Giant Japanese Monsters-a-Go-Go Movie Review

In Japanese they're called kaiju eiga – literally, “monster movies.” By now virtually everyone has been exposed to these gems at some point in their development and had the basic plot implanted in their brains: a giant, rubbery monster is somehow unleashed on Japan and destroys Tokyo simply by walking through it and roaring. At the last minute, a handsome young scientist finds the solution, and the monster is dispatched – until the sequel.

To most people, Godzilla is the epitome of the kaiju eiga, but there are other monsters in Tokyo's history. Success inevitably breeds competition, and Japan's Daiei Studios, noticing the success of Toho's Godzilla movies, decided that they'd give the genre a shot. The result was 1965's Gamera, the Invincible, a film featuring a giant, flying, fire-breathing prehistoric turtle. Like Godzilla, Gamera was released on the world by ill-advised experiments with atomic energy. Also like Godzilla, Gamera's first movie spawned a number of increasingly juvenile sequels, in which the one-time villain became a force for good. Gamera, now “friend to children everywhere,” teamed up in each film with a parade of annoying little kids to battle monsters like Gaos, Guiron, Zigra, and Jiger, all of whom looked even weirder than their nemesis.

In fact, if you think about it, most Japanese monsters are pretty unlikely from a zoological point of view. Guiron, for instance, seemed to be built more along the lines of a kitchen knife than any known animal. The X from Outer Space looked kind of like a big cartoon chicken. And when you think about it, who would ever think to cast a giant moth in the role of a monster? As the ‘70s progressed, the critters in kaiju eiga became more and more outlandish, like “King Seesar” in Godzilla Vs. the Bionic Monster, who resembled a cross between a dinosaur and a cocker spaniel, or “Gaigan” in Godzilla Vs. Megalon, a metallic, bird-like thing with a buzz-saw in its stomach. By comparison, the gigantic yeti-like monsters of War of the Gargantuas looked pretty plausible.

Tokyo's days of peril are far from over, however. The early ‘90s saw a series of “new look” Godzilla movies being produced in Japan, like Godzilla Vs. Mothra, which introduced a new “evil” Mothra named “Battra,” or Godzilla Vs. King Ghi-dorah, which explained the origins of both Godzilla and his chief nemesis. Even Gamera is back, in 1995's Gamera, Guardian of the Universe. Most of these films haven't yet made their way to U.S. video stores, but it's only a matter of time.