Gamera Vs. Viras

"After the first film was released, we got a lot of information about the reaction of children to that film. The first and the second ones had children playing on the floor, or buying popcorn out in the lobby during the adult scenes, so from the fourth film we made them like a children's storybook."

-Director Noriaki Yuasa [Stuart Galbraith IV, Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! p.74]-

Gamera Vs. Viras (1968), or Destroy All Planets, was originally intended to be the final Gamera film. Unexpectedly, thanks in part to that great creature design, aliens and the support of children to boot, it resonated, especially with kids across Japan, and became a huge hit calling for more Gamera pictures.

Long before the heroes on a half shell (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) were a hit with kids the world over, there was the real turtle OG on the half shell and its name was Gamera.

Boy oh boy oh boy with Gamera Vs. Viras. Indeed. There were a lot of boys for this one. It was thanks to the Boy Scouts to be exact, back when the boy scouts were a just for boys organization. They are front and center in Noriaka Yuasa's latest kaiju exploration for the Gamera character.

Gamera Vs. Viras is framed around two monsters (no real surprise there), two boy scouts (one American and one Japanese), and a group of strange space aliens with glowing eyes. Viras would be the latest villain to challenge the terrapin in his menagerie of monster nemeses. The concept borrows something from the Invasion Of Astro-Monster (1965) or Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964) while further delving into the connection Gamera appears to be establishing with children. Director Noriaka Yuasa and company (Daiei) knew they were onto something and wisely capitalized upon it.

Yuasa unabashedly brings that industrious kid power to the fore of his third picture in the franchise (of the four Gamera pictures to date). Yuasa may have missed the boat on an early surge of girl power though he displays cursory attention to a couple of attractive Japanese older sisters for the Boy Scouts.

Unfortunately, on the whole, Gamera Vs. Viras did not present as well as I had recalled from my youth and I had very distinct memories of those Boy Scouts and the creature dubbed Viras. But alas even my rose-tinged Nostalgia glasses couldn't quite rescue the film from its storytelling shortcomings. It feels like an altogether hackneyed and all too brief story that is sorely lacking in story depth. This Showa era release feels inconsequential and to endure long term needed to be more significant. Of course, in the moment, it reached its target audience.

It's not a complete wreck of a short movie, but the Gamera outing is indeed hamstrung by budget restrictions. The film even defaults to a large segment of re-utilized footage from both Gamera Vs. Barugon (1966) and Gamera Vs. Gyaos (1967). Having seen both fairly recently combined with a busy schedule I was forced to simply fast forward through the re-used footage. All of this and the film was just 72 minutes to begin with.

Sadly the new footage is only fair to good. There isn't nearly as much monster blood as seen in the previous films and the battle is fairly ephemeral between Viras and Gamera. Though the effects work isn't the biggest problem here. Again, it's the writing. This is interesting and may not bode well since scriptwriter Niisan Takahashi penned every single screenplay for the Gamera pictures. Time will tell if this is a misstep or a sign of things to come as this is arguably the weakest of the four films to date.

The story is simple and logically tailored toward children with only a few stunning moments. In one scene Viras beheads all of the aliens to absorb their bodies and become a giant monster Viras bursting forth from the space ship. Spurting blood from their necks might have been a tad too much to expect for the kiddies given our two protagonists are two young scouts roughly 12-13 years old. Additionally, the spearing to the gut of Gamera by Viras is shocking and the great turtle somehow manages to survive it.

Gamera Vs. Viras is highly recommended as a film to show to young kids currently engaged with scouting. It could be a lot of fun for parents. I wish I had realized this when my son was a scout. That was a missed opportunity. As a kaiju film it's fairly underwhelming and not nearly as wonderful as I remembered it to be. Still, there are some interesting effects shots of Gamera and Viras if a touch low budget. Nevertheless, they are creative and are far more interesting than the bulk of today's cold, soulless, unimaginative CGI garbage that has inundated the popcorn film landscape.

Let's hope Noriaka, can bring our turtle hero, Gamera, the Friend Of All Children and Guardian Of The Universe, back for a more interesting picture with Gamera Vs. Gurion not to mention a proper battle royale. I'll be sure to bring those rose-colored glasses just in case.

Writer: Niisan Takahashi. Director: Noriaki Yuasa.