Gamera tai daiakuju Giron (1969)

... aka: Attack of the Monsters
... aka: Gamera vs. Guillon
... aka: Gamera vs. Guiron
... aka: Gamera vs. the Devil-Beast Guiron
... aka: Gamera vs. the Giant Evil Beast Guiron

Directed by:
Noriaki Yuasa

By this point in the Gamera series, things were decidedly being geared more toward children, which is cool, I guess. Kids need monster movies just like the rest of us and these films are good, harmless (well, mostly...) ways to introduce the young ones to the genre. This past holiday weekend I had the pleasure of babysitting my  3 1/2 year old niece, who kept me so busy from 7am until 9pm that I barely had a chance to squeeze in any horror movies. I did however have plenty of time to shop for Minnie Mouse socks, brush up on my watercolor painting, play Dora the Explorer games on the Nick Jr. website and listen to the Yo Gabba Gabba Megamix about 100 times. Side note: I'm praying I can get "Go! Go! Go, Foofa!" out of my head by the end of the week. My niece is usually a pretty good sleeper, but one evening she wandered into the living room while I was watching this. Since it was nearing the end and had been rather G-rated up until that point, I let her watch a couple of scenes before it was back to bed. Her verdict? Gamera is "... a silly and weird turtle." As for Guiron, well: "I don't like him. He's scary and looks mean." If only I could nail a film down in so many words.

After astronomer Dr. Shiga (Eiji Funakoshi) holds a press conference about strange magnetic waves they've been receiving, a spaceship lands in a vacant field somewhere in Japan. Young Akio (Nobuhiro Kajima), his kid sister Tomoko (Miyuki Akiyama) and his friend Tom (Chrystopher Murphy) happen to be stargazing with a telescope and see it. None of the adults - including Akio and Tomoko's mother Kuniko (Yuko Hamada) nor neighborhood cop Officer Kondo (Kon Omura) believe them, so the next morning the three kids ride their bikes go to the spot where it landed and sure enough there it is. Akio and Tom go inside and realize no one's on board, so they immediately start pushing buttons. Next thing they know the ship's lifting off and they're flying through space. When they come across some meteors, Gamera the giant jet-propelled flying turtle and "friend of children" saves the day by smashing the rocks, but the spaceship speeds up and they lose him.

Meanwhile, Akio and Tom have crash landed on a strange planet called Terra, which is on the opposite side of the sun and has an atmosphere somewhat similar to ours. They first spot the big, winged, aluminum-foil-wrapped bird that looks similar to Gaos, who'd caused some problems in a previous film in this series. Gaos encounters Guiron, who comes crawling out of the ground. Looking like a cross between a shark and a Bowie knife and equipped with throwing stars on his schnoz, Guiron reflects Goas' laser ray back onto him, which cuts off his leg. The two boys then encounter a pair of female aliens in tights, but are Barbella (Hiroki Kai) and Florbella (Reiko Kasahara) as kind as they first appear? Conducting experiments in controlling the environment have backfired for the race of Terrans and now because their planet is frozen and overrun by monsters, they'd like to locate. The two aliens are the last of their race, have lots of neat gadgets and have control over Guiron; who does their bidding. They'd also plan on eating Akio and Tom's brains to acquire their knowledge. A trip to Earth for them will be just another all-you-can eat cannibal buffet.

Back on Earth, little Tomoko tries to tell mom what happened, but her constant whining falls on deaf ears. Tom's skeptical mother Elza (Edith Hanson) shows up looking for her son and also doesn't believe Tomoko; telling authorities "Psychologists insist that if you believe everything a child says it's educationally and psychologically wrong!" So let me get this straight... In a world where gigantic alien creatures demolishing cities is the norm, and a big, child-loving turtle with a build in jet propulsion system flies around fighting them, is it really all that hard to believe that a couple of kids flew off in a spaceship? Nevertheless, this is cute and lively if you can get past Akio's obnoxious habit of calling everyone an idiot. Gamera not only gets to fight Guiron several times and eventually save the day, but he also gets to demonstrate his formidable gymnastic abilities on the uneven bar. Some scenes seem a little harsh for really small children, like when the aliens give the boys doughnuts laced with "sleeping powder," then strap Akio down, shave his noggin and then begin to cut into his head with an electric saw!

Yuasa also directed the original Gamera, the Giant Monster (1965) and all of the sequels in the original series aside from the first: Gamera vs. Barugon (1966; aka War of the Monsters); which is more serious and adult-oriented. The others are Gamera vs. Gaos (1967; aka Return of the Giant Monsters) and Gamera vs. Viras (1968; aka Destroy All Planets), scenes from both of which are used as flashback footage here, Gamera vs. Monster X (1970) and Gamera vs. Zigra (1971). AIP-TV initially released the films in America, while Sandy Frank handled later U.S. theatrical distribution for most of the series (often having the films re-dubbed a second time). They're all pretty easy to find on DVD, VHS or online to view.

★★1/2

Daikaijû kettô: Gamera tai Barugon (1966)

... aka: Dragonwars: Krieg der Monster
... aka: Gamera Strikes Again
... aka: Gamera vs. Barugon
... aka: Godzilla, der Drache aus dem Dschungel
... aka: Great Monster Duel: Gamera vs. Barugon, The
... aka: War of the Monsters

Directed by:
Shigeo Tanaka

Gamera was Daiei's answer to rival studio Toho's massively popular Godzilla. The series began with Daikaijû Gamera (or GAMERA, THE GIANT MONSTER) in 1965. A year later, the rights were purchased up by Sandy Frank, who removed some of the original footage and had new American scenes added for release under the title of Gammera the Invincible. That same year in Japan, Daiei produced its first Gamera sequel; Daikaijû kettô: Gamera tai Barugon (1966). The film was dubbed again for release on American TV by AIP as War of the Monsters, and was re-issued theatrically later on (again by Frank) under the title Gamera vs. Barugon. Unlike its predecessor, no new scenes were added to it. Things open with a recap of the first film and Gamera's origins. Resurrected by an atomic blast in the Arctic, Gamera was released from his icy prison, where he'd been "almost since the beginning of time." After laying waste to much of Japan, the giant, fire-loving turtle was lured into a rocket, which was the sealed and shot to Mars. This film picks up right there; only instead of actually reaching Mars, the rocket carrying the creature is hit by a meteor and split open. Gamera is then hurtled back to Earth for Round 2.

Gamera wastes no time causing death and destruction. He destroys a dam and then goes to a volcano to feast on molten lava. Meanwhile in Osaka, Keisuke Hirata (Kôjirô Hongô) decides to give up his job as a pilot because he wants to own his own airline company, and he's found just the way to make some quick cash. A few decades earlier during the war, Keisuke's crippled army vet brother Ichiro (Akira Natsuki) had stashed a giant opal worth at least 4 million dollars inside a cave in New Guinea. Now he wants some able-bodied men to go get it. Keisuke, along with two other men; Onodera (Kôji Fujiyama) and Kawajiri (Yûzô Hayakawa), make the long boat trip to the island. Once they arrive, they learn their destination is nicknamed "The Hill of Death" and that the villagers forbid them from going. They venture into the jungle, anyway, survive quicksand, snakes and bats and finally located the cave and the opal. Kawajiri is bitten by a scorpion and quickly dies. Onodera decides that he wants the opal all to himself, so he tosses a grenade at Keisuke and runs off. The native villagers manage to save Keisuke, but by the time they do Onodera is already on a boat headed toward Japan. Because removing the opal from the cave will release a yet-to-be-determined curse, beautiful native girl Kara (Kyôko Enami) must leave her island home for Japan to try to get it back.

As Onodera's ship docks in Kobe, Japan, the jewel is exposed to a powerful heat lamp, which reveals it to not actually be an opal at all, but a petrified egg. It hatches and a slimy little lizard-like creature crawls out. An explosion occurs, the ships sinks and then from the depths of the water comes a giant alligator-like horned monster called Barugon. It crawls on all fours, stomps some buildings, shoots a rainbow that can blow stuff up out of glowing spikes on its back and has a battering ram-like tongue that shoots out snow which will freeze anything it touches. Tanks, jets and missiles don't phase the beast. Drawn in by the heat, Gamera also proves to be no match as Barugon, who freezes him after a scuttle. Kara and Keisuke arrive from Japan, must deal with the evil, insanely greedy Onodera (who has since murdered Keisuke's brother and his wife [Kazuko Wakamatsu]) and then must save Japan from the rampaging lizard. Barugon has a diamond fetish, so they first attempt to lure the beast into a lake with a 6-thousand carat diamond. When that plan fails, they attempt to use a giant mirror satellite dish to reflect Barugon's rainbow back onto him. When that plan fails... well, there's always hope that Gamera will thaw out in time for the finale.

Despite the general consensus, I actually found this far more enjoyable than the original. It's a lot of fun, better paced and seems more geared toward an adult audience. The lost world-style adventure scenes (albeit a bit brief) are a nice way to break from the usual formula and there's plenty of smashing, explosions, monster action, highly variable special effects and charming, clever and / or colorful little touches throughout. It was followed by Gamera vs. Gaos (1967; aka Return of the Giant Monsters), Gamera vs. Viras (1968; aka Destroy All Planets), Gamera vs. Guillon (1969; aka Attack of the Monsters), Gamera vs. Monster X (1970) and Gamera vs. Zigra (1971) in the original run. The series saw a resurgence years later with the release of Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe (1995), which also led to numerous sequels. This and many others in the series are now in the public domain and easy to find.

★★★

Kaidan Yuki Joro (1968)

...aka: Ghost Story of the Snow Witch
...aka: Ghost Story of the Snow Woman
...aka: Kaidan yukijoro
...aka: Snow Ghost
...aka: Snow Woman, The
...aka: Yukionna

Directed by:
Tokuzo Tanaka

Yuki-onna is a female spirit in Japanese folklore, often described as a tall, pale-skinned woman with long black hair who appears only during snow storms, dresses in a long white gown, has uncommon beauty and possesses the ability to freeze anyone who threatens to either harm her or expose her once she takes on human form. Not only a common presence in Japanese literature, anime and manga, Yuki-onna also had an entire opera based on her (that was around as early as 1911) and appeared in that famous Snow Woman segment in the Oscar-nominated ghost anthology KWAIDAN (1964). Here's another chance to see the same character in action in a more bloated form (well, just 75 minutes) and, quite frankly, I'd take the KWAIDAN version any day over this one. Not that this is a bad movie. It's actually a pretty good one when it comes to cinematography, art direction, performance and direction. Unfortunately, the middle portion has a tendency to drag, and where it drags to will be predictable to even those who know nothing of the Yuki-onna legend.

An elder sculptor and his young apprentice Yosaku (Akira Ishihama) locate a sacred tree in the snowy forest with plans on cutting it down, returning it to their village and making a statue of the Goddess Cannon out of it. Stranded by a blizzard, they decide to take refuge in an abandoned shack and wait out the storm. While sleeping, a ghostly, floating woman (Shiho Fujimura) arrives in a flurry of snow. She puts out their fire, freezes the sculptor to death and then promises to spare Yosaku under the condition that he never utter a single word about the night to anyone as long as he lives. He agrees and she goes on her way. Yosaku returns to his village and the home he shares with the sculptor's frail wife and is given permission to create the statue himself. A mysterious woman named Yuki (Fujimura again), who claims to be the daughter of doctors, shows up during a rainstorm, Almost as quickly as they meet, and because of a deathbed wish from the sculptor's wife, Yuki and Yosaku marry. Five years later (which is also how long the wood takes to petrify so the statue can be made) the couple even have their own son.

As is typical of films from this era and from this country, there's high-level corruption in the village as a brutish and sadistic bailiff (who has no issue beating elderly women and children) lusts for the beautiful Yuki and will stop at nothing - including exploiting his social standing - to get her. There's blackmail, attempted rape and eventually revenge enacted by Yuki as her - ahem - icy side comes forward. There's some spooky stuff at the very beginning and a little spooky stuff at the very end, but the entire middle portion plays out as romantic tragedy and the complications faced by our ill-fated love birds aren't really all that interesting.

Some of the shots are lovely to look at, the effects are very well-done for the time and the two leads are excellent. So while it's admittedly a 'well-made film' it's also a 'well-made film that has already been done better elsewhere with less filler.' Which begs the question: What exactly is the point?

★★1/2