Gamera vs. Giant Evil Beast Guiron

Directed by
 Budget

Gamera vs. Giant Evil Beast Guiron is an 1969 daiei gamera Film, directed by Noriaki Yuasa.

## Plot

While scanning the skies through their telescope, two young boys, Akio and Tom, spy a spaceship descending into a nearby field. Stunned, bewildered, and bemused, they tell Akio's mother what they have seen, but she dismisses their story as childish nonsense. The next day, the two boys — with Akio's younger sister, Tomoko, in tow — cycle to the site to investigate. Enthralled, Akio and Tom manage to steal into the spaceship. But then, without warning, the ship takes off, leaving Tomoko behind. It soars into outer space toward a field of asteroids, which sends the boys into a panic. However, Gamera (obviously aware of the boys' plight) appears and clears a path for the ship through the asteroids. The spaceship, flying near the speed of light, leaves Gamera behind and transports the boys to an unknown planet, where it lands on the outskirts of an alien city. Suddenly, a silver "Space" Gyaos appears, menacing the ship and the two young boys. Just before the creature attacks, a second, bizarre monster — whose head resembles a Bowie knife — emerges from an underground lair and attacks the Space Gyaos. The Space Gyaos emits a beam that reflects off the new creature's blade-shaped head and cuts off its own right leg. After the Space Gyaos attempts to retreat, the knife-headed creature lunges and chops off the Space Gyaos' left wing, before cutting off its right wing. The creature then cuts the helpless Space Gyaos' head off and brutally cuts the body into smaller pieces before retreating back to its lair.

Akio and Tom explore a portion of the alien city and meet the planet's only inhabitants: two beautiful women, named Barbella and Florbella, who explain that their planet, known as "Terra", orbits the sun directly opposite the earth, which is why it has never been discovered by Earth's astronomers. Furthermore, Terra is facing extinction; not only is the planet growing cold, but the Space Gyaos are taking it over and the two women are the last of their kind. The knife-headed monster, which the Terrans call "Guiron", is their last defense against the Space Gyaos.

Barbella and Florbella suddenly turn on Tom and Akio and put them into restraints. Using their super-technological devices, the alien women probe the boys' minds, in the process learning about Gamera and its soft spot for children. It is revealed that the Terran women are cannibals that plan to feed on the boys' brains in order to absorb their knowledge. In preparation to extract Akio's brain for their nourishment, the women shave the child's head. On a rescue mission, Gamera lands on Terra in search of the boys. The women deploy Guiron to attack the giant turtle. Guiron plans to cut Gamera in half, but Gamera grabs one of Guiron's front legs and bites into it. Guiron tries to shake off the towering tortoise. Wrapping his tail onto a monolith, Gamera throws Guiron into a canyon, causing his knife-head to be stuck. Gamera uses his flame breath on Guiron. Guiron uses his shurikens to penetrate Gamera's cheeks. Gamera tries to heal his wounds by grabbing ice-like boulders. Guiron uses his shurikens again and this time Gamera uses the longest boulder to ricochet the shurikens into Guiron's own body. Guiron trudges away, while Gamera tumbles into a lake unconscious and on his back.

Tom manages to free Akio, but, in the process, unintentionally releases Guiron. No longer under the aliens' control, Guiron rampages through the Terran city — even attacking its own mistresses as they attempt to flee to Earth. The knife-headed creature slices the spacecraft in half, mortally injuring Barbella; Florbella kills Barbella as she relates that useless members of their society are euthanized. While Guiron attacks the base where the boys are imprisoned, Gamera awakes and renews his assault on the alien creature, ultimately ramming Guiron's head into the ground. Florbella attempts to flee on a rocket, but the vehicle is sliced in half by Guiron and she dies as a result. Gamera catches half of the rocket and spears Guiron into his shuriken base. Gamera uses his flame breath on Guiron again where the rocket was; the rocket then explodes, cutting Guiron in half. Gamera uses his flame breath to weld the alien spacecraft back together and carries the ship and the two boys back to Earth. On Earth, the boys are returned to their mothers and they all say goodbye to Gamera as he flies off into the night.

## Cast

* Nobuhiro Kashima   as   Akio
* Christopher Murphy   as   Tom
* Miyuki Akiyama   as   Tomoko
* Eiji Funakoshi   as   Dr. Shiga
* Kon Omura   as   Officer Kon Kondo
* Yuko Hamada   as   Kuniko
* Edith Hansen   as   Elza
* Reiko Kasahara   as   Florbella
* Hiroko Kai   as   Barbella
* Umenosuke Izumi   as   Gamera
* Edith Hanson as Tom's mother

## Staff

* Directed by   Noriaki Yuasa
* Written by   Nisan Takahashi
* Produced by   Hidemasa Nagata
* Music by   Shunsuke Kikuchi
* Cinematography by   Akira Kitazaki
* Edited by   Zenko Miyazaki
* Special effects by   Kazufumi Fuji

## Titles

* Gamera vs. Giant Evil Beast Guiron (literal Japanese title)
* Gamera vs. Giant Evil Beast X (ガメラ対大悪獣Ｘ Gamera tai Dai Aku-jū Ekkusu, early Japanese title)
* Gamera vs. Guiron: Giant Evil Monster (English Japanese DVD title)
* Attack of the Monsters (United States)
* Gamera vs. Guillon (United States video title)
* King Kong Against Godzilla (King Kong contro Godzilla; Italy)

## U.S. release

Like the three previous Gamera films, Gamera vs. Guiron was not released theatrically in the continental United States, but was shown on television by American International Television in 1969, under the title Attack of the Monsters. AIP-TV drastically shortened the battle between Guiron and Space Gyaos due to its graphic content, showing Space Gyaos flee after losing a foot. The international English-dubbed version of Gamera vs. Guiron, by Pedro Productions  and released by Sandy Frank Film Syndication, was featured on Season 3 of the movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was also riffed on the show during its original broadcast on the Minneapolis-area station KTMA. The film has been released on DVD in its original Japanese audio with English subtitles by both Shout! Factory and Mill Creek Entertainment. While the original Japanese version and the international dub are copyrighted, the AIP-TV version is in the public domain.

## Release

Gamera vs. Guiron was released in Japan on 21 March 1969. The film was never released theatrically in the United States. It was released directly to television by American International Television in 1969 as Attack of the Monsters. The film was followed by Gamera vs. Monster X.

## Reception

From retrospective reviews, AllMovie referred to the film as "one of the lesser Gamera entries" noting a smaller budget, the film's recycling of scenes from previous films, and "some atypically shoddy rear-projection effects." The review described Christopher Murphy as "a terrible actor." Though asserting that "completists may still want to check [Gamera vs. Guiron] for a few reasons," such as Guiron's "unique design" and the film's Hansel & Gretel-like storyline, "Ultimately, the mix of saccharine kid-movie elements and often surrealistic monster movie shocks will not be to everyone's taste".

## DVD

**Shout! Factory** DVD (2010)

* Region: 1
* Discs: 1
* Audio: Japanese (1.0 Mono), English (1.0 Mono, international and AIP-TV dubs)
* Special Features: Photo galleries
* Notes: All versions of the film use the same Japanese video track, with the AIP-TV dub reverting to the international dub during scenes cut from the former version. Packaged with *Gamera vs. Jiger*.