The Best of Scenes and The Worst of Scenes: Gamera vs Viras

 

A Plan9Crunch essay by Joe Gibson

Gamera vs Viras is a conflicted, almost frustrating film to watch.  The tropes that will define the rest of Gamera’s Showa era are established here, such as AIP’s mandate of American boys starring alongside the Japanese boys and extraterrestrials menacing Earth, but there are still the last vestiges of early Showa Gamera here as well, as it is Kojiro Hongo’s third appearance as a prominent adult hero (though by far his least prominent role) and the protagonists here are mischievous, not entirely virtuous as their introduction is sabotaging a minisub and inadvertently endangering their scout master.  The practice of extensive stock footage use begins in this film, but it was not as refined as in later entries to the point of being distracting.  All this to say, the film fluctuates wildly scene to scene in the tone, writing quality and creativity to the point where the simplest way to describe the quality of Gamera vs Viras is in its juxtaposition.

Tone and Realism

The cold open of this movie is a remarkably effective scene of intimidating aliens stating their intention to colonize the Earth but being attacked by Gamera.  Gamera’s assault contains none of his characteristic warmth and keeps him out of focus, his face most visible only after he’s breached part of the spaceship with it.  When Gamera destroys a section of the ship, they jettison it, and when he flies around them, they attempt to extinguish his jets.  In this part, the film has put the viewer more in the perspective of the aliens, Virians/Virasians/Virases as they are called, as the commanding voice on the speaker becomes frantic then regains its composure to make some evasive attempts but ultimately seems to realize the ship is about to be destroyed.  This is easily the most destructive Gamera has been since the beginning of Gamera vs Barugon, and it is an effective contrast to have Gamera’s next scene be him warmly racing two boys in a minisub and protecting them from the second spaceship’s Super Catch Ray, as every action taken by these agents thus far is in line with their characterization.

However, a film that begins so darkly and semi realistically should not also contain a scene where the UN decides to surrender to alien invasion in order to save two children.  For those unaware, a major contributing factor for why Noriaki Yuasa, the director of most of the Showa Gamera films, made films wherein the children were smart, heroic and always had Gamera to look out for them was because he had briefly filmed at a home for abandoned children and wanted to give them a hero to look up to.  Yuasa had his own issues with adults, hence why as the series went on, there was less emphasis on heroic Kojiro Hongo type characters and more on how Gamera is willing to do anything for the children.  A world where the UN would surrender Earth to save two children is a world that arguably does not need Gamera to look out for the kids.

This film already has the Virians use Gamera’s “unusual and overwhelming kindness to human children” to their advantage, threatening to kill the kids if Gamera attacks their second ship, and the boys already take an active role in trying to escape their imprisonment, so nothing changes in the stakes if the UN were to refuse that offer.  It must be emphasized that a world that will sacrifice itself for two people strains credibility more and in different ways than giant monsters existing.  The cold open to this film already showed that it is possible to approach realism in the spaceship’s intelligent defensive moves and ultimate ill fate.

Cohesion of The Main Characters’ Arc

As alluded to, the boys in this film, Masao and Jim, are rather mischievous, especially compared to the earnest Eiichi in Gamera vs Gyaos before this, the introspective and reactive Akio and Tom in Gamera vs Guiron directly after this, and the dutiful teens that go inside of Gamera a couple films later in Gamera vs Jiger.  Indeed, their introduction to the film is wandering away from their scout troop to perform a shortsighted prank by switching the controls of a submarine, cringe at the consequences of endangering Kojiro Hongo and the friendly scientist letting them use the sub but then also laugh and spin the situation their way to be able to be the only scouts that can use the minisub (when if they had not sabotaged it, everybody would have been able to).  Once the aliens kidnap them, they learn what they can about the spaceship and try to use it to their advantage, easily some of the most dynamic protagonists of the franchise thus far.  After some failed attempts of escaping and a startling willingness to sacrifice themselves to save the world, their scoutmaster actually inspires them to repeat the prank on the Virian machinery to escape and free Gamera from the alien’s control.

 

Their selfish setup would have lent itself well to a coming of age arc where they would mature in order to achieve their victory.  During their time on the Virian spaceship, they show more compassion than before, promising to free what they think is a captive monster in a cage but is actually the Virian boss’ in his equivalent of a throne room, and, when they can finally reach Masao’s sister on their wrist communication devices, the boys are actually willing to selflessly lay down their lives for the good of humanity.  For whatever reason, it is the moral authority of Kojiro Hongo’s Scoutmaster character that encourages them to do the same prank to escape, seemingly vindicating their mischievousness.  Their arc seems to run backwards of how it should, learning a lesson offscreen with the screen time given to them embracing who they were before everything changed.  Their actual contributions to Gamera fighting Viras are minimal, just commands for actions he would have taken anyways, an awkward middle ground between Eiichi needing Gamera to save him and Akio and Tom assisting Gamera in battle by launching a rocket for him to use.

Creativity In Fight Scenes

The action in this movie is also rather varied.  Space Monster Viras, technically a combination of several Virians with their boss, was a rather inventive physical suit with a mess of spindly tentacles disguising the actor’s legs.  Coming off villains that were essentially a quadruped and a bird, this is something creative and new, and it is equally unique how Viras fights Gamera, where it is on the backfoot until it can set up an efficient and underhanded attack, goring Gamera’s stomach.  That is just the final battle though; outside of the cold open, all of the other action scenes in this film come from the previous films, administered in a few lengthy stock footage segments recapping Gamera’s rampages in the original film and Gamera vs Barugon as well as his fights against Barugon and Gyaos.  

 

Quite distractingly, some of these clips were in black and white originally, and the film putting a blue hue on those scenes does not fix the issue.  As far as repeating the previous movie’s fight scenes, there is a slight issue with that.  While it is the contrast from those villains that makes Viras’ one short fight against Gamera stand out, the film did not need to show them again to achieve that effect.  Gamera vs Guiron features multiple of the Gyaos species, and the different way Guiron kills it sets Guiron apart.  Similarly, Jiger later on is unique simply for having so many absurd abilities that her film explores throughout three fights and an impregnation scene.

Conclusion

The highs of this movie are exceptionally high, and there was a lot of potential for the best Gamera movie yet, but the vision was inconsistent, almost to a greater extent than the original Gamera (which itself relentlessly switches between Daiei’s desire for a Godzilla ripoff competing with Yuasa’s vision of a child friendly icon).  Consequently, it is difficult to justify a favorable review of this film, when other Gamera movies used the same building blocks as this film much more consistently.  Still, this film’s place in the franchise is a major turning point and important to remember.  Without this film, the later Showa Gamera films would not have happened the same way, and Viras could not have been one of the main villains of the recent Netflix show Gamera Rebirth.