Gamera vs. Barugon is the second of the Gamera films. Many assumed we had seen the last of Gamera when he stuffed into the “Z Plan Rocket” and launched to Mars. But an asteroid, as luck would have it, collided with the rocket. Gamera returns to Earth. The big turtle gets right back at it and attacks the Kurobe Dam.
Flashback to World War II. A Japanese soldier stationed in New Guinea steals an opal from the tribe living there, secreting it away in a cave to be retrieved after the war. A team of thieves returns some twenty years later. Ignoring the warnings of the indigenous peoples, they locate the opal and squabble over it. One of the three, Onodera, escapes with the opal; one is killed by a scorpion; the third, Keisuke, decides to turn from a life of crime.
Keisuke partners with the indigenous woman Karen to chase the first chief to Japan and get back the sacred opal. The opal is not a Read more...
Gamera vs. Barugon is the second of the Gamera films. Many assumed we had seen the last of Gamera when he stuffed into the “Z Plan Rocket” and launched to Mars. But an asteroid, as luck would have it, collided with the rocket. Gamera returns to Earth. The big turtle gets right back at it and attacks the Kurobe Dam.
Flashback to World War II. A Japanese soldier stationed in New Guinea steals an opal from the tribe living there, secreting it away in a cave to be retrieved after the war. A team of thieves returns some twenty years later. Ignoring the warnings of the indigenous peoples, they locate the opal and squabble over it. One of the three, Onodera, escapes with the opal; one is killed by a scorpion; the third, Keisuke, decides to turn from a life of crime.
Keisuke partners with the indigenous woman Karen to chase the first chief to Japan and get back the sacred opal. The opal is not actually an opal, however, it’s an egg. Travelling on another ship, Onodera turns on an infrared lamp in his cabin to treat his athlete’s foot. When he neglects to turn off the lamp when he leaves his cabin, it incubates the egg from which emerges Barugon, a purple-blooded monster with rainbow-rays and a frozen vapor stream emitting out of the tip of his tongue.
Karen reveals to the Japanese Self-Defense generals that a huge diamond she has brought along with her from New Guinea can lure Barugon to water, the monster’s weakness. But there’s a flaw in Karen’s plan on account of the special genetic invulnerability that Barugon absorbed from Onodera’s athlete’s foot treatment.
Meanwhile, a romance is glimmering between Karen and Keisuke. You can tell Karen cares for him the way she sucks the blood from his arm abrasions after a fist fight with Onodera. And, of course, there’s plenty of Gamera versus Barugon battles to marvel at.
It’s a delightful film. The charming miniature sets and monster battles are a joy to behold.
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