Gamera: The Giant Monster

Original title: Daikaijû Gamera

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

3.9K

YOUR RATING

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Kaiju Monster Horror Supernatural Horror Action Horror Sci-Fi

From out of the arctic comes a gigantic flying, fire-breathing turtle that sets its sights on destroying Tokyo.From out of the arctic comes a gigantic flying, fire-breathing turtle that sets its sights on destroying Tokyo.From out of the arctic comes a gigantic flying, fire-breathing turtle that sets its sights on destroying Tokyo.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

3.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Gamera's role as a guardian of children came from director Noriaki Yuasa's own traumatic experiences growing up as a child during WWII. He mentioned that all the adults and teachers he knew would constantly implant to him the importance of nationalism and Imperial Japan's ambitions, only to abandon it all after Japan's defeat. He recounted the story of how of a teacher of his switched from being a outspoken Nationalist into an advocating Communist. Yuasa had also been a child actor and the behavior he witnessed from them lead him to develop a disapproval of actors in general. These sentiments were carried into the making of Gamera, which Yuasa conceived as the only entity children could have faith in.

Goofs
In the English language version, special effects director Yonesaburo Tsukiji is mistakenly credited as Yonesaburg Tsukiji.

Quotes
[English version]
Mr. Sakurai: Gamera saved your life.
Kenny: Because he knows I like turtles.
Nobuyo Sakurai: Gamera liked you. Gamera must have a good heart.
Kenny: Gamera's a good turtle.

Alternate versions
Not released in the USA until 1985, to home video and television, by Sandy Frank under the title GAMERA. To that day, the only way to (partially) see it was the movie Gammera the Invincible (1966), which used the special effects footage from the original Japanese film but most scenes involving human actors were replaced by new ones featuring an American cast. The Sandy Frank version, one of his usual dubbing jobs, was the whole original Japanese footage except for the opening credits sequence, replaced by English translated credits superimposed over an image of moving ocean water. Another difference is that in the Frank dub the names of some characters are Americanized (i.e. Toshio is renamed Kenny).

Connections
Edited into Gammera the Invincible (1966)

User reviews54

Review

Featured review

The only "serious" original Gamera flick

What I loved about this movie is that Gamera is treated as a "bad-ass" villain monster out to destroy Tokyo like Godzilla in his earlier films. The rest of the movies turned Gamera into a child loving superhero. The effects were great rivaling and even surpassing most of the Godzilla films at the time. The scenes of American actors that were shot were actually quite well done. It was fun watching the U.S and Soviet ambassadors arguing at the U.N. Gamera looked pretty cool as well with his glowing eyes and elephant-like roar. Loved the psychedelic glowing animated flying sequences. Got to love that "Plan Z" over-the-top ending. And you can't help but dig that cool theme song. Gameraaaa! Gameraaaaa! Yeah!