Friday, November 5, 2021

Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967)

Although featuring the B-team of Japanese monsters, this is a perfectly decent film. A vile pterodactyl like monster called Gyaos emerges during construction of a motorway in the mountains and wrecks havoc. The boy Eiichi (Naoyuki Abe) is captured by Gyaos but is saved by the turtle monster Gamera. Unfortunately Gyaos possesses  many fiendish powers including a cutting ray that can slide objects like planes or cars in half, and also cuts Gamera's arm forcing a retreat.

The military effort is led by Dr Aoki (Yoshiro Kitahara) and Tsutsumi (Kojiro Hongo) but mankind's weapons fail over and over again against Gyaos. The beast has a number of flaws including an aversion to sunlight but he manages to thwart the human's plans. Finally, Gamera is able to bring his A-game and finally defeats Gyaos...

A decent kaiju film. Gyaos is an excellent villain, with it's harsh looks and merciless arsenal of weapons it has a real sense of menace. A sub-plot of greedy villagers trying to stop a road construction project as they want more money is a bit of a bore but fills out the running time.