Gamera, the Giant Monster

1965 "Striking down jets, grabbing hold of the Tokyo Tower, flying through the air breathing fire, the giant monster of the century!"
5.2| 1h19m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 27 November 1965 Released
Producted By: Daiei Film
Country: Japan
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A nuclear explosion in the far north unleashes Gamera, the legendary flying turtle, from his sleep under the ice. In his search for energy, Gamera wreaks havoc over the entire world, and it's up to the scientists, assisted by a young boy with a strange sympathic link to the monster, to put a stop to Gamera's rampage.

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Director

Noriaki Yuasa

Production Companies

Daiei Film

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Gamera, the Giant Monster Audience Reviews

GazerRise Fantastic!
Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
mockingjay-68549 So the movie starts out with the U.S. Air Force recieving news of a few unidentified airplanes flying around the artic area. Their commander sends out two fighter jets to shoot them down. The two fighter jets shoot all the unidentified airplanes, but one of them that was shot down accidently lands and explodes in the water, causing a great explosion of earthquake, ultimately releasing Gamera who goes on to sink a JMSDF ship in his path. Later, a flying saucer is sighted flying in the air by a civilian. The news of Gamera and the flying saucer that was sighted travel rapidly throughout the world. The movie then cuts to a family containing a father with his adult daughter and his child son who's completely obsessed with turtles as they eat dinner. After they're done eating, the father and his daughter find out that the son has been keeping a turtle (Pee-Wee?) and they, tell him to get rid of it? I honestly don't know how they would get annoyed because their son is fascinated with these creatures. Anyways, the son says his goodbyes and lets the turtle go by the ocean. Gamera then makes a brief appearance by knocking down the same lighthouse that the kid was in only to immediately catch him with his hand right after. I know, the movie can be pretty darn confusing at times. The next day, the same kid goes back to the ocean to look for Pee-Wee and eventually finds him. That night, Gamera is spotted heading for a geothermal power plant. Once he arrives, the military tries to burn him with 350,000 kilowatts, but the electricity does no effect. The military then commences a conventional attack on him that does nothing. The military then comes up with yet another strategy that has them freezing Gamera with ice bombs, strapping him with dynamite, and blowing up. This gets Gamera on it's back, which makes everyone believe that Gamera will die. Instead, Gamera flies away using it's jet boosters. There's the twist! Did you miss it? Remember that sighted flying saucer that I told you about earlier? Well, that was Gamera flying around all along! SPOILER ALERT. That same kid collects some stones the next day and ugh, I give up. I looked up this point in the film and it's only like, 42 minutes into a 78 minute movie. My hand is getting real freaking tired from writing and I still got 36 more minutes, so I'm just gonna skip to the end. Basically, they trap Gamera in a shuttle and send him off into space. I'd like to quickly express my feelings: DISLIKES1.) I don't care for the characters at all. 2.) The storyline was decently executed, but extremely boring and extremely confusing. LIKES 1.) Except for the kid saving thing and stuff, I thought that the storyline was pretty dark and realistic, especially if you're looking at it in a political way. 2.) The sound and special effects were good. 3.) The dialogue was realistic. 4.) Gamera's design was great!5.) The intro was awesome! It's a well-made film, but again, just lacks interest.
Hitchcoc First of all, he looks likes big serving dish with spikes. Secondly, he is still a turtle and the effects look ridiculous, like he is on a string or something. Then there are those awful children who befriend him. The little fat guy with the baseball cap. The scenes of destruction are as tiresome as can be with little or no imagination involved. I wonder if these silly movies could have been written a little bit better. Granted, what most people want to see is destruction with people running down the streets and buildings toppling over, but maybe some decent writing and a true science fiction plot (even a bad one) would have made it a little more engaging. Finally, the usual tanks and fighter planes that never work use up the first half of the movie before someone finds a more unique way to do something. Of course, the monsters always come back.
bassplace88 It helps to be a kaiju fan if you watch this as an adult. I was able to see the English subtitled version, and found it enjoyable for what it is. It's monster destruction along the vein of Gojira, albeit a cheaper budget, yet more updated special effects. The movie is short so its fairly easy to get through. I love the atmosphere of black and white, and the seriousness of Gamera as a threat to humanity. There is a child present, but he will not totally turn off adults. I'm not gonna pick the film to pieces and tell you what's wrong. It's just good kaiju fun! This movie is as important to the series as the original Godzilla was to his. I recommend it to all true fans of the genre.
winner55 It doesn't make sense to give this film a bad rating - but it really doesn't make sense to rate it at all.Don't assume that means that this film is so ridiculous, it's beyond redemption... well, it IS ridiculous and beyond redemption; but it is certainly enjoyable on its own terms.If this film is easy to misunderstand, it's because it's really difficult to say what 'it's own terms' really are. It begins clearly intending to compete with the successful Godzilla series; but somewhere about mid-way, it suddenly decides to be about a lonely young boy. In order to salvage its science-fiction credentials, it then comes up with an impossible solution to the Gamera threat to the human race - I can't tell you what it is, but it would take the entire assets of the developed nations of the world to pull off - it might be better to let the big turtle stalk around and just stay out from beneath his feet.On top of all this wild nonsense, the American release print, which is the only one I know available, adds on some wonderful campy stuff, like the televised debate about the possible existence of the big turtle, and lowest-budgeted attempt to portray a meeting of the UN Security Council you are ever likely to see - even the one in the Adam West Batman movie looks spectacular in comparison.There is no way to wrap your brain around this one, so don't bother. A guilty pleasure to the max. And one more important point in its favor - unlike most of the other '60s Gamera films, this one moves along at a fine pace and never drags.So microwave some kettle corn and munch down - you deserve not to take life so seriously you can't enjoy a bit of fluff like this.