If you haven't read the previous entry in this retrospective, be sure to read Part 1.
GAMERA VS. MY PATIENCE
An alien race seeking to conquer Earth runs into trouble when Gamera attempts to stop them. They end up taking two boy scouts hostage and threaten to kill them if Gamera doesn't do their bidding. Now the boys must find a way to escape their captivity and sever the alien's hold on Gamera.
The team at Daiei had found the winning formula for their Gamera series despite studio heads continuing to slash budgets and even the looming threat of bankruptcy. However another installment was put into production, with a little help from a few unexpected sources. And so began the downward spiral of quality.
This film would only receive a third of the budget the previous film had, even with backing from American International Pictures (AIP). Therefore a limited number of sets were used and monster scenes had to be extended by using stock footage. Stock footage in Japanese Kaiju films is nothing new, it's usually done to pad the action/runtime of the film, but it was usually limited to a few city destruction scenes or monster moments from previous films. Gamera vs. Viras however used stock footage to an egregious level. Using their technology, the aliens look into Gamera's mind to figure out a weakness. And by that I mean, they just watch the entire fight scenes from the last 2 films, which means we have to sit through them again as well. Even more confusing is when we see Kojiro Hongo's character from the last movie in the stock footage when he plays a completely different character in this movie!
Later they manage to take control of Gamera's mind and force him to attack Japan, so cue the scene of Gamera attacking the dam from 'Gamera vs. Barugon' and the city destruction scenes from the first Gamera movie. Yes, the first Gamera movie that was in black in white.
IN BLACK AND WHITE!
Oh, but they put a cool, dark blue filter over it so we won't notice, right?
The movie runs for an hour and a half, the stock footage used in the movie takes up 28 minutes of that runtime!
This time around we have 2 child leads, one Japanese and one American. This choice was one of the stipulations made by AIP to try and give the film a wider appeal to international audiences, in exchange for buying the distribution rights to the previous two Gamera films as well as any future installments.
As random as the inclusion of the Boy Scouts sounds, Masaichi Nagata, Daiei's studio head was actually an advisor to the Boy Scouts of Japan. That's art imitating life for you.
The kids, Masou and Jim (Toru Takatsuka & Carl Craig) aren't that bad all things considered. When they're not being mischievous, they actually make logical and mature choices and are even ready to sacrifice their own lives so the army can destroy the Virasian craft.
That being said, it is still a bit of a stretch that they would know exactly how to operate advanced alien technology.
But these kids are nowhere near the worst actor in the movie. Oh no, that honor goes to Jim's mother, who only has one sloppily dubbed line that makes Tommy Wiseau's acting look like Shakespeare.
The rest of the cast really aren't that consequential and only exist to move the story forward.
But we all came here to see Gamera vs Viras right? Oh you'll see it.
In the last 10 minutes of movie.
Anyway, what is Viras? It's name of a planet, whose inhabitants are known as Virasians and their leader is also named Viras, who becomes the big bad monster for Gamera to fight. The Virasians look like what would happen if you got HR Giger to design Squidward, though most of the time they wear human disguises with freaky glowing eyes.
But creepy imagery aside, these aliens are really bad at their jobs. As soon as they take the boys hostage they then make no effort to restrain them or make sure they don't sabotage anything, which ends up happening. Do they not take any of this seriously? I guess once you see Gamera riding Viras like a jet ski, all sense of seriousness is out the window.
As for the monster Viras, it's an interesting idea for a monster, but the tentacle movement looks anything but natural. Its overall execution cannot convince me that it's not a guy in a suit.
Kenjiro Hirose gives us a wonderfully whimsical score. He also composed the infamous Gamera March. A song that sings about how strong Gamera is and how he'll beat any monster from outer space.
Personally, I prefer the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version.
I already have a pre-existing grudge against this movie.
For its American release in 1970, AIP wasn't about to just release it as 'Gamera vs. Viras' no, no, no. They needed a more snappy title, you wanna know what they chose?
"Destroy All Planets!"
Toho's 'Destroy All Monsters' was released in the US the previous year and they just had to capitalize on it. This made things worse with the advent of DVD. When I started to build up my Godzilla DVD collection, 'Destroy All Monsters' was particularly difficult to find, even though it did exist you'd be hard pressed to find it in store or online. During my hunts at various video stores, I'd get excited thinking I'd finally found a copy of the movie but my excitement was deflated when I realized it was 'Destroy All Planets' instead. Then I'd get angry and tell myself I'd never fall for that again...only to fall for it again months later.
Thank God for Media Blasters and later the Criterion Collection.
Gamera vs. Viras is a monster movie with good ideas and intentions. But unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good and the film only succeeds in outstaying its welcome.
Two kids stumble across a spacecraft and after fiddling with the controls they end up being taken to a mysterious planet where they encounter two alien women. While the aliens seem friendly at first their true intentions are actually devious and they have control of a fearsome monster named Guiron. Luckily Gamera is not too far behind and comes to the rescue.
Gamera vs. Viras was made with the intention of being the very last Gamera movie Daiei would produce. However, it was yet another box office success and with their financial woes, they weren't about to let this money printing series go just yet.
This film adds the new element of a pair of alien women, their names are Barbella (Hiroko Kai) and Florbella (Reiko Kashara.) Silly names and even sillier outfits aside, I actually like how they actually have character to them outside the creepy eyes of the Virasians. The way they go from being kind to the kids to wanting to eat their brains is way scarier.
The rest of the human characters are pretty basic, but the thing that perplexes me are the mothers of the kids and how they're constantly trying to convince them that the monsters are simply products of their imagination. Did they just forget about the previous bouts Japan has had with Gamera and aliens? Are we operating on sitcom logic here?
Well, at least the American mother gets a better actor this time.
The enemy monster, Guiron, is an interesting one. It's basically a lizard with a large machete like blade protruding from its head. Its unusual power? Shooting shuriken out of the sides of its head and being able to control them telepathically.
GAMERA VS. VIRAS
(Original Title: "Gamera tai Uchu Kaiju Bairasu" - Gamera vs. Space Monster Viras)
March 20, 1968
An alien race seeking to conquer Earth runs into trouble when Gamera attempts to stop them. They end up taking two boy scouts hostage and threaten to kill them if Gamera doesn't do their bidding. Now the boys must find a way to escape their captivity and sever the alien's hold on Gamera.
The team at Daiei had found the winning formula for their Gamera series despite studio heads continuing to slash budgets and even the looming threat of bankruptcy. However another installment was put into production, with a little help from a few unexpected sources. And so began the downward spiral of quality.
Later they manage to take control of Gamera's mind and force him to attack Japan, so cue the scene of Gamera attacking the dam from 'Gamera vs. Barugon' and the city destruction scenes from the first Gamera movie. Yes, the first Gamera movie that was in black in white.
IN BLACK AND WHITE!
Oh, but they put a cool, dark blue filter over it so we won't notice, right?
The movie runs for an hour and a half, the stock footage used in the movie takes up 28 minutes of that runtime!
As random as the inclusion of the Boy Scouts sounds, Masaichi Nagata, Daiei's studio head was actually an advisor to the Boy Scouts of Japan. That's art imitating life for you.
The kids, Masou and Jim (Toru Takatsuka & Carl Craig) aren't that bad all things considered. When they're not being mischievous, they actually make logical and mature choices and are even ready to sacrifice their own lives so the army can destroy the Virasian craft.
That being said, it is still a bit of a stretch that they would know exactly how to operate advanced alien technology.
But these kids are nowhere near the worst actor in the movie. Oh no, that honor goes to Jim's mother, who only has one sloppily dubbed line that makes Tommy Wiseau's acting look like Shakespeare.
The rest of the cast really aren't that consequential and only exist to move the story forward.
But we all came here to see Gamera vs Viras right? Oh you'll see it.
In the last 10 minutes of movie.
But creepy imagery aside, these aliens are really bad at their jobs. As soon as they take the boys hostage they then make no effort to restrain them or make sure they don't sabotage anything, which ends up happening. Do they not take any of this seriously? I guess once you see Gamera riding Viras like a jet ski, all sense of seriousness is out the window.
As for the monster Viras, it's an interesting idea for a monster, but the tentacle movement looks anything but natural. Its overall execution cannot convince me that it's not a guy in a suit.
Kenjiro Hirose gives us a wonderfully whimsical score. He also composed the infamous Gamera March. A song that sings about how strong Gamera is and how he'll beat any monster from outer space.
Personally, I prefer the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version.
Gamera! Gamera!
Gamera is really neat!
Gamera is filled with meat!
We've been eating Gamera!
Shell! Teeth! Eyes! Flames! Claws! Breath! Scales! Fun!!
I already have a pre-existing grudge against this movie.
For its American release in 1970, AIP wasn't about to just release it as 'Gamera vs. Viras' no, no, no. They needed a more snappy title, you wanna know what they chose?
"Destroy All Planets!"
Thank God for Media Blasters and later the Criterion Collection.
Gamera vs. Viras is a monster movie with good ideas and intentions. But unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good and the film only succeeds in outstaying its welcome.
GAMERA VS. GUIRON
(Original Title: "Gamera tai Daiakaiju Giron" - Gamera vs. Giant Evil Beast Guiron)
March 21, 1969
Gamera vs. Viras was made with the intention of being the very last Gamera movie Daiei would produce. However, it was yet another box office success and with their financial woes, they weren't about to let this money printing series go just yet.
From the beginning, this almost seems like a repeat of the first movie: Two kids, one Japanese (Nobuhiro Kashima), one American (Christopher Murphy), find themselves in a spaceship, hijinks ensue, kids instantly figure out alien tech and Gamera fights a goofy looking monster.
One of the kids, Aiko, seems to focus on traffic accidents being a major problem with Earth. I'm not saying it's not a problem but when you pair it against war, it just feels a little uneven.
Aiko also has a younger sister (Miyuki Akiyama). Her role consists of her running about trying to convince the adults that the boys are in a spaceship.
Aiko also has a younger sister (Miyuki Akiyama). Her role consists of her running about trying to convince the adults that the boys are in a spaceship.
The rest of the human characters are pretty basic, but the thing that perplexes me are the mothers of the kids and how they're constantly trying to convince them that the monsters are simply products of their imagination. Did they just forget about the previous bouts Japan has had with Gamera and aliens? Are we operating on sitcom logic here?
Well, at least the American mother gets a better actor this time.
As with most Gamera enemies, we have a great idea with questionable execution. A lot of the time, Guiron simply can't help but look like a puppet and the fight scenes are just ok.
I feel Guiron would have worked better as a primarily bipedal monster.
We also get to see Gamera pull off some sweet gymnastics.
Gamera vs. Guiron is arguably the most violent of the original movies as we get to see a battle between Guiron and a Space Gyaos (seriously) which ends with Guiron decapitating the silver painted monster and then slicing him up like a piece of Kaiju sausage. But don't worry, blood's purple, not red so that makes it more suitable for kids. right?
Despite being a low budget production, Daiei made the most of what they could. Admittedly the movie does have an imaginative setting, you don't often see Kaiju fights taking place on an alien planet. While stock footage is once again used to pad the runtime, there is only a thankfully short amount.
We also get to see Gamera pull off some sweet gymnastics.
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| Ya know guys? It just dawned on me how weird this film is, ya know? |
Gamera vs. Guiron is arguably the most violent of the original movies as we get to see a battle between Guiron and a Space Gyaos (seriously) which ends with Guiron decapitating the silver painted monster and then slicing him up like a piece of Kaiju sausage. But don't worry, blood's purple, not red so that makes it more suitable for kids. right?
Despite being a low budget production, Daiei made the most of what they could. Admittedly the movie does have an imaginative setting, you don't often see Kaiju fights taking place on an alien planet. While stock footage is once again used to pad the runtime, there is only a thankfully short amount.
While Gamera vs Guiron suffers from some of the issues as the last movie, it at least manages to do it in a so bad it's good way. I can say that I wasn't bored and it gave me 82 minutes of something fun to laugh at. But apart from that, it's really nothing special.
GAMERA VS. JIGER
For those who don't know, Expo '70 was a world's fair held in Osaka between March and September in 1970 and themed around the progress and harmony for mankind.
It was a visit to the still under construction expo by director Noriaki Yuasa that inspired it's inclusion in the film. The people in charge of the expo agreed to let Daiei film on fair grounds and even co-finance the film, under the condition that the expo not be destroyed by the monsters.
I'd to think there were several "but, but, buuuuuut..." conversations that happened.
Our main characters are a Japanese boy, Hiroshi (Tsutomu Takakuwa) and an American boy, Tommy (Kelly Varis).
Have we been here before? The boys are fine, if you liked the kid leads in the previous films, you can stomach this duo. Both the boys also get sisters, Tommy gets a younger sister named Susan (Katherine Murphy, who is also the younger sister of Christopher Murphy who starred in the last Gamera movie.) Susan starts out as a bit of a brat who isn't on board with the monster antics at first, but she quickly comes around. Then we have Hiroshi's older sister, Miko (Junko Yashiro) who really isn't having any of the boys shenanigans making her one of the more memorable characters in the movie for the wrong reasons.
Now let's talk about Jiger (like "Tiger" but with a 'J'), the first female Kaiju introduced in the Gamera series.
In terms of design, I think she looks like a dinosaur mixed with a bulldog. Looks aside, it's actually one of the better executed four legged monsters. Usually most quadruped monsters in these types of films would end up crawling on their knees, but Jiger manages to keep all four of her feet on the ground.
Now comes the weird power roll call: magnetism force in her hands, jet boosters in her neck, she can shoot needles made from saliva from her side horns and fire a large disintegrator beam from the center horn.
But the real problem stems from Jiger injecting her parasitic offspring into Gamera via a spike on her tail. Of course this spells bad news for Gamera, so our two boys volunteer themselves to deal with Jiger's youngling, 'Fantastic Voyage' style. The idea of going inside Gamera's body via submarine is one of the more creative set pieces.
It should be noted that during the scene in which scientists are deducing the cause of Gamera's condition is a parasitic lifeform, they demonstrate this by playing real life footage of the removal of tapeworm larva from an elephant's swollen trunk. Even though the footage is in black and white, it's still quite disturbing even for a movie primarily aimed at children. If you're squeamish, look away.
Most of the fighting between Gamera and Jiger is handled well and fun to watch, although certain shots of Jiger 'soaring' through the sky look a little goofy.
Unlike the previous two movies which had a limited budget and bare landscape sets, the director demanded a bigger budget for this film and got his wish. As a result we get a return to monsters fighting in a miniature city set as well as a military assault. It's quite refreshing to see some decently done city destruction scenes that aren't stock footage.
Luckily, in this movie the only bits of stock footage are relegated to the opening credit sequence.
Gamera vs Jiger feels like a breath of fresh air to the series, feeling more on par with the likes of Gamera vs. Gyaos. I personally didn't enjoy it as much as that movie but it's still pretty fun and deserves to be counted as one of the better Showa Gamera films.
But Gamera's exploits at Expo '70 didn't end there.
In March of 1970, Gamera took the stage in a special show in which he faced off against the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla! They were joined by several other monsters including Gyaos and Gorosaurus. Unfortunately, very little footage of this show still exists today and the idea of seeing these 2 famous monsters sharing the spotlight in an all-out battle remains a fantasy.
(Original Title: "Gamera tai Daimaju Jaiga" - Gamera vs. Giant Demon Beast Jiger)
March 21, 1970
After a strange statue is taken to be used as an attraction for the upcoming Expo '70, a beast known as Jiger awakens. Gamera takes exception to this, but Jiger is a formidable foe. After Jiger inserts her parasitic offspring into Gamera and paralyzing him, it's up to the kids to help get him back into fighting shape and save Expo '70.
I hope you like Expo '70, because this movie never lets you forget about it.
I hope you like Expo '70, because this movie never lets you forget about it.
For those who don't know, Expo '70 was a world's fair held in Osaka between March and September in 1970 and themed around the progress and harmony for mankind.
It was a visit to the still under construction expo by director Noriaki Yuasa that inspired it's inclusion in the film. The people in charge of the expo agreed to let Daiei film on fair grounds and even co-finance the film, under the condition that the expo not be destroyed by the monsters.
I'd to think there were several "but, but, buuuuuut..." conversations that happened.
Have we been here before? The boys are fine, if you liked the kid leads in the previous films, you can stomach this duo. Both the boys also get sisters, Tommy gets a younger sister named Susan (Katherine Murphy, who is also the younger sister of Christopher Murphy who starred in the last Gamera movie.) Susan starts out as a bit of a brat who isn't on board with the monster antics at first, but she quickly comes around. Then we have Hiroshi's older sister, Miko (Junko Yashiro) who really isn't having any of the boys shenanigans making her one of the more memorable characters in the movie for the wrong reasons.
In terms of design, I think she looks like a dinosaur mixed with a bulldog. Looks aside, it's actually one of the better executed four legged monsters. Usually most quadruped monsters in these types of films would end up crawling on their knees, but Jiger manages to keep all four of her feet on the ground.
Now comes the weird power roll call: magnetism force in her hands, jet boosters in her neck, she can shoot needles made from saliva from her side horns and fire a large disintegrator beam from the center horn.
But the real problem stems from Jiger injecting her parasitic offspring into Gamera via a spike on her tail. Of course this spells bad news for Gamera, so our two boys volunteer themselves to deal with Jiger's youngling, 'Fantastic Voyage' style. The idea of going inside Gamera's body via submarine is one of the more creative set pieces.
It should be noted that during the scene in which scientists are deducing the cause of Gamera's condition is a parasitic lifeform, they demonstrate this by playing real life footage of the removal of tapeworm larva from an elephant's swollen trunk. Even though the footage is in black and white, it's still quite disturbing even for a movie primarily aimed at children. If you're squeamish, look away.
Unlike the previous two movies which had a limited budget and bare landscape sets, the director demanded a bigger budget for this film and got his wish. As a result we get a return to monsters fighting in a miniature city set as well as a military assault. It's quite refreshing to see some decently done city destruction scenes that aren't stock footage.
Luckily, in this movie the only bits of stock footage are relegated to the opening credit sequence.
Gamera vs Jiger feels like a breath of fresh air to the series, feeling more on par with the likes of Gamera vs. Gyaos. I personally didn't enjoy it as much as that movie but it's still pretty fun and deserves to be counted as one of the better Showa Gamera films.
But Gamera's exploits at Expo '70 didn't end there.
In March of 1970, Gamera took the stage in a special show in which he faced off against the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla! They were joined by several other monsters including Gyaos and Gorosaurus. Unfortunately, very little footage of this show still exists today and the idea of seeing these 2 famous monsters sharing the spotlight in an all-out battle remains a fantasy.
GAMERA VS. ZIGRA
(Original Title: "Gamera tai Shinkai Kaiju Jigaru" - Gamera vs. Deep Sea Monster Zigra)
July 17, 1971
Invaders from the planet Zigra invade Earth hoping to make it their new home after their destroyed planet. After causing a series of global disasters Gamera comes to put a stop to it.
And the aliens are incompetent, the kids are just ok, there's an underwater craft, Gamera does silly things, movie ends.
At this point, we've gone back to the alien invader formula we've seen before and it's just as repetitive to the point where I'm running out of things to say.
Our 2 kids Kenichi (Yasushi Sakagami) and Helen (Gloria Zoellner) are by far the youngest of our protagonists so your tolerance for their antics may vary.
We do get one hint of an interesting twist on the "Gamera gets incapacitated by the enemy so our heroes have to revive him" formula. It's the father characters (Isamu Saeki & Koji Fujiyama) who man a bathysphere to go underwater and see what's wrong with Gamera. But of course the kids have to stow away on the bathysphere, contribute little and nearly get themselves killed.
The rest of the humans are just there. Nothing new.
The only other character of note is the woman under control of Zigra, known as Woman X (Eiko Yanami), who despite having a neat twist to her character, spends most of the movie wearing goofy outfits and chasing the kids around Kamogawa Sea World and generally not being that great at her job.
But at least she looks good in a bikini, for better or worse...
Did I mention Eiko also starred in some softcore films? Moving on.
Zigra, our deep sea monster of the movie has a good design being loosely based on a goblin shark.
We have several underwater fights between Gamera and Zigra which are pretty well executed. We also see that just like Flex Tape, Gamera's fire breath is so strong it even works underwater.
Where things start to get awkward is when Zigra gets on land and assumes a bipedal form. His rear side fins just magically turn into legs, shall we add that to the weird power collection next to the beam that paralyzes cellular activity?
Also, Zigra talks. A lot. Mostly environmental preaching about how their world was destroyed by pollution and neglect. There's even a bit of that in the Sea World scenes.
Because of the films low budget, not a ton of sets were built so the majority of the scenes were shot on location at Kamogawa Sea World. One miniature set of the facility was built for the monsters to fight on, but again, they weren't allowed to destroy it.
If you haven't figured it out by the time Gamera plays Zigra's spines like a xylophone: This movie is dumb. Fun to watch, but dumb.
The production of 'Gamera vs. Zigra' was nothing short of a train wreck. Countless delays and a continuously decreasing budget did not help lift the spirits of the crew, even the usually chipper Noriaki Yuasa, had a hard time staying positive.
By the time filming was finished, it wasn't long before the inevitable happened. Daiei's financial trouble and mismanagement finally caught up and the company officially declared bankruptcy in December of 1971.
For the first time in history, the future of Gamera was uncertain...
We're back to only having one kid character in the form of Keiichi (Koichi Maeda) who at first glance seems like another version of Toshio from the first film. He gets a pet turtle, is told to get rid of it by his mother and the turtle inexplicitly turns into Gamera. Thankfully, Keiichi is nowhere near as annoying or suicidal as Toshio. Thank GOD.
For what it's worth, Keiichi is an alright character. The most notable things about him is that he writes and performs the movies new theme for Gamera "Love for the Future" and has this weird habit of calling every female character in this movie 'Sis', but more on that later...
The earth is not completely defenseless against our alien invaders, as we have 3 super women. They are played by Yoko Komatsu, Yaeko Kojima and former wrestler, Mach Fumiake.
They're powers consist of changing into white spandex, flying and not much else...These woman aren't exactly the most super, as they mostly just talk about protecting the earth from Zanon but do very little in that regard. They could easily fly up to the ship and wreck it, or at least subdue the aliens but they don't. Even their teleporting cars would suffice.
Fumiake does get a chance to show off her fighting skills as she squares off with the alien lackey in what is the best fight in the whole movie. I know that's not saying much, but it's something.
We never actually see what the beings from Zanon looks like, we only see a spacecraft that looks like a Lucasfilm lawsuit waiting to happen accompanied by a disembodied voice.
All we see is the lackey, Giruge (Keiko Kudo) who cannot manage to escape the formula of the alien lackey that's bad at their job, she even manages to get herself shot with her own gun.
Strangely enough, she also has one of the better arcs in the movie. I mentioned how Kiiechi always calls women 'Sis', well it turns out it's because he's an only child who's father (played by Sir Not Appearing in this Film) works a lot and feels lonely as a result. After Giruge fails to kill Kilara, she feels disgraced and attempts suicide but is stopped by Kiiechi and the super women. After recuperating, Giruge turns good and considers being part of a family.
It's not only tragically touching, it's also something that I've never seen in a Kaiju movie alien invader plot, so I can appreciate it. Which means this movies only about 95% bad.
Too bad it's forgotten after she sacrifices herself to protect the space women from being destroyed by Zanon.
If 'Super Monster' was an attempt to revitalize the Gamera series, I'm sorry to say it failed miserably. It was not a box office hit and it literally killed the series. Not even MST3K or the Mistress of the Dark herself can make this messy, boring slog of a movie enjoyable to watch for me.
I'd rather watch 'All Monsters Attack' 3 times in a row, and believe me, that's saying a lot.
This is how Gamera ended.
Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
And the aliens are incompetent, the kids are just ok, there's an underwater craft, Gamera does silly things, movie ends.
At this point, we've gone back to the alien invader formula we've seen before and it's just as repetitive to the point where I'm running out of things to say.
We do get one hint of an interesting twist on the "Gamera gets incapacitated by the enemy so our heroes have to revive him" formula. It's the father characters (Isamu Saeki & Koji Fujiyama) who man a bathysphere to go underwater and see what's wrong with Gamera. But of course the kids have to stow away on the bathysphere, contribute little and nearly get themselves killed.
The rest of the humans are just there. Nothing new.
But at least she looks good in a bikini, for better or worse...
Did I mention Eiko also starred in some softcore films? Moving on.
We have several underwater fights between Gamera and Zigra which are pretty well executed. We also see that just like Flex Tape, Gamera's fire breath is so strong it even works underwater.
Where things start to get awkward is when Zigra gets on land and assumes a bipedal form. His rear side fins just magically turn into legs, shall we add that to the weird power collection next to the beam that paralyzes cellular activity?
Also, Zigra talks. A lot. Mostly environmental preaching about how their world was destroyed by pollution and neglect. There's even a bit of that in the Sea World scenes.
Because of the films low budget, not a ton of sets were built so the majority of the scenes were shot on location at Kamogawa Sea World. One miniature set of the facility was built for the monsters to fight on, but again, they weren't allowed to destroy it.
If you haven't figured it out by the time Gamera plays Zigra's spines like a xylophone: This movie is dumb. Fun to watch, but dumb.
The production of 'Gamera vs. Zigra' was nothing short of a train wreck. Countless delays and a continuously decreasing budget did not help lift the spirits of the crew, even the usually chipper Noriaki Yuasa, had a hard time staying positive.
By the time filming was finished, it wasn't long before the inevitable happened. Daiei's financial trouble and mismanagement finally caught up and the company officially declared bankruptcy in December of 1971.
For the first time in history, the future of Gamera was uncertain...
GAMERA SUPER MONSTER
(Original Title: "Uchu Kaiju Gamera" - Space Monster Gamera)
March 20, 1980
The earth is invaded by the Zanon spacecraft which unleashes a horde of deadly monsters. Our planets only hope lies in the hands of the combined forces of a young boy, three super women and the Friend to All Children himself, Gamera.
In 1974, Daiei was back in business after being bought up by the head of Tokuma Shoten. After a series of modest hit films, the studio was once again in a financial pickle and Noriaki Yuasa was approached to bring Gamera back with a new movie after a 9 year absence.
Just before Daiei went bankrupt, a riot broke out at the studio and all of the original Gamera props were destroyed, so the production team had to start from scratch by creating a brand new Gamera prop and nothing else. Unfortunately, this movie is nowhere near as epic as I made it sound as it relies on the oh so unfortunate get of jail free card of Japanese monster movies: Stock footage.
Did you enjoy watching Gamera fight Gyaos, Zigra, Viras, Jiger, Guiron and Barugon? Well now you get to watch it again! Quite literally every fight scene in this movie are all the fights you've seen before, every hand thrown, every weird ass power, every obvious black and white scene, every awkward man in suit movement, every stiff puppet. Nothing new, except for maybe the music.
Its not enough they had to recycle footage from the previous movies, but they had to go and super impose Gamera flying over footage from two anime films "Space Battleship Yamato" & "Galaxy Express 999"
If you're asking me to make sense of this, there's the door.
The only new Gamera footage is shot using a stiff flying prop with a moving mouth that makes it look like a parade float.
One other noteworthy moment in the movie is where we see Gamera knock over an advertisement for a film called "Sayonara Dojira", an obvious parody of a certain King of the Monsters.
In 1974, Daiei was back in business after being bought up by the head of Tokuma Shoten. After a series of modest hit films, the studio was once again in a financial pickle and Noriaki Yuasa was approached to bring Gamera back with a new movie after a 9 year absence.
Just before Daiei went bankrupt, a riot broke out at the studio and all of the original Gamera props were destroyed, so the production team had to start from scratch by creating a brand new Gamera prop and nothing else. Unfortunately, this movie is nowhere near as epic as I made it sound as it relies on the oh so unfortunate get of jail free card of Japanese monster movies: Stock footage.
Did you enjoy watching Gamera fight Gyaos, Zigra, Viras, Jiger, Guiron and Barugon? Well now you get to watch it again! Quite literally every fight scene in this movie are all the fights you've seen before, every hand thrown, every weird ass power, every obvious black and white scene, every awkward man in suit movement, every stiff puppet. Nothing new, except for maybe the music.
Its not enough they had to recycle footage from the previous movies, but they had to go and super impose Gamera flying over footage from two anime films "Space Battleship Yamato" & "Galaxy Express 999"
If you're asking me to make sense of this, there's the door.
One other noteworthy moment in the movie is where we see Gamera knock over an advertisement for a film called "Sayonara Dojira", an obvious parody of a certain King of the Monsters.
For what it's worth, Keiichi is an alright character. The most notable things about him is that he writes and performs the movies new theme for Gamera "Love for the Future" and has this weird habit of calling every female character in this movie 'Sis', but more on that later...
They're powers consist of changing into white spandex, flying and not much else...These woman aren't exactly the most super, as they mostly just talk about protecting the earth from Zanon but do very little in that regard. They could easily fly up to the ship and wreck it, or at least subdue the aliens but they don't. Even their teleporting cars would suffice.
Fumiake does get a chance to show off her fighting skills as she squares off with the alien lackey in what is the best fight in the whole movie. I know that's not saying much, but it's something.
We never actually see what the beings from Zanon looks like, we only see a spacecraft that looks like a Lucasfilm lawsuit waiting to happen accompanied by a disembodied voice.
All we see is the lackey, Giruge (Keiko Kudo) who cannot manage to escape the formula of the alien lackey that's bad at their job, she even manages to get herself shot with her own gun.
Strangely enough, she also has one of the better arcs in the movie. I mentioned how Kiiechi always calls women 'Sis', well it turns out it's because he's an only child who's father (played by Sir Not Appearing in this Film) works a lot and feels lonely as a result. After Giruge fails to kill Kilara, she feels disgraced and attempts suicide but is stopped by Kiiechi and the super women. After recuperating, Giruge turns good and considers being part of a family.
It's not only tragically touching, it's also something that I've never seen in a Kaiju movie alien invader plot, so I can appreciate it. Which means this movies only about 95% bad.
Too bad it's forgotten after she sacrifices herself to protect the space women from being destroyed by Zanon.
If 'Super Monster' was an attempt to revitalize the Gamera series, I'm sorry to say it failed miserably. It was not a box office hit and it literally killed the series. Not even MST3K or the Mistress of the Dark herself can make this messy, boring slog of a movie enjoyable to watch for me.
I'd rather watch 'All Monsters Attack' 3 times in a row, and believe me, that's saying a lot.
This is how Gamera ended.
Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
A POSTMORTEM REFLECTION
I used to disregard the Gamera movies of the 60's/70's as nothing more than knock-offs of the more popular Godzilla. Before, I had attempted to watch them on DVD but I was not in the right mindset and I immediately decided that I did not like Gamera.
It wasn't until I bought the recent Arrow Video Collection that not only would I give them another chance, but I would do this retrospective and give my thoughts on them. Not all of them were hits and even though I was pretty critical of the series throughout my writings, there were some surprises. I can't help but have a newfound respect for Gamera now.
I'm not gonna lie, I did buy that set mostly for the Heisei Gamera movies and because I like Matt Frank's artwork he did for it and I don't regret it one bit.
But for now, the best is yet to come...
But for now, the best is yet to come...
Till next time, I've been your host Gryphon
And I hope you've enjoyed your time in my Lair
So long...
And I hope you've enjoyed your time in my Lair
So long...
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