Gamera Vs. Barugon (1966/aka Gamera
Strikes Again/Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: C Film: C
The
second Gamera film is the first in color, but Gamera Vs. Barugon (1966) is a poor follow-up and it is supposed to
be one of the better sequels. The
destructive Barugon surfaces and Gamera returns after his banishment in the
debut film to battle him. The script is
boring with zero character development, no humor, limited energy and that
leaves the film so dependent on their battles that its 100 minutes seem longer
than that.
It has
the same writer as the first film, Nisan Takahashi, but there is not much to
see or remember here and if the studio was coasting on the film being in color,
this was a mistake. However, it was a
hit and the series continued. I do like
the model work, the amusing nature of the battles and the color has its
advantages, but the color in this copy is limited (see below) and it turns out
there is a link with this film and Frankenstein
Conquers The World (1965) as Barugon is a take-off of Baragon (note the two
‘a’s) from that infamously bad film. This
is better, but only so much.
This
follow-up is also politically incorrect and the script was originally written
for an older audience, but the studio made changes to widen its appeal and
age-group base, but you can see there are parts they left untouched and that
results in more violence and rough scenes than you would expect from such a
film. In all this, it is also a very
uneven offering, but it was issued in the midst of the original Japanese Giant
Monster Cycle and it was able to get away with its flaws. We’ll see how the follow-up films did when
Shout! releases a pair of double feature DVDs next.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in Daieiscope by Director of
Photography Michio Takahashi (of Resnais’ classic Hiroshima Mon Amour, reviewed elsewhere on this site) in 35mm in
color, though some black and white clips from the previous film show up. Sadly, what was likely wide-ranging color looks
limited, mute and even flat despite the restoration. Is this a Fuji film shoot? It should not look like this. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono fares worse with
harmonic distortion that shows the films age and then some. This is flat and you may have to turn up the
volume to hear it, so be careful of volume switching. Extras include Publicity Galleries, the
Original Movie Program (both on the DVD), a booklet on the film inside the DVD
case and feature-length audio commentary by August Ragone and Jason Varney.
For more
on the original film, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9908/Gamera+%E2%80%93+The+Giant+Mo
- Nicholas Sheffo
