THE SIX ULTRA BROTHERS VS. THE MONSTER ARMY (1974)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

I probably won't dive too deeply into the world of ULTRAMAN here, but I thought I ought to sample the oldest one I could find. That turned out to be this international co-production, teaming up six Ultra-heroes, each of whom had his own series, five monster-enemies derived from three of the shows, and the Indian/Thai deity Hanuman-- or at least, a superhero version of Hanuman, much like the Marvel adaptation of the pagan deity Thor. 

Based on that description, the film sounds like it ought to be an ambitious undertaking, but the politics of collaboration undermine the project. The opening establishes that for some reason the sun is moving too close to Earth, and the planet is in danger of severe drought. (It's a kids' film, so there's no mention of how many people die of the heat.) There's a quick mention of the Ultra Brothers who dwell on their faraway world, but none of them seem minded to pay attention to Earth's plight.

Instead, Thailand gets to save the world. A bunch of Thai children attempt to do a rain dance. Robbers, more concerned with money than their impending doom, rob a temple of Hanuman. A boy named Kochan tries to stop the thieves, and they shoot him dead. From the faroff Ultra world, "Mother of Ultra" marks this particular sparrow's fall, reaches across the light-years and merges Kochan's essence with that of the gigantic monkey-deity Hanuman. Hanuman ruthlessly avenges Kochan by squishing all the thieves, and then he soars into space. He addresses Surya, the god within the sun, and persuades him to go back where the solar orb belongs. It's not clear if this was Mother of Ultra's long-range plan for saving Earth or not.

So, problem solved, movie over, right? Not quite. Though there are barely any Earth-characters of any consequence, there's a small coterie of scientists trying to bring back the rain with their technology. Somehow a rocket goes awry, blows a hole in the ground somewhere, and five monsters come barreling out, thirsting to finish off what the sun didn't destroy. Hanuman tries to fight the beasts, but they outnumber him and kick his ass. Then, in the last twenty minutes, the Six Ultra Brothers show up on Earth and join the monkey-god in beating down the naughty critters. The heroes all shake hands, the Ultras go home, and Hanuman transforms back into little Kochan.

I don't see any indication that the Thai company Chaiyo tried to launch Hanuman in further vehicles, but they did attempt to usurp the ULTRAMAN copyright internationally from the Japanese company Tsuburaya. I watched an English-subtitled copy of what seems to be the Japanese release, but at least two other versions exist. One of these illegally edited in other ULTRAMAN footage for a U.S. release called SPACE WARRIORS 2000, which I saw broadcast on American TV long ago-- so long that I didn't spot that it was a camouflaged ULTRAMAN project. Quality-wise, I rather liked the scene of Hanuman talking to the sun, but the rest of the film is pretty ordinary.