Gamera contre Viras

This has to be the hardest Gamera film to find, in these post NAMBLA days. It does have a whole bunch of recycled footage, but since it was my introduction to the character, it didn't bother me, until I saw the films it was swiped from, later on. After I saw this a whole bunch of times on KTLA, I became a serious fan. Yeah, it's cheesy, but I didn't care, and I still don't. The dubbing was supervised by Bret Morrison, a post-Orson Welles voice of "The Shadow" on radio, and he was pretty astounded when I asked him about it at a late-70's Multiple Sclerosis fundraiser. It's good cheese, and I wouldn't be without it! Also, this and "Super Monster Gamera" (even worse, for much the same reasons) are the two Gamera films that didn't get worked over by Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Pax!

--Judex.1--

The veering of the Gamera series towards the younger generation began with the fourth film, "Gamera vs. Viras" released a speedy three years after the original hit Japanese theaters in 1965. Even though the previous movie, the gleefully entertaining "Gamera vs. Gyaos" was also geared mostly toward children, it still had an element of terror and dread in it. That is gone here and "Gamera vs. Viras" is an unsuccessfully endeavor. However, that it is hardly due to the fact that it is being directed at little children and those who are still able to find the child deep within themselves (a la moi). The problem with this picture is, despite its wonderful beginning and wonderful ending, most of the middle is just shameless, lazy jigsaw-construction of its predecessors. In other words, it's mostly just stock footage reels.

The opening is very promising. A spaceship venturing for a conquest of Earth is interrupted by Gamera, now fully evolved into the friend of all children. Before the vessel is destroyed, it sends a signal back to its home world and a second one is dispatched. Upon the new one's arrival, the aliens use their technology to determine Gamera's weaknesses and take two boy scouts (Toru Takatsuka & Carl Craig) hostage. Now implicating a mind-control device, they use Gamera to destroy civilization. The thin plot becomes thinner before it ultimately leads up to the titular conflict between the giant terrapin and a slimy extra-terrestrial cephalopod.

The movie is so wonderful at first. Both Gamera and the two boys are very entertaining. The latter are portrayed as witty, audacious, and thoughtful individuals...despite the occasional prank or two. And a scene involving them inside of a submersible racing Gamera underwater brought a smile to my face. But the movie starts crippling itself at the moment where the aliens start searching Gamera's past. It's stock footage from the previous movies, each reel lasting roughly five minutes. The aliens quote that their process takes fifteen minutes and it literally does. There's hardly any narration or trimming of the stock footage; it's just reused. (Frighteningly enough, for the U.S. version, the stock footage reel was increased to a mind-numbing twenty-five minutes!) When this ends, there is some relief, but then it becomes just more reused footage from the previous movies. Sequence upon sequence. And most jarring of all is when they decide to once again show Gamera attacking Tokyo as he did in the original film "Gamera the Giant Monster." Now if you will recall, that movie was black-and-white. This one is in color. Eyes squinting yet? Colorization was not around at the time this picture was made and yes, they still integrate colorless footage into a color movie! Just a slight bluish tint, that's all. And sadly, this drags on and on seemingly without end and wore me out. All of a sudden, even the whim and charm of Mr. Takatsuka and Mr. Craig, both of whom are very good in the film, seems unimportant.

Now the movie does pick up a little when the final battle does arrive. And it's satiatingly lengthy, but even with that, by the time it was all over, "Gamera vs. Viras" had exhausted me and left me feeling a thirst for a lot more. The stock footage it so abundant that if there had been more, it could have been a "Best of Gamera" show instead of a continuation to the series. And as far as I am concerned, a low budget should not be an excuse for ham-handed filmmaking. There are some good things here, including a leading performance by that wonderful actor Kojiro Hongo (who was in the previous two Gamera movies and would later play a small part in Shusuke Kaneko's marvelous "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" almost thirty years later) but there are also a lot of bad things here too.

Gamera steps in repeatedly to stop evil aliens from taking over the Earth. Frustrated but still determined, the aliens search for a weakness in Gamera's armor finally deciding to use Gamera's fondness for children against him. Capturing two boy scouts Gamera had recently befriended and threatening to kill them unless Gamera follows their commands, the aliens succeed in implanting a mind control device into Gamera. Now they threaten to have Gamera wreck havoc and destruction upon the world unless humanity bows to their demands. And if their plot involving Gamera doesn't work out, the aliens have yet another monstrous surprise all their own named Viras at their disposal.

While I quite enjoy that portion of the film that actually features new footage of Gamera and Viras in action, a third of this movie seems to be made up of stock footage from previous Gamera films and the way the footage is used is disappointing, one action sequence after another after yet another to the point it really grinds the movie to an halt. It's really too bad as the alien footage features some neat albeit shocking images much more gruesome than is usual for this type of kids' movies and the final battle with Viras just has to be seen to be believed. All in all, this is good fun that should appeal to those young and young at heart but still, that third featuring stock footage is tough slugging.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Noriaki Yuasa; Produced by Hidemasa Nagata, for Daiei Studios; Released in America as "Destroy All Planets" by American-International Pictures. Screenplay by Niisan Takahashi; Photography by Akira Kitazaki; Edited by Shoji Sekiguchi; Music by Kenjiro Hirose. Starring: Kojiro Hongo, Carl Craig, Toru Takatsuka, Michiko Yaegaki, Peter Williams and Mary Morris.

Japanese monster film for kiddies, in the tradition of "Attack of the Monsters". The only good moments are in the use of first-person camera giving the aliens' point-of-view, a technique which is quickly discarded. A new low in absurd plots: title is false as aliens merely seek planetary takeover. They temporarily take control over Gamera (He's back!) and kidnap a couple of Japanese boy scouts. Before saving the day with the kids' help, Gamera unwittingly destroys Tokyo, and in the most unbelievable plot device in many years, the UN decides to surrender the Earth to the aliens rather than risk the lives of the two scouts!

I saw this when I was a kid growing up in Michigan, watching 'monster week' on the 4:30 movie on channel 7. Just recently I purchased a DVD release from Diamond Entertainment called 'Japanesse Monster Movies' that contains four Gamera movies altogether. I used to like this particular film so I was interested in seeing this again.

For starters, a lot of the sets and I believe even some of the props and costumes have been taken directly from 'Gamera vs Guiron'. But at least 45 percent of this film is composed of stock footage from older films. Perhaps the funniest scene in the movie is when they show footage from the original Gamera film- a black and white movie- and try to pass it off for something that is happening in the present, even though this film was shot in color.

The kids in this film take charge of the situation and try to help Gamera out when the adults are content to do little or nothing. There's a lot of Kiaju 'gore' in this film, a funny yet kind of cool alien invader and stupid, stupid henchmen who get their heads knocked off )!) before the mutate into other squid-like creatures.

This is actually less boring than the previous films. Since the aliens are studying the previous Gamera fights in order to defeat him, the film is full of fairly cool monster battles. The final battle against Viran is a good one!