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!

Gamera vs. Jiger (1970)

** (out of 4)

An American behind an expo in Japan takes a large statue away from a mountain side and this unleashes Jiger, a large lizard like creature who can spit toothpicks from his mouth. Gamera comes to the rescue but gets beat up pretty badly and also gets pregnant to where he must carry Jiger's egg (I'm not kidding). A couple kids eventually help Gamera overcome his new pregnancy and he heads out to destroy the monster. This is certainly a kid's movie but it's mildly entertaining throughout all of its major goofiness. As is to be expected, the special effects are downright laughable, the performances even worse and the American dubbing will leave you scratching your head. The one big bonus is that the monsters are constantly doing battle with various forms of cardboard towns being blown up and ripped apart. The fight sequences are pretty good even though it appears Jiger can come up with new things out of nowhere. If you want a quality movie then you're going to be disappointed because every aspect of this movie is cheap. If you want a childish good time than this film might be your cup of tea as long as you don't expect too much.

1970 saw the release of "Gamera vs. Jiger", also known as "Gamera vs. Monster X". And no, no, no relation to the Monster X of "Godzilla: Final Wars". At this point in the series, when the kids warn you not to do something, and then Gamera warns you not to do something, it's best not to do it. Naturally, the sacred statue is disturbed anyways and not even twenty minutes in and our title monsters show up. Being quite frank, Jiger is probably the least attractive creature featured in the Gamera movies. It looks like a reptilian-warthog abomination. I don't know what's stranger, the creature's looks or the way it jumps. With that stocky body and its short legs I'm surprised it can cover that much ground. Jiger also shoots quills and fires a "super ultra violet ray beam" which I don't grasp at all. It even has a parasite injecting tail and suction-covered feet…Ah screw it, I'm just getting this over with: Jiger sucks.

Children are the main heroes of course, managing to outsmart not just their parents but Japan's top military generals and scientists. This really grates on my nerves and honestly he story is short but lacks real tension if you ask me. With no relatable characters as in the earlier films, it's hard to keep interest. At least with "Gamera vs. Guiron" the writing was so bad and weird it kept you involved. The story here feels far too bland and with is opponent looking the way it did, I found no excitement in the battles. But I'll admit the statue to the brain was an interesting fatality, Johnny Cage might want to check that out. This kaiju film is a dud by all laws of psychics.

This film is pretty much a formula Gamera film that follows the same plot as every other film. A giant monster threatens to destroy a Japanese city and just when things look bleak, in comes Gamera to save the day. However, Gamera usually loses at least one or two battles with his adversary before he finally defeats him. However, the one thing that makes this film different is the fact that usually in a Gamera film, Gamera is the one who saves any children that are in trouble, but in this film it is up to two young boys (one Japanese and one Caucasian) to save him from a parasite that was injected into his body. Even with this plot twist, this is still the typical Gamera film. But as I have said in my other commentaries about films in the Gamera series, these films are pretty much a way to introduce children to the world of kaiju eiga.

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!