Gamera vs. Barugon Talkback

[The Real McCoy]

[Benjamin Haines]

When I first saw Gamera vs. Barugon, I thought it was boring as hell and rather nonsensical.

As I rewatched it six years later with the new DVD, I found myself really getting into it for the first 40 minutes or so. It's a slow-moving story, but a really interesting one, until Barugon appears. After that, while we're treated to some great monster rampage and fight scenes, the pacing of the film slows down to a crawl. It's even slower after the monster shows up than it is before. There's just no sense of urgency to the proceedings and it makes the rather generic military vs. monster sequences pretty lifeless.

One of the moments that I remember really scoffing at when I first saw this was when Onodera stupidly put himself in harm's way just to steal a big diamond, which of course leads to his death. 'I'm the villain, I'm out to take whatever riches I see because that's what I do!' Watching it again now, I think they actually did a believable job of building up to him doing that. As the story progresses, it's clear that Onodera grows more desperate and irrational, knowing that he committed murder for treasure and suddenly feeling like he was losing it all. Seeing the diamond tipped him over the edge and he convinced himself that it was the natives' treasure all along, and he has to try and get it to validate his choices to himself.

One thing that really doesn't make sense, though, is when Barugon manages to swim from the boat to the shore without dying. It's clear that the water hurts him because he bleeds the whole way, but simple rain is enough to immobilize him. Being completely submerged in water should have killed him before he could swim 50 feet.

I wish that I liked this film more than I do. It has a lot going for it, with beautiful color cinematography, compelling human drama, and a really memorable new monster foe. But the pacing of the film ends up killing it and it's just not much fun to me.


:th-dn:


The final battle was cool though, and what a long, brutal death for Barugon.

[Dr Kain]

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

Okay, here I go...

Gamera vs. Barugon

I used to think this was the best of the Showa Gamera films, but now I'm not so sure. The first half (the purely human stuff) is interesting, but as it goes on, and especially as it merges with the monster plot in the second half, I think it gets far too mean spirited for a film of this kid. Not that I mind gloominess, but I think it doesn't serve this particular film (Toho would turn basically the same plot into more of a romp). There's severe pacing problems the longer the thing goes on, and (again) the movie is too long.

This film also illustrates just how well integrated the human plots are in Godzilla films. In this one the humans just fail and fail until Gamera bails them out and leaves. The lack of any kind of accomplishment just leaves things feeling unresolved, unlike in a Godzilla film where the humans always have something to do or to achieve in the final hours, whether it's blowing up the alien base or just rescuing some school kids.

... however, the gloomy feel does add a kind of moodiness to the kaiju scenes, and when you add some bizarre touches (Barugon's ridiculous powers) the combination gives the monster stuff a very unique feel. A lot of neat miniatures, too.

D'ya think the stone with the Barugon prophesy carved on it was the inspiration for the tablet from GOTU?

[Henry88]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

[Henry88]

[jellydonut25]

This one's a pretty good movie that kinda forgets that it's a GAMERA movie. It's a touch too long to develop, but at least that gives us a couple human characters we kinda care about. The colors and miniatures can FINALLY be appreciated in recent years thanks to Shout! and also Mill Creek.

[MekaGojira3k]

Watched this last night for the first time in forever. I rather like this movie. 5th favorite Gamera movie, actually. Barugon is a cool kaiju and while the film needs a bit more Gamera it's not that big of a deal. I mean, if I can get over the issue in Godzilla 2014 I can get over it here.

[DannyBeane]

I received this film as a present when I was a kid. I remember it being so boring. Over the years though it has grown into my favorite of the show gamera films and on of my favorite non godzilla kaiju films. It has the best spfx for a gamera film till the Heisei films. Unfortunately I watch this film mostly as the Mst3k version because the host segments and riffing help with the pacing which is the only real weakness of this film. 8/10.

[O.Supreme]

I can definitely appreciate the "its boring" angle from a kids perspective. But what's odd is, even as a kid, growing up in the 80's , I enjoyed this film. Perhaps though it is because I only have one memory of seeing the original AIP TV dub on TV, (The only other movies I saw were Gammera the Invincible and Return of the Giant Monsters (aka Gaos), which played on about an annual basis where I lived) . Maybe I was off playing in another room or something during most of the non-kaiju scenes. But I remember the monster scenes quite well.

As an adult however it is my favorite of the Showa series. Why August Ragone assumed everyone shared his dislike of the film during the webcast was beyond me. To this day the AIP TV version is my preferred version, then the original Japanese. I also enjoy the MST3K version because it is hilarious. But I will never ever watch the Sandy Frank dub on its own. Though it was a Daiei commissioned dub, (not as bad as the Sandy Frank created Gamera, or Zigra dubs, or even the Daiei Guiron dub) it is still by far inferior to the AIP TV one.

[Russzilla]

This and Gyaos were my two favorite Showa Gamera movies to watch on TV as a kid. I was never bored watching War of the Monsters aka Gamera vs. Barugon, and I too will always prefer the AIP dub of it. Still the best of the Showa Gamera movies IMHO.

[Dr Kain]

I feel this movie is about 20 minutes too long. Like I said in my video review, they should have cut the entire mirror stunt out and just had Gamera thaw out right after Onodera was eaten. That whole idea, while interesting in concept, was just pointless padding because nothing actually came out of it. The entire plot of the movie just comes to a complete halt for that chunk of time.

EDIT: I just realized I kind of already said that, but back in 2012.

[lhb412]

^Yes! I think all the plans to kill Barugon are interesting in theory - but they don't amount to anything: "that didn't work," "that didn't work," "that didn't work," - oh, hey, Gamera's here!

[H-Man]

That's why the 89 minute American International TV version is arguably better: it's about 10 minutes shorter than the Japanese and international versions, but most of the cuts come during the consecutive military operations. You don't really miss much and narration is added to fill in the gaps.

[Dr Kain]

[H-Man]

[Dr Kain]

[H-Man]

[EricDent]

I watched it a couple weeks ago via the Mill Creek Blu-Ray.
It looked fantastic!
It was cool seeing the Japanese intro.