After A Long Silence, Gamera Returns

Gamera is, as promised, back for his 50^th 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.

Coming of Age With Flying Turtle: Gamera the Brave

2006 was just about the 40^th 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 50^th 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.

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.

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.

Knifehead Attacks: Gamera vs Guiron

I can remember seeing four monster movies on the 4 O'Clock movie on Channel 30: Destroy All Monsters, King Kong vs Godzilla, Godzilla vs the Smog Monster, and Gamera vs Guiron.

Like a lot of science fiction films, this starts with science, explaining the vastness of space, and touching on radio astronomy, on which the plot hinges. Out protagonists are an annoying kid, Aki, and his Anglo friend, Tom, who are amateur astronomers. They turn out to be the only people watching the sky when the flying saucer lands.



This is the first alien invasion film that acknowledges a language barrier. Tomoko, Aki and Tom's tagalong little sister, asks if the aliens will even understand Japanese. The subject is picked up with the tralslation machine the aliens use. It's a small nod to the increasing sophistication of the audience, or possibly to Star Trek's Universal Translator. It also allows the aliens to converse privately in earshot of the boys by moving their translation devices.

The kids manage to launch the space ship, or perhaps have the spectacular bad timing to be playing at launch when the spaceship decides to head home. When they're threatened by meteors, Gamera shows up to make sure they get through safely. Luckily, these are the only kids on Earth who need help. Gamera then tries to follow the UFO, but it rapidly outpaces him.



Tomoko tries to tell her mother that Aki and Tom have been abducted by a spaceship, but, as an adult in a kid-oriented film, she doesn't believe the kids. Or perhaps she just can't believe she's landed in such a ridiculous plot.



The planet they boys land on is barren and windy, sort of a predecessor of Aliens LV-426, and like Planet X in Invasion of Astro-Monster. It sits on the opposite side of the Sun, a conceit used in another 1969 film, Doppelgänger. Although it was a technologically advanced civilization, they kept churning out monsters until just about everything was destroyed. Computer error, you understand. So Space-Gyaos, like Earth Gyaos, but silver, is rampaging. The ground opens up, revealing Guiron, who's got a massive knife blade for a head. Guiron is likely the inspiration behind Knifehead, in Pacific Rim. Like many of Gamera's opponents, and Yonggary, it has projecting lower tusks.



What follows is a pretty clinical dissection of Gyaos. Guiron reflects Gyaos's sonic beam back, severing its leg. Then it leaps into the air, cutting Gyaos's wing off. On the ground and helpless, Gyaos then loses its other wing, and then its head. I can't help thinking that Guiron's head blade is about as sharp as Gypsy Danger's sword. No blood and guts, though. Just some purple flesh where Guiron cuts. This sets Guiron up to be pretty tough, since Gamera didn't have an easy time defeating the non-space Gyaos.



Guiron, it turns out, is the watchdog for the last tywo remaining Terans, Barbella and Flobella. Like the Kilaaks from Destroy All Monsters, they control their monster. Why they can't control the Gyaos with the same technology is left unexplained. It's oddly like Katsura controlling Titanosaurus, silver spandex and all, from Terror of Mechagodzilla. And their space-spandex fits them quite well. The Teran civilization has a lot of technology, but the errors in the system has somehow created the Gyaos monsters, which destroyed the civilization. Like the Viras aliens, they also have a mind probe. And it provides us with an opportunity to show stock footage of Gamera's past exploits, but only three minutes' worth this time. We get brief moments from all the previous films except Barugon, for some reason. Perhaps because it doesn't have any moments that demonstrate Gamera's ongoing friendship to children.



These aliens are pretty, but they've got their horrific side. While the kids are sleeping, the Terans decide to eat their brains, raw, to absorb their memories. Aki's head gets shaved with a razor stuck into a plastic ray-gun toy. It's a creepy moment, and Aki goes through the rest of the film with very short hair. This is more menace than a lot of kids' films offer, and gives it just enough edge to make it palatable to me as an adult.



Just as they're about to cut into his skull, the red alert sounds, letting them know Gamera has landed. And then there's nothing for it but Guiron has to fight Gamera. As is standard for these films, Guiron wins the first round, and Gamera retreats. In the meantime, the boys escape and engage hijinks, causing Guiron to attack the spaceship the Terans are escaping on, a plot point used later in Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. After this, Guiron attacks the structure where the kids are, but Gamera comes to their rescue.



Gamera jams half a missile into Guiron's head, then breathes fire on it, detonating it.



The rest of the film is the usual reconciliation with Mom, getting back to Earth stuff. The science folks who greet the kids after they get home are much more interested in what they've learned than the fact that they're the only humans to have been to another planet. Or that Aki's had his head shaved and looks suspiciously like a newly-inducted cult member.



Gamera vs Guiron is one of the better Gamera films. The plot holds together better than most of the prevoius ones, and the doses of actual threat keep the film from being dull. One annoying piece is that the writer repeats his two conditions for a more advanced civilization four times, with exactly the same phrase. Tera has no wars and no traffic accidents. It's a strange pair of points, although I understand that the Vietnam War was in full swing when the film was made. And increased urbanization led to more traffic accidents. But really, what the hell?

Next up, Toho skips making a Godzilla film in 1970, so we'll go straight to Gamera vs Jiger.

The Unlikely vs the More Unlikely: Gamera vs Gyaos

Gamera vs Gyaos is the footprint on which future Gamera films will be based. A child actor as the main character, ridiculous action, and a goofy opponent. Gyaos is, like Godzilla and Gamera himself, an ancient creature awakened into the modern time. Most later Gamera films will involve some sort of alien invader.



The effects are better than previous enttries from Daiei. After some stock footage of volcanoes, the viewer is presented with a lovely Mt. Fuji eruption in miniature, complete with lava flow. Daiei has been honing their miniature craft, and their experience is showing.



The film owes a moderate amount to Godzilla vs Mothra. First off, the instigator of the human plot is a greedy corporation, this one determinted to drive their road through a village, any cost. We are clearly meant to sympathize with the villagers, although after the initial protest, we find out that they are only resisting to get more money out of the Road Corporation. The Road Corporation laborers are hapless comedy figures who bear the brunt of the villager's displeasure as well as are also meant to be sympathetic. They have no effect on the plot, their time finished when the monsters appear on-screen, and given only a perfonctory closure at the end of the film.

As a team of scientists investigate Gamera's hoped-for death after he throws himself in Mt Fuji, an action echoed when Godzilla gets dropped into Mt. Mihara in The Return of Godzilla, their helicopter is sliced in half by a mysterious ground-based yellow beam. When a group of Starfighters attack, they are also neatly sliced up.



When a group of reporters are taking pictures of Gyaos rampaging through Nagoya, Gyaos's beam slices the car neatly between the diver's and passeneger's side. Except for the engine and the chassis. If you look at the right half of the car, you can see the support strut used instead of the wheel. This particular effect, and that particular bobble, is something that we'll see in another film, also released in 1967.



And introducing the Timmy. Eiichi is the name of our precocious and annoying little protagonist, and he does very little to endear himself to the adult viewer. Our first real encounter with him involves a reporter, a slingshot and a stone. The very close camera angles do the kid no favors, we hear his name a lot. He is subsequently involved in just about everything the adults do. From the military plannng session to attack Gyaos to suggesting the plan that ultimately works. There are worse examples of the supercompetent preadolescent character coming in both monster franchises.



While Gamera films are made explicitly for kids, they do include a lot more bloodletting than the more genteel Godzilla films. Our first glimpse of Gyaos comes when he eats an annoying reporter. When Gamera first arrives on the scene, Gyaos shoots his ultra-sharp beam, and makes Gamera bleed copious amounts of green blood. Gamera replies with his flaming breath, and the initial encounter is a stalemate.



Gyaos is typical of the opponents in the Gamera films. The suit looks cheaper than Godzilla's opponents. Interestingly, it has a pair of weaknesses. One, because of its twin throats, it cannot turn its head. Also, its flesh shrinks from, ultraviolet light. Both of these are ultimately irrelevant, since Gamera dumps its enemy into a volcano. Like Rodan, Gyaos can cause hurricane-force winds with its mighty wings, which is how it defeats the Japanese self-defence forces. After doing so, it takea s flying tour of Nagoya, destroying Nagoya Castle (last seen in Godzila vs Mothra) in the process.



In a second, bloody confrontation (Gyaos's blood is purple), Gamera tears off two of his enemy's toes, which are discovered floating in the bay and hauled to a lab for analysis. Luckily, Gyaos doesn't possess the recuperative powers of Reptilicus. It regenerates the toes, but the toes do not create another Gyaos. After some experimentation, it is determined that Gyaos's flesh shrinks when exposed to ultraviolet light. Like the creature's inability to turn its head, this is not part of Gamera's solution, but it serves to give the humans something to do while Gamera is under the sea, healing his cuts.



The humans' crazy-ass solution is to get Gyaos, a flying creature, onto a turntable to disorient it. To lure it, scientists will have to create an articifial blood that will lure Gyaos to the spot. Which they do, quite quickly. This is the same wacky logic that led us to multi-ton turtle into space in Gamera. Of course, this fails. The military revs the turntable too high, like the commander melting the relays in Godzilla vs Mothra, and the motor shorts out allowing Gyaos to escape. Poisoning the bait, I have to assume, was too technically complex.



The next awesome plan, suggested by Eiichi, is to set a forest fire, since Gyaos doesn't like fire, and Gamera loves it. Of course, it works, and the two gigantic monsters have their final showdown in a somewhat less impressive forest fire than Frankenstein and Barugon got. Oh, and Gyaos has some sort of fire-extinguishing mist that it sprays from it's abdomen. Gamera is able to stop Gyaos's most dangerous weapon, the sonic beam, by throwing a rock into its mouth. After that he gets a grip on Gyaos's neck, and hauls him into a volcano. Vulnerability to ultraviolet radiation? Unhelpful. Discovery that Gyaos can't turn his head? Also unhelpful. And then it's a kids' chorus singing Gamera's praises as we see the giant turtle's greatest hits behind the credits.



Gamera just unable to hold my interest. Yeah, it's a giant monster, but the human stories are so astonishingly goofy. The concentration on the kid, the uselessness of all adults, fact that Eiichi is the only person who can make a worthwhile contribution to the defense of Japan, all make me roll my eyes. Yes, I understand that it was a terrible time in writing and film history. The dead-end plots that point out Gyaos' vulnerabilities and then do nothing with them. Showing us Gyaos's weird powers (it can emit flame-retardant?) and then not using them for anything significant. All of these disappoint me, because Checkov's Gun is a wonderful thing when it is handled properly. But that requires effort on the part of the writer. Godzilla films of the era aren't much better. I really didn't like Son of Godzilla. There's no subtlety, no subtext to these films. They are being churned out on a schedule, which means that if a good idea can't be had, a mediocre one will do, and a bad one will get used if a mediocre one isn't available.



Next week, the biggest Thanksgiving Turkey to ever grace the screen!