Gamera Is Super Bad

Gamera: The Super Monster (Uchu Kaiju Gamera, 1980)

DVD Description: Released by Shout! Factory, (2011; double-billed with Gamera vs. Zigra); Japanese version with subtitles; Sandy Frank English dub; promo materials

Directed by Noriaki Yuasa

Starring Koichi Maeda, Mach Fumiake, Yaeko Kojima, Yoko Komatsu, Keiko Kudo, Toshie Takada

Rating:

A big old starship — which looks so much like an Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars that you just know it can't be a friendly thing — comes round the earth and deposits a reasonably hot alien woman named Giruge (Keiko Kudo) in the middle of Japan. She is, in a fact, a minion of the evil space marauder Zanon and has come to eliminate three goody-goody space women named Kilara (Mach Fumiake), Marsha (Yaeko Kojima), and Mitan (Yoko Komatsu) — who, for whatever reason, have sent the bad folk into a tizzy. Giruge, alas, continually finds herself stymied because the space women, being ever-so clever, have disguised themselves as normal Earthlings. (When they wish to transform into their true space-woman forms, they tweak their earlobes and wave their arms a few times — resulting in their outfits changing into figure-hugging leotards with capes.) Meantime, Kilara (looking more like Akira Takarada than he does) befriends a terminally cheerful little brat named Keiichi, who... much like some of his juvenile predecessors... is overly fond of turtles. After a while, with Giruge's attempts to quash her quarry going so poorly, Zanon figures it's time to bring on some big monsters.

Gyaos! Zigra! Jiger! Barugon! Viras! Guiron! They all appear, in turn, and do battle with Gamera, who, in turn, dispatches them in familiar fashion...familiar, at least, if you've seen their original appearances because... yes, gracious... they're all stock footage. Every bit of them. Zanon even manages to take control of Gamera (if only briefly) and unleash him to do his part in the urban devastation, via footage from the original Gamera and Gamera vs. Barugon. Eventually, though, touched by Keiichi's devotion to Gamera, Giruge defies her master and sides with the Earthlings, prompting a peeved Zanon to shoot her with a laser cannon from outer space. In the end, Gamera flies into space after Zanon's ship and ends it all with a terrific bang. Kilara informs Keiichi that Gamera has sacrificed his life to save the earth, but tears are not to be shed. We end the film with the space women taking Keiichi on a flying tour of Shinjuku, and we've never seen him happier.

I picked up this Shout! Factory double-feature DVD about a year ago, when it was first released, but I had avoided inserting Gamera: The Super Monster into the player until this evening. The first and only time I had seen it was on television in 1986, and my sole impression of the experience was that it was fairly painful. Gadzooks and forsooth! There's not much way around saying the movie is both odder than hell and terribly tedious; four cups of coffee it took to keep me from nodding off.

Over the course of its run during the 60s and 70s, the Gamera series had devolved into a property aimed solely at children, with ever-diminishing budgets and box-office returns. Daiei Studios had filed for bankruptcy in 1971, and while it reorganized during the 70s, its output was anemic to say the least. The brain trust at Daiei evidently hoped that Gamera: The Super Monster might successfully relaunch the Gamera franchise, but if anything, it only kicked an already moribund animal.

Among the many subtle and not-so-subtle peculiarities of this film, about halfway through it, we have an exciting bedtime scene, in which we learn that young Keiichi is a fan not only of turtles but of the animated Space Cruiser Yamato series, for he takes copies of both an illustrated Yamato book and a Gamera book to bed with him. Next thing you know, he's dreaming, and we are treated to a scene from Yamato, complete with the distinctive theme by Hiroshi Miyagawa, only to have Gamera fly into view and watch the cartoon space battleship go sailing by. During Gamera's attack on the city, he knocks over a stand-up poster display, upon which we see a painting of a distinctly familiar Toho monster and the title (in Japanese), Farewell, Godzilla. Since, in 1975, Godzilla had entered what was to be a decade-long retirement, perhaps this was Daiei's way of saying, "Hey, Gamera's still around but you're not," though, clearly, Godzilla was still destined for a longer and far more profitable film career.

Like several other substandard daikaiju films, I own Gamera: The Super Monster because it is a daikaiju film, and there are certain properties for which I'm a reluctant completist — Gamera being one of them. Doesn't mean I have to like it; no, not much.

Just Another Talking Space Shark

Gamera vs. Zigra (Gamera Tai Shinkai Kaiju Jigura, 1971)

DVD Description: Released by Shout! Factory, (2011; double-billed with Gamera: The Super Monster); Japanese version with subtitles; Sandy Frank English dub; publicity gallery

Directed by Noriaki Yuasa

Starring Yasushi Sakagami, Gloria Zoellner, Isamu Saeki, Kôji Fujiyama, Eiko Yanami

Rating:

This double-feature package is the last of Shout! Factory's Gamera releases—well-produced, as is typical of these, though the movies themselves are anything but the cream of the crop. Gamera vs. Zigra, produced by Daiei in 1971, was the first of the Showa-era Gamera films to be released on our shores directly to video in the 1980s, with no prior theatrical or television release. Daiei ended up going bankrupt shortly after the film's completion, and it was released in Japan by Dainichi Eihai.

The film opens with an alien spaceship attacking and destroying a Japanese moonbase and then heading for Earth. The opening credits follow, and we are treated to the Gamera theme, sung by the Insane Children From Hell. Down on Earth, Dr. Tom Wallace (Kôji Fujiyama), his son Kenichi (Yasushi Sakagami), Dr. Yosuke Ishikawa (Isamu Saeki), and his daughter Helen (Gloria Zoellner) are enjoying a day of boating off the coast of Japan. They see the alien ship descend into the ocean nearby, and, before you know it, a teleportation beam has brought the little boat on board the spacecraft. A single, reasonably attractive, anthropomorphic space female appears to them and reveals that she is of an alien planet/race known as "Zigra." By way of demonstrating Zigran technological prowess, she creates a gigantic earthquake that wreaks havoc throughout Japan (all off-camera, of course). She then tells her prisoners of Zigra's past history and its great scientific advances—which, unfortunately, have resulted in the destruction of the planet; however, in searching for a new home, Zigra has found Earth (one guess what that means).

Single, reasonably attractive, anthropomorphic space female contacts UN authorities on Earth and orders them to surrender the planet or else. Dr. Tom, a bit on edge after all this, declares that the Zigran woman is insane; in anger, she retaliates by sending the two men into a hypnotic trance. But Kenichi and Helen—precocious, they are—use the ship's control console to hypnotize the woman and make their escape. Enraged, the Zigran overlord—a strange, shark-like being—orders the woman to go to Earth and kill the children, to which she replies it would be simpler to kill all the people of Japan. However, the great and powerful Zigra tells her that humans must be preserved so they can be used for food. Now, Gamera, intent on discovering the identity of the alien interloper, flies in to save the day and rescues the children and their fathers. The UN authorities, after questioning Kenichi and Helen, resolve to attack Zigra. Defense Force jets scramble, but Zigran spaceship makes short work of them with its powerful lasers. Alien woman, disguised as a normal single, reasonably attractive female human, arrives on earth and begins her search for the kids. She hitches a ride with the Sea World dolphin trainer back to the facility, which the military is now using as its center of operations. She finds Kenichi and Helen, but before she can fix their wagons, they call out for Gamera, who obediently appears.

Gamera begins an assault on the Zigran spaceship—which, when hit with big turtle's fire-jet, transforms into the giant shark-like monster. Zigra grows larger and larger, and finally halts the flame-loving turtle with a ray that freezes its cell activity. Back at Sea World, the dolphin trainer and the facility's scientists discover a way to break the alien's hypnotic control with sonic waves. Thus, they manage to disable Zigra woman, only to learn that she actually is a normal human-type person: during the initial lunar attack, she had been driving a moon rover and was captured and put to good use by Zigra.

Drs. Wallace and Ishikawa employ a bathyscaph in an attempt to wake Gamera, only to find that Kenichi and Helen have stowed away on board. Zigra suddenly attacks them and again demands Earth's immediate surrender...or it will destroy the bathyscaph. The UN commander reluctantly agrees to the alien's terms.

An electrical storm approaches the bay, and a bolt of lightning revives Gamera, who snatches the bathyscaph from Zigra and returns it to the surface. Gamera and Zigra face off a final time, and Zigra, using its superior versatility underwater, slices Gamera's chest with its blade-like dorsal fin. Gamera takes hold of Zigra, flies into the air, and then slams the bad critter against the earth. Pinning Zigra to the ground with a boulder, turtle grabs another and uses it, like a hammer on a xylophone, to play the Gamera theme on Zigra's dorsal fins (while dancing merrily along). Finally, Gamera ends Zigra's miserable existence by setting its body on fire, reducing it to ash in a massive conflagration.

Mind you, any sense of excitement evident in the description above is completely accidental. Gamera vs. Zigra is one of the slowest-moving of the Gamera series, with long stretches of exposition (such as the early narrative describing the features and functions of Sea World) and few enjoyable monster scenes. Until near the end of the picture, most of Gamera's scenes are shots of him flying around, eyes perpetually rolling back and forth. Zigra itself is no better or worse than any of Gamera's other foes; its silvery goblin-shark appearance is suitably menacing. Its ability to communicate by speaking in Japanese (presumably via telepathy), in context, works well enough. It's certainly more palatable than the conversation between Godzilla and Angilas in Godzilla vs. Gigan, or even the monster dialogue "translated" by the Shobijin in Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster.

Special effects scenes are fewer and sparser than ever in this movie, reflecting the ever-diminishing budgets forced by the collapsing of the Japanese film industry in the early 1970s. Juvenile characters and humor, the trademark of the Gamera films since Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967), are taken to the extreme here, and little Kenichi could hardly be more obnoxious.

Until the re-booted 1990s Gamera series, the big turtle would appear only once more—virtually entirely by means of stock footage—in 1980's Super Monster Gamera, which is the second entry in this Shout! Factory double feature.