Gamera vs. Jiger (1970) Review

Gamera vs. Jiger (1970) Review

After the intergalactic antics of the previous Gamera film, the sixth entry in the series returned to a more, ah, grounded (in Gamera terms, at least) Japan-set story involving a new villainous beast for the giant turtle to take on. The very first shot shows Gamera standing next to a volcano, he roars, the title arrives, and the opening credits play over stock footage of previous Gamera battles. At least the stock footage isn’t used to pad the runtime this time, and it’s a good recap for anyone who may have missed any of the previous entries.

A young boy named Hiroshi gets to attend the 1970 World Fair, A.K.A Expo ’70, and this is one of the aspects of the film that sets it apart not just from other Gamera movies in the Showa era, but the Godzilla films of the era as well. The 1970 World Fair was a real event that happened in Japan, and the footage we see of it is all authentic. Now, would it have been even cooler if the monsters had destroyed recognizable structures at the actual Expo? Yes, but instead most of the action in the first part of the movie takes place on Wester Island. Some scientists want to take an ancient statue from the island and bring it back to Japan for display at the World Fair, but Gamera shows up and tries to prevent this from happening. They remove the giant statue anyway and unleash Jiger, which is also referred to as Monster X. Since the beginning, the Gamera series has ripped off the Godzilla series, but for once Godzilla ripped off Gamera: the nickname Monster X was re-used as a misnomer for King Ghidorah in Godzilla: Final Wars.

Jiger, as she’s more commonly known, isn’t a rip-off of a Godzilla monster, or any other monster at all, really. She doesn’t look like much at first, but she’s like a Transformer, there’s more to her than meets the eye (and that’s pretty much where the similarity ends, she doesn’t transform, like, at all, and she’s not a robot, I just meant—never mind). This is once again a quadrupedal creature, but she’s a bit more functional than the knife-headed Guiron, though still not as dynamic or as cool as Barugon. Jiger has jet propulsion behind her ears which allows her to jump really far and swim really fast. She also has hollow spikes on her face that can shoot giant BBQ skewers from them. Gamera gets impaled through all four of his limbs and falls on his back. Unlike in the original movie where he was able to retract his limbs and use his jets to get un-stuck, he’s unable to stop Jiger from leaving the island, and she wreaks havoc on Japan. 

The first fight between Gamera and Jiger on Wester Island is a pretty good one, and when Jiger gets to Japan she wrecks the place, which is entertaining to see, as there wasn’t much city destruction in the previous two Gamera films. Jiger looks kind of silly, but she sounds scary—I don’t know what it is exactly but I think she has the scariest roar out of all the Gamera villains. Gamera finally gets the skewers out of his limbs and flies to Japan’s rescue. Jiger also has the ability to shoot a beam from her face which burns big areas of the city. It’s not nearly as cool as Barugon’s rainbow ray, nor is it as destructive. When Gamera arrives they fight again, but Jiger stabs Gamera with her barbed tail. There’s a strangely extensive, uninterrupted shot of Gamera lumbering toward the water, roaring, that goes on for a long time, then he collapses at the water’s edge and his arms and head turn white, drained of colour. It seems he’s dead, and his head is submerged underwater, so maybe this really is the end for the friend of all children.

The children characters in this one are definitely not the most annoying ones from the whole series, but they still annoy me, mainly because they are just kind of boring. They don’t do or say anything particularly clever, but on the flip side they aren’t particularly dumb or ridiculous either. Most of the time they just stand on the sidelines of the monster fights and yell at Gamera to do better. The boys suggest that Gamera be revived so he can defeat Jiger, so the scientists check the turtle out. As it turns out, Jiger’s tail spike implanted something in Gamera’s lung when she stabbed him. Notice I’ve been calling Jiger a she? She implanted an egg inside Gamera! Yet again, I’m reminded of the Alien series, with the creature implanting a host. The boys happen to have access to a mini-submarine, so they pilot the vehicle into Gamera’s body to flush out the baby Jiger and save their shelled protector. It’s a pretty fun concept, and the execution is fittingly cheesy, with the boys traversing the interior of Gamera and running from the little monster crawling after them.

Jiger is weakened by low-frequency sound waves, Gamera is revived with electricity from a nearby power plant, and the two monsters face off in the final showdown. One of the highlights from the final battle is when a scientist says Gamera might have his eardrums blown by Jiger’s high-frequency ray, and it’s as if he heard the man say this, because the next thing that happens is Gamera picks up two telephone poles and shoves them in his ears like earplugs! He doesn’t just place them in there, either, his ears are literally gushing blood from having done this, but it keeps him from going deaf. In the end, Gamera subdues Jiger, flies back to the ocean to retrieve the lost statue from Wester Island, and returns, throwing the statue at Jiger as she leaps at him, impaling her right in the head with its pointy end, bringing a swift and violent end to the enemy monster. After Gamera commits this brutal murder, everyone cheers, of course, because Gamera saved the day! Cue the happy “Gamera March” music as he flies away with the corpse of his victim in his clutches. 

Gamera vs. Jiger isn’t my favourite Gamera adventure, but it’s still a solid Showa Era entry with plenty of great monster moments. A lot of it feels familiar, but not always in a negative way. It was the last one from this era that was released in North America back in the day, and some would argue that it’s the last great entry during this era, period.