In the rocky wastelands of fictional Wester Island, lightning strikes as a volcano erupts in the distance. Here, a gnarled beast armed with horns and tusks —clad with a tough red-brown hide and boasting a flamboyant frilled spine — awakens with an otherworldly roar. This is Jiger, a fearsome rhino-triceratops monster capable of both flight and telekinesis, who can reduce men to ash and bones through the virtue of her “Super Ultra Wave” ray. Giant flying terrapin Gamera — one of Japan’s mightiest defenders — will prove no match in their opening gambit. And the city of Osaka, preparing for a major global event, is next on her hit list.
The movie is Gamera vs. Jiger, the sixth entry in the Gamera series — and, in fairness, it ticks all the boxes when it comes to monster movie madness. There are intricate miniature sets, men in rubbery monster suits, and even some genuinely striking moments: Jiger’s “190 miles-per-hour” open-jawed attack on a series of ships in the Pacific Ocean, for example, is as eerie as it is explosive. But while the movie’s boisterous baddie and riffs on shrinking-submarine classic Fantastic Voyage make for memorable highlights, this 1970 franchise entry also remains contested in terms of its overall quality. Among the oft-mentioned shortcomings is the film’s dubious emphasis on one particular real-world event — a focus which, for all its head-scratching randomness, also unexpectedly contributed to a brief but legendary monster crossover off-screen.
