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Gamera vs. Barugon
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| Year: |
1966
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Director: |
Shigeo Tanaka
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| Stars: |
Kojiro Hongo, Kyôko Enami, Yuzo Hayakawa, Takuya Fujioka, Kôji Fujiyama, Akira Natsuki, Yoshiro Kitahara, Ichirô Sugai, Bontarô Miake, Jutarô Hojo, Kazuko Wakamatsu, Yuka Konno, Eiichi Takamura, Kenichi Tani, Koichi Ito
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| Genre: |
Action, Science Fiction, Adventure |
| Rating: |
  6 (from 2 votes) |
| Review: |
Gamera the giant monster turtle had caused so much devastation on planet Earth that he was put in a space rocket and shot into the heavens, heading towards Mars where it was hoped he would never bother the human race again. However, these best laid plans go haywire when a meteor hits the capsule, sending Gamera back to our world where he resumes his path of destruction, flying into a Japanese dam and smashing it up, with a flood the result. He then soars off to a volcano in the Pacific...
But we will hear from him again, only surprisingly not as much as you would expect as the big green guy found a rival here who tended to steal his thunder for the greater part of the movie. Just as Daiei's original Gamera effort had slavishly aped Toho's first Godzilla instalment, their sequel went the same route as that company's follow-up, finding another man in a suit creature for their anti-hero to grapple with. Here, however, unlike the other movies in this series, the tone was less about appealing to the kids and more appealing to the adults.
This might have explained why so much of the plot was given over to disgraced helicopter pilot Keisuke (Kojiro Hongo), who sets out on an expedition to New Guinea with a couple of other rogues in search of a giant opal which his brother had hidden in a cave there during the war. Retrieving this gem will make them all rich, but the problem is in getting there, as the trio land on the island and encounter a group of natives, including the exotically-named Karen (Kyôko Enami), who warn them against seeking the treasure, pleas which naturally fall on deaf ears when the schemers' greed is so overpowering.
They do achieve their goal, but more in keeping with the grimmer approach one of them falls victim to a scorpion bite, while Keisuke is trapped in a rockfall triggered by his colleague Onodera (Kôji Fujiyama) who is overcome with avarice and wishes to keep the loot for himself. They do both get back to Japan in their own ways, but Keisuke takes the anxious Karen with him because she realises the opal is actually an egg - something Onodera finds out when he accidentally hatches it. He does this by leaving it in the way of a heat lamp he was using to treat his athlete's foot, surely the least auspicious method of creating your giant monster in the genre.
Once Barugon, our baddie, has grown to tremendous size and starts smashing up the place, the authorities take an interest, but what to do with a monstrosity which breathes ice through an extendable tongue? Gamera is attracted by the mayhem, and a bout of fighting commences, but no sooner has the boisterous reptile got into the scrap than his opponent freezes him, thereby messing him up for the rest of the movie until the climax. With the lack of a child hero for the kids to identify with, the only instance of this in the series, the thriller narrative is strengthened to carry the weight, and as a definite improvement on the first part there's more to engross. Barugon is pretty goofy for all the serious intent - his most dazzling power is a killer rainbow - and there's not much for turtle fans perhaps, but as it stood this was a fairly entertaining effort considering its source and purpose. Music by Chûji Kinoshita.
Aka: Daikaijû kettô: Gamera tai Barugon, War of the Monsters.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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