Gamera is, as promised, back for his 50th anniversary. In his most eye-popping (and -melting) adventure yet. This looks like a touch of Gamera the Brave's structure, as well as Shûsuke Kaneko's plot. Gyaos, Gamera's most popular enemy, is back, and if you watch closely, you can see their breath weapon in the background.
Good for the director for having the foresight to introduce a new monster. This is hopefully a forward-looking entry into the franchise, not a backward-looking one.
Showing posts with label Gamera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gamera. Show all posts
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Coming of Age With Flying Turtle: Gamera the Brave
2006 was just about the 40th anniversary of Gamera, and Kadokawa decided to celebrate with a film of their own monster franchise. Gamera the Brave is a move away from the darker tone of the Shûsuke Kaneko films, and neither is it in line with the silly Showa-era films. Director Ryuta Tazaki crafted a more modern film about a giant monster and the child who does not want him to die.
The film starts on a very harsh note. It's 1973 (two years after Gamera vs Zigra, so it's possible this is a continuation of the Showa series, ignoring the previously-mentioned Shûsuke Kaneko films, and the recycled footage-heavy Gamera, Super Monster, but I'll leave the fiddly parts to continuity-minded individuals. 1973 could have just as easily been a convenient date). People are running, Gamera is being attacked by his perennial enemy, the Gyaos. And he isn't winning.
This old Gamera takes a number of attributes from the Shûsuke Kaneko vision. It shoots fireballs rather than a short-range blast of flame. It has an additional energy attack, one that comes from its chest, as seen in Attack of the Legion, but rather than projecting a powerful ray, it detonates Gamera in a suicide attack. This is particularly interesting coming from a Japanese film. During World War II, Kamikazi (or Tokko Tai) were used as a last resort against the approaching American forces. This mindset is now foreign to most Japanese, and this cultural shift is the engine which drives the plot.
The time moves to 2006, and the boy who witnessed Gamera's death now as a son himself. His wife has died, leaving him to raise his son by himself. That son, Toru, will be our protagonist, facing the additional challenge of growing up without his mother. Then, we hear the oldest way to tell the audience a giant monster is coming: a fishing boat, it's captain, and crew go missing. This classic element of kaiju film, a trope that ranges from first Godzilla to Pacific Rim.
Toru's life is complicated but ordinary, he has two friends he hangs out with, as well as a girl next door who lets him borrow manga. But the realities of life quickly intrude. Mai needs to have a heart operation, for example. For him, the kaiju plot begins on a day when he sees a glinting light on an island. He finds a large glimmering red stone, and a turtle. After Gamera sacrificed itself, the local village discovered unique red pearls in the surrounding waters, which they gathered and sold. Toru finds his turtle perched on a gigantic red pearl larger that his hand. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Toto rapidly shows itself to be no ordinary turtle. It grows quickly, and it can fly. Hiding the flying turtle becomes a bonding experience for Toru and his friends. In a comedy sequence, the turtle tours the restaurant where Toru's father works. A dropped knife suggests Guiron, and Toto the turtle lets out a small urp of flame. As he grows, Mai becomes suspicious, and shows Toru a file concerning Gamera. Toru rejects the possibility that his flying turtle is in any way related to Gamera because monsters fight and die. And he doesn't want his Toto to die. With his mother dead, this is an understandable and resonant moment. A child understands death, sees another in the future and wants to avoid it. He is growing up, beginning to grapple with the impermanence of existence.
Then Zedus shows up. The suit on Zedus is excellent, maybe even better than Gamera's own. Which makes some sense. Zedus only requires one suit, where Gamera grows through several. It's large and lizardy, with a frill and a lot of hanging strips of skin. It does not have an energy attack, or flaming breath, but it does have a razor-sharp tongue that shoots from its mouth. Zedus is definitely a bad kaiju. Within two minutes of its appearance, it immediately chows down on a trapped crowd.
When Gamera first confronts the creature, it's absolutely no contest. Gamera is less than a fifth of the size of Zedus. But it gamely tries to stop the monster.
After the initial, inconclusive encounter, the military gets involved. This isn't Ishiro Honda, just around for show military, but more actively standing in the damn way military. They haul Toto off on a flatbed truck, as if it were Gorgo.
As sometimes happens in films aimed at younger audiences, the adults are either stunningly incompetent or do not have the whole picture. It is therefore up to the kids to set things straight. The government is trying to force Gamera to grow more quickly so it can take on Zedus, and at the same time, Toru wants to prevent the fight so Toto won't die. To do so, Toru figures that it needs a huge red pearl he Mai took to the hospital as a lucky charm. And so the three friends embark on a mission. To get the huge red pearl, and somehow, get it to Gamera.
Gamera here, even in his final form, is a bit more like Minilla than previous Gameras. His nose is more blunt, his features more round, his eyes large, and his tusks are short. But the articulation of the eyes is good, and the head and jaws move very naturally. And his roar has been replaced with something a bit more generic, which I have mixed feelings about. I've long loathed the Gamera scream, but Shûsuke Kaneko made it work. So I strangely miss it with this film.
Gamera has long been touted as the friend of all children. In this film, the reverse is true. Mai, unable to get the red pearl to Gamera, hands it off to a silent child, who begins a relay to get it to him. It's a touching sequence as children of various sizes hand the red pearl off to each other, running to the center of Nagoya where Gamera and Zedus fight. As each one encounters a barrier; a police man, the crush of people running the other way, the prize is handed off to a new runner.
Toru does not want Toto to have to fight alone. He knows loneliness and loss, and he wants Toto, now really Gamera, to know that someone has his back. It's a well-orchestrated moment, the payoff for a lot of the film, made better by the fact that Toru convinces his father to help, too. This Gamers will not self-destruct. This Gamera will have something to live for.
With the giant pearl in his system, Gamera proceeds to rock house. His chest symbols glow, as did the previous Gamera's did just before he self-immolated, but it turns out to be powering up a massively explosive fireball. Zedus is annihilated in a tremendous explosion. Gamera is victorious without having to destroy himself.
Then, like Godzilla at the end of Godzilla 2014, he collapses. The government attempts to seize the opportunity to recapture Gamera, but the children save him once again, forming a human barrier between the military and the turtle. Gamera flies off, and the film ends.
Gamera the Brave is the most mainstream of the Gamera films. The interaction between the humans and the giant monster is excellent. Both humans and the giant monsters are well-developed in personality. Rather than having kids hang around shouting encouragement at Gamera, they make a difference in the final combat against Zedus. More than any previous Gamera film, this mingles the coming of age story with giant monsters. Toru are not just passive witnesses. The coming of age with monsters idea will be repeated in 2009 with Demeking, but with notably less success.
The only real pity about this film is its limited availability. Although Tokyo Shock issued it in DVD and Blu-Ray n 2012, it's scarce enough that it commands $60 on Ebay or Amazon. Gamera the Brave is not available in any of the subsequent Gamera collections, either. Which is a pity, this is a film that deserves to be seen more in Region 1.
The good news is that Kadokawa Shoten has declared that Gamera will return in 2015 with a 50th anniversary film, probably buoyed by the success of last year's Godzilla. Perhaps with that release, Gamera the Brave will be given a wider DVD and Blu-Ray release. The strength of the Gamera franchise seems to be that those controlling the franchise are willing to take greater risks with their character. Shûsuke Kaneko made three great Gamera films, and Ryuta Tazaki also made a very good film. Neither of these are directly in the 'spirit' of the original Gamera films, which were decidedly goofy, but the freedom to take different approaches has paid off with excellent films.
Next up, one of the greatest monster movies ever made. It's not really a kaiju film, but it's so good, I can't not write it up here.
The film starts on a very harsh note. It's 1973 (two years after Gamera vs Zigra, so it's possible this is a continuation of the Showa series, ignoring the previously-mentioned Shûsuke Kaneko films, and the recycled footage-heavy Gamera, Super Monster, but I'll leave the fiddly parts to continuity-minded individuals. 1973 could have just as easily been a convenient date). People are running, Gamera is being attacked by his perennial enemy, the Gyaos. And he isn't winning.
This old Gamera takes a number of attributes from the Shûsuke Kaneko vision. It shoots fireballs rather than a short-range blast of flame. It has an additional energy attack, one that comes from its chest, as seen in Attack of the Legion, but rather than projecting a powerful ray, it detonates Gamera in a suicide attack. This is particularly interesting coming from a Japanese film. During World War II, Kamikazi (or Tokko Tai) were used as a last resort against the approaching American forces. This mindset is now foreign to most Japanese, and this cultural shift is the engine which drives the plot.
The time moves to 2006, and the boy who witnessed Gamera's death now as a son himself. His wife has died, leaving him to raise his son by himself. That son, Toru, will be our protagonist, facing the additional challenge of growing up without his mother. Then, we hear the oldest way to tell the audience a giant monster is coming: a fishing boat, it's captain, and crew go missing. This classic element of kaiju film, a trope that ranges from first Godzilla to Pacific Rim.
Toru's life is complicated but ordinary, he has two friends he hangs out with, as well as a girl next door who lets him borrow manga. But the realities of life quickly intrude. Mai needs to have a heart operation, for example. For him, the kaiju plot begins on a day when he sees a glinting light on an island. He finds a large glimmering red stone, and a turtle. After Gamera sacrificed itself, the local village discovered unique red pearls in the surrounding waters, which they gathered and sold. Toru finds his turtle perched on a gigantic red pearl larger that his hand. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Toto rapidly shows itself to be no ordinary turtle. It grows quickly, and it can fly. Hiding the flying turtle becomes a bonding experience for Toru and his friends. In a comedy sequence, the turtle tours the restaurant where Toru's father works. A dropped knife suggests Guiron, and Toto the turtle lets out a small urp of flame. As he grows, Mai becomes suspicious, and shows Toru a file concerning Gamera. Toru rejects the possibility that his flying turtle is in any way related to Gamera because monsters fight and die. And he doesn't want his Toto to die. With his mother dead, this is an understandable and resonant moment. A child understands death, sees another in the future and wants to avoid it. He is growing up, beginning to grapple with the impermanence of existence.
Then Zedus shows up. The suit on Zedus is excellent, maybe even better than Gamera's own. Which makes some sense. Zedus only requires one suit, where Gamera grows through several. It's large and lizardy, with a frill and a lot of hanging strips of skin. It does not have an energy attack, or flaming breath, but it does have a razor-sharp tongue that shoots from its mouth. Zedus is definitely a bad kaiju. Within two minutes of its appearance, it immediately chows down on a trapped crowd.
When Gamera first confronts the creature, it's absolutely no contest. Gamera is less than a fifth of the size of Zedus. But it gamely tries to stop the monster.
After the initial, inconclusive encounter, the military gets involved. This isn't Ishiro Honda, just around for show military, but more actively standing in the damn way military. They haul Toto off on a flatbed truck, as if it were Gorgo.
As sometimes happens in films aimed at younger audiences, the adults are either stunningly incompetent or do not have the whole picture. It is therefore up to the kids to set things straight. The government is trying to force Gamera to grow more quickly so it can take on Zedus, and at the same time, Toru wants to prevent the fight so Toto won't die. To do so, Toru figures that it needs a huge red pearl he Mai took to the hospital as a lucky charm. And so the three friends embark on a mission. To get the huge red pearl, and somehow, get it to Gamera.
Gamera here, even in his final form, is a bit more like Minilla than previous Gameras. His nose is more blunt, his features more round, his eyes large, and his tusks are short. But the articulation of the eyes is good, and the head and jaws move very naturally. And his roar has been replaced with something a bit more generic, which I have mixed feelings about. I've long loathed the Gamera scream, but Shûsuke Kaneko made it work. So I strangely miss it with this film.
Gamera has long been touted as the friend of all children. In this film, the reverse is true. Mai, unable to get the red pearl to Gamera, hands it off to a silent child, who begins a relay to get it to him. It's a touching sequence as children of various sizes hand the red pearl off to each other, running to the center of Nagoya where Gamera and Zedus fight. As each one encounters a barrier; a police man, the crush of people running the other way, the prize is handed off to a new runner.
Toru does not want Toto to have to fight alone. He knows loneliness and loss, and he wants Toto, now really Gamera, to know that someone has his back. It's a well-orchestrated moment, the payoff for a lot of the film, made better by the fact that Toru convinces his father to help, too. This Gamers will not self-destruct. This Gamera will have something to live for.
With the giant pearl in his system, Gamera proceeds to rock house. His chest symbols glow, as did the previous Gamera's did just before he self-immolated, but it turns out to be powering up a massively explosive fireball. Zedus is annihilated in a tremendous explosion. Gamera is victorious without having to destroy himself.
Then, like Godzilla at the end of Godzilla 2014, he collapses. The government attempts to seize the opportunity to recapture Gamera, but the children save him once again, forming a human barrier between the military and the turtle. Gamera flies off, and the film ends.
Gamera the Brave is the most mainstream of the Gamera films. The interaction between the humans and the giant monster is excellent. Both humans and the giant monsters are well-developed in personality. Rather than having kids hang around shouting encouragement at Gamera, they make a difference in the final combat against Zedus. More than any previous Gamera film, this mingles the coming of age story with giant monsters. Toru are not just passive witnesses. The coming of age with monsters idea will be repeated in 2009 with Demeking, but with notably less success.
The only real pity about this film is its limited availability. Although Tokyo Shock issued it in DVD and Blu-Ray n 2012, it's scarce enough that it commands $60 on Ebay or Amazon. Gamera the Brave is not available in any of the subsequent Gamera collections, either. Which is a pity, this is a film that deserves to be seen more in Region 1.
The good news is that Kadokawa Shoten has declared that Gamera will return in 2015 with a 50th anniversary film, probably buoyed by the success of last year's Godzilla. Perhaps with that release, Gamera the Brave will be given a wider DVD and Blu-Ray release. The strength of the Gamera franchise seems to be that those controlling the franchise are willing to take greater risks with their character. Shûsuke Kaneko made three great Gamera films, and Ryuta Tazaki also made a very good film. Neither of these are directly in the 'spirit' of the original Gamera films, which were decidedly goofy, but the freedom to take different approaches has paid off with excellent films.
Next up, one of the greatest monster movies ever made. It's not really a kaiju film, but it's so good, I can't not write it up here.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Kaiju Neo-Brutalism: Gamera 3: The Revenge of Iris
In addition to the return of Toho's Godzilla, 1999 also saw the return of his greatest rival, Gamera. Director Shûsuke Kaneko and writer Kazunori Itô had created two stunning Gamera films, some of the finest kaiju films ever made. And they had done so with half the budget of Toho's Godzilla series of the same period. As the difference between the Japanese Godzilla and the 1998 American film demonstrate, attention to detail does matter. Itô and Kaneko clearly love the series, and spent a lot of time coming up with the plot, fleshing out the characters, and studying Kaiju films, finding their tropes, and subverting them.
The film starts with an old enemy, Gyaos, star of two Showa-era Gamera films, and the main antagonist in Gamera, Guardian of the Universe.
Directly after this, a deep-sea vessel discovers a graveyard of not one, but dozens of dead Gameras. So our heroic turtle isn't just an anomaly, he's part of a long line of Gameras. This brings up questions unanswered by the first film of the Heisei seriesd, as well as calling all the way back to the original 1965 Gamera. It also imparts a history to both of the Gyaos and Gamera himself.
Previously, Gamera had a connection to Asagi Kusanagi. That link was sacrificed in the previous film, and here, Gamera is much more destructive than he has been. Additionally, that previously-benign relationship can be poisonous if the individual taking that psychic connection has a lot of issues. Ayana Hirasaka, who forms a link with the Iris guardian, has been traumatized by the loss of her parents and the bullying of her fellow students. When given the power to appease her appetite for destruction, it doesn't go well for anyone. This is a definite swerve for the series. Rather than concentrating on the monsters, The Revenge of Iris looks at the trauma caused by the giant monsters that stomp through cities, examnining the broken lives in their wake. Gareth Edwards' 2014 Godzilla had moments of ths, but wasn't as willing to put an unflinching eye to the human misery around the monsters' feet.
Gamera's introduction, twenty-three minutes into the film, is brutal. After burning a Gyaos over Tokyo, he lands. As he walks, buildings crumble and people are crushed under the debris. Later estimates of fifteen to twenty thousand people are killed ast Gamera pursues the Gyaos without respect for the humans at its feet. It breathes fire through buildings to get a better angle, blows up streets with near-misses. In the end, Tokyo is a sea of fire, much as it was during the 1954 Godzilla rampage. And Gamera is again put on the military's hit list.
Meanwhile, Asagi is raising Iris, a tentacle monster that is a guardian spirit similar to the Phoenix. It grows from a small snail-like thing to a huge, gossamer-winged tentacle beast with arrowhead-like spiky bits. Like the Legion Queen, the construction is amazingly detailed, and must have been incredibly complex to work. Like Gamera, it's no angel, requiring body fluids to feed on. And humans are plentiful and convenient.
It has been fascinating watching Godzilla and Gamera swap ideas back and forth. In the late sixties, Godzilla attempted to court Gamera's audience. In Gamera's Heisei series, many ideas are borrowed from Godzilla. The heavily tentacled form of Iris is reiminscent of Biollante, especially when Gamera gets a tentacle through the hand. f Also the concept that the two monsters come from the same source, although in this case, gamera and Iris share the same creators, rather than sharing DNA. The idea that the friendly creature is from time immemorial awakened to fight its ancient enemies is central to Godzilla 2014.
The biggest subversion of the usuak kaiju tropes is that we do not see the ultimate fight. Gamera defeate Iris, which should have been its ally, and then, wounded, must confront dozens of Gyaos. But Gamera has his badass walk through the burning ruins before roaring a chellenge at his enemies. Gamera will never stop fighting. But we never see that last fight against the Gyaos. We never see the end.
Gamera 3: The Revenge of Iris is an impressive film, well made, with a compelling plot, and good characters. It actually has less Gamera action in it than the previous two films in the franchise, but monster action defines a kaiju film, and is not what makes it great.Gamera 3 involves the audience in the lives of the people impacted by the kaiju, gives them very real jobs to do. Even the unlikeable characters are memorable.
You know who else made a comeback in 1999? Yonggary, of course.
The film starts with an old enemy, Gyaos, star of two Showa-era Gamera films, and the main antagonist in Gamera, Guardian of the Universe.
Directly after this, a deep-sea vessel discovers a graveyard of not one, but dozens of dead Gameras. So our heroic turtle isn't just an anomaly, he's part of a long line of Gameras. This brings up questions unanswered by the first film of the Heisei seriesd, as well as calling all the way back to the original 1965 Gamera. It also imparts a history to both of the Gyaos and Gamera himself.
Previously, Gamera had a connection to Asagi Kusanagi. That link was sacrificed in the previous film, and here, Gamera is much more destructive than he has been. Additionally, that previously-benign relationship can be poisonous if the individual taking that psychic connection has a lot of issues. Ayana Hirasaka, who forms a link with the Iris guardian, has been traumatized by the loss of her parents and the bullying of her fellow students. When given the power to appease her appetite for destruction, it doesn't go well for anyone. This is a definite swerve for the series. Rather than concentrating on the monsters, The Revenge of Iris looks at the trauma caused by the giant monsters that stomp through cities, examnining the broken lives in their wake. Gareth Edwards' 2014 Godzilla had moments of ths, but wasn't as willing to put an unflinching eye to the human misery around the monsters' feet.
Gamera's introduction, twenty-three minutes into the film, is brutal. After burning a Gyaos over Tokyo, he lands. As he walks, buildings crumble and people are crushed under the debris. Later estimates of fifteen to twenty thousand people are killed ast Gamera pursues the Gyaos without respect for the humans at its feet. It breathes fire through buildings to get a better angle, blows up streets with near-misses. In the end, Tokyo is a sea of fire, much as it was during the 1954 Godzilla rampage. And Gamera is again put on the military's hit list.
Meanwhile, Asagi is raising Iris, a tentacle monster that is a guardian spirit similar to the Phoenix. It grows from a small snail-like thing to a huge, gossamer-winged tentacle beast with arrowhead-like spiky bits. Like the Legion Queen, the construction is amazingly detailed, and must have been incredibly complex to work. Like Gamera, it's no angel, requiring body fluids to feed on. And humans are plentiful and convenient.
It has been fascinating watching Godzilla and Gamera swap ideas back and forth. In the late sixties, Godzilla attempted to court Gamera's audience. In Gamera's Heisei series, many ideas are borrowed from Godzilla. The heavily tentacled form of Iris is reiminscent of Biollante, especially when Gamera gets a tentacle through the hand. f Also the concept that the two monsters come from the same source, although in this case, gamera and Iris share the same creators, rather than sharing DNA. The idea that the friendly creature is from time immemorial awakened to fight its ancient enemies is central to Godzilla 2014.
The biggest subversion of the usuak kaiju tropes is that we do not see the ultimate fight. Gamera defeate Iris, which should have been its ally, and then, wounded, must confront dozens of Gyaos. But Gamera has his badass walk through the burning ruins before roaring a chellenge at his enemies. Gamera will never stop fighting. But we never see that last fight against the Gyaos. We never see the end.
Gamera 3: The Revenge of Iris is an impressive film, well made, with a compelling plot, and good characters. It actually has less Gamera action in it than the previous two films in the franchise, but monster action defines a kaiju film, and is not what makes it great.Gamera 3 involves the audience in the lives of the people impacted by the kaiju, gives them very real jobs to do. Even the unlikeable characters are memorable.
You know who else made a comeback in 1999? Yonggary, of course.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Gamera Is Completely Outclassed: Gamera 2: Attack of The Legion
A pattern emerges during the Heisei Godzilla series, and continues on to the Millennium series. When Godzilla has steam, few other kaiju films make an appearance. When Godzilla is not being produced, other films begin to show themselves. In 1995, two Kaiju films were made: Godzilla vs Destoroyah and Gamera, Guardian of the Universe. Gamera was the first non-Godzilla kaiju film since 1985's Pulgasari. The year following, 1996, had no Godzilla, and three kaiju films were released. The best is Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion.
Attack of the Legion has an advantage over the previous Gamera film in that it doesn't need to introduce us to the new Gamera. So it goes straight to introducing us to the villain, the Legion. Like some of the best bad kaiju, it arrives in, or possibly as, a meteor. With a little nod to Godzilla vs Destoroyah, and even as far back as Return of Godzilla, Legion has many small parts as well as a massive queen. This provides the humans with something they can combat and the giant monster something of its own size to fight, also. This is reflected a bit on Cloverfield, in which the gigantic monster has human-sized parasites, bringing the conflict to two different levels. In an interesting twist, humans attempting to deal with the giant pod do very poorly, and Gamera, when attempting to deal with the smaller Legion creatures, nearly gets killed.
The smaller Legion are sort of hunched-over bugs with one eye and a lot of pointy bits. Like Warhammer Tyranids spiky. It's very clear that they are not here for anything but conquest.
Like Hedorah, the larger legion creature has a life cycle. It begins as a gigantic plant-like pod, and eventually hatches into the gigantic Legion queen.
The Legion Queen is in a Serizawa class all by itself. With ten long claws, a protective shell, a huge horn above its face, and a scream like stressed metal, it's as menacing as any kaiju put to screen. It must have been insanely complex to pupeteer. And just when the audience wonders if it has an energy weapon, it's head-horn splits open, and Gamera gets zapped. The beam is so strong that it takes a chunk out of Gamera's shell. It can also direct energy out of its spindly limbs and create an barrier. Gamera's clearly outclassed. It's just a giant, fire-breathing turtle that can fly.
Like so many kaiju, the Legion Queen has redundency built in under its redundencies. When Gamera pulls off the two horns that deploy the blue cutting beam, and it has whippy energy tentacles that lash through anything.
And there's plenty of monster action. Gamera initially fights the Legion queen to a standstill. But he errs when he attacks the second bloom, which opens in Sendai. It explodes in a massive, nearly nuclear, fireball, turning Gamera in a charred, immobile hulk.
Asagi Kusanagi appears again, sheerly by coincidence, having going for a ski vacation before the monsters attacked. Once involved, however, she again proves essential to Gamera. With an accumulation of people around the burned, immobile Gamera, Asagi's amulet chanels their love, and heals the gigantic turtle. But the talisman breaks. The ramifications of this are explored in Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys. The film reuses the idea of the invader making the environment more comofortable for itself, but this time, they're producing more oxygen, and increasing pressure, for example. This is why the explosion of the second pod was so massive--all the oxygen build-up.
There's a certain weird, X-Files feeling to the initial quarter of the film. Electromagnetic disturbances make the sky glow green, and radios don't work properly. And why not? X-Files was hot at the time, and very popular in Japan. But the mysterious atmosphere is difficult to manintain is a Gamera film. Still,
Again, the miliatry is valorized, even to the extent of cooperating with the science people, who are often at odds with the military in films following Ishiro Honda's style. A scientist who discovers and lures the smaller Legion swarm away, allowing Gamera to fight the Queen without having to take on the smaller creatuers. The military, finally realizing that Gamera is fighting against the Legion Queen, lobs some missiles at her, resulting in the loss of a couple of limbs. And the military takes care of the smaller Legion.
Gamera unleashes a new weapon. Having destroyed his connection to Asagi, and no longer able to draw power from humans, it draws it from the world itself.
This powers a huge power blast from its chest. And that's all for the Legion Queen.
Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion is one of the best the kaiju genre has to offer. The innovation of the two forms of the monster, each one something that only one force, Gamera or human, can handle, is a brilliant idea, executed well. It gives the humans something to do other than document the destruction and tell the audience how to feel. The execution of the film is excellent, the characters breathe, Gamera faces a tough challenge. Legion Queen is awesome. What more could you ask for?
Next up: Although Godzilla is dead, Toho didn't get out of the kaiju business.
Attack of the Legion has an advantage over the previous Gamera film in that it doesn't need to introduce us to the new Gamera. So it goes straight to introducing us to the villain, the Legion. Like some of the best bad kaiju, it arrives in, or possibly as, a meteor. With a little nod to Godzilla vs Destoroyah, and even as far back as Return of Godzilla, Legion has many small parts as well as a massive queen. This provides the humans with something they can combat and the giant monster something of its own size to fight, also. This is reflected a bit on Cloverfield, in which the gigantic monster has human-sized parasites, bringing the conflict to two different levels. In an interesting twist, humans attempting to deal with the giant pod do very poorly, and Gamera, when attempting to deal with the smaller Legion creatures, nearly gets killed.
The smaller Legion are sort of hunched-over bugs with one eye and a lot of pointy bits. Like Warhammer Tyranids spiky. It's very clear that they are not here for anything but conquest.
Like Hedorah, the larger legion creature has a life cycle. It begins as a gigantic plant-like pod, and eventually hatches into the gigantic Legion queen.
The Legion Queen is in a Serizawa class all by itself. With ten long claws, a protective shell, a huge horn above its face, and a scream like stressed metal, it's as menacing as any kaiju put to screen. It must have been insanely complex to pupeteer. And just when the audience wonders if it has an energy weapon, it's head-horn splits open, and Gamera gets zapped. The beam is so strong that it takes a chunk out of Gamera's shell. It can also direct energy out of its spindly limbs and create an barrier. Gamera's clearly outclassed. It's just a giant, fire-breathing turtle that can fly.
Like so many kaiju, the Legion Queen has redundency built in under its redundencies. When Gamera pulls off the two horns that deploy the blue cutting beam, and it has whippy energy tentacles that lash through anything.
And there's plenty of monster action. Gamera initially fights the Legion queen to a standstill. But he errs when he attacks the second bloom, which opens in Sendai. It explodes in a massive, nearly nuclear, fireball, turning Gamera in a charred, immobile hulk.
Asagi Kusanagi appears again, sheerly by coincidence, having going for a ski vacation before the monsters attacked. Once involved, however, she again proves essential to Gamera. With an accumulation of people around the burned, immobile Gamera, Asagi's amulet chanels their love, and heals the gigantic turtle. But the talisman breaks. The ramifications of this are explored in Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys. The film reuses the idea of the invader making the environment more comofortable for itself, but this time, they're producing more oxygen, and increasing pressure, for example. This is why the explosion of the second pod was so massive--all the oxygen build-up.
There's a certain weird, X-Files feeling to the initial quarter of the film. Electromagnetic disturbances make the sky glow green, and radios don't work properly. And why not? X-Files was hot at the time, and very popular in Japan. But the mysterious atmosphere is difficult to manintain is a Gamera film. Still,
Again, the miliatry is valorized, even to the extent of cooperating with the science people, who are often at odds with the military in films following Ishiro Honda's style. A scientist who discovers and lures the smaller Legion swarm away, allowing Gamera to fight the Queen without having to take on the smaller creatuers. The military, finally realizing that Gamera is fighting against the Legion Queen, lobs some missiles at her, resulting in the loss of a couple of limbs. And the military takes care of the smaller Legion.
Gamera unleashes a new weapon. Having destroyed his connection to Asagi, and no longer able to draw power from humans, it draws it from the world itself.
This powers a huge power blast from its chest. And that's all for the Legion Queen.
Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion is one of the best the kaiju genre has to offer. The innovation of the two forms of the monster, each one something that only one force, Gamera or human, can handle, is a brilliant idea, executed well. It gives the humans something to do other than document the destruction and tell the audience how to feel. The execution of the film is excellent, the characters breathe, Gamera faces a tough challenge. Legion Queen is awesome. What more could you ask for?
Next up: Although Godzilla is dead, Toho didn't get out of the kaiju business.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
When Did He Get This Awesome? Gamera, Guardian of the Universe
If you've been following My Year of Monsters, or even if you have seen the Gamera films yourself, you will be aware that that they are not held in high esteem. Not by me, at least. They were cheap, recycled their own special effects footage, and made little sense. The franchise ended in 1971, with one last sputtering gasp in 1980. But there are people who love the franchise. And one of them is director Shûsuke Kaneko. Kaneko seemed unlikely to bring the Terrible Terrapin back. Initially a director of soft-core porn films, he mad moved on to horror, directing a segment of Necronomicon, Book of the Dead. But how could anyone turn Gamera, a franchise about a jep-propelled monster turtle, into a notable watchable film? By taking the premise absolutely seriously.
The 1995 Gamera, Guardian of the Universe begins with talk of the advanced civilization of Atlantis. This is one of the aspects of of the original Gamera film that was left by the wayside in subsequent films. Gamera was from Atlantis, although in the original series, he was a demon of destruction, where here, he is much more friendly. The new Gamera series is not set after the previous Gamera films. Giant monsters are new to the characters.
This is a film that knows its roots. In homage to the original Godzilla, the film takes the audience to an island that has been wrecked by a mysterious and unseen force. In another nod, tghis time to Jurrasic Park, the bird expert plumbs a gigantic bird poop. There's another call-out to Godzilla as a woman at the supermarket complains about the price of fish, there's a train scene, with a pedigree that stretches all the way back to King Kong. And when it gets to Tokyo, well, Tokyo Tower gets broken. And just to prove that he's seen the last Gamera vs Gyaos, Gyaos loses a foot. And in the last five minutes, Gamera absorbs the heat and flame of the exploding oil refinery, another aspect, Gamera's hunger for heat, that was lost as the series went on.
The Gyaos of this film are similar to the ones in the original Gamera vs Gyaos. More bats than birds, there isn't any discussion of the two throats, but they certainly have the sonic cutting breath weapon. They also kill people. And pets.
Gamera is as he ever was. Right down to the squeaky belt roar. The suit has been improved, and so have the breath weapon special effects. Gamers not fires off balls of fire, rather than a blowtorch. At first, because he's moving slowly in the ocean, he mistaken for a floating island. But Gamera is no lionger the destroyer of a forgotten civilization. He's the protector agaist the Gyaos. When initially discovered, a number of talon-shaped talismans were discovered. This provides a link between the girl protagonist (who is fourteen or fifteen, sidestepping the hugely annoying boy protagonists of the previous films).
This talisman provides a psychic link between Gamera and Asagi Kusanagi, who holds it. When one it hurt or wounded, the others shows signs of it. In the end, however, we learn that it's powered by love, and with extra love, the wounds go away. Gamera is healed when Asagi's father holds her hand. This repeats at the endof the film. It's kind of weird and not well explained, but at least it's something that occurs after the movie is over, rather than disrupting the film with something clunkingly dumb.
Gamera and Gyaos are both products of Atlantean genetic engineering. It's interesting to note the change in Japanese films towards technology. Although Godzilla was initially created by the nuclear bomb, the series started out as very positive towards technology, and negative towards the military. Technology would save us from the monsters. Godzilla was initially defeated by the Oxygen Destroyer. New technologies were constantly being rolled out to combat the monsters. Here, the trend has reversed itself. Genetic eingineering created these monsters, which then destroyed the civilization that birthed them.
And like many Godzilla films, specifically, Godzilla vs Mothra and Godzilla vs Hedorah, this film touches on environmental issues. But it does so with a pretty light touch. The Gyaos awoke because the environment has changed enough that they are again comfortable, an idea recycled into Pacificf Rim. And Gamera has returned in response to his natural prey being active again, which was a touchstone of 2014 Godzilla. When the military fires missiles at Gyaos, it loops around, and the missiles strike Tokyo Tower, which is similar to a scene in the 1998 Godzilla. Kaneko's Gamera is clearly influential on many of the kaiju films that follow it.
In its initial analysis, the government advisors decide that Gamera ios the greater thread, even though it hasn't killed anyone, the way the Gyaos have. The actively incompetent bureacerat is a new stock character that will show up more as the nineties pass into the millennium. It's an easy way to misdirect the forces of the film, and stretch out the idea. But it's not offensively abused here.
One of the central scenes of the film takes place on a footbridge. The woman scientist is carryign a baby (of course) across a bridge and stumbles (of course). Our protagonist is saved at the last moment by Gamera's fire breath. One more shot, and one of the three Gyaos are down. One remaining Gyaos uses its sonic cutting beam, but Gamera puts a claw in front of the beam, saving the humans. And then the battle is over. But it's an excellent piece.
There's a lot of military showing off, trucks going here and there, large pieces of hardware shifting and then locking into place. Because it is initially misdirected, believing that Gamera is the greater threat, missiles are launched at Gamera, knocking him out of the sky. From there, the military pounds away at him until the Gyaos shows up. Even as Gamera is retreating, the military continues to fire on him, rather than Gyaos.
And man, does Kaneko love his explosions. Gmaera unleashes a barrage of fire, each one missing the fast-moving Gyaos, and Tokyo erupts in flames. Gamera may be humanity's prtector, but he clearly doesn't mind doing a few billion yen in property damages. The final confrontation between Gyaos and Gamera takes place in the midst an oil refinery. The final fight is surprisingly quick. Gamera doesn't deploy a new weapon, but uses his firey breath, which we saw was quite effective against the previous Gyaoses.
Gamera, Guardian of the Galaxy is an excellent kaiju film. The human characters are interesting, the monster fights are satisfying, and the plot isn't embarrassing. And it was done for a twentieth of the budget of Toho's Godzilla vs Destoroyah. The truly amazing part is that film got off the ground at all. Gamera is not a well-respected franchise, certainly not by me. But when a talented writer and an innovative director set their minds to making a film they want to see.
With Godzilla on hold, the 1996 sequel, Gamera: Attack of Legion is next.
The 1995 Gamera, Guardian of the Universe begins with talk of the advanced civilization of Atlantis. This is one of the aspects of of the original Gamera film that was left by the wayside in subsequent films. Gamera was from Atlantis, although in the original series, he was a demon of destruction, where here, he is much more friendly. The new Gamera series is not set after the previous Gamera films. Giant monsters are new to the characters.
This is a film that knows its roots. In homage to the original Godzilla, the film takes the audience to an island that has been wrecked by a mysterious and unseen force. In another nod, tghis time to Jurrasic Park, the bird expert plumbs a gigantic bird poop. There's another call-out to Godzilla as a woman at the supermarket complains about the price of fish, there's a train scene, with a pedigree that stretches all the way back to King Kong. And when it gets to Tokyo, well, Tokyo Tower gets broken. And just to prove that he's seen the last Gamera vs Gyaos, Gyaos loses a foot. And in the last five minutes, Gamera absorbs the heat and flame of the exploding oil refinery, another aspect, Gamera's hunger for heat, that was lost as the series went on.
The Gyaos of this film are similar to the ones in the original Gamera vs Gyaos. More bats than birds, there isn't any discussion of the two throats, but they certainly have the sonic cutting breath weapon. They also kill people. And pets.
Gamera is as he ever was. Right down to the squeaky belt roar. The suit has been improved, and so have the breath weapon special effects. Gamers not fires off balls of fire, rather than a blowtorch. At first, because he's moving slowly in the ocean, he mistaken for a floating island. But Gamera is no lionger the destroyer of a forgotten civilization. He's the protector agaist the Gyaos. When initially discovered, a number of talon-shaped talismans were discovered. This provides a link between the girl protagonist (who is fourteen or fifteen, sidestepping the hugely annoying boy protagonists of the previous films).
This talisman provides a psychic link between Gamera and Asagi Kusanagi, who holds it. When one it hurt or wounded, the others shows signs of it. In the end, however, we learn that it's powered by love, and with extra love, the wounds go away. Gamera is healed when Asagi's father holds her hand. This repeats at the endof the film. It's kind of weird and not well explained, but at least it's something that occurs after the movie is over, rather than disrupting the film with something clunkingly dumb.
Gamera and Gyaos are both products of Atlantean genetic engineering. It's interesting to note the change in Japanese films towards technology. Although Godzilla was initially created by the nuclear bomb, the series started out as very positive towards technology, and negative towards the military. Technology would save us from the monsters. Godzilla was initially defeated by the Oxygen Destroyer. New technologies were constantly being rolled out to combat the monsters. Here, the trend has reversed itself. Genetic eingineering created these monsters, which then destroyed the civilization that birthed them.
And like many Godzilla films, specifically, Godzilla vs Mothra and Godzilla vs Hedorah, this film touches on environmental issues. But it does so with a pretty light touch. The Gyaos awoke because the environment has changed enough that they are again comfortable, an idea recycled into Pacificf Rim. And Gamera has returned in response to his natural prey being active again, which was a touchstone of 2014 Godzilla. When the military fires missiles at Gyaos, it loops around, and the missiles strike Tokyo Tower, which is similar to a scene in the 1998 Godzilla. Kaneko's Gamera is clearly influential on many of the kaiju films that follow it.
In its initial analysis, the government advisors decide that Gamera ios the greater thread, even though it hasn't killed anyone, the way the Gyaos have. The actively incompetent bureacerat is a new stock character that will show up more as the nineties pass into the millennium. It's an easy way to misdirect the forces of the film, and stretch out the idea. But it's not offensively abused here.
One of the central scenes of the film takes place on a footbridge. The woman scientist is carryign a baby (of course) across a bridge and stumbles (of course). Our protagonist is saved at the last moment by Gamera's fire breath. One more shot, and one of the three Gyaos are down. One remaining Gyaos uses its sonic cutting beam, but Gamera puts a claw in front of the beam, saving the humans. And then the battle is over. But it's an excellent piece.
There's a lot of military showing off, trucks going here and there, large pieces of hardware shifting and then locking into place. Because it is initially misdirected, believing that Gamera is the greater threat, missiles are launched at Gamera, knocking him out of the sky. From there, the military pounds away at him until the Gyaos shows up. Even as Gamera is retreating, the military continues to fire on him, rather than Gyaos.
And man, does Kaneko love his explosions. Gmaera unleashes a barrage of fire, each one missing the fast-moving Gyaos, and Tokyo erupts in flames. Gamera may be humanity's prtector, but he clearly doesn't mind doing a few billion yen in property damages. The final confrontation between Gyaos and Gamera takes place in the midst an oil refinery. The final fight is surprisingly quick. Gamera doesn't deploy a new weapon, but uses his firey breath, which we saw was quite effective against the previous Gyaoses.
Gamera, Guardian of the Galaxy is an excellent kaiju film. The human characters are interesting, the monster fights are satisfying, and the plot isn't embarrassing. And it was done for a twentieth of the budget of Toho's Godzilla vs Destoroyah. The truly amazing part is that film got off the ground at all. Gamera is not a well-respected franchise, certainly not by me. But when a talented writer and an innovative director set their minds to making a film they want to see.
With Godzilla on hold, the 1996 sequel, Gamera: Attack of Legion is next.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
If Wishes Were Giant Turtles: Gamera the Super Monster
It's no secret that I consider the Gamera series, the Showa series at least, to be an also-ran to the Godzilla films. Gamera films are made cheaper, with less attention to plot detail, and the miniature work is generally of lesser quality. And the relentless use of kids as protagonists really grates on me. Gamera, Super Monster was made in a desperate attempt to save Daiei from bankruptcy. In a franchise that was ruthlessly cheap to begin, with was made with as little money as possible. And it shows. The Daiei team used the technique which had served them well before; the reuse of footage from previous films.
The introduction of the film is literally filmed paintings. After which we get an overhead pass from space ship Zanon, an enormous wedge-shaped starcraft. Star Wars, the reader may remember, came out three years previous, and this could kindly be referred to as a borrow.
With television filled with Ultraman and its many imitators fighting giant monsters, it was inevitable that the super sentai form would overtake its kaiju projenitors. Even Godzilla fell to the influence in Godzilla vs Megalon. In a bold move, however, all the super sentai are women; a pet shop owner, a teacher, and a car salesperson. This might be in order to catch the interest of an audience that had grown up on Gamera and now was interested in the opposite sex. Or it could be a continuation of the deliberate sexiness exhibited in Gamera vs Zigra and Gamera vs Guiron, which featured women from space as antagonists.
The three space women are opposed by Giruga, the one-woman advance team from the Zanon. She has a taser touch, which she oddly doesn't use in the showdown with Kilara. So we get a late-movie catfight, which goes down pretty well, since Kilara is played by Mach Fumiake, a professional wrestler.
The women are joined by Keiichi, the Gamera-standard child protagonist. We meet him as he's reading some manga with his friends. They decide to go to the park because a story in their magazine about a turtle that acts like Gamera. This deliberately blurs the line between reality and manga; they go to the policeman's station from the comic, and the man even has a turtle, although he deines the link between himself and the comic. Further, after Keiichi acquires a turtle, he sings the Gamera march to it, so the Gamera films must be part of his universe.
And then the stock footage begins. Hey, remember in Gamera vs Gyaos when that helicopter got cut in half? Remember when Gamera reduced Zigra to smoking ash? Or that entire fight when Gamera was speared through by a octopus-shaped lemon reamer? It's all there.
Immediately, there are logic problems. Kilara, one of the superbabes, transforms her van into a flying ball of light, lifting off from the highway, and no one notices. But they experience problems because Zanon can detect them when they're in their space woman form, so they aren't able to (lucky for the budget) transform into their super forms. So who's going to save Earth? Gamera, of course. Apparently, Gamera is fiction in this film, but Keiichi believes so hard that Gamera does come to rescue Japan from the rampaging space monsters. What? Head Space Woman Kilara is happy to watch Gamera kill invading space monsters, but won't kill Giruga because "To kill any living thing goes against my principles." And then there's the bit where Gamera performs a flyby of Space Cruiser Yamato. The animated one. The mixture of anime and live action is jarring.
In a generally unacknowledged nod to Mothra, when the super sentai themselves and stand in a carrying case, very remiscent scent of the Shobijin.
There's a moment of intercompany rivalry as Gamera stomps past a billboard, knocking it down. It's a sign for a Godzilla film! This sort of thing will be repeated in Kraa the Invader and Godzilla Final Wars. It's a cheap shot, and tends to turn up in films that are insecure about themselves.
We also have the very strange experience of watching a television present Gamera in footage from the first film trash Tokyo. I should say it's footage from Gamera vs Viras, since it's color-tinted. But still, it's a bit weird watching Gamera trash Tokyo on someone else's television.
In the end, Gamera has to destroy the gigantic ship Zanon. We see the approach, but not the impact. But Keiichi, who has some sort of link with Gamera, tells us he's dead. TVtropes.org, tells me that the ending was changed. The writer and director agreed that this film would not bring back the franchise, so they killed Gamera off, without a resurrection as in Gamera vs Zigra. I'm not sure if this is true or not. Gamera's heroic sacrifice is foreshadowed by Giruga doing the same thing. This might be a trope in Ultraman-style shows, the villain is redeemed, but can't become a regular, so they heroically sacrifice themselves for the greater good. This does get referenced, sort of, in Gamera the Brave, although Gamera sacrifices himself against Gyaos in the film's backstory, rather than a space ship.
Overall? This film is bad. Out of a 92 minues of screentime, thirty-six are recucled footage, more than a third of the film. So if you have recently watched all of the Gamera films, a third of the film is a waste of my time. And the superhero stuff isn't particularly interesting either, which leaves me with a bg shrug. The film is what it appears to be, a microbudget piece of desperation. It's a sorry farewell, even for a series I don't particularly enjoy. There wouldn't be another Gamera film for fifteen years. But the resurrection of the franchise is something truly beautiful to behold.
With the two big franchises hibernating, the early eighties were a time of change for kaiju films. So I'm going to take about a month and step back in time, catching a few movies I didn't have when I began My Year of Monsters. These will be the more obscure (read 'expensive')but influential films like Varan the Unbelievable, Mothra, and Atragon. From there, I should be able to work a straight chronology (with the exception of the next Godzilla film) until 2015.
The introduction of the film is literally filmed paintings. After which we get an overhead pass from space ship Zanon, an enormous wedge-shaped starcraft. Star Wars, the reader may remember, came out three years previous, and this could kindly be referred to as a borrow.
With television filled with Ultraman and its many imitators fighting giant monsters, it was inevitable that the super sentai form would overtake its kaiju projenitors. Even Godzilla fell to the influence in Godzilla vs Megalon. In a bold move, however, all the super sentai are women; a pet shop owner, a teacher, and a car salesperson. This might be in order to catch the interest of an audience that had grown up on Gamera and now was interested in the opposite sex. Or it could be a continuation of the deliberate sexiness exhibited in Gamera vs Zigra and Gamera vs Guiron, which featured women from space as antagonists.
The three space women are opposed by Giruga, the one-woman advance team from the Zanon. She has a taser touch, which she oddly doesn't use in the showdown with Kilara. So we get a late-movie catfight, which goes down pretty well, since Kilara is played by Mach Fumiake, a professional wrestler.
The women are joined by Keiichi, the Gamera-standard child protagonist. We meet him as he's reading some manga with his friends. They decide to go to the park because a story in their magazine about a turtle that acts like Gamera. This deliberately blurs the line between reality and manga; they go to the policeman's station from the comic, and the man even has a turtle, although he deines the link between himself and the comic. Further, after Keiichi acquires a turtle, he sings the Gamera march to it, so the Gamera films must be part of his universe.
And then the stock footage begins. Hey, remember in Gamera vs Gyaos when that helicopter got cut in half? Remember when Gamera reduced Zigra to smoking ash? Or that entire fight when Gamera was speared through by a octopus-shaped lemon reamer? It's all there.
Immediately, there are logic problems. Kilara, one of the superbabes, transforms her van into a flying ball of light, lifting off from the highway, and no one notices. But they experience problems because Zanon can detect them when they're in their space woman form, so they aren't able to (lucky for the budget) transform into their super forms. So who's going to save Earth? Gamera, of course. Apparently, Gamera is fiction in this film, but Keiichi believes so hard that Gamera does come to rescue Japan from the rampaging space monsters. What? Head Space Woman Kilara is happy to watch Gamera kill invading space monsters, but won't kill Giruga because "To kill any living thing goes against my principles." And then there's the bit where Gamera performs a flyby of Space Cruiser Yamato. The animated one. The mixture of anime and live action is jarring.
In a generally unacknowledged nod to Mothra, when the super sentai themselves and stand in a carrying case, very remiscent scent of the Shobijin.
There's a moment of intercompany rivalry as Gamera stomps past a billboard, knocking it down. It's a sign for a Godzilla film! This sort of thing will be repeated in Kraa the Invader and Godzilla Final Wars. It's a cheap shot, and tends to turn up in films that are insecure about themselves.
We also have the very strange experience of watching a television present Gamera in footage from the first film trash Tokyo. I should say it's footage from Gamera vs Viras, since it's color-tinted. But still, it's a bit weird watching Gamera trash Tokyo on someone else's television.
In the end, Gamera has to destroy the gigantic ship Zanon. We see the approach, but not the impact. But Keiichi, who has some sort of link with Gamera, tells us he's dead. TVtropes.org, tells me that the ending was changed. The writer and director agreed that this film would not bring back the franchise, so they killed Gamera off, without a resurrection as in Gamera vs Zigra. I'm not sure if this is true or not. Gamera's heroic sacrifice is foreshadowed by Giruga doing the same thing. This might be a trope in Ultraman-style shows, the villain is redeemed, but can't become a regular, so they heroically sacrifice themselves for the greater good. This does get referenced, sort of, in Gamera the Brave, although Gamera sacrifices himself against Gyaos in the film's backstory, rather than a space ship.
Overall? This film is bad. Out of a 92 minues of screentime, thirty-six are recucled footage, more than a third of the film. So if you have recently watched all of the Gamera films, a third of the film is a waste of my time. And the superhero stuff isn't particularly interesting either, which leaves me with a bg shrug. The film is what it appears to be, a microbudget piece of desperation. It's a sorry farewell, even for a series I don't particularly enjoy. There wouldn't be another Gamera film for fifteen years. But the resurrection of the franchise is something truly beautiful to behold.
With the two big franchises hibernating, the early eighties were a time of change for kaiju films. So I'm going to take about a month and step back in time, catching a few movies I didn't have when I began My Year of Monsters. These will be the more obscure (read 'expensive')but influential films like Varan the Unbelievable, Mothra, and Atragon. From there, I should be able to work a straight chronology (with the exception of the next Godzilla film) until 2015.
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