GAMERA VS. VIRAS (1968)
Oh boy, here's where things really start to tumble of the miniature cliff. If the difference between Gamera's last two adventures, versus Barugon and Gyaos respectively, weren't obvious enough, it's the late 1960s where the series reaches new depths. Some literal, others purely in quality. Shoe-string UFOs and stock footage are imminent as the infamous Gamera March is introduced. As a result it's a time in the franchise where the line between each film gets a little blurry; all the mischief making children rarely feel distinct. But is there still a fun time to be had, and are the resulting productions charming in the face of such low budgets?
Gamera is now the 'friend to all children' for some reason, disregarding the ones that got burnt to a crisp or flattened by rubble. Don't even worry about it when they show stock footage of those prior stories. Don't even pay attention when some of the clips being shown from the first movie are still in black and white. Of course beyond the money saving methods on show the film-making is second-fiddle to marketing ideas of the time. Which is why there are so many stories in which two boys, one Japanese and one American, get caught up in all the nonsense. International viewing figures are more important than internal logic.
In this particular yarn Masoa and Jim are in the Scouts on some kind of camping trip when the alien invaders show up. The kids are immediately up to no good and mess around with a miniature submarine being tested at a nearby laboratory. The comic strip rationale has some charm but the scenes involving scientists failing to see that their vehicle has been wired to move in reverse go on for a long time. You'd have thought they'd have better problem solving abilities, but of course adults are dumb and kids are always right in these kinds of stories.
Meanwhile Gamera has developed a sixth sense that means any villains from other planets are immediately known to him. Their ship looks like some kind of giant lampshade so again it's probably best not to think too hard about all of this. However, after the first one is destroyed the second arrives with a new plan; monster brainwave control. Which of course is something that appears in a lot of these films of the era. Thanks to the power of stock footage the visitors can get a good look at their adversary, and then send him on a rampage... which is also depicted using recycled clips.
Of course after various mishaps the kids end up as hostages on board the UFO and the world leaders are powerless to take action. Which is where the barely seventy minutes of actual new movie feels at its longest. Just make sure to avoid the International cut which pads things out even further. In some ways it's kind of charming as the Scouts use things like ropes and personal radios to try and escape. They even get some alien fruit juice through the power of telepathy in a moment of Narnia logic. Tastier than anything from Japan! They're good at technology and gadgets, don't even worry about it.
This kind of kids adventure aesthetic; mini subs and compass watches that transmit radio waves, extends to what few spaceship sets could be afforded. The flashing lights and yellow surfaces are still about as convincing as early Star Trek but have some appeal. The aliens themselves are barely seen although one spooky moment involving glowing eyes (and later sudden decapitation) stands out. It's just odd that eventually things like the kids using a camera, and even the submarine, are forgotten so Viras itself can finally make an appearance.
There are some fun moments in the eventual showdown even if the monsters looks particularly bad in the beachside sunshine. What happened to filming this stuff at night with some atmosphere? Didn't all this stock footage give them a hint? Still, it's what it is; a cheap kids movie about aliens and monsters. There are no longer any stakes, there are no real characters, and there's barely a storyline. Any ideas about human avarice in the last couple of movies might have been pretty thin, but there's nothing like that here. It's just a movie about a big dumb squid from another planet who gets pummelled by a giant turtle.
2/5
BONUS REVIEW
GAMERA VS. GUIRON
The same sentiment can be expressed about the follow up in which two boys, Akio and Tom, are picked up by a flying saucer. This time the studio didn't even have the money to buy a decent rear-projection screen; it's got a hole in that's visible in almost all the effects shots. Even the glowing alien eyes from last time are recycled, but with half as many alien actors. That submarine hasn't been brought back (well not yet anyway) but the glowing triangles from the Viras ship are here in some of the sets. Worse yet poor old Gyaos has been dragged out of his grave and painted silver so he can be killed yet again.
Which means of course this is a pretty strange and occasionally funny adventure. After some astronomy edutainment we learn that scientists have picked up a mysterious wave from outer space. But of course adults know that life on other planets is impossible. It's a faster paced affair at least as the kids are kidnapped by a ship flying on auto-pilot that takes them to meet alien sisters Barbella and Florbella. Does this species have male members? Where are the fathers of Tom and Akio? Is this trying to say something about boys lacking father figures? Your guess is as good as mine.
The story (what little there is) is peculiar and so are the visuals. There are still some odd moments of monster violence, and the threat of aliens taking human knowledge (direct from the source) is also tonally dark once or twice. The rest of the film is full of low budget moon base effects and slapstick, even more so than before. Despite all the purple and green blood it's clear that somebody liked cartoon logic in ways that go beyond the previous instalment. Now a 'friend to all children' Gamera is also a kind of Wile E. Coyote type character at this stage. Which again is strange but unavoidable until several decades later.
2/5
