GAMERA VS BARUGON (1966)

GAMERA VS BARUGON (1966)

Tagline: Nope. 

(Adventure, Fantasy, Kaiju) [PG]

Note – No rating was given to this movie. I decided on a PG. Apparently, the original script included topless natives to make it more adult-oriented, but that was scrapped. 

Now that we know that it’s a freak, isn’t there a different way we should attack it?

So in this one, after an adventure to find a giant round object worth tons of money, an incident leads to the object opening and containing Barugon. He’s like a freakin dog lizard with a tongue that is super long and can spray a freezing ray. To add to that he’s got a rainbow death ray so this movie is pulling out all the stops on crazy kaiju powers. He’s actually pretty awesome for a kaiju, but he’s also jacking up Japan which only Godzilla is allowed to do. Enter Gamera the flying space turtle kaiju to save the day, but is it already too late? 

I will say that even for 1966 the kaiju suits in this movie are pretty rough. There is almost zero definition in Barugon’s head, making his eyes look like they are just painted on. This applies to pretty much every scene except for the “man-made rain” scene. Most Gamera movies seem to involve at least 1 or 2 other kaiju that don’t walk upright and this is no exception. However, this movie has zero shortage of carnage. I mean Barugon jacks up everything he sees. 

Regarding the plot, there isn’t a ton that we haven’t seen before. Someone is trying to make money and decides to exploit kaiju eggs to do it. However, there are some really crazy scenes as well including what is basically a vampire moment when Karen (played by Kyoko Enami) sucks the blood from a knife wound. Yeah, that happens in this damn thing. Oddly it has almost nothing to do with the rest of the plot which does contain a background for Barugon that is pretty interesting. 

I do love that this movie doesn’t have a couple of kids telling us how great Gamera is for the entire movie, but the nuttiest thing about this film is that it’s almost Gamera-less. There are scenes he shows up in both the beginning and very end, but outside of that, this is basically a Barugon movie. In spite of its flaws, this is actually a pretty solid kaiju movie, but I don’t know that Gamera should have been in the title, he’s more like a cameo appearing kaiju in a Barugon movie. 

I have to give this one a 4 out of 7. It could have used a bit more Gamera, but outside of that, this is pretty fun.

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