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 date
  • April 17, 1966 (1966-04-17)
Running time
 100 min. (Japan)
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 / Duel of the Giant Monsters: Gamera vs. Barugon, released in the U.S. as War of the Monsters ) is a 1966 Japanese kaiju film directed by Shigeo Tanaka. It is the second entry in the Gamera film series and was released straight to television in the United States by American International Television 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.[1] This is the only film of the Showa Gamera series that does not feature one or more preteen children as the main human characters.

Plot

Set six months after the events of Gamera: The Giant Monster, a meteorite collides with the Z Plan 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 World War II 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, Kano's younger brother, 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 freeze-gas emitting tongue and stops the launching of the retaliative missiles with a rainbow-like ray emitted from seven spines on the middle of its back. Barugon encounters Gamera and the two battle, with Gamera eventually being frozen solid.

In the meantime, while debating with Kano 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. Keisuke and Karen 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 been released and informed of the diamond by his wife, steals the gem. Both he and the diamond, however, are immediately devoured by Barugon.

Keisuke discovers that mirrors are not affected by Barugon's rainbow ray, so the military devises a plan to reflect its own rainbow emanation back at it with a giant mirror. Barugon is wounded by its own ray, but despite prompting it cannot be goaded into repeating its mistake. Gamera thaws out 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

Home media

Alpha Video

Vintage Home Entertainment

St. Clair Entertainment

Shout! Factory

Shout! Factory

Mill Creek Entertainment (Blu-ray)

Mill Creek Entertainment (DVD)

References

  1. ↑ Episode guide: K04- Gamera vs. Barugon
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