Gamera vs. Barugon

Gamera vs. Barugon

Theatrical poster
Directed by Shigeo Tanaka
Produced by Masaichi Nagata
Written by Nisan Takahashi
Starring Kōjirō Hongō
Kyōko Enami
Music by Chūji Kinoshita
Cinematography Michio Takahashi
Edited by Tatsuji Nakashizu
Production
company
Distributed by Daiei Film (Japan)
AIP-TV (USA)
Release dates
  • April 17, 1966
Running time
 100 min. (Original)
88 min. (USA)
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Gamera vs. Barugon (大怪獣決闘 ガメラ対バルゴン Daikaijū Kettō: Gamera Tai Barugon, Giant Monster Duel: Gamera Versus Barugon, released in the U.S. as War of the Monsters) is a 1966 daikaiju eiga (Japanese giant monster film) featuring the giant turtle Gamera produced and distributed by Daiei Motion Picture Company. The film is the second to feature Gamera. It was released straight to television in the United States by AIP-TV as War of the Monsters, and then later by Sandy Frank as Gamera vs. Barugon. It was one of five Gamera films to appear in the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Plot

Set after the events of Gamera, a meteorite collides with the 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 WWII 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, brother of the man who once found the opal, 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 freezing breath and prevents a retaliative missile strike with a rainbow emanation from its back. Barugon encounters Gamera and the two battle, with Gamera eventually being frozen solid.

While debating 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. The pair then 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 escaped, steals the diamond. Both he and the diamond, however, are devoured by Barugon.

Upon discovering that mirrors are not affected by Barugon's rainbow beams, the military devises a plan to reflect its own rainbow emanation back at it with a giant mirror. Barugon is wounded by its own blast, but despite prompting it cannot be goaded into repeating its mistake. Gamera thaws outs 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 brother now dead, and having found love with Karen, Keisuke decides to make a fresh start on the island where it all began.

Cast

2010 DVD release

The Japanese version of the film has been officially released in the United States as part of Shout! Factory's Japanese Gamera movie collection. It was released on July 6, 2010.

DVD and Blu Ray releases

Alpha Video

Vintage Home Entertainment

St. Clair Entertainment

Shout! Factory

Shout! Factory

Mill Creek Entertainment (Blu-ray)

References

    External links

    Mystery Science Theater 3000