After an extensive lesson on the Worldâs fair, we switch to Wester Island (yes, I said âWesterâ) where Gamera attempts to interfere with the movement of a giant statue to the fair. Soon after, the monster Jiger rises from the local volcano and quickly incapacitates our superhero turtle. It will take two children, one Japanese, one American, to save the day by taking a mini-sub into Gameraâs body.
Japan was hosting the 1970 Worlds Fair and the nation was displaying a great deal of prideâor maybe they just wanted to sell tickets. Worldâs fairs used to be a big deal, a place to showcase technological advancements. So they made a Gamera movie about the fair, which is quite odd as the film repeatedly denigrates science in favor of superstition: If everyone just believed in curses likes they should, things would be fine. Though people are dying and the city is being destroyed, the first concern of the Government is non-ironically stopping any disruption of the fair. The Worldâs fair was really important.
Jiger is a unconvincing monster, which was true of all the quadruped daikaiju. He shoots a destructo ray from his back and darts from his horns. Daiei never had much skill in coming up with monsters, with Gyoas being the least ridiculous, and even he was built poorly. Jiger is average for a rotten bunch.
The monster fights, like in Godzilla before it, had become sillier. Gamera grabs a pipe to block the darts. They toss rocks back and forth, and Gamera uses phone poles to plug his ears.
Iâve no doubt that the trip inside Gamera was pitched to be like Fantastic Voyage, but it is just a few kids running around in a blanket-covered set. And donât think about the size of things as Gamera would have to be a hundred times bigger for this to even pretend to be to scale.