Gamera Review: Gamera vs Barugon (dir by Shigeo Tanaka)

1966’s Gamera vs Barugon opens six months after the end of Gamera, The Giant Monster.

Everyone’s favorite atomic turtle has been exiled into space, sent on a rocket to a distant planet and ordered to never attack Japan again. However, when a meteorite collides with the rocket, Gamera is set free. He promptly returns to Earth and attacks Japan again. Seriously, Japan really can’t catch a break! While it’s true that Gamera and Godzilla don’t exist in the same cinematic universe, it’s still hard not to wonder why Japan is the only country that ever seems to get attacked by the giant monsters.

(The obvious answer, of course, is that both Gamera and Godzilla, with their fiery breath and their relentless need to destroy everything in their path, are metaphors for the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Blame Truman.)

However, Gamera is not Japan’s only problem. They’re also having to deal with Barugon, a monster who hatches out of an opal that a group of bumbling adventurers have recently retrieved from New Guinea. Barugon is a lizard, one that grows from being tiny to gigantic in just a manner of days. Barugon creates rainbows that not only serve as a shield for him but which also destroy just about anything that they touch. Gamera, though perhaps not intentionally, becomes the champion of the same humans that previously tired to exile him into space.

There’s an interesting subtext to Gamera vs Barugon. The opal was originally discovered by a soldier during World War II. He hid the opal in New Guinea, not realizing that it was actually an egg. Years later, he’s the one who hires the men who retrieve the opal. In its way, the opal is a symbol of the past, of what Japan was before the American occupation and what Japan could have been if it had been victorious in the war. Of course, bringing the opal to Japan and allowing it to open leads to the deaths of hundreds of innocent people and it nearly destroys the country. If the opal had remained where it had been abandoned and if the old soldier had been willing to move on from the past, Barugon would never have been born. Then again, if Barugon hadn’t been born then Gamera wouldn’t have had a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the public. For every bad thing (like Barugon) that happens, there’s also a good thing to consider. Then again, maybe I’m reading too much into it.

Quickly paced and featuring enough giant monster action to hold the interest of even the most jaded of viewers, Gamera vs Barugon is a lot of fun. With its colorful visuals, cute but angry monsters, and random rainbows, it’s definitely a work of pop art. Seriously, how can you not love a giant turtle that spins around and shoots fire? And how can you not love a lizard like Barugon, with his rainbow destruction and his cheerful facial expressions? One thing I enjoy about the Gamera films is that Gamera always seems to be doing his best. He’s determined to win! Sometimes, Godzilla can seem like he’s just phoning it in. But Gamera always gives 110%! Yay, Gamera!