Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

The Basics: A killer space shark plots to invade the Earth, vowing to protect and conserve the Earth's oceans but there's a catch...he plans on enslaving all of humanity!

The Plot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera_vs._Zigra

The Kaiju:

Gamera:

A little softer looking than in previous films, but I think he looks better in this film than he has in the past two films. Also, in the Gamera suit itself can finally blow fire which makes for some interesting shots of the full suit spitting fire while walking. Great stuff.

Zigra:
This guy blew my mind as a child. More than any other Gamera kaiju, this one amazed me. Now the only Gamera film I saw as a child was Guiron, but I used to go with my step-dad to the video rental store and I'd always see the FHE cover for this video...I was never able to rent the film but I used to watch the preview for this film on my FHE Guiron tape religously.

Now I'm a little bit picky with Zigra....I love him in his swimming form, not so hot on him when he's on land. I actually like the idea of exclusively aquatic kaiju. I also think he has a lot of personality, and is a suitably dangerous foe for Gamera. Oddly enough, I feel as if he's not that bad of a guy er kaiju...sort of a weird anti-hero.

The Acting:
The only real standout for me in this film is the Zigran alien woman...she's hot and has a pretty decent arc of sorts...she's likable when she needs to be and threatining when she's doing the bidding of Zigra


The SPFX: Pretty standard work here, on par with the last film with the exception of an inmproved Gamera suit that can actually breathe fire as opposed to a hand puppet doing the dangerous work.


The Other Stuff:

-Ok, ok, I know I said last time that Jiger is one of my favorite kaiju but it's kind of like "whatever steak you are eating at the moment is the best steak you've ever had" syndrome. After watching the Showa era films ( I think Super Monster is it's own era ) I can honestly say now that I LOVE Gyaos, Barugon, Guiron and Zigra as kaiju. They are among my favorite kaiju of all time

-This film is slow at times...but I think it has a somewhat undeserved reputation for being worse than it actually is. It's overly long, and the characters are kind of bland but I'd take this over several Godzilla films

-Gamera is a dumb a$$ in this movie. Hide and go seek. The musical number...wtf

-Zigra the musical

-It's odd seeing the evil sleeze ball from Barugon being the likable dad in this film

-I...do...not...want...to...watch Supermonster!!!! I've only seen it once and I hated it. I was bored out of my mind. Yuasa in several interviews I've read barely, if at all, aknowledges this film...I may not survive watching it again but such is my dedication to my craft

This is probably my least favorite of the original series. Super Monster is a worse movie, but it is more entertaining (at least it has a lot of monster action, even if it is stock footage).

This is a movie that I should love. Its got a totally daffy plot just as insane as Guiron and I love Zigra, his hot henchwoman, the ocean stuff and the Sea World setting (marine biology was my first major, so I'm an ocean nerd) and Gamera playing his theme music on Zigra's back. I love all that stuff. This movie SHOULD be my favorite. It has the potential to be as fun as Guiron with all its craziness.

The problem is that its not. In fact, its not much fun at all. Its like they tried to replicate the insanity of Guiron, but forgot to make it fun. It has the most annoying kids in the series (by far), and way too much character stuff that goes nowhere and slows the whole thing down to a grinding halt. People like to pick on Barugon for having too much non-monster stuff, but at least the human drama in that film matched the tone and overall plot of the film. Here, it just slows things down because so much of it has little bearing on the actual story. This movie moves way slower than any movie about a giant, talking alien shark fighting a giant turtle and trying to take over the world SHOULD move.

But I love the monster Zigra and the plot to this film. It was just executed poorly. And I agree that he's not as effective on land in man-in-suit form.

And what's with the little girl's obsession with coca-cola? And the dress that doesn't go past her crotch *shudder*?

Haha I started out as a Marine Bio/ Environmental Sci major too!!

When I first saw all of the Showa Gamera films years ago, this was my least favorite of them. It was a really bad, plodding movie with a really grating dub and no redeeming value.

Rewatching all of these movies with a proper presentation, Gamera vs. Zigra proved to be the biggest surprise to me. I actually liked it. It is a really bad movie, but it's a lot of fun to watch, largely due to how bad it is. I put it in the same boat as Godzilla vs. Megalon.

The kids here aren't that annoying to me. They actually seem less involved in the plot than the children in the other movies. I love the wonky music bit that plays when Zigra's minion is chasing them around. I first saw this film as part of and the menu screens had that music cue playing in a continuous loop, although it came from the old dubbed print so it sounded like it was recorded underwater. I switched over to the English audio when I was watching the Shout! DVD and, sure enough, the music sounded muffled like I remembered it. It sounds a lot cleaner in the Japanese version.

It's nice to see a full-body Gamera suit with a flamethrower in the mouth for the only time ever. Zigra is a good villain monster. He has a very ominous appearance looming over the heroes in the wide shots of the spaceship interior. The aquatic prop looks really cool and the bipedal suit is bizarre-looking. I never realized before that he's able to speak Japanese because that little device on his head translates his screeches. I figured he was just a talking alien when I saw the Sandy Frank version.

There are a lot of crazy monster moments here. Gamera breathes fire underwater. He gets Zigra on land and jabs a rock on his face, taking him down for the count. He then proceeds to use Zigra's finned back as a xylophone to play his own theme song. But my favorite scene is when Zigra is sleeping underwater next to the bathyscaph with the people inside. Gamera waddles up, tosses a rock at Zigra, then ducks behind the damn bathyscaph until he's sure Zigra is asleep. Then he just grabs it, turns around and casually walks off with it.


:th-up:


It's a B-movie in every sense. I enjoy it.