Gamera:
Guardian of the Universe
(1995)
review by Big McLargehuge

If I told you that a series of movies staring a giant fire breathing turtle was the best thing to hit Region 1 DVD in the last five years you might say I was crazy, and if so you haven’t witnessed the awesomeness that is Heisei Gamera.

Hitting the screens in Japan, and making the rounds on the international festival circuit in 1995 Gamera Guardian of the Universe garnered sufficient praise to creep onto US satellite television briefly before a well produced VHS release.

Gamera Guardian of the Universe begins with a plutonium transport running aground on a weird moving atoll in the Pacific ocean. First mate Yoshinari Tonemori (Tsuyoshi Ihara) joins Dr. Naoya Kusinagi (Akira Onodera) on a Pacific hunt for the rogue atoll.

At about the same time the residents of Himegami Island vanish following one frantic phone call from the resident ornithologist professor Hirata. Following the trail of seventeen missing islanders and one missing ornithologist Dr. Maymi Nagamine (Shinobu Nakayama) and Inspector Osako (Yukijiro Hotaru) discover the first Gyaos monster reptile bird things, who immediately make their way towards the Japanese Mainland.

Once the Atoll is spotted Tonemori unearth a stone tablet and a bucketful of weird toothy-shaped stones. Once Gamera arises (he was hidden in the atoll) he immediately makes his way to Japan where Dr. Nagamine has set a trap for the Gyaos monsters inside the Tokyo superdome.

Tonemori offers Dr. Kusinagi’s daughter Asagi one of the toothy stone things, and before you can say psychic link with a giant turtle she has a... well... psychic link with a giant turtle.

Once turtle meets Gyaos it’s fighting time with the humans standing by the wayside as the monster’s duke it out in modern Tokyo and surrounding areas. But, is Gamera friend or foe? The monster fights certainly cause a whole hell of a lot of damage, and as unusual at it sounds for this sort of movie, human casualties.

With the military mobilized to stop both the man-eating Gyaos and the man-stepping-on Gamera who will step in and save mankind?

So far this all sounds like very many other Kaiju films, but that’s where the similarity ends. Kazunori Ito’s excellent script and Shuske Kaneko’s masterful direction elevate Gamera Guardian of the Universe above even the best Toho Kaiju films. Ito’s script never treats the audience like morons, allowing viewers to readily suspend their disbelief. Add to this top notch production value, state of the art (for 1995) special effects, and excellent acting.

The adult approach to this subject matter makes the film that much more appealing. Gamera may be the hero but he is damn destructive in his heroism, and although he does actively save a few individual humans over the course of the movie he inadvertently kills hundreds more.

Ito’s script offers a keenly delivered environmental message in that both the Gyaos and Gamera were created by an ancient civilization, who unable to prevent the monsters from destroying everything as they fought, died out. Although Gamera is protecting the humans in the film his real motivation is the protection of Earth itself. The humans are like ants sort of in that they are there and have some ability to interact with the monsters, but the monster’s don’t really care about the humans all that much. Unless you count snacking on them...

Shingi Higuchi’s monster suits are a delight to behold. Certainly anyone who remembers the incredible cheapness of the Showa series Gamera and assorted enemies will be taken aback by the excruciating detail of these suits. Not a single ripple is out of place, the faces all express rage, hurt, and suffering, and the adept direction never puts them in a position to look silly. The creatures have weight, mass, and strength, and from Gamera’s thunderous footsteps to Gyaos flapping leathery wings, you will believe these monsters live. Kaneko gives us dark foreboding night battles and battles in the full light of day, and all of them look just fantastic.

The only part of the Gamera Guardian of the Universe that doesn’t live up to its billing is the score. A film like this needs rousing and ominous score, but Ko Otani’s string heavy score lacks punch.

Don’t be fooled by your remembrances of the old Sandy Frank Showa imports. This isn’t the Gamera of MST3K shows. This is the future of Kaiju film making.

ADV films has owned the distribution rights to the three Heisei Gamera titles for about two years now, and only now have they unleashed them on the public with enough extras to make Kaiju fans weep.

Including the first of a three-part Interview with the director of special effects Shingi Higuchi, to hilarious outages of the dubbed version (I always wondered if the voice talent had some fun during the recording sessions, now I am certain they did), to trailers, premier events, television spots, behind the scenes making-of documentaries, Japanese and English tracks in Dolby 2.0 sound, and a beautiful crisp glorious transfer.

Gamera Guardian of the Universe can be had as either a stand alone DVD or packaged with a groovy slipcase to hold all three Heisei films.

It amazes me that this film appeared four years before the US flirtation with Kaiju in the Devlin/Emmerich Godzilla but never managed to garner wide release here in the states. It’s a pity because Gamera Guardian of the Universe is a classic that not only exceeds anything in the Showa series, but anything in the Heisei Godzilla series including Godzilla 2000.

Following the Gamera flicks, Director Shusuke Kaneko took his Kaiju magic to Toho for 2001’s Godzilla , Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack a film that has yet to see the light of day here in the US.