A giant fire breathing turtle wakes to threaten all four corners of the Earth.
This 1965 Giant Monster Movie classi– well, classic might be too strong a word. Call it historically valuable flick. Anyways, it stars Eiji Funakosi, Harumi Kiritachi, and Yoshiro Uchida. It was written by Nisan Takahasi and directed by Noriaki Yuasa.
Daikaijû is a Japanese word. Dai means “big” and kaijû means “Strange Beast”. Thus Daikaijû means “Big Strange Beast” or “Giant Monster”. When combined with Eiga, you have the term “Giant Monster Movie”. This covers such worthies as Gamera, Mothra, and, of course, Godzilla.
Welltun Cares Reviews uses the term Kaijû to describe a certain type of Giant Monster. These monsters are the ones where Convential weapons do not work. To defeat them requires a special device, weapon, or circumstance.
To summerize, if the movie ends with the monster killed by unaided gun fire or missiles, then it wasn’t Kaijû.
Simple as that.
Giant Monster Gamera is one of a whole slew of movies cashing in on the success of Gojira/Godzilla (1953). Like its fellow cash-ins. it really doesn’t hold a candle to what it copies. That said, Gamera is the only Daikaijû to have a successful series of films, thus making him Big G’s only real rival.
The giant turtle has done well by himself in recent years, what with an excellent trilogy in the Nineties and the potential new series being tossed around in the wake of, again, Godzilla’s success.
While I can’t say I enjoy Gamera movies the same way I enjoy Godzilla movies, it’s always good to see him still in action. Which sort of surprises me that I’m so down on this movie. Oh, I don’t hate it, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t really care if I see it again.
Perhaps the rest of this review might shed some light on this. Or not, as the case might be.
First things first. This write-up assumes a basic knowledge of Daikaijû Eiga. If you don’t have one (and asking what the hell Daikaijû Eiga is a good sign you don’t), a basic knowledge can be provided by headed over to my little essay on the subject. We won’t gossip about you while you’re there.
Well, not too much, any way.
Also, I wrote the following review based on watching the subtitled Japanese version of Giant Monster Gamera. Specifically the translation released by a company called Neptune Media. Since that time another company picked up the title; thus there might be a difference in subtitles and overall flow of the story. This I mention only as a heads up; the differences should be minor.
On the next page we begin looking back at the so-called friend to children everywhere. Just how friendly was he, really?
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