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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOne of my Favorite Movie Reviews from Rodger Ebert. He Reviews: GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE
BY ROGER EBERT / August 29, 1997
cast & credits
Yoshinari Yonemori: Tsuyoshi Ihara
Naoya Kusanagi: Akira Onodera
Asagi Kusanagi: Ayoko Fujitani
Directed By Shusuke Kaneko . Written By Kazunori Ito. Running Time: 96 Minutes. No MPAA Rating (Contains Some Monster Violence). In Japanese With English Subtitles.
`Gamera: Guardian of the Universe'' is precisely the kind of movie that I enjoy, despite all rational reasoning. How, you may ask, can I possibly prefer this Japanese monster film about a jet-powered turtle to a megabudget solemnity like ``Air Force One''? It has laughable acting, a ludicrous plot, second-rate special effects and dialogue such as, ``Someday, I'll show you around monster-free Tokyo!'' The answer, I think, is that ``Gamera'' is more fun.
There's a learning process that moviegoers go through. They begin in childhood without sophistication or much taste, and for example, like ``Gamera'' more than ``Air Force One'' because flying turtles are obviously more entertaining than United States presidents. Then they grow older and develop ``taste,'' and prefer ``Air Force One,'' which is better made and has big stars and a more plausible plot. (Isn't it more believable, after all, that a president could single-handedly wipe out a planeload of terrorists than that a giant turtle could spit gobs of flame?) Then, if they continue to grow older and wiser, they complete the circle and return to ``Gamera'' again, realizing that while both movies are preposterous, the turtle movie has the charm of utter goofiness--and, in an age of flawless special effects, it is somehow more fun to watch flawed ones.
``Gamera'' is not a good movie but it is a good moviegoing experience. I am reminded of Pauline Kael's wise observation: The movies are so seldom great art that we should not go unless we can appreciate great trash. I am satiated, for the time being, by terrorists and fireballs and bomb threats and special effects, and my eyes yearn for new sights such as a giant radioactive bat trapped inside a baseball dome and emitting green rays. (There is even a voluptuous pleasure to be derived from simply typing the words ``emitting green rays.'') Please, Mister, show me something new.
Gamera has starred in nine films in 32 years, but has never attained the stardom of Godzilla, perhaps because of speciesism, which prejudices us to prefer dinosaurs to turtles. Gamera lives for much of the time beneath the ocean (or, as the movie refers to it, ``The Pacific--Ocean of Death!''), where he shows up on radar screens as a giant atoll. But when Gamera is needed, the atoll begins to glow, and (I can't stop myself) emits rays. And then Gamera flies through the skies, powered by jet outlets on its underside.
Now, then. Considering that Gamera never needs to refuel, we must assume he is organic and not mechanical. Therefore, the jet blasts come not from burning petrol, but from the byproducts of organic material. This is not a matter of shame for the Japanese, who are more frank about bodily processes, and even have a best-selling children's book named The Gas We Pass. Yes, Gamera is powered by farts.
The plot. A 10,000-year-old bat named Gyaos has aroused itself from slumber and attacks Tokyo. Scientists use floodlights to lure it into a baseball stadium, where they stand in the dugout shouting lines like, ``Take your posts!'' But only Gamera is a match for Gyaos, and soon the two flying creatures are engaged in a fierce battle that extends even to outer space. (How does a bat fly in space? Don't ask me. I still don't know how Gyaos flies in the air, since it has no moving wings.) I have referred to Gyaos as a bat, but after being severely pummeled by Gamera, it drops several eggs the size of minivans on the streets of Tokyo. Bats are mammals and do not lay eggs, I think, so perhaps (a) Gyaos is a bird, (b) bats do lay eggs, or (c) those are turtle eggs, and the movie is about Mrs. Gamera.
There is, strictly speaking, no need for human characters in ``Gamera: Guardian of the Universe,'' since the creatures are self-contained in their age-old enmity. But the movie does provide us with four observers, including Asagi (Ayoko Fujitani), a teenage girl who seems able to read Gamera's mind and carries a glowing stone that helps her do that, I think. Late in the film, there is a big closeup of the girl's eyes, and then Gamera's eyes, and then a blob of energized spirit is exchanged somehow, and Gamera is able to live to fight again another day. Studying the film's press kit, I discover that Ayoko Fujitani is Steven Seagal's daughter, and I punch my fist into the air and cry, ``Yesssss!''
Response to Katashi_itto (Original post)
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Arkansas Granny
(31,483 posts)local TV stations aired Japanese science fiction on Saturday night. It was a real hoot to get a few friends together, adjust our attitudes and watch the show. They were so low budget that you could sometimes see the zippers in the costumes.
Matariki
(18,775 posts)Absolutely YESSSSS!
KatyaR
(3,445 posts)My favorite is MST3K's sendup of "Gamera vs Guiron."
There's definitely something great about really bad movies....
FSogol
(45,355 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)In relative terms, those movies stand out from the rest in quality. (Yes, I agree with Ebert about having to accept a LOT of impossible things before appreciating the movie but still...)
Buns_of_Fire
(17,119 posts)...and now you know where most of my cultural education came from:
neverforget
(9,433 posts)Oh how I miss MST3K.
johnp3907
(3,723 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)But hey, anyone can make mistakes.
aint_no_life_nowhere
(21,925 posts)about an American journalist sent to Japan to report on the strange experiments taking place in the lab of a mad Japanese scientist. I saw this in the theater on the big screen in about 1960. The most memorable scene was where the American journalist notices an eye growing out of his shoulder and realizes he's growing a second head. Sam Raimi said this scene inspired the scene in Army Of Darkness where Bruce Campbell grows two heads.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)It's complicated, like those tiny twins who are BFF with Mothra.
Thank you for sharing, Katashi_itto. Gamera is a good monster. Mr. Ebert wrote truth.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,009 posts)I loved this movie. Loved, loved, loved, loved loved this movie. Loved it. Loved every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it...
LTR
(13,227 posts)The most brilliant and surreal trashy exploitation flick ever made. Any movie that includes a line like "you will drink the black sperm of my vengeance" can't be anything other than genius. While another critic would later disown a screenplay for what is essentially a cheapie softcore porn flick, Ebert proudly embraced it, and even provided a commentary track for the DVD release.
If you have not seen that movie. you really, really should. It is far beyond mere description.
As far as memorable movie reviews, I always found the one for "Pink Flamingos" to be quite fascinating.