Customer Reviews

Gamera Vs. Barugon [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Shout! Factory releases of the Gamera series are easily among the best--if not the best--of any daikaiju films in the United States. They're reasonably priced, present beautiful, widescreen prints of the original Japanese versions of the movies, and offer several extras--including booklets in the package with additional info on the films, in this case a retrospective of his involvement with Gamera vs. Barugon by star Kojiro Hongo. Furthermore, the upcoming Gamera releases are double features--Gamera vs. Gyaos/Gamera vs. Viras and Gamera vs. Guiron/Gamera vs. Jiger. This release of Gamera vs. Barugon also offers an insightful commentary by August Ragone and Jason Varney.

Originally presented as a TV release, titled War of the Monsters, by AIP-TV in 1967, Gamera vs. Barugon is arguably the best of the Showa-era (1965-1970) Gamera films. With a far more mature plot than the rest of the series, superior special effects, and a fine musical score by Chuji Kinoshita, the movie offers a lot more for daikaiju fans than fodder for MST3K, which certainly can't be said of most of the Gamera series.

The film opens with a flashback to the original Gamera and his voyage into space via Plan Z. But as the story proper begins, the rocket crashes into a meteor, and Gamera returns to Earth, initially attacking Kurobe Dam in Japan to satiate his craving for energy. Next, we meet a rather shady group of adventurers, who are plotting an expedition to New Guinea, to recover a giant opal that their leader, Ichiro Hirata (Akira Natsuki), found during World War II and hid in a cave. Three of them--Hirata's younger brother Keisuke (Kojiro Hongo), Kawajiri (Yuzo Hayakawa), and Onodera (Kôji Fujiyama)--make the journey, landing in a small village of natives, where they also meet a Japanese doctor named Matushita (Ichiro Sugai) and his assistant, Karen (Kyoko Enami), who implore them to stay away from the cave. Ignoring the warnings, the three find the cave as well as the opal they seek. However, a scorpion kills Kawajiri, and Onodera attempts to kill Keisuke by blowing up the cave. However, Keisuke escapes with his life and is brought to the village, where Karen nurses him back to health. Here, he learns that the opal is not a gem but the egg of the monster Barugon, which will bring great tribulation to Japan.

Keisuke and Karen travel to Japan to find Onodera, who has arrived in Kobe. However, the egg hatches, and the monster Barugon begins a rampage through the city. Its tongue emits a subzero vapor that freezes anything it touches, and it can unleash a lethal "rainbow ray" from its back that disintegrates matter. Gamera, attracted by Barugon's ray, attacks the monster, but Barugon is able to freeze Gamera solid. Karen tells the military that Barugon, being a land monster, is vulnerable to water and can be lured into Lake Biwa using a huge diamond, which will attract it. The effort is almost successful, but Onodera, infuriated by the loss of the "opal," steals the diamond--only to be killed by Barugon as he tries to escape.

Now, the military endeavors to turn Barugon's rainbow ray back on it via a giant parabolic mirror, but the effort only wounds the creature. However, Gamera has now thawed out and once again attacks the monster, finally dragging it into Lake Biwa, destroying it. The big turtle flies away to await a role in his next adventure, and Keisuke ponders how to make amends for his part in so much death and destruction.

Ostensibly the star, Gamera is actually a secondary character, spending most of the movie in frozen stasis. The greater part of the plot is about the massive undertaking to defeat Barugon, which, sadly for the Japanese, just isn't in the cards. In the end, it is up to Gamera to reappear and drag Barugon into the water. Gamera's long absence isn't much of a failing, however; much of Barugon's rampage is visually exciting, the attempts to counter him rather novel. Unfortunately, Barugon itself is not that impressive-looking a creature. While its design is suitably lizard-like, the man-in-suit technique by nature is not conducive to rendering a creature that walks on all fours. At least on occasion, the cinematography overcomes the problem by showing the monster behind rows of buildings or from angles that de-emphasize the body of the actor inside the suit.

Unlike the rest of the Showa Gamera series, including the original 1965 film, little kids play no part in the story, which is really how it ought to be anyway. The protagonist is among the most flawed in daikaiju movie history, and his part in the awry scheme to retrieve his brother's opal results in his suffering visible, almost unbearable guilt. Onodera, as a calculating, greedy, and thoroughly cold-hearted bastard, is a far darker character than most of the cartoon-like antagonists from the majority of that era's daikaiju films. Alas, despite my personal preference for it, the film's serious tone didn't go over quite so well with Japanese audiences--so many of whom were youngsters back in the day--and thus the subsequent Gamera films became more and more juvenile, deservedly earning the ridicule they so often received from western audiences.

I can't say enough good about the Shout! Factory DVD of Gamera vs. Barugon. It's a real treat, and showcases one of the most deserving giant monster movies of the 1960s. Go grab it. Go on.

This is the second instalment of the first Gamera series. It's the follow-up to Daei hit Gamera the invincible (Aka Giant monster Gamera). The first Gamera film was shot as a back up plan after a crashed film project, and with a shoe string budget. In this film the filmmakers had had a much bigger budget to play with, it's also in colour. Gamera is here, as in the first film, bad to the bones, and a friend of no one...

Story; In the end of the first film Gamera was jettisoned into space in a pod, in transit to mars. The pod is however smashed by a huge interstellar rock; Gamera is released! He/she returns immediately to earth! The first thing Gamera does is to smash up a power plant, in search for food/energy, with a disastrous result when a dam collapses.
3 men goes to New guinea, to recover a huge opal another man have hidden in a cave 20 years earlier. They get warned in a local village, that evil spirits live there. They find the opal, however greed grabs one of them, only he returns; One is dead, and the other left in the collapsing cave. However it's no opal...
Exposed to infrared light, it hatches - Barugon is born! Barugon seems to be invincible; The freezing vapour from the tip of his tongue, is a horrific weapon - Even Gamera is defenceless!
However a girl from the village in New guinea, with a fistsize diamond, says she knows a way...

It's a good film, made with a big budget - I liked it very much!
The negative as, in all of the early Gamera films, the monster suits are a bit crude.

Gamera vs. Barugon was the sequel to Gamera. This entry, plus Gamera, & Gamera vs. Gaos are considered to be the big 3 of the series. In this film, Gamera escapes from his imprisonment in Outer Space & flies back to Japan, destroys a dam and goes into seclusion. Meanwhile a group of 3 men go to an island to find a missing opal in a get rich quick scheme. To make the long story short, the "opal" turns out to be the egg of which Barugon is born. He grows into monstrous proportions & begins to level Japan. Barugon is a pretty unique creature (as were most in the Gamera Showa series) - a quadruped with a long tongue which freezes things, a rainbow ray from his back and a bad case of overbite. Barugon & Gamera battle each other to the death more than once in this monsterfest. What happens next - watch it and see!
What makes this movie superior to later releases is that this movie has pretty good character development, betrayal & lessons in morality. Obviously get rich quick schemes do not work :)
At this point in the Gamera series, Gamera wasn't really a good guy sort to speak. The fighting with Barugon to me is more of a fight for dominance, just who is the Alpha monster. Gamera wouldn't become 'good' or the friend of children until later in the series.
This movie like most of the Gamera series had 2 distinct English language versions. One is the AIP dubbing, & while the other is what I call the Sandy Frank dubbing which was released on VHS from Celebrity Kids Video. This dubbing contained the water credits & wound up on MST3K TWICE.
The episodes are KTMA Episode K04 + Episode # 304.
As for this DVD release, I am led to believe that this will contain only the Japanese language version which is great to see & hear it how it was intended. Personally Id love to see an English dubbed version which then I would unload the Alpha DVD of this movie(under the title War of the Monsters)
I expect this DVD to have a lot of great supplements including a commentary by August Ragone (who is the Executive Producer for the entire Shout Factory Gamera releases)
I also anticipate a fantastic widescreen transfer as well.
Thanks again to Shout Factory who has really taken a huge step with the Gamera releases, the Roger Corman releases and the MST3K releases.

After a group of explorers try to retrieve a unique opal, that is until a lizard-like demon dog monster comes out from the ground to attack Japan, Gamera returns after his failed trip to space to come to save us all.

Another silly Japanese giant turtle on the rampage yet this time has an arch nemesis movie! the true star of this movie is Barugon, a wickedly cool dog-like lizard beast that freezes things with it's breath similar to how Gamera spews fire and has a deadly tongue. Gamera is barely in this movie but in two sequences, i should say that the action is quite good and so is the music as is the still funny as hell dubbing.Noble for being a dark and mature entry in the series.

Joel and the robots did had a blast watching this movie.

Following up their release of the first Gamera film, Shout! brings the original Japanese version of Barugon to the US for the first time ever. Video and audio quality are fantastic, and the extras are good as well, including a booklet, publicity gallery, and an informative audio commentary by August Ragone and Jason Varney. I give the DVD 4/5 stars for the lack of the English dub, but despite that, this is a fantastic DVD and should be in all kaiju fans' libraries.

Don't get me wrong, I dig foreign films but when I want to get my Godzilla/Gamera on, having to read the subtitles and listening to that tinny, yackety Japanese soundtrack while trying to catch the monster action on screen can definitely detract from the enjoyment. But hey, that's just me. Good classic MIJ rubber suit monster movie, good transfer, but why leave out the English dub option?

Following being shot into space at the end of GAMERA THE GIANT MONSTER, the colossal chelonian returns to Earth, and he is not happy. Fortunately for the human inhabitants of Japan, Gamera quickly finds an opponent worthy of his fiery rage: Barugon, the Freezing Monster, unleashed into the world by a quartet of treasure hunters who mistake Barugon's egg for an enormous (and enormously valuable) opal in New Guinea. The treasure hunters were warned by the locals to avoid the cave where the "opal" is hidden, but of course, they just had to disregard local superstition...soon it is up to Keisuke Hirata, a reformed treasure hunter, and the smokin' hot Karen, a New Guinea native, to find a way for Gamera to defeat Barugon before Japan is turned into a Sno-Cone!

GAMERA VS. BARUGON is the first Gamera film shot in color, something it takes glorious advantage of. The New Guinea scenes are replete with tapa-clad hula girls shaking what their mommas gave them, and Barugon sports a "Rainbow Ray" energy weapon in addition to his freezing breath. And the color in this transfer is beautiful -- I'd seen clips of the TV edit of GAMERA VS. BARUGON (released under the title WAR OF THE MONSTERS and the color was so washed out that the film was effectively sepia-tone. GAMERA VS. BARUGON is in the same 2:35:1 widescreen as GAMERA THE GIANT MONSTER, and again we're treated to a really crisp, attractive print with excellent audio -- I noticed this time around that the roars of the monsters are mixed louder than the human dialogue, hammering home the size and power of these behemoths.

With his long, spiky body, three facial horns and rapid-fire tongue, Barugon himself looks like a cross between a Jackson's Chameleon and a Komodo Dragon, and his quadrupedal gait is nicely realized. By contrast, Gamera's role in the movie seems light, as Barugon steals scene after scene. The entire film, actually, is a bit monster-light, but we are treated to some nice human adventure action in its place.

As for special features, once again August Ragone comments with authority, this time joined by Jason Varney. The commentary track as whole, I'll admit, is a little dry, but contains some impressive nuggets of information and enough back story on the entire cast and crew to please any serious student of Japanese film history. No documentary this time around, but we do get a gallery of an original movie program for GAMERA VS. BARUGON. The booklet in the DVD case contains some reminisces by Kojiro Hongo, who starred as Keisuke Hirata, and an attractive anatomical diagram of Barugon, showcasing his Sensor Horns, Rainbow Ray Emission Port, and Freezing Liquid Organ (Minus 100C!)

Overall, I'd call GAMERA VS. BARUGON as good a value as GAMERA THE GIANT MONSTER, and well worth inclusion in your collection of Japanese monster cinema. I doubt we'll ever see a DVD release of this film that look as good as this one.

This is awesome! As a monster movie fan, Godzilla was the one I used to root for, now I have switched sides and must say that Gamera is the number one movie monster for me. I mean, you cannot get any better then having a giant turtle to cheer for!

Most of this movie sets up the introduction of (then having to deal with) Barugon. Since Gamera is put on ice for much of the movie, he really only rates a guest star billing. That's okay; it's still a good monster movie. There's plenty of action and intrigue (a fake opal and an enormous diamond are featured in the plot: almost as much greed as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). And then there are the pesky monsters to deal with (loved Barugon's rainbow effect). Surprisingly good, it's a keeper!

Other than the introduction that explains some of the previous Gamera movies, our giant turtle is barely seen in this film that bares his name. Gamera appears in the last couple of minutes of the film to finish off Barugon and then he's gone once again. That's part of the reason I don't think this is a very good example of Kaiju films or the Gamera series. The actors do a good job acting serious and frightened and the subplot of the cave and the opal is fairly original. However, the other headliner of this film, Barugon, isn't all that special in the realm of giant Japanese monsters. His weapons and his defenses are pretty mediocre although I suppose the rainbow defense is a new idea. The scenes where Barugon trashes the cities are okay as well, but one of the main reasons I enjoy Gamera movies are because of the great fight scenes which are all but absent in this part of the series. I'd say that this is not a good place to start for someone who is interested in Gamera or Kaiju. Many Japanese monster films can be called good or even excellent. Gamera versus Barugon is very average.