Gamera vs. Jiger

This was the first feature I had seen in the kaiju genre. I was familiar with the television show Ultraman, but I had not known that movies about monsters had also been made.

This one is fun! One aspect of the genre that Daiei was better at than Toho is in the depiction of quadrapeds. Jiger looks like a four legged creature, not a person crawling on his knees, as several of the Toho characters were known to do.

Some of the dialogue is hideously bad. I recently saw this one again after twenty years, and had a good time adding a few comments of my own. At one point the two boys are inside Gamera's lung, walking around, when one says, "What are we looking for?" The other replies "Anything unusual."

I piped up, "We are in the lung of a 200-foot turtle, but we are still looking for anything unusual."

Still, this one has several interesting scenes. Unusual footage of a surgery on an elephant, x-rays of Gamera, a neat minisub, and cool communicators. It is a fun ride!

1970's "Gamera vs. Monster X" ("Gamera tai Daimaju Jaiga" or Gamera vs. Giant Devil Beast Jiger) was the 6th Gamera entry in the Daiei series (only "Gamera vs. Zigra" would follow), arriving during a lean year for Toho with the passing of effects master Eiji Tsuburaya, a new team releasing "Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster" in 1971. The child friendly focus for once strikes a balance with the rest of the human cast, the usual Japanese/American duo a bit older here though one little sister persistently annoys with her nonstop chatter. Obviously sporting what seems to be the highest budget since "War of the Monsters," the last sequel to show a metropolis being smashed to pieces, here set in Osaka where the World's Fair Expo '70 will take place throughout the year (there's even a mention of the lost continent of Mu, depicted in Toho's 1963 "Atragon"). Much of the opening reel is given over to the location and goals of the promoters, intending to recover an ancient statue called 'The Devil's Whistle' on Wester Island in the central Pacific, supposedly bearing a curse of death to anyone who tampers with it. Gamera surprisingly but unsuccessfully tries to prevent its removal from the ground, the ship's crew infected with some type of unidentified virus before they reach Osaka. The curse turns out to be real with the emergence of Jiger, a quadruped monster that incapacitates Gamera by firing sharp quills into each of his limbs, occasionally leaping to great heights when not using a Barugon-like heat ray to fry human debris (in a nice gruesome touch, they all turn into skeletons). A curious sound informs us why the statue earned its name 'The Devil's Whistle,' and the teen pair surmise that it gives off a kind of poison linked to Jiger, now a definite threat to Expo '70 as well as the rest of the planet. Gamera recovers from the first assault and again gains the upper hand against this unorthodox opponent, only for a new challenge that again puts him out of action, an injection from Jiger's tail that produces a larva growing near the turtle's lung. Here is where Japanese Hiroshi (Tsutomo Takakuwa) and American Tommy (Kelly Varis) use their knowledge of an experimental minisub to take a trip inside a waterlogged Gamera, obviously inspired by Stephen Boyd's classic "Fantastic Voyage," resulting in simple radio waves destroying the baby Jiger so that Gamera can finally use the statue for one ultimate purpose, cleaving Jiger's head with but a single shot. The physical look of Monster X may not look that impressive compared to previous foes but there's no shortage of surprises this time around, easily the best sequel since number three, "Return of the Giant Monsters." The usual annoying brats are actually slightly older and even useful for a change, leaving Katherine Murphy's grating tiny tot incessantly complaining during a beleaguered Gamera's attempts at redemption (all three seem to be directing the titular turtle at every stage). Things would promptly descend to rock bottom with original series finale "Gamera vs. Zigra," where director Noriaki Yuasa seems to be going for the preschool crowd!

This is less camp than the previous film but equally entertaining. Some of the story barely makes sense. They have built a great set though but they don't smash enough of it. They are still not using low angles to give a better scale to the kaiju. Jiger is a cool monster but less memorable than Guiron. Overall I wasn't bored but I also wasn't impressed.

This is less camp than the previous film but equally entertaining. Some of the story barely makes sense. They have built a great set though but they don't smash enough of it. They are still not using low angles to give a better scale to the kaiju. Jiger is a cool monster but less memorable than Guiron. Overall I wasn't bored but I also wasn't impressed.

Who can advertise an Expo Fair with a Monster movie? Well, the answer is DAIEI with Gamera vs. Jaiger.

So far, in the old Gamera series, Jaiger and Gyaos were the only female monsters, and perhaps the nastiest as well. The only thing that could damage Jaiger is a huge, ancient whistle, stolen by Expo Fair workers. What the workers did not know is that the whistle makes a very, very annoying sound. So annoying, it makes a Yoko Ono CD sound like plesant Korean Trance music.

But the scene that stands out from the old Gamera series was the "Fantastic Voyage" type scene where the two boys take a demo submarine into Gamera's body and finds Jaiger's offspring, which is perhaps the most irritating Kaiju in history.

May not be a classic but G vs. J is quite a hoot to watch!

This is a children's movie. Is it a great children's movie? No.

But, it is an enjoyable children's movie. Sure Gamera looks like he was constructed at the last second out of an old shopping bag; and, Monster X looks like something that you pulled out of a Salvation Army drop-box. But, this movie has children as the main characters, doing the bulk of the heroics and making the bulk of the sound decisions...

There are a tremendous number of plot-holes in this movie; but, if you've got children, and a little patience, you can enjoy ninety minutes of pig-headed adults, brave children and flying turtles...

Also, there is a certain resemblance to the science fiction novel Blameless in Abaddon...anyone else notice?...