Saturday, March 5, 2022

Gamera, the Giant Monster


Today we discuss Gamera, the Giant Monster. Sometimes considered the sibling (maybe cousin) series to the Godzilla series, the Gamera series began in 1965 under strained circumstances. Let's start there. This film (and many of the movies in the series) was directed by Noriaki Yuasa only after several other directors at the studio refused to make it. Apparently considered a "wash-out" by his bosses at Daiei, Yuasa took to the movie with a surprising fervor. Despite everyone else passing on it because they felt the genre was beneath them, Yuasa did everything he could to make Gamera, the Giant Monster happen. This man took special effects courses, endured criticism and belittlement from his own staff, made the entire movie on a shoestring budget, and dealt with power outages, outdated equipment, tight scheduling, and faulty props. At one point the studio considered handing the project to someone else to finish but Yuasa refused to let his new baby Gamera go and somehow finished the movie using the crap resources he was given.

To shed some further light on these crap resources: when Daiei decided to make a kaiju movie they initially settled on a film featuring giant rats. Ignoring how fortunate we are to not have to endure a giant rat movie, they built sets and apparently found REAL RATS to be their main actors. But the project was shut down by the health department due to the uncooperative, wild rats being infested with fleas. Yuasa, and Gamera, inherited the scraps left over from the abandoned production of this rat movie. Due to the tiny budget, Yuasa was forced to shoot Gamera, the Giant Monster in black and white. On a certain level it's a testament to Yuasa's inhuman willpower that this movie even exists. So, given all of that, how did the movie turn out?

If You Haven't Seen it Before
- In the Arctic, a ship arrives (to trade with the locals? unsure). An unmarked nuclear armed plane is also there, and it is attacked by another. It goes down, setting off a nuclear weapon.
- From the ice emerges Gamera, a Giant Turtle Monster from Atlantis!
- A man sees a UFO in the sky, a spinning disc which approaches him before shooting off in another direction. Reports of UFOs spread around Japan. This seems irrelevant, but we'll be back.
- After destroying the home of a turtle loving child named Toshio, Gamera saves him from falling to his death. Does that make them even?
- The military tries to take Gamera down with electricity and bombs before realizing he literally eats fire and is growing stronger from both efforts.
- They do succeed in using a special weapon to freeze Gamera, flipping him onto his back so he will be helpless (as all turtles are, apparently) and starve to death. 
- Gamera's ultimate technique is revealed: he has rockets in his legs. He pulls inside his shell and takes flight, spinning through the air like a UFO (see above).
- Raiding anywhere where fossil fuel or nuclear energy can be found and eating it, Gamera becomes a menace and so the government decides to utilize the "Z Plan."
- After an absolutely wild series of coincidences including a typhoon and a volcanic eruption, Gamera is lured onto a space ship and shot to Mars.
- Yes, I am serious.

Kaiju Notes
- Gamera has lovely tusks. It's probably his strongest design point, for me at least. I think the tusks are entirely rad. Combined with his eyes which appear to reflect light and you have the makings of a creature which could easily range between adorable or horrifying, depending on the message you try to send.
- On the other hand something about a turtle, giant or otherwise, is inherently non-threatening. Lil dude doesn't even have the thick shell one might associate with some turtles, going with the sleeker and spinier version which doesn't exactly make him look like a powerhouse even if it's the more "aggressive" choice.
- Instead of the made up weapons of his cousin Godzilla (Atomic Breath), Gamera simply breathes fire. It may not sound as cool, but it's a much easier effect to make and the fire actually looks pretty good. Likely because they just made a mini flamethrower and threw it in a puppet. But hey, the shit works.
- Gamera spends much more of his time on four legs, which does make him seem a bit more bestial than the creatures that clearly inspired him. It's a strong choice as far as differentiating factors go.
- The leg rockets. It is impossible to put into words how brilliant and yet idiotic this is. It is primo "kaiju flick" nonsense that doesn't even look particularly bad. I hate it and love it at the same time. Dude doesn't even flip over on screen! He flies away while still upside down!
- We don't talk about roars enough in this section. Mostly because many of them are pretty bad. Gamera's is definitely in the top level of roars we've seen thus far. Inspired by Godzilla, for sure, but unique enough that it's got some character of its own. I give it a 7/10.

Let's talk about the child, Toshio. He is relevant to the story because he thinks his pet turtle, Chibi, has turned into Gamera. He also believes that Gamera isn't evil or angry, just lonely. This is likely related to him being forced to release his pet turtle into the wild right before Gamera appears, destroys his home, and saves his life. Toshio is wrong, of course, as Gamera very explicitly tears down buildings with people in them and it doesn't look like he's trying to shake hands or hug when he lights them on fire using his breath. Like Godzilla in the original film, Gamera directly uses his main weapon to murder people. A scientist does suggest that Gamera is so destructive because he's seeking food, but I'm not sure that explains it. Bears don't destroy shit that's not related to finding food, even if they will absolutely wreck your life if you try to stop them. They don't tear down all the trees near your campsite, chase you down specifically, murder you half a mile up the road before turning back to go get the jerky you forgot to lock up. Worse still, being remarkably naive, Toshio insists that he will come visit Gamera on Mars at the end of the movie. First off, Gamera will starve to death on Mars and secondly he would eat you in a second. Basically: kids are the worst. He doesn't really cause any harm in particular but watching him think he's friends with a kaiju that has murdered hundreds of people is just wild.

Time to discuss the Z Plan. Unfortunately, nothing can be said because this movie does not explain at all. Who developed the Z Plan? Why? How? What was its purpose, in this world which apparently has not experienced kaiju problems before? Was the Z Plan intended to send people to Mars? Why? If so, why was the ship so large that it could fit Gamera's huge ass? Of all the various solutions to kaiju that we have seen so far, the Z Plan is easily the wildest. Both Godzilla and Gamera have been immobilized/felled by extreme cold, but the Zilla-verse humans have never thought to simply launch him into space. Probably because they don't just have a random giant rocket sitting around, but it's been 10+ years so maybe they should!

Ultimately Gamera, the Giant Monster lacks a lot of the weight of the first Godzilla movie, mimicking it in plot and premise but missing the mark in metaphor. A giant monster rampages through Japan and murders people, but Gamera is not a metaphor for nuclear destruction or anything else but simply a pissed off turtle (who took it easy on one child). This isn't necessarily a bad thing, not every movie has to have a hefty message, but it does reflect on the general hollowness of Gamera, the Giant Monster's conception. It's intended to capitalize on a movement in Japanese cinema, not to speak to any particular sentiment. That said, the movie itself is a lot of fun. When Gamera takes flight for the first time on screen it's perhaps the most fun I've had with a single scene since the beginning of this project, just so absurd that I almost jumped for joy. When the Z Plan is revealed to be a giant rocket to Mars I nearly cried laughing. Gamera himself is a strange combination of cute and creepy, as many turtles are, so the design is there. When it comes to raw buckwild fun, Gamera, the Giant Monster is honestly one of the top tier films in the history of kaiju flicks (so far).

Also, yes, Gamera is probably a tortoise rather than a turtle. Shut up.

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