cinema history class: gamera vs. barugon

Session: Monsters International -- Big! Hairy! Scaly! Scary!, Week 1
Movie: Gamera vs. Barugon (1966)
Directed by Shigeo Tanaka

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Plot:
Two giant reptiles have a big fight and destroy Osaka. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

I have to start by noting that I'm not a huge fan of the Japanese monster movies. They've never done much for me, and they tend to all blend together in my head.

That said, this was a relatively good film, as far as that genre goes. The production values were better than I have usually seen, so the video quality was better. The monsters themselves were pretty well-constructed. The papier-mache heads were an odd mix of comical and haunting. But the eyes... I'm not sure why, but Barugon's eyes got to me. There were a few parts where it was clear that these were people in monster suits, but usually it wasn't particularly obvious. And I loved the pseudo-military sound of the score.

On the negative side (aside from the generalized point that this was a Japanese monster movie), there were some poor editing choices made, and that led to unnecessary plot holes. It's unclear how much damage was done by the editing, but at least one plot hole is explained by footage that was remoived from the film but left in the trailer.

Ratings

Me: 8

Bob: 9.5

Christina: 8.3

Dave: 9.7
Joe: 9.8