Gamera the Brave (2006)

Gamera the Brave (小さき勇者たち～ガメラ～ Chīsaki Yūsha Tachi ～Gamera～, lit. Little Braves: Gamera) is a 2006 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Kadokawa Pictures and distributed by Shochiku and the twelfth in the Gamera series. The film is the first Gamera film produced by Kadokawa Pictures after they purchased a percentage of the remaining assets of Daiei Motion Picture Company, the original company responsible for the Gamera films. It was released to Japanese theaters on April 29, 2006.
While Gamera the Brave is counted as the fourth Heisei Gamera film, it does not share continuity with the previous three films. In 1973, Gamera sacrifices his own life to save a small village from a flock of Gyaos. Thirty-three years later, and young Toru Aizawa discovers an egg atop a red stone which hatches into a baby turtle he names Toto. Toru forms a strong bond with Toto, and as his pet turtle grows quickly and demonstrates unusual abilities learns that he may be the reincarnation of Gamera. Toto springs into action when the giant man-eating monster Zedus threatens Toru's village, but is badly wounded in the conflict. Japanese authorities capture Toto to try and find a way to revitalize him before Zedus attacks again. When Zedus appears in Tokyo even larger than before, Toru, his father, and his friends fight to help Toto as he engages in a final confrontation with Zedus.
== Plot ==
In 1973, Gamera self-destructed to kill a flock of Gyaos, which were attacking the rural city of Shima in Mie Prefecture. One of the survivors was a little boy. Thirty three years later, the little boy has grown up and owns a small restaurant in Shima, which has recovered from the extensive damage caused by the battle over the ensuing three decades.
Toru's mother has recently died in a car crash, and this is his first summer without her. When playing on the beach with his friends, he sees a strange red glow emanating from a nearby rock formation. He decides to investigate it. Toru finds an egg lying on top of a strange red rock with patterns carved into it. When he picks up the egg, a baby turtle hatches. Toru names him "Toto", which is what his mother used to call him.
Toru takes Toto home but keeps him a secret from his father who doesn't allow pets in the house. The only people he tells are his friends and his next door neighbor, a girl named Mai who is slightly older than Toru and looks after him. Toto soon reveals himself to be no ordinary turtle, as he flies and shoots fireballs from his mouth. Mai begins to suspect that Toto is actually the son of Gamera and she tries to convince Toru that keeping him is not a good idea. Toru tries not to believe her, reasoning that Toto can't be a Gamera; otherwise he would be 200 feet tall.
Toru can't bear the thought that Toto might be a kaiju. But soon Toto starts to grow and quickly becomes the size of an adult turtle. Too large to hide, Toru and his friends move Toto to an abandoned shack on the beach to keep him. Unfortunately, one day Toru comes up to check on Toto and realizing he is gone, is devastated.
Meanwhile, off the coast of Iseshima, many bizarre shipping disasters have been occurring. No one knows what is happening, or what is causing the disasters. As Toru is sulking over the loss with his friends, tornado sirens begin blaring. Heavy stomping is heard, and soon the dinosaur-like monster Zedus appears.
Zedus eats several people trying to run away. Out of no where, Toto appears and is much larger. Sporting tusks, Toto is ready for battle. Toto gets pummeled in his first battle, falling victim to Zedus' long, piercing tongue and the government shortly arrives to capture and investigate him. In order to combat this new menace, they hook Toto up to a machine which feeds him a liquid version of the strange red stone that Toru had found the egg laying on, which scientists theorize gives Gameras their power.
Zedus attacks again, and a newly revitalized Toto flies out to battle him. Zedus uses his agility and long kicking legs to his advantage to put Toto at a disadvantage. Toto needs to eat the stone his egg rested on if he is to truly become a Gamera. Unfortunately, Toru had given the stone to Mai earlier for good luck for her hospital operation. From a news report Mai also knows of the stone's power, and all these children create a courier service where one child delivers the stone to another, always repeating the words "For Toto!"
The stone eventually gets to Toru, who runs into the evacuated city to give it to Toto. His worried father catches up to him and tries to stop Toru out of fear that he will be killed if Toto self-destructs like his father did in 1973. Toru's father eventually decides they might as well continue as they are already in a perilous situation.
They go to the top of the building where Zedus had lodged Toto earlier, and after a short monologue, Toru throws the stone into Toto's mouth. Toto breaks out of the building, now a fully fledged Gamera. Toto then flies towards Zedus and tackles him, knocking him off the building. Toto tears off Zedus' deadly tongue, and blasts him with a fireball, killing him. The government surrounds Toto to study him, but Toru stalls them long enough for Toto to escape. The film ends as Toto flies into the sky and Toru says "Sayonara, Gamera."
== Staff ==
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
* Directed by   Ryuta Tasaki
* Written by   Yukari Tatsui
* Produced by   Yoichi Arishige, Hirohisa Mukuju
* Music by   Yoko Ueno
* Cinematography by   Kazuhiro Suzuki
* Edited by   Shogo Hirasawa
* Production design by   Yuji Hayashida
* Assistant directing by   Shotaro Kobayashi
* Director of Special Effects   Isao Kaneko
* Visual Effects by   Hajime Matsumoto
* Theme song "Eternal Love" performed by   Mink
== Cast ==
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
* Ryo Tomioka   as   Toru Aizawa
* Kaho   as   Mai Nishio
* Kanji Tsuda   as   Kosuke Aizawa, Toru's father and owner of Aizawa's Diner
* Susumu Terajima   as   Osamu Nishio, Mai's father and owner of Nishio Pearl Shop
* Kaoru Okunuki   as   Harumi Nishio, Mai's mother
* Megumi Kobayashi   as   Miyuki Aizawa, Toru's mother
* Shingo Ishikawa   as   Masaru "Ishimaru" Ishida, Toru's friend
* Shogo Narita   as   Katsuya Ishida, Masaru's brother
* Kenjiro Ishimaru   as   Professor Soichiro Amamiya, Nagoya University
* Tomorowo Taguchi   as   Councilor Yoshimitsu Hitotsugi, Giant Creature Committee
* Bokuzo Masana   as   Secretary Yuji Tobata
* Tetsu Watanabe
* Eiji Minakata (Chanbara Trio)
* Taro Suwa
* Noriko Eguchi
* Tomohisa Yuge
* Mamiko Abe (Chukyo TV)
* Taishi Masaoka
* Takayuki Imanara
* Hitomi Asakura
* Takuma Okubo
* Himawari Ono   as   Girl carrying red stone
* Yosuke Isomura
* Keisuke Suwa
* Kokyo Kataoka
* Hoshina Takao
* Shigemitsu Kogiso
* Masayoshi Takeshita
* Hiroshi Ota
* Aya Sejiri
* Masashi Ota
* Toshinori Sasaki   as   Avant Gamera / Toto
* Mizuho Yoshida   as   Zedus
== Appearances ==
=== Monsters ===
* Avant Gamera
* Original Gyaos
* Toto
* Zedus
== Production ==
Gamera the Brave was produced by Kadokawa to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gamera, and was initially targeted for a 2005 release date before being delayed into 2006. Kadokawa had previously unsuccessfully approached Toho in 2002 and proposed a crossover film pitting Gamera against Godzilla, with Toho declining.
The storyline of Gamera the Brave was based on one of the original scripts prepared for Gamera: Guardian of the Universe by Chiaki and Kazuya Konaka prior to the script by Kazunori Ito.
Ryuta Tasaki, who had previously directed entries in both the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai franchises, was chosen as the film's director. Because most of Tazaki's previous tokusatsu work was geared toward child audiences, he chose to return Gamera to his roots in the Showa series as a child-friendly monster. Tazaki distanced his interpretation of Gamera from Shusuke Kaneko's more gritty and frightening take, and attempted to make a film which emulated the style of Noriaki Yuasa and Eiji Tsuburaya. Tasaki chose to establish Gamera as having appeared previously in 1973 and clearly established as a friend to humanity from the start, whereas in Kaneko's trilogy mankind initially designated Gamera as an enemy. He also had the film focus on Toto being raised by the protagonist, so as to establish a strong relationship between monster and man. Gamera the Brave would be the first film for screenwriter Yukari Tatsui.
The setting of Gamera the Brave consisted of two locations: Shima, Mie Prefecture and Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. The film's opening sequence set in Shima in 1973 was filmed in Toba, while present-day scenes were filmed in Shima proper as well as neighboring areas in Mie Prefecture such as Ise, in combination with studio sets. Toru and his father's home was a real building, as was the Nishio Pearl Shop. For Toto and Zedus' battle in Shima, location shooting was performed at the then-under-construction Shima Pearl Bridge. Location shooting was also done in Nagoya, with two trucks of debris being brought into the city for filming. The majority of urban scenes in Nagoya were filmed in the actual city, while scenes set at the hospital were filmed in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture.
13 live African spurred tortoises were used to portray the young Toto, with the red pattern on their shells being painted on. For scenes involving Toto flying or falling, soft vinyl models were used instead. A 1 meter remote-controlled animatronic was used for Toto as he grew even larger. A full-size 5 meter Toto prop was created for filming and used extensively during advertising campaigns. The prop was present in Shima when the filmmakers put out live calls for extras. Most performers in the film were unpaid extras: approximately 3,000 extras were used in the film while over 10,000 applied. Press members who served as unpaid extras were rewarded with the opportunity to interview Tasaki, while other unpaid extras were rewarded with free t-shirts for the film. Elementary school students and local government officials were among the many extras used throughout the film.
Gamera the Brave was the first Gamera film shot using digital photography, which was intended to reduce costs and shorten the filming period. The film also made extensive use of digital compositing to accomplish many of its effects shots. The fictional island where Toru discovers Toto's egg was created by filming the real island of Kami-shima and digitally editing out surrounding ships and adding computer-generated scenery such as rocks. To depict the lighthouse on the island collapsing, multiple layers were composited together, including one with the lighthouse itself, one showing falling debris, and another showing fleeing civilians. Chroma key was utilized to composite footage of extras on the side of the road watching Toto being transported. Shots of Toto's head were composited over footage of the extras. The filmmakers were able to seamlessly composite this footage so long as none of the extras were wearing green, and requested that any extras wearing green change their clothing. While there was no need for extras to wear certain clothing colors in scenes that did not utilize chroma key, they were specifically made to not wear green in any scenes that did require it. Chroma key was also used for the fight scenes between Toto and Zedus to place them into live-action footage of Shima and Nagoya. Any people present in the footage of the cities were digitally removed. Zedus' arrival in Shima was accomplished by combining actual footage of Shima with footage of Zedus filmed on an open set. Some shots of the live tortoises used to portray Toto were digitally enhanced with CGI to show them extending their necks or opening their mouths, as well as to create some of Toto's facial expressions. Shots of Toto flying near the end of the film were accomplished completely with CGI.
== Alternate titles ==
* Little Braves: Gamera (literal Japanese title)
* G IV (abbreviated Japanese Blu-ray title)
== Theatrical releases ==
* Japan - April 29, 2006
== Box office ==
Gamera the Brave grossed only 410 million yen at the box office, making it the lowest-grossing Heisei Gamera film.
== Reception ==
Despite being considered a failure at the box office, Gamera the Brave was met with mostly positive reception. The film's effects and story were frequently praised, especially the relationship between Toru and Toto. Katsuhito Ishii, director of the 50th anniversary GAMERA short, cited this film as one of his favorites and a tremendous influence on his project. The film currently holds a 6.7/10 on IMDb and a 100% by critics and 67% by audiences on Rotten Tomatoes .
The film has also received its fair share of criticism. Some fans criticized Toto's cute appearance in contrast to the ferocious appearance of Gamera from Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris. Many fans were upset at the film's attempt to move away from the seriousness of Shusuke Kaneko's trilogy back to the kid-friendliness of the Showa era. Gamera's iconic roar being replaced by stock King Kong roars was also a source of disappointment for many.
== Trivia ==
* The film's concept and storyline were based on the earlier versions of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, written by Chiaki Konaka and her brother Kazuya Konaka and Yoshikazu Okada.
* During a scene involving Toto as a baby turtle exploring Toru's home, he wanders into the kitchen where Toru's father Kosuke is feverishly cooking. As Kosuke turns, he knocks a knife off of the counter and it lands with the bottom edge sticking into the ground and the point rising up above Toto's head, looking quite similar to a former foe of Gamera's, Guiron. He shoots a fireball at it with an angry expression on his face and wanders away, leaving Kosuke (who never saw the little turtle) to pick up his singed knife with a confused look on his face.
* The Twin Towers where Toto fights Zedus are located at Nagoya Station.
* Some of the roars used by Toto date back to the 1957 Universal films The Land Unknown and The Deadly Mantis. They have appeared in many other films, including the 1976 King Kong remake and Reptilian.
* Toru and Mai are shown to both be fans of the popular manga series Sgt. Frog, which is published by Kadokawa. In the film, Mai lends Toru the thirteenth volume of the manga, which was not yet published at the time of filming. As such, the manga's creator Mine Yoshizaki had to draw the volume's cover early specifically for its appearance in the film.
* Toru has figures of Kamen Rider Knight and Kamen Rider Ryuga in his bedroom. Ryuta Tasaki, the film's director, directed eight episodes of the series Kamen Rider Ryuki, which also starred Kanji Tsuda, who plays Toru's father Kosuke in Gamera the Brave, as the character Daisuke Okubo.
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Category:Gamera Films