| Gamera vs. Guiron | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Noriaki Yuasa |
| Produced by | Hidemasa Nagata Sandy Frank Masaichi Nagata |
| Written by | Nisan Takahashi |
| Starring | Nobuhiro Kajima Miyuki Akiyama Chrystopher Murphy Yuko Hamada Eiji Funakoshi Kon Omura |
| Music by | Kenjiro Hirose Shunsuke Kikuchi |
| Cinematography | Akira Kitazaki |
| Editing by | Eli Haviv |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 21, 1969 |
| Running time | 82 min |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Gamera vs. Guiron (ガメラ対大悪獣ギロン Gamera Tai Daiakujū Giron, Gamera vs. Devil Monster Guiron, released in the U.S. as Attack of the Monsters), is a 1969 kaiju film, the fifth entry in the original Gamera series. It was one of five Gamera films to be featured as episodes of movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Contents |
While spying in their telescope, Two boys, Akio and Tom witness a spaceship that descends into a nearby field, upon telling their mother this she denies it as mere child nonsense. With Akio's little sister, Tomoko in tow, they bicycle out the next day to investigate. The boys enter the spaceship and the ship accidentally takes off to its alien home planet, leaving Tomoko behind. At first the boys are concerned as neither of them know how to pilot the aircraft as it hurtles through space and into a field of asteroids. Luckily Gamera arrives and fends off the asteroids from harming them, but the ship's speed leaves Gamera behind and takes the two boys to an unknown planet.
Upon landing on the planet, Akio and Tom are astonished but suddenly put in danger by the sudden appearance of a silver "Space" Gyaos who causes havoc in the area. Also appearing from an underground base behind city Space Gyaos is attacking is a never-before seen monster with a gigantic knife for a head. As the two battle, the knife-headed monster viciously kills the Space Gyaos by chopping him up into several pieces and proceed to return to his hole.
Akio and Tom, after exploring some of the buildings on the planet soon meet the only inhabitants on the planet, two beautiful women who introduce themselves to the boys are explain where they are. The planet is called "Terra" and it rotates on the opposite side of the planet Earth which explains why is was not discovered yet. The planet is also facing extinction as not only does the planet grow colder as time has passed, but it is also being populated by several more Space Gyaos in the area. Keeping the Space Gyaos from destroying what's left of their planet is the Terrans' monster bodyguard, Guiron, the knife-headed monster from before. Meanwhile, Tomoko tries to tell her mother of the boys capture but is also met with dismay.
Unknown to the two boys however, the Terran women are revealed to be sinister and cannibalistic, planning on feeding on the two boys. After probing the minds of Akio and Tom to study their interests and weaknesses, upon learning that Gamera is headed for Terra to retrieve the two boys, the Terran women soon learn of Gamera and his friendship to the children of Earth, as well as his battles on Earth (consisting of stock footage from Gyaos and Viras.) Once receiving the info the boys know, the Terran women plan to feed on their brains in order to adapt to life on the Planet Earth. Back on the planet Earth, Tomoko is still unable to convince any of the adults (except the kindly but eccentric police officer, Kondo) of the boys' misadventure, as most adults believe that their children are nothing but liars. Tomoko slowly begins to lose hope.
On Terra, the boys are knocked unconscious by a sleeping formula put into donuts made by the Terran women. While they manage to shave Akio's head bald, Gamera soon lands on Terra in search of the boys and Guiron is sent to dispose of him. After a short battle, Guiron retreats to lick his battle wounds and Gamera is knocked unconscious and on his back in a lake. Shortly afterward, Tom wakes up and learns of the Terrans' evil plan and so he and Akio plan to escape, but are shortly found out by the women and taken as their prisoners. Back on Earth, Tomoko has gathered a group of scientists who believe her story of the Ship's appearance and so she take them to the site of where it was before.
While trying to escape from their imprisonment, Tom uses a toy pistol to activate the switch to release him and Akio, but unintentionally releases Guiron in the process. Now out of control, Guiron rampages through the abandoned city on Terra and attacks his owners as they try to flee towards Earth, slicing the spacecraft in half. One of the Terran women is injured, but shortly killed in cold blood by her partner. Guiron then attacks the base where the boys are imprisoned and attacks there too. During Guiron's rampage, Gamera awakens and resumes his battle against the monster on the surface of Terra. Eventually, Gamera manages to trap Guiron into the ground and renders his enormous knife-head useless. Finding a missile launch, the boys fire it as Guiron, slicing it in half, destroying the second Terran woman that escaped. Using the other half, Gamera defeats Guiron by jamming it into his head. With Guiron and the Terrans gone, Gamera takes Akio and Tom back to earth, where they are reunited with their families.
Guiron is an alien monster who normally traverses on all fours, but can also assume a bipedal stance. He is an unusual looking creature, with tough gray skin, a small mouth, sleepy looking eyes and a low, groaning bellow. The most unusual feature Guiron's anatomy, however, is the gigantic blade that he sports on his head, which is nearly as long as his body.
Guiron is mostly a melee oriented kaiju, attacking opponents with his blade. Indeed, this blade is so sharp that it can even cut through Gamera's shell. The blade also has a reflective surface that can send an enemy monsters's beam attacks back at its opponent. In addition, there is a circular indent on either side of the blade. Housed within are shuriken that it can apparently launch with some kind of psychokinesis.
Guiron acted as the guard dog of two brain-eating space women, the last of a dead civilisation on the planet Terra. The aliens guided him with a mind control device. Guiron proved his combat prowess by effortlessly defeating Space Gyaos, reflecting the flying creature's sonic beam and literally slicing it to pieces with his blade. Guiron later fought Gamera, and nearly killed him. Gamera eventually managed to defeat Guiron by flipping him upside down (his blade stuck in the earth) then igniting a missile that had gotten stuck in his circular indents, blowing his head off and killing him.
Shout! Factory released the film on DVD September 21, 2010 as a double feature with Gamera vs. Jiger.[1] The films include the original Japanese dialogue with English subtitles. It also includes two different English dubs, the original AIP-TV English dub and the Sandy Frank dub (which was dubbed by Corporate Communications Ltd. in Hong Kong, who also dubbed all of Toho's Godzilla films from the 1970s and 1980s)
Alpha Video
Shout! Factory
Mystery Science Theater 3000, Volume XXI
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||