Daikaijû Gamera (1965)

User Rating:

3.0/10   

Director:

Noriaki Yuasa

Writer:

Nisan Takahashi (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 December 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Gamera | Turtle | Fire Breathing | Monster | Scientist

Cast

Eiji Funakoshi	...	Dr. Hidaka
Harumi Kiritachi	...	Kyoke Yamamoto
Junichirô Yamashiko	...	Aoyagi
Yoshiro Uchida	...	Toshio Sakurai
Michiko Sugata	...	Nobuyo Sakurai
Yoshiro Kitahara	...	Mr. Sakurai
Jun Hamamura	...	Professor Murase
Kenji Oyama	...	Minister of Defense
Munehiko Takada	...	Soviet Representative
Yoshio Yoshida	...	Eskimo Chief
Jun Osanai	...	Chidori Maru Captain
Daihachi Kita	...	Chidori Maru Navigator
Kazuo Mori	...	Chidori Maru Radioman
Koji Fujiyama	...	U.S. Arctic Base Commander
Osamu Okawa	...	U.S. Air Base Radar Technician

Also Known As:

Gamera (USA) (dubbed version)
The Giant Monster Gamera (literal English title)

Runtime:

Japan:80 min | USA:80 min | USA:86 min (DVD)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

South Korea:All

Company:

Daiei Studios

Trivia:

This is the only film in the Gamera series that was filmed in black and white.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Operation Double 007 (#6.8)" (1993)

Dr. Cyclops meets Prof. Quatermass!

This review is of the American version of the film which has additional scenes offering two of the movies favourite scientists, Albert Dekker (Dr. Cyclops) and Brian Donlevy (Prof. Quatermass) together. Once it became obvious that Toho Studios had a hit with Godzilla other studios wanted their own monsters. Daiei came up with a giant fire breathing, flying turtle. Well, why not? Freed from the arctic ice by (what else?) a nuclear explosion Gammera heads for (you guessed it!) Tokyo to cause the usual panic and destruction. Gammera is not a mutation of atomic radiation (like another giant monster who shall go nameless at this point) he comes from a time so remote in Earth's pre-history that his cell structure differs from all other living things. He gets energy from heat and eats fire to survive! This makes all modern weapons useless. What to do? The military comes up with Plan Z which is surely the most outrageous way of getting rid of a giant monster that has ever been used in a movie! Does it work? Well . . .until the sequel it does! Both versions of this film are fun though I have a preference for the original Japanese versions of all movies of this genre. Actually this movie has many incarnations. This version which was done in 1965, another version with different dubbing done by Sandy Frank in the 1980's and the original, subtitled Japanese version. They vary just enough to make each version original. Gammera, and this is the only movie where his name is spelled with two "m"'s, is a villain in this one but he learns rather quickly to become a good guy in the later sequels. There has been talk for the last 10 years about a movie where Gammera battles Godzilla. Toho Studios claims this will never happen. Still, you never can be sure.