OBEY ZIGRA - Unbiased Thoughts on Gamera Vs Zigra

 

"No! Do not kill the people! It would be a very foolish mistake. On earth, the people live on land, and eat the things in the sea... but it is the opposite for us! We live in the sea... and eat things on land! So, you see... it would be unwise to kill the earth creatures!"

1971's Gamera Vs Zigra follows the mysterious appearance of a funky alien ship following a series of worldwide disasters, which lands somewhere off the coast nearby Kamogawa Seaworld; attracting the attention of two marine biologists working for the zoo, who's children, our stars, have secretly snuck along for the ride. Arriving at the ship's landing point, the families are teleported inside, encountering... a space woman! How strange.

The alien, "X-1", explains Zigra, who's corpse-like visage is embedded atop the ship's cobwebbed ceiling, seeks to take over the Earth after being driven to space by his homeland's deadly pollution. Broadcasting a threat to destroy Tokyo across the airwaves, the confused biologists attempt to intervene, only to be hypnotized by the woman's odd eyeball powers - with a glare and a snap, the men are comatose. The children escape, dragging their lifeless fathers along as they freeze the alien with her own technology, reappearing outside of the ship.

Zigra's body awakens the woman, demanding she to seek and destroy the children - who, as one might expect, know too much - perusing the families' small dingy, only to be intercepted by Gamera, who heroically lifts the boat to safety. As the children inform the authorities, the woman pursues the kids, posessing - or, perhaps, undressing? - various panicked passerby as she weasels her way into Seaworld, where the authorities have convened as the mainland is evacuated. Meanwhile, Gamera takes on the alien craft, destroying it via Spongebob logic as he blasts an undersea turrent of flame, releasing the mighty Zigra. Affected by the earth's conditions, Zigra grows to massive proportions, Gamera luring the demon into land only to be subdued by it's telepathically disabling beam. As per series tradition, Gamera is, temporarily, down for the count, as Zigra announces his plans to savage the Earth as he is now unable to leave.

Chasing the poor kiddies around the vacant amusement park, the alien woman is quickly apprehended, the military discovering her coma-inducing powers can be stopped via sonar as they free her from Zigra's apparent mind control - discovering that she, herself, had been kidnapped from a moon base upon Zigra's arrival. Gamera is quickly revived using this newfound advantage, once again rescuing our heroes from the forthcoming Zigra as he lures the sea creature ashore, swiftly roasting him alive - but not before performing his own theme song on the creature's Xylophone-esque spines. Epic.

I watched the Sandy Frank / King Features Entertainment dub of this one; it's really entertaining how obvious it is which VAs actually tried, and which did one-takes with zero inflection or sentence structure. I'd assume the turnaround was pretty fast, with these flicks, so, unlike compliance with Zigra's holy will, effort may not have been entirely mandatory. I like the jarring edu-tainment vibe occasionally present in this movie, characters babbling on about dolphins and whales and stuff - plays into the children's film thing so heavily, its funny. Charmingly kitsch. As a big fan of retro amusement parks, I really enjoy the Seaworld setting, too; they definitely made great use of the location, even if it's very obviously sponsored and all that. It's a great time capsule of a place that, seemingly, is still standing to this day.

Zigra's a pretty awesome kaiju - I wonder if he was influenced by Gigan, both in appearance and concept? Even his boastful personality seems pretty comparable. If memory serves, there was a bit of cross-over behind the scenes, so despite this one coming out a year earlier than 1972's Godzilla Vs Gigan, I wouldn't be surprised. I totally love how he telepathically speaks directly to humanity - not enough Kaiju communicate. It's real fun, especially with a diabolical baddie like Zigra. It's too bad his 2023 Gamera: Rebirth reimagining dropped this - I love the idea of a commandeering kaiju mastermind.

As a weird-ass side note, Zigra is described as "Hitler in a sharkskin suit" by a particularly smarmy American VHS release; therefore definitively proving that Gamera did, in fact, kill Hitler.

I find it interesting how many of these movies feature female villains - maybe guys were considered too scary? Paired with Zigra, Ms. Alien is a fun villain, and I bet she had a great time chasing those damn kids around. Hilariously strange when she possesses a woman in a super thin bikini and tells a guy she's after a couple kids over at Seaworld. Hm. "If you come closer, I'll feed them to the dolphins!" She shouts, manhandling the kiddies, standing beside... an orca whale.

Effects wise, it's pretty much the Showa era Gamera standard - if not slightly below the mark - and the same goes for its storyline; nothing special, but I enjoy it. There's certainly a lot of filler, whether it be Seaworld stock footage, or meandering human stuff, but I find it all pretty entertaining regardless. What can I say, I've gotten really accustomed to this era of Kaiju's oddball mentalities when it comes to storytelling. I think the movie keeps you pretty entertained between it's usually brisk pace and campy action.

The last of the Showa era before the low-end compilation film Gamera: Super Monster, Gamera Vs Zigra is often bemoaned for its flimsy plot and flimsier production values, but it's still a lot of fun, and delivers on just about everything the Showa Gamera pictures are famous for; obnoxiously cute kids, insane monster action, and loads of creativity. if only Gamera could've saved Shamu...

"Ha Ha. You are right. Both of your mamas are very pretty."