Dec 16, 2018

2018 SIHA Award

2018 SIHA nominations
original cover art by Edmund Emshwiller
The 2018 award winner in the annual Search for Interesting Hollywood Aliens (SIHA) is Before We Vanish.

Back in March I began trying to find a way to watch Before We Vanish. It was reviewed in the New York Times in February of this year, but some people in Europe apparently got to see this film in 2017. I finally saw Before We Vanish on HULU in August of 2018. What is so interesting about the space aliens in Before We Vanish?

2017
2017 nominations
In 2017, I had to imagine that alien creatures were lurking, unseen, in the backstory of The Discovery.

2018
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Viewers of Before We Vanish must also imagine that they are seeing space aliens. Look at the poster shown to the right on this page. See the alien? Use your imagination.

First, use your imagination and try to erase the explosion in the background. Yes, this is an alien invasion movie, but by the time the explosions arrive, Before We Vanish feels like a spoof of typical alien invasion movies.

original cover art by
Edmund Emshwiller
I suppose anyone trying to get people in the U.S.A. to watch a movie feels that their film must include mindless violence. I know nothing about Kiyoshi Kurosawa, maybe he enjoys mindless violence and random explosions.

Nanoscopic Invaders
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The alien invaders of Before We Vanish take control of human bodies, so we never see the "real form" of the aliens. If alien visitors ever do (or have already) arrived on Earth, it is likely that they will be vastly more technologically advanced than we are. Maybe we will not even be able to recognize such alien creatures when they are among us.

see
As a science fiction fan, I found the invisible aliens of Before We Vanish to be more interesting than most Hollywood aliens. Unfortunately, I don't think the makers of this movie really ever gave much thought to science fiction as a genre. Kurosawa is apparently known for his horror movies and Before We Vanish is his first science fiction film. My advice for science fiction fans: try to ignore the absurd horror elements of Before We Vanish and enjoy this effort to portray advanced aliens who have no trouble taking control of human bodies for their own purposes. Also, try to ignore the fact that the film never tells us what those alien purposes are.
source
Old School: Unearthly Stranger
Related Reading: 2019 SIHA
2017 SIHA winner
2016 SIHA awards
SIHA 2015
SIHA 2014
SIHA 2013
SIHA 2012
2009 retro-SIHA
"To Walk The Night" by William Sloane
Related Reading: "The Mind Thing" by Fredric Brown

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