OGON BAT (1966)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

I don't know the conditions under which the streaming version of OGON BAT was produced, so that both the English title and the subtitles refer to this venerable (dating back to 1930) hero as "Golden Ninja." Since there are no ninjas of any kind herein, why didn't the transcribers just use the direct translation of the hero's name, "Golden Bat?" 

To be sure, Ogon had a rather unique origin in terms of his medium: in the Japanese medium of kamishibai (paper theater). Thus Ogon's adventures weren't formally copyrighted, and so many different hands contributed to the hero's mythos. Only the most exacting expert in Japanese pop culture might know whether Toei Studios borrowed from this or that narrative when the studio produced this 1966 black-and-white "origin story."

Twenty-something amateur astronomer Akira, the film's initial viewpoint character, charts the path of a rogue planet, significantly named "Icarus," and observes with horror that this heavenly body is on a collision course with Earth. Akira tries to inform a couple of sedate older astronomers and they brush him off as a non-expert. However, someone takes Akira seriously, for a quartet of "men in black" seize the young man and take him to their leaders.

Happily, Akira is recruited by a benevolent organization, the U.N.-sponsored Pearl Institute. In quick succession the youth meets the four key members of the group: twenty-something Naomi, middle-schooler Emily (who I think was a relative of someone), Doctor Yamatone (a pre-STREET FIGHTER Sonny Chiba), and Doctor Pearl (played by the movie's only non-Japanese actor). Akira is clearly there to provide the audience with a gateway character, the means by which the other characters explain their raison d'etre of defending the Earth from evil forces. However, once that explication is done, Akira just becomes another face in the crowd. It's slightly ironic that Middle-Schooler Emily (Emiri Takami) will become the new "spirit of youth" that can bring an ancient hero to life.

Out in space, presumably a little while back, we see the entities who caused Icarus to plummet toward Earth: Lord Nazo and his army of black-clad humanoids. Since their ship is out in space one might presume that they're all aliens, though no one says so outright, and Nazo looks markedly different from his humanoid henchmen: some sort of lop-eared, four-eyed creature with a metal claw for a right hand. (The claw-hand reminded me slightly of the villain from 1937's BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD.) And the ship-- which Nazo uses to impel the planetoid into its collision course-- looks like a big rotary drill, topped by a pointy head with two eyes. (One critic calls the head "squid-like" and I don't disagree.) If I didn't see the ship in space, I might have assumed that Nazo's weird race came from some underground kingdom. In fact the movie includes two quick scenes where the drill-ship is seen tunneling up from beneath the earth's crust for no stated reason. Maybe this striking image was borrowed from a story in which the drill-ship had some more practical function.

Back at the Pearl Institute, Yamatone informs Akira that Pearl has a super-laser with which they can disintegrate Icarus when it gets close enough. However, the scientists need a special, unnamed mineral to make the gun work. They've sent out at least one reconnaissance team to look for this key element. And no sooner does Akira agree to join Pearl than Yamatome gets a distress message from the away team. Into a flying "super car" climb the uniformed heroes, including Young Emily, and they're off.

The distress signal guides the team to an uncharted island. Landing, the Pearl team finds the dead bodies of their comrades, and they also behold a number of archaic monoliths around; structures that Yamatone believes to be Atlantean. Nazo's drill ship pops out of the ocean and the fiend sends his minions, armed with ray-guns, to kill the explorers. The Pearl operatives take refuge in a vast underground labyrinth.

The heroes stumble across a sarcophagus with Egyptian glyphs and the symbol of a bat. Yamatone reads an inscription that indicates that if someone places water on the skeletal figure inside the coffin, a great defender will come to their aid. Yamatone is more preoccupied with a crystal held by the mummy, for it's the very mineral the team came looking for. The henchmen attack, and in desperation Little Emily follows the inscription's instruction. Ogon Bat-- skull-headed, long-caped, and utilizing a cane that can sometimes shoot ray-beams-- comes to life, disposes of all the minions (who can't seem to use their guns against his superb athleticism), and drives off the drill-ship. Ogon Bat then tells Emily that because she revived him, she alone can summon him by speaking his name, He also instructs the Pearl Team to get back in their ship and depart, because the Atlantean island is about to sink back into the ocean. (There's a slight impression that the island, which contained both the key element and an avenging hero, may have risen specifically to save Earth from planetary doom.) The good guys pile into their super car and return to base, while the island sinks and Ogon Bat disappears.

None of the rest of the film equals the pulpy goodness of the origin-section. Nazo witnesses the Pearl-scientists testing the super-laser and sends his minions (along with three named hench-persons, one female) to attack the institute. The assailants manage not only to steal the laser device (though not the vital key element), they manage to kidnap Naomi and Doctor Pearl, leaving duplicates in their place. This comes in handy when Nazo needs spies to find the missing element, so I guess he was pretty far-sighted. Emily calls Ogon Bat a couple of times, but he doesn't stick around between victories. He apparently shows up first in the form of a very small bat, because in one sequence the bad guys manage to trap the bat before it can become Ogon. Eventually, after various seesaw battles, it comes down to a face-off between Ogon and Nazo, and Icarus is destroyed with minutes to spare.

I've found no credit for the stuntman in the Ogon costume, whose voice was supplied by another actor. The fights are passable but nothing special, and Ogon's use of his cane is somewhat less than awe-inspiring. However, his skull-like visage-- which may or may not be his real face-- bears some resemblance to the "Red Death" mask utilized by the Phantom of the Opera in the 1925 movie. No one can prove this, but if true it would stand as one of the more interesting cross-cultural influences in the days of early superheroes. Most previous starring heroes (and some villains) in costumes were "uncanny" types with no super-powers, while those that boasted either personal physical powers (John Carter) or super-weapons (Fu Manchu) were not costumed. Whatever influence or influences guided the original creators of Ogon Bat will never be known positively. But maybe some world-wide archetype was springing forth just like sunken Atlantis, given that a Japanese crusader appeared the same year as the technical debut of The Shadow, first of a long line of American costumed crimefighters.

ADDENDUM: Another candidate for "first costumed superhero," albeit without powers, is The Laughing Mask, who appeared in the mostly lost Pearl White serial THE IRON CLAW, issued three years before Johnston McCulley published the first ZORRO story.