Gamera The Brave Review

Gamera The Brave

Year: 2006

Director: Ryuta Tazaki,

Writer: Yukari Tatsui,

Starring: Ryo Tomioka, Kaho, Shingo Ishikawa, Shogo Narita, Knji Tsuda, Susumu Terajima, Tomorowo Taguchi,

Returning after ending on a high back in 1999, Gamera The Brave had a lot to live up to. Its first point of business was to not follow on from the critically acclaimed series, but instead be a standalone effort which harkens back to the days of a child friendly Gamera. This was both a positive and a negative for many fans, as some saw no harm in making Gamera for the kids once again, while others believed the big turtle had just been taken seriously and shouldn’t revert back to sillier ways. Director Ryuta Tazaki actually managed to compromise and gave us a child friendly adventure, but refused to make it all cute and cuddly. After all, we’re dealing with dangerous monsters here.

Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris Review

Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris

Year: 1999

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Kazunori Ito, Shusuke Kaneko,

Starring: Shinobu Nakayama, Ai Maeda, Yukijiro Jotaru, Auako Fujitani, Senri Yamazaki, Toru Tezuka, Yuu Koyama, Nozomi Ando, Kei Horie,

This is what it all came down to. After reinventing Gamera, Shusuke kaneko gave us what is one of the best monster movies of all time. In fact, it may be the only film which could debatably be even better than the original Gojira. It has absolutely everything you could ever want from the genre, as well as throwing in some stuff you didn’t even realise you needed. The first two films in this trilogy were just a year apart, whereas here a whole 3 years seemed to have been expertly utilised to perfect the story, effects, horror and drama. Much more than just a monster smash ‘em up, Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris takes the formula and raises it to a level of perfection only attainable by the dedication of a team confident in their craft.

Gamera 2: Attack Of The Legion Review

Gamera 2: Attack Of The Legion

Year: 1996

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Kazunori Ito

Starring: Toshiyuki Nagashima, Miki Mizuno, Tamotsu Ishibashi, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Ayako Fujitani, Hiroyuki Okita, Yusuka Kawazu,

Gamera returned with an excellent outing in the mid 90s and continued his run for an immense trilogy, the second instalment of which was Gamera 2: Attack Of The Legion. This is the kind of sequel that all kaiju films should aspire to be, as it takes the events, looks at them with all sincerity, firmly establishes a world where monsters run rampant, and then offers up a formulaic story that provides us with the best in monster entertainment. Celebrating a film for being formulaic is not something you hear every day, as formula can often result in a film which is stale and repetitive, but here it shows that the fans have been taken into consideration. It’s also done so well that unoriginality becomes a moot point, like a cover version of a song that is immensely superior.

Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe Review

Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe

Year: 1995

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Kazunori Ito

Starring: Tsuyoshi Ihara, Akira Onodera, Shinobu Nakayama, Ayako Fujitani, Yukijiro Hotaru, Hatsunori Hasegawa, Hirtaro Honda, Akira Kubo,

Gamera seemed to have given up wallowing in Godzilla’s shadow after his final appearance in 1971. The repetitive stories, subpar effects, and child protagonists just didn’t seem to be working anymore. However, you can’t keep a good monster down. Enter Shusuke Kaneko, a man determined to bring Gamera back from a 20+ year hiatus. Here was a man who showed nothing but respect for the source material, and took it upon himself to not dramatically change anything, but instead asked “What is it that is great about Gamera?” This approach meant that he found the true heart and soul of a monster who had been created as nothing more than a studio rival, and made the world stand up and take notice once more. In fact, this attempt, which led into a trilogy, was so successful that Kaneko was even hired by Toho to make Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.

Gamera Vs. Zigra Review

Gamera Vs. Zigra

Year: 1971

Director: Noriaki Yuasa

Writer: Nisan Takahashi

Starring: Yasushi Sakagami, Gloria Zoellner, Isamu Saeki, Koji Fujiyama, Reiko Kasahara, Mikiko Tsubouchi, Eiko Yanami, Arlene Zoellner,

Technically the final Gamera film from the Showa era as the next effort, Gamera Super Monster,was comprised of stock footage from previous films. Gamera Vs. Zigra indicates a real stunted lack of ideas for the franchise, but most upsettingly this isn’t even so bad it’s good. There’s hardly any sense of humour for this film, which would be the only Gamera film not picked up for US distribution until Home Video. Recycled plot, recycled characters, this may as well have been made from stock footage for what it adds to the franchise, which is nothing.

Gamera Vs. Jiger Review

Gamera Vs. Jiger

Year: 1970

Director: Noriaki Yuasa

Writer: Nisan Takahashi

Starring: Tsutomu Takakuwa, Kelly Varis, Katherine Murphy, Kon Omura, Ryo Hayami, Akira Natsuki, Junko Yashiro,

Now this I like. Although still very much a children’s movie, Gamera Vs. Jiger devises a number of different set pieces and battles which truly set it apart from its contemporaries. It hasn’t been easy for Gamera to find a voice as he skirts the boundaries between childish fantasy and painfully absurd, but this time he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve. Once again we focus on two child protagonist, one Japanese and one American, as they try and rally Gamera to help protect Earth from a new monster, the quadruped, Jiger. The film actually opens with some brand new footage of Gamera taking out a whole host of monsters seen in previous films, and not always in the kindest of ways. I’m sure Guaron didn’t want a missile stabbed through his knife-like nose.

Gamera Vs. Guiron Review

Gamera Vs. Guiron

Year: 1969

Director: Noriaki Yuasa

Writer: Nisan Takahashi

Starring: Nobuhiro Kajima, Miyuki Akiyama, Christopher Murphy, Yuko Hamada, Eiji Funakoshi, Kon Omura, Edith Hanson, Hiroko Kai, Kasahara,

Gamera Vs. Guiron like many kaiju films, comes under many names, with Attack Of The Monsters being the most popular, but probably only because it brings about thoughts of the Godzilla film Destroy All Monsters. Out of all the Gamera films so far, this one pushes itself far away from its internationally recognised cousin. That’s only because it’s so bizarre though. It really does feel as though they knew one day an American show would watch bad old movies and make fun of them, and just decided to make it even easier for them. The hilarity is what makes this the most enjoyable Gamera film so far, whether it was intentional or not.

Gamera Vs. Viras Review

Gamera Vs. Viras

Year: 1968

Director: Noriaki Yuasa

Writer: Nisan Takahashi

Starring: Kojiro Hongo, Toru Takatsuka, Carl Craig, Peter Williams, Carl Clay,

Gamera Vs. Viras begins with aliens looking to take over Earth. They are then quickly dispatched by Gamera who’s just having a leisurely fly through space. This opening is the best part of the fourth Gamera film as it is both comical and satisfying to see an alien race dispatched before they even begin. Of course, that was just Spaceship 1 and a second one is soon on its way to complete the mission.

Gamera Vs. Gyaos Review

Gamera Vs. Gyaos

Year: 1966

Director: Noriaki Yuasa

Writer: Nisan Takahashi

Starring: Kojiro Hongo, Kichijiro Ueda, Reiko Kasahara, Naoyuki Abe, Taro Marui, Yukitaro Hotaru, Yoshiro Kitahara, Akira Natsuki,

Gamera is still finding his feet in the third instalment of the series. Still in colour, a little shorter, with a child character taking a more prominent role. The ingredients are beginning to take shape, but here they are far from perfected. Gamera Vs. Gyaos shows the danger of inconsistent effects in kaiju movies, which may sound a bit daft when applying it to notoriously hokey cinema, but one’s mind begins to develop to enhance the imagination in regards to most aspects, so when the creatures seem to break their own rules it becomes a jarring affair.

Gamera Vs. Barugon Review

Gamera Vs. Barugon

Year: 1966

Director: Shigeo Tanaka

Writer: Nisan Takahashi

Starring: Kojiro Hongo, Kyoko Enami, Yuzo Hayakawa, Takuya Fujioka, Koji Fujiyama, Akira Natsuki, Yoshiro Kitahara,

Gamera returns in colour for his second outing, in a film which pushes the franchise in nearly all respects Most interestingly of all though, this is not the child friendly film that would become the staple of the Gamera franchise. For starters it focuses on only adult characters, who deal with adult things such as greed and murder. The film is another to be lampooned by MST3000, which may go some way to explaining its poor reception on sites such as IMDb. As with Godzilla in some of his pictures though, Gamera is a secondary character this time around with the predominant focus on Barugon.