Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) has interesting characters that investigate phenomenon that leads to the Kaiju, then we have a world that explains the Kaiju, and shows the consequences of their battles! Gamera was introduced in Gamera, the Giant Monster (1965), it was Daiei Film’s answer to Godzilla, but lapsed into a silly Saturday morning fare. I thought this even as a kid!, especially with Guiron, a Kaiju that was a green, half-shark and half-curved knife. Then, Pacific Rim (2013) had a Kaiju named Knifehead, not so silly now, huh? Then, there was Gamera: Guardian of the Universe! The film was directed by Shūsuke Kaneko who directed the Gamera trilogy and also Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001). Screenwriter, Kazunori Itō, wrote the screenplays of the Gamera movies and previously wrote the sci fi anime, Ghost in the Shell (1995). A “plutonium transport ship”, Kairyu-Maru, travels the night seas. A helicopter flies and then we see Marine Safety Agency patrol boat (really ship), Nojima. They sail next to each other with Nojima in the lead.
The captain enters the bridge, he worries about the ton of plutonium on the Kairyu-Maru, and before they near Japan an alarm sets off! Marine officer Yoshinari Yonemori (Tsuyoshi Ihara) picks up the phone and gets the report that the transport ship has run aground in the middle of the Philippines Deep! Ihara was in third Gamera film and also Letters from Iwo Jima (2006). The captain asks if there any radiation leaks. The Kairyu-Maru captain (Akira Kubo) orders a stop of all engines so they can check for leaks. Kubo is one of my favorite actors in the Godzilla series including Destroy All Monsters (1968). Sailors look at what they struck with flashlights and believe they hit an atoll. The ship suddenly lurches! Yoshinari reports that sonar shows the atoll underneath the patrol ship! Underwater, we see the dark shape of what was called an “atoll” with the ship above and a hammerhead shark swimming away from it. At the base, a report is made about the transport ship leaking, but still intact.
A “special rescue squad” is sent by jet to assist. We see a few newspaper headlines, a pan across dark seas, and there is also dramatic music. This moves to an aquarium with two teenage schoolgirls wondering about a city like Atlantis. One of the schoolgirls is Asagi Kusanagi played by Ayako Fujitani, known as the daughter of Steven Seagal, she also starred in the rest of the trilogy and also the Seagal action film, The Patriot (1998). I really, really like that there is a strange occurance, but nothing unusual like the sudden appearance of a kaiju. At the Marine Safety Agency office, Yoshinari feels responsible for the incident and wants to be part of the investigation. This moves to the Fukyoka Municipal Zoo where we see a caged condor which is being sketched by ornithologiest Mayumi Nagamine (Shinobu Nakayama). The actress was a J-pop singer and appeared in the Jet Li action movie Fist of Legend (1994). She gets a phone call, but no answer. Mayumi hopes Professsor Hirata won’t ask her to go to the island.
We see the island, Himegami Island struck by a night storm in the Goto Archipelago. Two people are running to a boat, there is some flapping and one of them screams! The survivor in the boat screams into a radio that it is a bird! So we have the atoll and an island with some kind of bird kaiju. Yoshinari enters a store to ask about Mr. Kusanagi’s house. He is answered by his daughter, Asagi. Naoya Kusanagi (Akira Onodera) enters his home to see Yoshinari preparing dinner. Naoyo mentions a job going to the atoll. Research ship, Kenzaki, heads to the atoll the next day. Naoyo is at a map tracking the movement of the atoll and places a marker at one location. Inspector Osako (Yukijirō Hotaru) talks to Mayumi about Professor Hirata. I recognize Hotaru as the comic relief in Zeiram (1991) and he was also in the 2001 Godzilla movie. He tells her the report about the bird. A helicopter takes her and Inspector Osako to Himegami Island. Two police officers go through the ruins of Professor Hirgata’s lab.
Mayumi asks how many people were on the island and Osako says seventeen people. She finds a pellet, a white lump, which she checks Jurassic Park-style reaching in with a glove. Mayumi finds a pen that belonged to the professor. Both teams are close to finding the kaijus and investigating which is great. Yoshinari detects what he thinks is the atoll on sonar. The atoll is spotted and the ship heads towards the rocky shore. Mayumi, Osako, and the other policemen are move through the forest. Inspector Osako worries that it will dark soon. Then, they hear a screech as at giant form flies overhead! She wants to chase after it. The kaiju appearances are only rocks and a fast moving creature. At Nagasaki Airport, an operator finds it on radar. On board the helicopter, Osako say it has a wingspan of 50 feet! The prehistoric Arambourgiania had a wingspan of 43 feet. The kaiju soars above Himegami Island and Osako warns the control tower to divert any air traffic. A dog barks at it as the kaiju descends and rips it away!
The wind from its wake tears through buildings, a shopkeeper goes out to check, and is just able to escape the swooping kaiju! Then, we see the full form of Gyaos, it has a slooped, pointed head and beak. Mayumi wants to divert Gyaos’ attention, opens the helicopter door, and uses the camera’s flash on it! I really like resourcefulness and just plain braery of Mayumi. The kaiju shrieks and flies away. Two jets from the Self-Defense Forces fly in. Mayumi notices that there are two other Gyaos! At night, a female reporter notes Dr. Yagamine’s discovery. She is mobbed by reporters and Mayumi stresses that they are not birds and don’t have feathers. At the Kenzaki, the atoll is analyzed, it looks like a walnut or turtle shell. The scientists land on the atoll with their equipment. Yoshinari finds a curved object, like half of the yin and yang symbol, and pulls it free. It is later known as an amulet made of orichalcum (a rare metal connected to Atlantis). Another researcher has a box of them that he says are all over. Another discovery, a right triangle-shape, rock formation. Naoyo orders them to dig it up.
In the day, Mayumi is followed by Osako who wants her to continue the investigation, but she is still mourning the death of Professor Hirata. He apologizes and then she agrees to see the Cabinet, a group of experts and military officers who want to capture the Gyaos. They forward the capture, but Mayumi warns about their behavior without studying them. A pit is dug around the strange formation which has strange patterns and runes on it like a Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yoshinari notes that the formation is warm and hears a sound from it. Suddenly, cracks appear, and it shatters! Then, Yoshinari and the research team struggle through tremors on the atoll. Naoyo sees from the ship that there is a glow from the atoll. Yoshinari and the others are thrown into the water. He sees an eye a tusked mouth! At his office, Osako thinks an anesthetic gun could be used on the Gyaos, but Mayumi says it would kill them. She wonders if there is a place to trap them. Osako has an idea, the Fukuoka Dome baseball stadium. A military operation is set up there and helicopters are sent out to get the Gyaos.
Yoshinari lands in a helicopter to warn them about a creature 195 feet long headed their way! Slabs of meat, several cows worth, are laid out as bait and the stadium lights are turned off. Soldiers are in the dugout with anesthetic rifles. Searchlights encircle the three Gyaos and they descend with Kaiju Vision to the piles of meat. Mayumi orders the stadium ceiling to be closed. The Gyaos are too busy feeding to notice. The ceiling hasn’t fully closed, but Mayumi has them open fire. One Gyaos falls, another escapes, and the last one flies towars the dugout! Mayumi backs into the wall as soldier unload their rifles with the darts. An officer sets off flashing lights above the dugout. A helicopter pursues the remaining Gyaos. The pilots use nightvision and then see something explode out of the water! It is Gamera!, prehistoric turtle kaiju, that slaps the Gyaos into electrical cables! Mayumi wants to check on the Gyaos, then Gamera rampages in the city! Two Kaiju, Gyaos turns into a super form to match Gamera. He has a supernatural connection to the teen girl Asagi through the orihalcum amulet, and Tokyo becomes the battleground of Gamera vs. Gyaos. Gamera: Defender of the Universe has some world building for Kaiju, giving background to them, consequences to their rampages, and some great characters!
Five Orihalcum Amulets out of Five!
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