Thursday, May 1, 2014

Gamera vs. Zigra (1971)

How bad is it? It was never released in the U.S.
Should you see it? Yes, with a small child (get them used to bad films early).

Godzilla movies were aimed at adults and usually had a serious message; Gamera movies, however, were aimed at undiscerning children. They came out roughly once per year and the titles in English go alphabetically as well as chronologically: Gamera vs. Barugon, Gaos, Guiron, Monster X and then finally Zigra (there was a belated entry 10 years later that just used footage of the previous films). The US market kept shrinking for these films, so Zigra was never even released here; while I saw the others as a child, I saw Zigra for the first time in grad school... and I loved it. It's like a film for pets, with colors washing across the screen with no plot.

A princess from Zigra, who looks human, decides that Earth is the place for her people to colonize, but first they have to eliminate the giant turtle monster Gamera, so they use a possibly mechanized swordfish/goblin shark apparently also named Zigra. Two little boys, as always, get involved as well. The rest is guys in rubber suits play wrestling amid poor special effects.

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