[Oh crap, another stupid boy project from Kent continuing the Kaiju thread. This time, all* the Gameras, the giant space turtle who's friend to all children.]
[*maybe]
Director: Noriaki Yuasa, Sandy Howard
Year: 1966
Length: 85 minutes (note that the version on Tubi says 68 minutes but it literally just cuts off at the 48 minute mark, and the Rifftrax version is 72 minutes)
A Japanese scientist, his assistant, and a news stud (erm photo journalist?) are researching the indigenous life of the Arctic while a joint American/Canadian venture to map the Northwest Passage. Overhead they are disrupted by fighter planes rocketing past... Russian fighter planes. After a couple of low-level military types sexually harass the only female member of the staff (a Sargeant no less), base General Arnold orders a couple of American planes to fly out in response. A conflict ensues and a Russian plane is shot down, exploding a low megaton atomic bomb. Dr. Hidaka warns his new "Eskimo" friends to steer clear of the area given the radiation it would kick off. But something even more dangerous emerges as the ice cracks and spreads, a giant turtle, a legend of death and destruction the "Eskimo" chief calls Gammera. The turtle attacks the coalition ship and destroys it, killing all men on board. Only Dr. Hidaka, Kyoko and Aoyagi survive since they were with the tribe at the time.
The Russians claim electronic interference caused their planes to veer off course. The ship's destruction comes with reports of a giant turtle causing the destruction, and news spreads out in the world causing debate and controversy. A network talk show finds a zoologist, Dr. Contraire (played by future Skeletor voice actor Alan Oppenheimer) butting heads with the network science expert Dr Manning over the plausibility of Gammera all while prolifically smoking. And now sightings of UFOs are popping up everywhere, further dividing people. The military is tracking these reports of flying saucers and estimate it will reach Tokyo next. General Arnold is reassigned to "Operation Gammera", first validating and then tracking this beast.
Toshio is a lonely boy obsessed with turtles. His teach expresses his concern over this obsession, and his sister and father tell the boy he needs to let go of his pet turtle and have human friends. This quirky boy obsessed with turtles also lives in a lighthouse. This is not a Wes Anderson project. Just as Toshio frees his turtle, near the ocean, Gamera appears. Surprisingly, the kid doesn't believe somehow his pet turtle has turned into a gigantic one. He's at first frightened by the beast but he loves turtles so much he wants to get a closer look. He runs to the top of the lighthouse to get a look but Gammera swats the blinding light, though it saves Toshio from falling to his death. He's now obsessed with Gammera and believes the creature is his best friends.
Dr. Hidaka is now famous worldwide and immediately ambushed by more journalists upon his return to Tokyo but he's called to action by the Japan military as Gammera is spied near a geothermal power station. Dr. Hidaka advises the military to attempt to electrocute the creature but it fails. The facility catches fire in the ensuing barrage, but Gammera consumes the fire like slurping a strand of spaghetti. The military calls their American allies for nuclear weapons, and debate ensues. But then...lunch.
Dr. Hidaka and company consult with Col. Sanders impersonator Professor Murase who advise that the atomic weapons will only fuel the creature, not destroy it. They determine that freezing Gammera is the only option. Experimental freezing bombs appear to have an effect, and they explode the ground under him, sending Gammera onto his back, effectively immobilizing him, but Gammera pulls himself into his shell and rockets away like a flying saucer stunning everyone.
A UN Council meeting is assembled and though everyone is in agreement of needing a plan to destroy Gammera before he destroys civilization, the Russians and Americans conflict over who will lead military operations.
Toshio, his sister and father come to Tokyo and meet with Dr. Hidaka. Toshio says Gammera doesn't mean to be destructive, he "just goes overboard because he's so big and clumsy". He thinks that Gammera could be trained to be a good boy but Dr. Hidaka explains to the boy (off screen) just how dangerous the creature is.
Plan Z is announced to the world by Dr. Hidaka. They plan to draw Gammera, using fire - the nom-nommiest of giant turtle food - to an isolated island. There they have laid a trap, an iron coffin they contain Gammera in and rocket him off to Mars. Toshio tries to interfere in these plans, to save Gammera, but he's is merely a 9-year-old boy and he really can't do shit. The plan succeeds and Toshio resolves to become a scientist so he can study Gammera on Mars.
Gammera, Friend or Foe:
Foe, I suppose, but the seeds of being friend to children everywhere are sown.
The Samesies:
Compared to Godzilla, here we have a creature awakened by nuclear weapons, who is reported to come from a long-ago age where the earth environments were dramatically different, and who may appear to be a giant version of a creature they know, but is physiologically very different.
Gammera, like Godzilla, winds up in Tokyo and begins wrecking the joint.
Just like with the original Gojira, Gamera, the Giant Monster was brought to the US by heavily editing the film and inserting Americans into it.
We get the requisite assembling the army and the futile attacking of the giant Monster, but these scenes mercifully don't last anywhere near as long.
The Differences:
Gamera/Gammera was, from the first film, very clearly meant to appeal as much to kids as adults. Knowing that Gamera pivots from threat to saviour between the first and second film doesn't seem as drastic a reversal as when Godzilla does it. Here Gamera seems more like a lost creature, than one of wanton destruction, and Toshio is clearly an audience surrogate.
The story, even with all the American footage cut in, is pretty straightforward. Far more straightforward that most Godzilla films,
The American footage here feels more uniform. It's mostly men-in-rooms-debating but they all feel of a piece. In a way it's the Japanese story footage, the stuff with Toshio mostly, that feels out of place as a result. If there had been more men in suits arguing over what to do this could have been a proto-Shin Godzilla.
Like Godzilla, Gamera consumes hazardous material, but instead of radiation, it's fire...and instead of atomic breath, Gamera does spit fireballs.
The miniature work here is not even close to being on the same level as even the earliest Godzilla films, but it seems less the point here. Where Toho Godzilla films seem built as a showcase of the kaiju suits and resulting destruction, I don't think anyone at Daiei had any pretension that they were keeping pace with their rivals so much as cutting off a slice of the pie for themself.
Anyone worth caring about?
The American cut pares out a lot of the characterization of Dr. Hidaka, Kyoko, Aoyagi and Toshio, so we don't get much from them. It certainly gives almost no characterization of its figures like General Arnold, but there's a consistent purpose to everyone's scenes here, and the only thing that feels so wildly out of place is that J.T. Standish news segment.
The Message:
Where Godzilla was originally a representation of the fears and anxiety of nuclear proliferation, there's not much of a message to Gammera.
Rating (out of 5 Ms): MM
Given that I hated, hated, hated the American versions of Godzilla and King Kong vs Godzilla, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the cut-in scenes of men-in-rooms-arguing. The TV news show with Contrare and Manning was my favourite scene in the movie. I love what both Alan Oppenheimer and Mort Marshall are doing in that scene. It's completely extraneous (I think it's cut completely from the Rifftraxx version) but it's an absolute delight.
I have a super cheap 2-disc set of the first 6 Gamera films (with their American titles) and the transfer of Gammera the Invincible is so, so washed out as to render so many details invisible. It's not a great looking movie. The version on Tubi (the first 48 minutes that are there) look only marginally better.
Sleepytime Factor: Oh, I started falling asleep immediately. I nodded in and out of consciousness nearly the entire time I was watching the film, mostly because I was up late, and then woken up early and in need of sleep. I woke up with maybe 20 minutes left and finished it off thinking I had seen it all. Then I watched some of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version of Gamer only to fall asleep through that entire film. I rewatched Gammera later in the day and stayed pretty awake through until the latter act where I had woken up earlier. Then I started drifting off again.
No comments:
Post a Comment