James Reviews Gamera: The Giant Monster On DVD From Shout! Factory [DVD Review]

When people mention their love for a ‘monster movie involving a big lizard rampaging through a Japanese city, wreaking havoc on all in his path’, they think of Gojira, or Godzilla as he’s known in America. But 11 years after the 1954 release of the original daikaiju eiga (or Japanese giant monster film), another giant lizard came from a rival studio to Toho to attempt to not only cash in the craze but to also be a different take on the atomic age. This film was Daiei Studios very own “Gamera”, or as it was called initially in the United States “Gammera: The Invincible” and now from Shout! Factory the title changes yet again to “Gamera: The Giant Monster“.

The film begins with an accidental atomic detonation as the result of an aerial assault by American fighter pilots attacking Soviet airships over North American airspace. This awakens our monster Gamera, who starts to destroy right from the start, not wasting any time at all with backstory or trivial dialogue. He first destroys a Japanese research ship and makes his way to the Japanese mainland, to wander the land and destroy as much as possible.

The army somehow sedates the giant turtle with a freezing agent and blow him on his back with powerful explosives, thinking they have thwarted his plans for more destruction. Sadly, this is not the case because Gamera reveals his ability to fly and proceeds to destroy most of Tokyo in anger. The military then tries to lure Gamera to an island with fire and a volcano, thinking this will kill the creature, but instead he eats the lava and it has no effect on the creature. Finally they come up with the ultimate plan, Plan Z, which is to hurl the monster via rocketship to Mars, forever ridding the world of Gamera. It is successful and the world is safe from his destruction.

When watching this film, one has to suspend their belief and come to grips that these are worlds where the Japanese are always being terrorized by big monsters, who are awakened by the atomic bomb every time, which in some ways can be high art and at other times a wonderful slice of schlock that you can watch again and again and appreciate the workmanship and love put into every scene. “Gamera” is definitely the latter, where initially it is a ‘man in giant rubber costume’ movie, but advances the path Gojira brought us on (which at the time was rivaled by the seventh Gojira film, “Invasion of Astro Monster”) and brings it back to a fun place which was missing from later releases.

Shout! Factory did an amazing job of remastering this film and brings it to home audiences with the original Japanese dub for the first time ever in an American release. It also comes with a retrospective documentary on the “Gamera” franchise, a publicity gallery and an informative commentary by August Ragone, a Japanese Cinema historian. The exciting part is that Shout! has signed an exclusive deal with Kadokawa Pictures to release all eight of the Showa Gamera films throughout 2010 and 2011, with the next release coming July 6th, 2010 with the film “Gamera vs. Barugon”.

It’s about time that Gamera takes his place in home video that Gojira has stood triumphant over these past few years in the DVD format. Shout! is not slacking at all and seeing this release as the first example, it’s no wonder that Gamera has been a fan favorite for almost 40 years now. Pick up the DVD today and you definitely won’t be disappointed. Better still, you’ll see a little slice of Japanese cinema history that some of you Criterion lovers might not know about.

Shout! Factory Also Has Free Computer Wallpaper Featuring Gamera.