Gamera vs. Barugon

Gamera vs. Barugon (大怪獣決闘 ガメラ対バルゴン, Daikaijū kettō: Gamera tai Barugon, lit. 'Great Monster Duel: Gamera vs. Barugon') is a 1966 Japanese kaiju film directed by Shigeo Tanaka and produced by Daiei Film. It is the second entry in the Gamera film series, and stars Kōjirō Hongō, Kyōko Enami, and Yūzō Hayakawa, with Teruo Aragaki portraying the giant monster Gamera.

"Barugon" redirects here. For the similarly named giant monster character owned by Toho, see Baragon.
Gamera vs. Barugon
Theatrical release poster
Directed byShigeo Tanaka[1]
Produced byHidemasa Nagata[1]
Screenplay byNiisan Takahashi[1]
Starring
Narrated byGenzô Wakayama
Music byChuji Kinoshita[1]
CinematographyMichio Takahashi[1]
Edited byTatsuji Nakashizu
Production
company
Release date
  • April 17, 1966 (1966-04-17) (Japan)
Running time
100 minutes[1]
CountryJapan

Plot

Set six months after the events of Gamera, the Giant Monster, a meteorite collides with the Z Plan rocket transporting the creature to Mars. Now free, Gamera returns to Earth and destroys Kurobe Dam in Japan. At the same time, three mercenaries are sent by Kano, a World War II veteran, to an island in the South Pacific to retrieve a huge opal he once found and hid in a cave. Despite warnings from the local villagers, the trio find and locate the opal, but one dies from a fatal scorpion sting. The second man, Keisuke, Kano's younger brother, is betrayed by his fellow expeditioner Onodera and apparently killed in a cave-in.

En route back to Japan, Onodera accidentally leaves the opal exposed to an infrared light. The heat incubates the opal - actually an egg - and a lizard eventually hatches. Growing to enormous size very quickly, the lizard destroys the ship and Kobe Harbor. Keisuke, having survived the cave-in, awakens in the care of the villagers. He then returns to Japan with a village girl called Karen, who refers to the lizard as Barugon. Barugon wreaks havoc in Osaka with its freeze-gas emitting tongue and stops the launching of the retaliative missiles with a rainbow-like ray emitted from seven spines on the middle of its back. Barugon encounters Gamera and the two battle, with Gamera eventually being frozen solid.

In the meantime, while debating with Kano on how to recover the opal, which he still believes to be aboard the sunken ship, Onodera inadvertently blurts out that he killed his two companions and then murders both Kano and Kano's wife to cover up his crime. After finding Onodera, Keisuke and Karen subdue him and leave him tied up in his home. Keisuke and Karen travel to the Japanese defense ministry and suggest a plan using a huge diamond to lure Barugon into a lake to drown. The plan fails because the diamond's radiation proves to be not enough. Another attempt by irradiating the diamond with additional infrared radiation almost succeeds, until Onodera, having been released and informed of the diamond by his wife, steals the gem. Both he and the diamond, however, are immediately devoured by Barugon.

Keisuke discovers that mirrors are not affected by Barugon's rainbow ray, so the military devises a plan to reflect its own rainbow emanation back at it with a giant mirror. Barugon is wounded by its own ray, but despite prompting it cannot be goaded into repeating its mistake. Gamera thaws out and attacks Barugon once again, and after a destructive battle it drowns Barugon in Lake Biwa, then flies away. Remorseful over the disaster his greed has caused, with his brothers now dead, and having found love with Karen, Keisuke decides to make a fresh start on the island where it all began.

Cast
  • Kōjirō Hongō as Keisuke Hirata
  • Kyōko Enami as Karen
  • Yūzō Hayakawa as Kawajiri
  • Takuya Fujioka as Dr. Satō
  • Kōji Fujiyama as Onodera
  • Akira Natsuki as Ichirō Hirata
  • Yoshirō Kitahara as Professor Amano
  • Ichirō Sugai as Dr. Matsushita
  • Bontarō Miake as Self-Defense Force General
  • Jutarō Hōjō as Self-Defense Force Commander
  • Kazuko Wakamatsu as Sadae Hirata
  • Yuka Konno as Onodera's lover
  • Eiichi Takamura as Governor of Osaka
  • Kenichi Tani as Lee
  • Kōichi Itō as Metropolitan Police Superintendent-General
  • Hikaru Hoshi as Awaji Maru captain
  • Osamu Abe as Awaji Maru crewman
  • Yoshihiro Hamaguchi as Awaji Maru crewman
  • Teruo Aragaki as Gamera
  • Takashi Masuda as Barugon

Production

The film features stock footage from the first Gamera film.[1] Due to the commercial success of Gamera, the Giant Monster, the follow-up, Gamera vs. Barugon, had an expanded budget that Yuasa stated was 80,000,000 yen.[2]

Release

Gamera vs. Barugon was released in Japan on 17 April 1966.[1] The film was never released theatrically in the United States.[1] It was first shown in the United States by American International Television as War of the Monsters with an English-language dub supervised by Salvatore Billitteri.[1] The film was reissued to television and home video through Sandy Frank by King Features Entertainment in 1987 as Gamera vs. Barugon.[1]

Legacy

Gamera vs. Barugon was one of the few films featured twice on Mystery Science Theater 3000, the first time as part of the initial KTMA series (episode 4) and again in Season 3 (episode 4), where the hosts commented on the awkward dialogue and Gamera's lack of screen time.[3]

Reception

In a contemporary review, "Chie." of Variety reviewed the film in Tokyo, noting that the special effects in the film were not up to standards of Toho's Eiji Tsuburaya and that Gamera "did not have the winning appeal of the Toho stable 'Godzilla', 'Radon'[known in English dubs as Rodan], etc."[4]

Footnotes
  1. Galbraith IV 1996, p. 433.
  2. Galbraith IV 1998, p. 74.
  3. Beaulieu, Trace; Chaplin, Paul; Jim Mallon, Jim; Murphy, Kevin; Nelson, Michael J.; Pehl, Mary Jo (May 1996). The Mystery Science Theater 3000 amazing Colossal Episode Guide. Bantam Books. p. 40. ISBN 9780553377835.
  4. Variety's Film Reviews 1964-1967. 11. R. R. Bowker. 1983. There are no page numbers in this book. This entry is found under the header "April 27, 1966". ISBN 0-8352-2790-1.

References
  • Galbraith IV, Stuart (1994). Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. McFarland. ISBN 0-89950-853-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Galbraith IV, Stuart (1996). The Japanese Filmography: 1900 through 1994. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0032-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Galbraith IV, Stuart (1998). Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo!. McFarland. ISBN 0922915474.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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