tokiyasu's weapons bid, a promise that Mano des not intend to keep. Tokiyasu then uses the rifle to force everyone out of the plane and locks himself safely inside, except for the hijacker.

Tokiyasu's screams can be heard outside. Suddenly, they stop and the door swings open. Everyone rushes inside to find Tokiyasu dead, all the blood drained away. Noriko begins to laugh, happy to be free from his abuse, but she starts to cry when she thinks about the way he died. The hijacker later comes out of hiding and carries Noriko off to the spaceship. When they notice her missing, the others go in search of her.

At sunrise Noriko is seen standing on a ridge. She starts to speak, but it is not her voice. It is the Gokemidoro speaking. They have come to invade the earth and to exterminate humanity. The Gokemidoro have no more need for Noriko's body, so she plunges off the cliff. By the time the others get to her, she has disintegrated into a shriveled cadaver.

Once again, the passengers argue about whether extraterrestrials would invade the earth. Professor Sagai theorizes that the hijacker was turned into a vampire. Mano challenges them to prove there are vampires. They decide to sacrifice someone to the Goke. Mano suggests Mrs Neal, because a foreigner will be less problematic later, but she’s against the idea. Sugisaka is against all o fit. The kid knocks from the cockpit door, asking for water, so they let him out. Mrs Neal grabs a rifle and locks Sugisaka and Kuzumi into the cockpit. Mano and Saiga shove the kid outside. They watch the hijacker slowly advance. The kid pulls out the bomb he's been hiding and threatens to blow up the plane unless they let him back in. They don't and the bomb goes off, killing the kid and blowing a large opening in the side of the airplane.

It's now evident that the plane no longer provides cover and the bomb blast wounded Professor Sagai. Mano runs off with Mrs. Neal following him. When the hijacker catches up with them, Mano pushes Mrs. Neal to the hijacker to save himself. Neal shoots several times but misses. Finally, the hijacker grabs her, bites her neck and sucks her dry.

Back in the airplane, Sugisaka and Kuzumi are packing up supplies while Sagai bemoans faith in humanity. As Sugisaka assures him there is human goodness, they hear a shout. It is Mano and the hijacker is not far behind. They go to help Mano, but he runs past them, locking the plane door behind him. While Mano watches from inside the plane, Sugisaka tosses a bucket of airplane fuel at the hijacker, then sets him on fire.

The Gokemidoro crawls out of the burning hijacker, creeps in through the bomb hole in the plane and enters Professor Saiga's forehead. Saiga drains Mano, then turns to Sugisaka and Kuzumi, who try to run. Saiga follows until he is swept off a hill by a landslide. Sugisaka and Kuzumi keep running, while Saiga goes back to the spaceship. Once there, the Gokemidoro crawls out, reducing Saiga to dust.

Sugisaka and Kuzumi keep running until they find a highway. Everyone in the cars and nearby city are dead. The Gokemidoro inform them that nothing will be spared.

Epilogue: Sugisaka and Kuzumi are wandering on rocky terrain. In orbit around Earth a whole fleet of Gokemidoro spaceships await.

Cast

• Teruo Yoshida - Sugisaka, the co-pilot
• Tomomi Sato - Kuzumi, the stewardess
• Eizo Kitamura - Mano, the senator
• Hideo Ko - The Hijacker
• Kathy Horan - Mrs. Neal
• Yûko Kusunoki - Noriko Tokiyasu
• Kazuo Kato - Dr. Momotake, the psychiatrist
• Hiroyuki Nishimoto
• Keiichi Noda - voice of Gokemidoro

Influence

The film is perhaps best known in the United States for its influence on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1: in the scene where The Bride flies to Japan, the deliberately artificial shots of the airliner flying in front of the backdrop of an orange sky were based on images from Goke.^[1]

References

External links

• Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell at AllMovie
• Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell at the Internet Movie Database