Gamera vs. Zigra
Seventh Gamera film; tie-in with Kamogawa Sea World.
Gamera vs. Zigra (ガメラ対深海怪獣ジグラ, Gamera tai Shinkai Kaijū Jigura) is a 1971 Japanese kaiju film. Noriaki Yuasa directed it, Nisan Takahashi wrote it, and Yoshihiko Manabe and Hidemasa Nagata produced it. This is the seventh Gamera movie, coming out a year after Gamera vs. Jiger. The cast includes Eiko Yanami, Reiko Kasahara, Mikiko Tsubouchi, and Kōji Fujiyama. The story features the giant monsters Gamera and Zigra. The film was made to promote Kamogawa Sea World, an aquarium that opened the year before.
Production company Daiei Film went bankrupt shortly after the movie was finished. Because of this, Dainichi Eihai handled distribution. The film hit Japanese theaters on July 17, 1971. It never got a theatrical release in the United States. Instead, King Features Entertainment released it directly to American television in 1987.
The plot begins when an alien spaceship attacks a Japanese Moon base. Back on Earth, a boy named Kenichi Ishikawa (called Kenny in the English dub), his father Dr. Yosuke Ishikawa (Henry in the dub), his friend Helen Wallace, and her father Dr. Tom Wallace see the spaceship dive into the ocean. They go to investigate but get captured by a teleportation beam and brought aboard the ship. Inside, a human-looking woman appears and reveals she is a Zigran alien. To show off Zigran power, she creates a huge earthquake that devastates Japan. She had already caused two other quakes—one in Peru and one in Arabia (the English dub says the Indian Ocean instead). She explains that Zigra’s planet was destroyed by its own scientific progress, and now the aliens want Earth as a new home.
The woman contacts Earth authorities and demands surrender, threatening to kill her prisoners. Dr. Tom calls her insane, so she hypnotizes the two fathers. Kenichi and Helen escape using the ship’s controls, freeing their dads. Angry, Zigra orders the woman to kill the children on Earth. She suggests simply wiping out all of Japan, but Zigra insists humans must be kept alive as food. Gamera arrives, rescues the children and their fathers, and investigates the intruder. The U.N. questions Kenichi and Helen and decides to attack Zigra. Defense Force jets scramble, but the Zigran ship’s lasers destroy them easily.
The alien woman comes to Earth disguised as a human and hunts for Kenichi and Helen.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Noriaki Yuasa
- Starring
- Eiko Yanami / Reiko Kasahara / Mikiko Tsubouchi / Koji Fujiyama / Gloria Zoellner / Arlene Zoellner
- Studio
- Daiei Film
- Distributor
- Dainichi Eihai
- Released
- 17 July 1971 · Japan
- Country
- Japan
- Language
- Japanese
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The plot follows an alien spaceship that attacks a Japanese Moon base and descends into the ocean. Young Kenichi Ishikawa, his father Dr. Yosuke Ishikawa, friend Helen Wallace, and her father Dr. Tom Wallace are captured by a teleportation beam and brought aboard the spaceship. A human-looking woman reveals herself as a Zigran alien, demonstrating her power by creating a gigantic earthquake in Japan, having previously caused earthquakes in Peru and Arabia (or the Indian Ocean in the English dub). She demands Earth's surrender, but the children escape with their fathers using the ship's controls. Gamera intervenes, rescuing them, and the U.N. attacks Zigra's spaceship, which transforms into a giant swordfish-like monster. Zigra immobilizes Gamera with a ray, but lightning revives him, and Gamera ultimately kills Zigra by dropping him from the air and setting him on fire.
Reader's Guide
Gamera vs. Zigra is notable as the final film in the original Gamera series produced by Daiei Film, which went bankrupt shortly after its completion. The film was distributed by Dainichi Eihai and never received a theatrical release in the United States, instead airing directly on American television in 1987 via King Features Entertainment. Retrospective reviews, such as one from Slant Magazine, noted its 'slipshod construction' and suggested it was 'a product cranked out so as to fulfill a McDonald’s Happy Meal toy contract,' concluding that it offers 'fleeting pleasures' for fans of monster films. Scholarly analysis by Rhoads and McCorkle in Japan's Green Monsters argues that the film possesses deeper environmental appeals beyond its surface-level monster action, viewing it through lenses of Japanese environmental history and the monster genre.
Did You Know?
- The film was a tie-in with Kamogawa Sea World, which had been founded the previous year.
- Shortly after the film was completed, its production studio Daiei Film went bankrupt, leading to distribution by Dainichi Eihai.
- The film was released in Japan on July 17, 1971, as a double feature with the 1958 film Suzunosuke Akado: The Birdman with Three Eyes.
- It was released directly to American television by King Features Entertainment in 1987, with no U.S. theatrical release.
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