On the way to Mars, the Plan Z rocket collided with a meteor.  The ship was destroyed, and Gammera escaped.  Since he was closer to Earth than Mars, he flew back to Earth.  Gammera is a heat-seeking monster, so he initially attacks a power plant.  After this one big bout of destruction, the mighty turtle goes into hiding.  We don't see him again in the movie for quite awhile.

    The story moves to three treasure hunters who mistake a monster egg for a large opal.  One hunter is killed in the cave.  A second hunter betrays the other man, stealing the egg and leaving him for dead.  This survivor becomes the hero of the story.

    The treasure hunter who sees the error of his ways, name of Keisuke Hirata, pairs with beautiful island girl Kara (sometimes called Karen by people who watch this film) who both go to Japan to stop the new monster.  This new monster's name is Barugon, and he is a giant lizard.  His extending tongue releases freezing gas.  He can also emit a destructive rainbow from his back.

    Gammera is drawn to Barugon from the heat of the destructive rainbow and all the fire going on in urban Japan.  There are two fierce battles between the giant turtle and the giant lizard.  Barugon wins the first round by freezing Gammera.  The terrible turtle is out of action for quite a spell, but finally thaws when things are at their worst and returns to take on the lizard.  Gammera's ferociousness overcomes the now-weakened Barugon.  Gammera drags Barugon down to the bottom of the ocean, finally killing the awful reptile.

    Once considered an enemy to mankind, it is realized that Gammera was necessary in killing the Barugon beast.  Public attitude changes toward him.  Gammera returns to hiding once the monster is killed.  The towering turtle is not as brazen as he used to be towards humans and comes out only when there is great amounts of heat energy for him to feed.

    On a technical note, I must restate that I really like the transition to color in this movie.  I also find the dubbing job to be good.  In most Japanese movies, the English dubbing is just awful.  It's pretty well done here.  A lot of times you don't pay attention to their mouths because of the intriguing story and all the other activity going on.  This is also a good movie for the fact that this was made to be more "grown up" and oriented for adults.  The majority of Gammera movies were made for children and featured child characters.  Although kids can watch this movie, it's not at all a kids' film.  I like that.

    This is also one of the very few giant monster films where I find the human characters to be as interesting as the monsters.  There is quite a backstory to this movie.  So as not to spoil the plot entirely I had to be incredibly brief, but it is very intricate.  I also find the heroine Kara, played by Kyoko Enami, to be very pretty.  As of 2007, she is still in acting.  Kojiro Honga plays the hero of this movie, Keisuke Hirata.  He's good, and he became major human characters in other Gammera films such as "Gammera vs. Gaos" in 1967 (he plays Foreman Shiro Tsutsumi), "Destroy All Planets" in 1968 (he plays Scout Master Mr. Shimida), and the 1995 "Gammera: The Guardian of the Universe" as Captain of the Nojima.  He had quite an acting career, but seems to have retired in 2001.

FUN FACTS:  In Japan, this movie was released as "Daikaiju ketto: Gamera tai Barugon".

    This movie is also known in Japan by its English title "The Great Monster Duel: Gamera vs. Barugon".

    And it's also called just "Gamera vs. Barugon".

    This is the first Gammera film in color.  It is the second film in the series.

    This is the only Gammera film where a young boy is NOT the main human character.

Photos:


This is a great poster, but it has NOTHING to do with the movie!  Where did they get this from?  This might have made a better movie than the one that actually was.  This is a 2-sheet poster from Italy, promoting the "War of the Monsters" film.