Best original GAMERA films?

[david g]

I am having a great time rewatching the original GAMERA films of the 60s. Though often unfavorably compared to GOJIRA, Gamera films do boast their charms, including terrific, gory monster battles...

Any particular favorites? And does anyone think we'll ever get decent DVD versions in the original Japanese?

 

[Goji]

The best by far of the original series, IMO, is Gamera vs. Gaos. It has a darker tone than most, and Gaos is probably Gamera's best opponent. It isn't wonderful and doesn't compare to the best of the concurrent Godzilla series, but it's decent enough.

As a monster, Zigra is pretty cool too, but his movie is unfortunately dire. I'd stay away from Gamera vs. Barugon too, as it's boring as hell. "Guiron" is good for a few laughs and not much else. I recommend the MST3K version more than the original.

The best thing that ever happend to Gamera is, of course, the 90s trilogy from Shusuke Kaneko. Three of the best kaiju films ever, which is quite an achievement considering the source material was, well, Gamera.

 

[Gojirob]

I'll go with Gyaos 67 as well, just because the concept of a giant vampire bat is so damned scary. While I think our turtle would lose the fight of the Big G's, I also think that Rodan would lose to Gyaos. There is a scene in Guiron wherein it shows a swarm of Space Gyaos ready to overrun that world. That's kinda creepy. I just this past few weeks sat through the original Japanese Showa films. I am about to brave the awful 1980 Gamera Super Monster, and then recover with the 95-99 trilogy, and maybe YouTube the Part 4 fanfilm for good measure, and then its on to the recent Gamera The Brave, kind of like a Superman Returns for the Showa series. Zigra, by the way, features the least stock footage and no past clips. Gamera outright humiliates his beaten foe in a LOL moment that is painful to watch.

Once, in an ST fic, I had Kirk's nephew and McCoy's sons watching a 2015 film, 'Godzilla vs. Gamera'. I still hold out hope.

 

[Cutter John]

Gamera films used to freak me the hell out when I was a kid, and they'd ocassionally pop up on Saturday afternoon, or late night tv. I distictly remember one where Gamera was injected with some sort of parasite and a couple of kids had to go inside his body to kill it. I think the worst part was the 'example' clip shown just before of an elephant having a nest of parasitic worms removed from its trunk.

Anothe rtime I had to just turn the thing off after Gamera was clawed across the face and just started gushing blood. I was too used to Godzilla flicks, so the idea of kaiju bleeding and howling in pain was just kinda traumatic.

Oh. Sorry. What was the question again?

 

[Goji]

A couple of the later Showa Godzilla films seemed to be imitating the Gamera series' tendency for slightly more graphic fighting. "Godzilla vs. Gigan" and the first "Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla" get especially bloody at times, even if it is pretty fake-looking and tame compared to most action films. But Gamera's lack of complete invulnerability did a lot to make him a more interesting creature, especially in the aforementioned 90s trilogy, where he would tend to get very seriously beaten up in the finale of every movie (even losing an arm!).

 

[Bri]

The best thing that ever happend to Gamera is, of course, the 90s trilogy from Shusuke Kaneko. Three of the best kaiju films ever, which is quite an achievement considering the source material was, well, Gamera.

Oh, yeah! Great stuff!

Bri

 

[barnaclelapse]

The best thing that ever happend to Gamera is, of course, the 90s trilogy from Shusuke Kaneko. Three of the best kaiju films ever, which is quite an achievement considering the source material was, well, Gamera.

Oh, yeah! Great stuff!

Bri

Hells yeah.

Although the other best thing to ever happen to Gamera was the song they did on MST3K.

 

[Capt_Piett]

"Gamera is really neat! Gamera is full of meat! We all love you Gamera! Spam spam spam spam spam...."

 

[Newski]

The best thing that ever happend to Gamera is, of course, the 90s trilogy from Shusuke Kaneko. Three of the best kaiju films ever, which is quite an achievement considering the source material was, well, Gamera.

You mean two of the best..... Gamera 2 was pretty bad in my book.... Legion was an uninteresting monster, and there was no "human' story to speak of. The first one gave us characters I liked and wanted to see more of. The one holdover was just that... A hold over....

Guardian of the Universe, however, is still one of my favorite films.


Of the original series, I'm going to go with Zigra. Pure camp. The best of the best when it comes to hilariously bad movies.

 

[Goji]

We'll have to disagree about that. I enjoy "Legion" as much or more than its predecessor. I thought it did a wonderful job recreating the atmosphere of the alien invasion films from the 50s and 60s. While it initially doesn't seem to completely blend in with the mythology of the first film, the terrific follow-up "Revenge of Iris" retroactively made it a crucial piece of the overall story (with the destruction of the beads that facilitated Gamera's psychic connection to Asagi and the first demonstration of Gamera using the earth's life force to overcome a threat, which of course sets up the dire situation seen in "Iris"). The special effects and action scenes are fantastic. I love both the mother Legion and swarm of smaller creatures.

It's probably true that the characters are less important in this film than either its predecessor or successor, but they worked for what they were. In typical 50s/60s invasion film fashion, the focus is on the military and the scientists, with Asagi thrown in to maintain continuity (I enjoyed Osako's somewhat throw-away cameo as well. It's a fun recurring joke that this poor fellow is always the first one to run into the villainous monster, which payed off well in the final film).

The third film in the series, however, is easily the best, IMO.