Gamera tai Uchu Kaijû Bairasu

View Movie

Lang:

Japan • 1968 • 75m •

• Directed by: Noriaki Yuasa. • Starring: Kôjirô Hongô, Tôru Takatsuka, Carl Craig, Michiko Yaegaki, Mari Atsumi, Junko Yashiro, Peter Williams, Kôji Fujiyama, Yoshirô Kitahara, Munehiko Takada, Mary Morris, Chikara Hashimoto, Kenji Gô. • Music by: Kenjiro Hirose.

A group of aliens from another planet head for Earth with the intentions of conquering it. Their first ship is destroyed in transit by the giant flying turtle Gamera. A second ship makes it to Earth and captures two Boy Scouts and holds them captive so that Gamera will not attack them. The aliens then implant a remote control device into the monster's neck and use the great turtle to attack Tokyo. The boys then come up with a plan to foul up the remote control device to the point where Gamera does the opposite of what he is ordered to. As a result Gamera destroys the aliens ship, but then has to contend with their giant squid like leader Viras.

Trailers:

Length:

Languages:

Subtitles:

Trailer #1

2:30

Trailer #2

0:51

Review:

Image from: Gamera tai Uchu Kaijû Bairasu (1968)

In this somewhat insane middle entry in the Gamera franchise, some aliens with a bumblebee space ship try to invade earth, but Gamera just happens to be cruising around the milky way and fs their s up. At alien headquarters, they decide to trap Gamera at the bottom of the ocean with some arbitrary electric net thing while they use mind rays to determine its weakness (why not just keep using the net thing?), which is, of course, its inexplicable love for children. So they kidnap some kids, and Gamera has to save them. (And also mankind!)

This is the first Gamera movie to go for a really childish tone, but unlike the likes of "vs. Guiron", it probably won't give you a combination of diarrhea and nausea. I guess it's because it still manages to resembles a good-bad sci-fi B movie rather than a total, unambiguous kids' movie--the cheesy space ship noises, the aliens that can shoot their severed limbs like projectiles, etc. There's even a part where the main villain decapitates like five guys with a swing of its tentacle. Way more over-the-top than any of those stiff, insufferable Godzilla movies with aliens.

Action stock footage is shamelessly utilized when the aliens "read Gamera's mind", but in a way, it's kind of nice if you just want to see one Gamera movie. It's like, okay, you only have about 50 minutes worth of footage? Go ahead and re-use some old action scenes instead of padding things out with stupid humor or pretending anyone really cares about the plot. But things do get kind of weird when the aliens control Gamera's mind to have him "destroy Tokyo" (it's re-used footage from the first Gamera movie), and the kids are like "darn! what a sticky situation." Don't get too upset about thousands of people dying or anything, guys.

Viras itself is pretty shoddy, but it has this kind of uncanny valley look to it that creeped me out as a kid. Can't ask for much more than that from a monster movie, I think. In typical Gamera fashion, the final fight's about 10 minutes and full of cartoonish violence, so it doesn't really matter too much what precedes it. Not a great movie, but it has a certain vibe I can't deny, and the plot's not as bad as anything from Hollywood recently.

Review by apregnantlesbian from the Internet Movie Database.

Release Anniversaries

Movie Database

Movies By Year: