Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe

Toronto International Film Festival Program Guide
1995

Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe
Shusuke Kaneko
JAPAN, 1995
96 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: Daiei Co., Ltd./ NTV Network/Hakuhodo
Executive Producer: Yasuyoshi Tokuma
Producer: Tsutomu Tsuchikawa
Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
Cinematographer: Junichi Tozawa, Kenji Takama
Editor: Shizuo Arakawa
Production Designer: Hajime Oikawa
Sound: Yasuo Hashimoto
Music: Koh Ohtani
Special Effects Director: Shinji Higuchi
Principal Cast: Tsuyoshi Ihara, Akira Onodera, Ayako Fujitani, Shinobu Nakayama

Rising from the sea, to guard a fragile earth from the villainous monsters that threaten it, is Gamera, Guardian of the Universe.

Second only to Godzilla in popularity, turtle-like Gamera was a staple of Japanese screens between 1965 and 1971. Every year, the citizens of Tokyo would face a new horrific entity with supernatural powers. From Barugon to Zigra, Gamera thwarted them all and saved the day.

To commemorate Gamera’s 30th anniversary, the people of Daiei Co. have created an all-new Gamera adventure, reuniting our hero with its most dastardly foe: the Gyaos, “the dead end of evolution.” Created by ancient genetic technology, these enormous flying lizards feed on human flesh, destroying everything in their wake. Thought only to be the stuff of legend, the Gyaos have hidden for millennia on Himegami Island, but massive environmental pollution in the Pacific causes their eggs to hatch. At the same time, the military discovers a giant drifting atoll, covered with teardrop-shaped metal plates and ancient runestones—it is, of course, Gamera, roused from sleep to save the world.

The first spectacular battle occurs at the domed stadium of Fukuoka, where the military seeks to entrap the Gyaos for “research purposes.” But Gamera knows that the only good Gyaos is a dead Gyaos, and rips apart half the city to prove it. Mass panic ensues as the monsters move from place to place, the military in ineffectual hot pursuit. With Tokyo Tower little more than a glorified bird’s nest and Ginza a rubble-strewn parking lot, Gamera and the Gyaos take to the skies for the ultimate rumble.

Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe is the most impressive monster movie to emerge from Japan in 20 years. Daiei has invested heavily in spectacular special effects without losing the goofy charm of the original series; the result will surely elicit cheers and laughter as we welcome back an old friend.
—Noah Cowan