Gamera vs. Guiron (1969)

Aliens kidnap two children and take them to another planet for the purpose of getting knowledge from their brains, but Gamera follows and tries to rescue them.

Director:

Noriaki Yuasa

Writer:

Niisan Takahashi (as Fumi Takahashi)

Stars:

Nobuhiro Kajima, Miyuki Akiyama, Christopher Murphy

Cast

Credited cast:
Nobuhiro Kajima	...	Akio
Miyuki Akiyama	...	Tomoko
Christopher Murphy	...	Tom (as Chrystopher Murphy)
Yûko Hamada	...	Kuniko (as Yuko Hamada)
Eiji Funakoshi	...	Dr. Shiga
Kon Ohmura	...	Officer Kondo (AKA: 'Kon-chan') (as Kon Ômura)
Hiroko Kai	...	Barbella
Reiko Kasahara	...	Florbella
Akira Natsuki	...	News Reporter
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edith Hanson	...	Elza - Tom's Mother
Umenosuke Izumi	...	Gamera

Storyline

Three children, two boys and a girl, stumble upon a flying saucer. The boys both step in without hesitating, and are whisked away to a planet in Earth's orbit but on the exact opposite side of the Sun. Inhabiting this planet are two women with Midwestern accents, who hypnotize the children to find they fantasize about milk, donuts, and Gamera, our favorite hero turtle. The women simply want to eat their brains. Back home, no one will believe the little girl's story of alien abduction, not even Officer Concha (pronounced "Cornjob"). Finally, Gamera rescues the children while fighting Guiron, a monster with a giant knife for a nose. Gamera kills Guiron while doing gymnastics on a parallel bar and takes the kids home, where the kids hope for peace, understanding, and the end of traffic accidents.

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Plot Keywords:

boy | brother sister relationship | outer space | gamera | monster versus monster | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Family | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Unrated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first Gamera film in which a creature (besides Gamera) makes a return appearance through new footage.

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Goofs

When the two kids launch a missile at Guiron, the missile gets sliced in half on his bladed head. But it is clear as the day that both "halves" are actually complete missiles. You can see the pyrotechnics go off behind Guiron's head that launch the second "half" of the missile.

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Quotes

[Officer Kondo chastises Akio and Tommy]
Officer Kondo: I'll tell you what. Remember, the next time, if you are naughty again... I'll shave your heads!

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Alternate Versions

The AIP-TV version takes out the infamous Gamera song.

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Connections

Featured in Cinemassacre's Monster Madness: Gamera vs Guiron (2013)

User Reviews

Classic Giant Monster Flick for Kids

Two boys who are apparently prone to various kinds of mischief find a spaceship in the woods and climb aboard only to find that the ship has autopilot and is programmed to return to the hostile planet of its origin. The film starts off with an astronomy lesson and the hostile planet turns out to be a hidden planet on the other side of the sun. Awaiting them there are two caped and antennaed young female cannibals and an enormous slow moving knife-headed creature named Guiron. Old favorite Gaos - or something that looks like him - makes a cameo but is defeated so quickly by Guiron that you will hardly notice him. Gamera to the rescue! Back home, the younger sister of one of the boys tries to convince her somewhat dour mother of what has happened, but she is told to stop making up stories and go study.

Indeed, this story is the sort of wandering, somewhat silly, and entirely fantastic thing that kids do make up. But that's exactly why it works. It's a kid film. It doesn't require expensive and fancy special effects, just a fun story, kids doing amazing things, and giant monsters.

I enjoyed this as a kid and enjoyed it again as an adult. The acting is passable for what it is - the younger sister is actually very convincing and sympathetic and the two boys do OK. The adults are presented entirely from a kid perspective (as was done in The Peanuts) - and are stereotypic and often over-dramatic). The cinematography is pretty good - again, for its purpose (this is not an art film nor even an adult action film). And the dubbing in the version I saw (Sandy Frank's name did not appear anywhere) was actually very good.

Fun little film - recommended!

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

21 March 1969 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Gamera vs. Guillon

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daiei

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1