Gamera vs. Barugon

[JAGzilla]

The all-purpose discussion thread for Gamera vs. Barugon (1966).

I'm rewatching this now. I hadn't seen it since about 2014, via the Legacy Collection DVD. I'm going with the Arrow Blu-ray this time, and that was a good choice. The picture looks very nice and really lets me appreciate the impressive lighting of Gamera's flying saucer flame effects. The sound is fantastic, too, with booming, epic music and deafening roars. I'll just post thoughts periodically as I go...

This is actually a pretty solid genre movie, a lavish production to rival the average Toho film. I'm impressed. We get some classic island movie spectacle with the natives' colorful dance, a brief but arduous trek through the dangerous jungle, and then a very tense, well-executed death-by-scorpion scene for Kawajita, with some nice dread built up around Onodera now.

Barugon's appearance and initial attack on Kobe are really cool! Yeah, he has a subpar suit, but otherwise, wow! I really love what they did with the lighting in this movie. You've got this dull, almost black and white color palette for the night scenes, and then splashes of brilliant light from the pyrotechnics that stand out and give a very unique look. It's a damn shame this movie underperformed and the Japanese film industry tanked. The Showa Gamera series could really have been something special.

A believably brutal fistfight between the human characters? There's something Toho usually struggled with, but here's Daiei pulling it off. And then a rock solid military attack to wash it down with. Yeah, you could see the jets' strings, but they made it all look impressive anyway.

The first monster battle was solid. The slow, sluggish pace didn't land for me last time, but I appreciate it more now. There's almost a samurai duel sort of feel to it, as the monsters carefully, patiently approach each other and get a feel for each other's strengths. It feels realistically animalistic in a way, too. It's beautifully shot for the most part, too, with some really A-grade shots of Gamera ramming the rainbow and coming in for a landing. I love the goriness of the face slash scene, too, with Barugon gushing purple blood. If I have to gripe, the moment of Gamera being frozen could have done with a bit more oomph. It doesn't feel as climactic as it should, but just sort of happens.

And then there's another hard-hitting human brawl, with Karen coldly looking on. Honestly, her actress does a great job. She improves every scene she's in. I also love the diamond's reveal having a fighter jet's engine roar over it, comparing a modern conventional weapon to something decidedly less conventional.

The movie becomes a series of plans from them on, all of which play out entertainingly. Onodera becomes totally unhinged in his final moments, a mad dog that needs to be put down, and he is dealt with in style. He was the real villain of the film and Barugon can't really match him, so things just kind of chug along to conclusion in fairly straightforward genre style. Good, but nothing to really write home about. But I did like that the characters got a conclusion scene; it's common for these movies to roll credits as soon as the threat ends, but here we got a moment for Hirata to apologize for his mistake and begin to move forward.

Overall, I'm very pleasantly surprised. I was much more shallow in what I was watching for on my last viewing, and now I can really appreciate the strengths this movie has. I saw someone here call it "the quintessential kaiju film" the other day, and I agree. You get some of everything with this one. Island adventure, scummy greed-driven villains, city destruction and military battles, outlandish anti-monster strategies, anti-hero vs. straight villain monster plot, science clashing and combining with magic, elaborate Daiei production values, cheap-looking monster suits but flashy effects, a cast of varied professions working together to save the world. Just about every trope you can think of is represented here. Throw in aliens and a monster-obsessed kid, and this would be a one-stop shop. But for all that, it brings all of these elements together in a style all its own. There's nothing else quite like it.

[StardustGenius]

There are a lot of folks who DON'T like this movie for all the reasons you explained. "It moves slow" , etc. I happen to love it for those reasons. It's my second favorite Showa Gamera right after Gyaos. Daiei's probably got a better action coordinator compared to Toho, in the human scale scenes, because of all the crime and samurai films they did. They did more of them than Toho, I think only Nikkatsu and Shochiku did more of those than Daiei. This was a straight forward kaiju movie and apparently the reason it shifted to younger audiences in later movies is because kids got bored in the theater (Yuasa's own words!). Lots of fans think this is why VS Gyaos got the formula working in the next movie.

[edgaguirus]

This movie is my favorite of the Showa series. It has a strong build up, and Barugon has a great entrance. The fights aren't as fast or action packed as later ones, but they have a brutal nature that fits giant monsters. As to the human cast, they are on par with a Toho production in terms of motivation, development, and action. G vs Gyaos would become the movie that defined Showa Gamera, but this one is a great way to start the series.

[LSD Jellyfish]

I was the one that said that Gamera vs. Barugon is the quintessential Kaiju film, and I stand by that motion after watching it in HD yesterday.

To begin with, the movie for the most part, delivers a wide variety of destruction and monster scenes. The film quickly opens with a wonderful scene re-introducing Gamera, and that glorious Kurobe Dam destruction sequence. Kurobe Dam was a significant engineering feat and pride of the country in Post-War Japan. I've visited it, and it's a monumental testament to Japan's resilience and endurance. Gamera destroying the power station, then the Dam, is a fantastic and unique opening scene.

While Gamera is forgotten about for most of the narrative, something that some might take issue with, the film picks up the slack with it's second monster, Barugon and the human story. This film really is all about Barugon and I think it works well. Barugon gets proper establishment, complete with a mythos that still leaves room for mystery. Barugon is a great creature, and specifically works well as an adversary for Gamera. It has a freezing ray to serve as a foil to Gamera, which would be fine enough, but it also has that amazing rainbow ability. Barugon is also pretty smart, which is again another signifier of a great Gamera villain. There's an interesting detail that implies that this specific Barugon is a mutated creature, and that other, smaller Barugon's terrorized Karen's village prior.

We get fantastic destruction scenes with Barugon attacking Kobe, fighting tanks and Jets in Osaka, and a rampage throughout the countryside. That's where the film shines as a great example of the genre. We get the full package. Barugon rampages, fights the military, has whacky unorthodox strategies thrown at it, and fights Gamera. Some Godzilla and Gamera films will have monster fights, but be sparse with military engagement or vice versa. This has it all. And while later Gamera entries have a bit more violence, this still keeps the human focus in check. There's a brief moment when people are sheltering in place, fearful of Barguon's wrath. Later Gamera entries will discard any sense of actual everyday people being affected by monster violence. Likewise, the main characters continually remind us that Barugon's rampage is killing people, and that it's a serious problem. While not as dark as say Godzilla 1954, it works tonally to take the threat seriously.

In regards to fights, I think the first fight can be underwhelming. It really is just "Gamera shows up, Barugon sort of flails around a little bit, Gamera breathes fire, Barugon freezes Gamera", but there's that fantastic moment where Gamera gets a big swipe at Barugon, causing him to bleed, before completely freezing. It's a memorable and great moment, with Barugon's purple blood contrasting nicely to the frosty snow around it. The second fight is a little more animated and climactic. Barugon leaps around a lot, Gamera swats Barugon away. There's a great moment where Gamera seems to make a defensive retreat into his shell before violently ramming into Barugon causing him to crash into the water and bridge in Lake Biwa. Barugon doesn't use any of his special abilities during the fight, which is a little sad, but it's sort of implied that the human strategy to reflect the rainbow beam wounded and made Barugon unable to use some of his special abilities. It adds added weight to the human story, and it's possible Gamera would not have been able to defeat Gamera if it were not for the prior military operations and luring Barugon towards the lake.

While not as exciting as other fights, there's a very savage, and desperate, element to the fights in this film. It seems like both Barugon and Gamera are on even footing.

I think the characters are a little bland on the surface, as in we don't know much about them beyond what we need to know, but they're also the genre's most interesting. What I mean by that is their motivations are really unique, but we know very little about them other than what is immediate. The dynamic of Onodera (the villain), Keisuke (the pilot and lead) is one of the most entertaining in a Kaiju film. Onodera is the most hateable shitbag, and it’s amazing. What makes it even more wonderful is how his story from stealing the Opal/Barugon’s egg, continues with a separate scenario when he tries to steal Karen’s diamond. He’s a great human villain, and I enjoyed how the actor portrays him. There’s so many great moments with him, from when he accidentally reveals he attempted to murder Keisuke, to when he tries to hide Barugon’s opal as his “friends bones”, to when his wife is pleading for him to not go and he goes anyway. A standout for sure.
Keisuke is fine too. He’s distinct in the genre for being SLIGHTLY slimy. A major plot point, and motivation, isn’t just “I want to stop the monster to save Japan”, it’s “My actions caused countless deaths and want to put an end to it. The final dialogue with Karen is his regrets is that. The criminal element to it, adds an extra flare in the genre that is a bit rare.

There are some hiccups with the film: Gamera not being in it so much, the natives, Karen being a bit bland, but I think it’s alright and the other stuff in the film more than makes up for it.

Gamera vs. Barugon has issues, but there’s a reason why I think it’s a really solid entry in the genre, maybe a pillar or the most boiled down entry in the genre. It has monsters versus the military, special strategies to defeat monsters, Kaiju action, human drama and violence, natives, beautiful women and handsome men, scientists and doctors, and beautiful visuals. While I like later Gamera entries, I think it’s a little sad more films in the Gamera franchise weren’t like this; vs. Gyaos and Jiger were sort of half-steps with this entry.

[Legion1979]

The biggest issue with this film, and the one that hurts it for a lot of people I think, is the length. 100 minutes is a lot for what's really a simple story. This film does that thing all the Gamera movies do where there are just way too many scenes of people sitting around trying to figure out how to deal with the threat, implementing strategies and then failing. That's pretty much all this film is between the two monster fights, and it never feels more like padding than it does here. And while I like isolated pieces of the music, most of it is really sedated and doesn't give the film the sense of urgency it needs.

I think the Barugon design and the suit construction is great. It's no Gyaos or Guiron but I love how it's plausibly implausible. Sadly, while the monster comes out of the gate strong, after defeating Gamera the air gets let put of the balloon. From that point on Barugon doesn't do much. He doesn't respond the first time they use the opal to lure him, he follows it like a zombie the second time, they put him to sleep with man made rain, they wound him by turning his rainbow back at him and then gamera revives and kills him. This poor storytelling comes back in later films. Jiger and Zigra are threats until, for storytelling purposes, they're ignored for a while when the priority has to be elsewhere. I'll give Gyaos this big advantage, he doesn't fuck around.

[LegendZilla]

Was the similarity between Baragon and Barugon’s names intentional?

[LSD Jellyfish]

The biggest issue with this film, and the one that hurts it for a lot of people I think, is the length. 100 minutes is a lot for what's really a simple story. This film does that thing all the Gamera movies do where there are just way too many scenes of people sitting around trying to figure out how to deal with the threat, implementing strategies and then failing. That's pretty much all this film is between the two monster fights, and it never feels more like padding than it does here. And while I like isolated pieces of the music, most of it is really sedated and doesn't give the film the sense of urgency it needs.

Yeah, it did start to feel a little sluggish. A lot of it was indeed deep debates about if Karen's method would work, and honestly it was a tad unneeded. It is sort of her part of the story though, showing that her determination was instrumental in defeating Barugon. The artificial rain sequence, while interesting, wasn't needed. It could've just cut to the failure and discussing they needed some form of amplification. Agreed about the music, although I like the title credits. It's a long thematic march and I love it.

I think the Barugon design and the suit construction is great. It's no Gyaos or Guiron but I love how it's plausibly implausible. Sadly, while the monster comes out of the gate strong, after defeating Gamera the air gets let put of the balloon. From that point on Barugon doesn't do much. He doesn't respond the first time they use the opal to lure him, he follows it like a zombie the second time, they put him to sleep with man made rain, they wound him by turning his rainbow back at him and then gamera revives and kills him. This poor storytelling comes back in later films. Jiger and Zigra are threats until, for storytelling purposes, they're ignored for a while when the priority has to be elsewhere. I'll give Gyaos this big advantage, he doesn't fuck around.

I agree with this too. It's a little lame how Barugon doesn't at least try and use his freezing ray on Gamera, and Gamera having learned it use some way or method around it. I don't think having the military disable/injure Barugon so badly and make him not as threatening is such an issue though, at least there's an explanation for why Barugon is suddenly a bit weaker. I don't remember exactly, but I think Gyaos has a lot of military strategies tried on it which just do nothing.

Your wording of "plausibly implausible" is a perfect way to describe many of the Gamera villains.

Oh well, Gamera vs. Barugon and all the figures I bought recently re-ignited my love for this series. I'll definitely try to give Gyaos a watch again tomorrow.

[edgaguirus]

Was the similarity between Baragon and Barugon’s names intentional?

From the things I've read, the similarity was a coincidence.

[JAGzilla]

Was the similarity between Baragon and Barugon’s names intentional?

Given just how many kaiju Japan was churning out at the time, similar names popping up were inevitable. Gamera/Gomora, Gabara/Gabora/Gubira, etc.

[Creature22]

Another childhood favorite, although I saw it the same way I saw all the other originals (AIP pan-and-scan). I think I still prefer Return of the Giant Monsters if I had to choose but there might be some personal bias in that I watched that one first. I do remember watching this one after school and finding it a lot darker than the other Gamera stuff I was used to. The part where the guy gets killed by the scorpion in the cave was pretty disturbing, as was the scene where the two are fighting in the apartment and both the husband and wife get beaten up. I do wonder if the old "Just For Kids" VHS releases kept those scenes in.

Barugon was a cool design as well, and another one of those annoying instances where I just couldn't find a figure of him growing up (I only had a Showa Gyaos).

I gave the high-def version a watch a few years ago, when Arrow released their box set. It was like seeing a new movie for the very first time in how great the print looked. It still baffles me that I went through my entire childhood watching these garbage washed-out pan-and-scan prints and thinking that was just "the norm".