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Gamera vs. Viras
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| Year: |
1968
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Director: |
Noriaki Yuasa
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| Stars: |
Kojiro Hongo, Tôru Takatsuka, Carl Craig, Peter Williams, Michiko Yaegaki, Mari Atsumi, Junko Yashiro, Kôji Fujiyama, Genzô Wakayama, Chikara Hashimoto, Kenichiro Yamane, Kenji Go, Akira Natsuki, Ken Nakahara
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| Genre: |
Action, Science Fiction, Adventure |
| Rating: |
  6 (from 2 votes) |
| Review: |
An alien spaceship is spinning through the infinite black void towards Planet Earth, and the intelligence which pilots it targets our home as the place most suited to the living conditions of the Viras, who are exploring the universe in search of somewhere new to settle. But they are not interested in peaceful co-existence, they want to take over by force - yet have not counted on the presence of Gamera, the supersonic flying giant turtle, which notices the ship and heads straight for it, smashing it to pieces...
Not that a small matter like that will put off the dastardly invaders, as the human race discovers in this, the fourth Gamera movie. Once again series writer Nisan Takahashi was scripting, but this time he was taking his inspiration from what Toho studios were doing with the rival Godzilla franchise and introducing the space alien element, here in the shape of the apparently human (only with eyes that glowed in the dark) Viras. Yet there was evidence of Takahashi's fertile imagination letting him down, or at least the budgeting department of his employers Daiei, leaving this one of the shortest entries.
Not only that, but for a good fifteen minutes halfway through we were treated to some costcutting measures when the Viras decide to research Gamera to find out what he's made of, which prompted three long clips from the previous three films, not contributing anything but more minutes on the running time. If you can put that disappointment to one side - and the further disappointment that the destruction of Tokyo later on is lifted straight from the first instalment, in black and white too (!) - there was enough of the candy-coloured craziness to make that repeated footage worth sitting through.
Our hero this time was Masao (Tôru Takatsuka), but he was not alone as with an apparent eye on the international market his sidekick was American Jim (Carl Craig), and they were both Boy Scouts. They are established as naughty pranksters early on when they meddle with a submarine's controls, a submarine that was meant to be taking their fellow Scouts on an undersea trip. But the terrible twosome end up taking that trip alone when they claim to know how to fix the minisub, which they do, having messed it up in the first place, though this is simply an introduction to the turtle, who they spot beneath the waves.
Alas, the Viras have worked out that Gamera's loyalty is to children (although most of the time it's hard to say what he's thinking about frankly) so kidnap Masao and Jim, reckoning that they will not be attacked while the boys are onboard. To make matters worse, they then place Gamera under mind control and set him on Japan (hence the footage from other movies), leaving the kids to save the day when they work out that telepathy is the thing to foil the Viras. But wait, I hear you cry, what of the giant monster? You surely cannot have a Gamera movie without him battling one of those, can you? Rest assured, for the final ten minutes the aliens assemble into one great big squid-like form, and the all-in wrestling bout between the title creatures ensues, including one of the most painful-looking moves in the whole of the Gamera canon. When this is goofy fun, it has some of the best of the series, but it's inconsistent otherwise. Music by Kenjiro Hirose.
Aka: Gamera tai uchû kaijû Bairasu, Destroy All Planets
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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