Gamera vs. Zigra
| Gamera vs. Zigra | |
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 Gamera vs. Zigra (1971) Theatrical poster |
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| Kanji | ガメラ対深海怪獣ジグラ |
| Rōmaji | Gamera tai Shinkai Kaijū Jigura |
| Directed by | Noriaki Yuasa |
| Produced by | Yoshihiko Manabe Hidemasa Nagata Sandy Frank |
| Written by | Nisan Takahashi |
| Starring | Gloria Zoellner Arlene Zoellner Koji Fujiyama Daigo Inoue Reiko Kasahara Daihachi Kita Goroo Kudan Shin Minatsu |
| Music by | Kenjiro Hirose (Gamera song only) Shunsuke Kikuchi |
| Cinematography | Akira Uehara |
| Editing by | Yoshiyuki Miyazaki |
| Distributed by | Daiei, Sandy Frank (US version) |
| Release date(s) | July 17, 1971 |
| Running time | 87 min. |
| Language | Japanese English |
Gamera vs. Zigra (ガメラ対深海怪獣ジグラ Gamera tai Shinkai Kaijū Jigura, Gamera versus Deep Sea Monster Zigra) is a 1971 kaiju film starring Gamera created by Daiei Motion Picture Company. Unlike previous Gamera sequels, Gamera vs. Zigra was not released by AIP-TV. Sandy Frank released the film to television and home video in the 1980s. It is one of five Gamera films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
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[edit] Plot
Without warning, Zigra, an alien being, attacks a moon base. Back on earth, Kenny and his friend Helen, along with their fathers, see Zigra's spaceship descending into the ocean. Investigating, they are soon captured and instructed to tell the world of Zigra's great achievements in science. The Zigra "space woman" creates a gigantic earthquake and they learn of Zigra's past history, advancing in science and destroying their planet. Searching out a new home, Zigra found earth and orders the earthlings to surrender their planet. While speaking with earth, Tom declares the Zigra woman is insane. In anger, she puts the men in a hypnotic state. Kenny and Helen take action, successfully using the ships console to escape. Enraged, Zigra orders their death. He sends the woman to kill the children. After a close call on the surface of the water, Gamera saves the children and their fathers from Zigra. After questioning the children, the UN decides to attack Zigra. The jets scramble.and Zigra makes short work of them with his laser beam. The Zigra woman, disguised as a human woman (after stealing another woman's swimsuit), searches for Kenny and Helen. She hitches a ride with the Sea World dolphin trainer back to the facility. She changes into another stolen outfit and proceeds to wander the facility which is now crawling with military. She overhears the exasperation of the UN's fruitless efforts to defeat Zigra. While chasing the children, some photographers identify the Zigran woman as Lora Lee. After ditching the Zigran woman, the children call for Gamera.
Meanwhile Gamera begins an underwater assault on the Zigra spaceship, which retaliates until transforming into a shark-like monster. The battle continues until Gamera beaches Zigra, who then retaliates, hitting the heroic turtle with a ray that stops cell activity and sending Gamera into the sea for recuperation. Zigra threatens again, claiming to be all-powerful. Back at Marine World, the dolphin trainer and the scientists divulge a way to break the control with sonic waves. They use this information to disable the Zigra woman. It is discovered that Lora Lee was brought aboard Zigra's ship when he attacked the moon base. The scientists go to look for Gamera, hoping to work with him to defeat Zigra. But as the bathoscope is trying to revive Gamera, Zigra attacks them—again demanding the immediate surrender of the earth. An electrical storm appears above the bay and a bolt of lightning somehow revives Gamera as he snatches the Bathoscope and returns it to the surface while Zigra is sleeping.
After saving the children and their father inside the Bathoscope, Gamera returns to the sea to face off against Zigra for the final battle. Zigra awakens to do battle against Gamera and it seems he has the speed advantage in the water as he slices Gamera's chest with his horn several times, but Gamera manages to grab onto Zigra, resurface into the air and slams Zigra back on the ground for one more confrontation on land. Immediately after landing, Gamera incapacitates Zigra by corking his horn with a boulder, causing Zigra to be pinned to the ground by its immense weight. Then , Gamera picks up a tinier boulder and proceeds to play a tune on Zigra's dorsal fins like a xylophone before setting the alien shark ablaze with his fire breath ending the shark-like alien's thirst for humans.
[edit] Zigra
Zigra is a deadly opponent whose appearance is similar to that of a Goblin Shark, possessing a silvery gray, armor-plated hide, a pointed nose, a row of sharp fins on his back, as well as sharp pectoral fins.
Unlike most kaiju, Zigra is intelligent and capable of speech, presumably by telepathic means. He is an alien from an unknown planet that landed on earth via a small spaceship shell—the ship sports the same dorsal fins. For much of the first half of the film, he uses a captured human female as an extension of his will to infiltrate dry land. The agent (Lora Lee), possesses a symbiotic relation to the ship and also can put humans in a trance by eye contact and snapping her fingers. After the agent was subdued, the shell was destroyed by Gamera, revealing Zigra's full form. Due to differences in earth's environment to his native planet, Zigra grew in size to match Gamera's.
Zigra's combat style, like many Gamera monsters, is geared towards melee combat. A brutal opponent, he is capable of firing a silk like spray that can paralyze an opponent, and then follow through with vicious slashes with his sharp fins. Despite an otherwise fish-like appearance, he can exist out of the water, albeit with some difficulty: He was immobilized on the beach until he improvised an awkward standing posture with his tail fins.
Zigra invaded earth with the intention of enslaving the human race and raising them like cattle—he came from a planet where instead of people eating fish, fish eat people. Like Viras attempted three films earlier, Zigra held a pair of human children hostage in order to force the human race to conform to his plan, but Gamera engaged him in battle.
In the final Showa Gamera film Gamera: Super Monster, Zigra once again fought Gamera through the use of stock footage. When Gamera hits his back with the rock, his theme song is not played, and is instead replaced by a new, simple tune.
[edit] Home Media
It has been announced that a Los Angeles-based entertainment company, Shout! Factory, acquired the rights from Kadokawa Pictures for all eight of the Showa Gamera films and they will be issuing the uncut, Japanese versions on DVD for the first time, ever in North America. These "Special Edition" DVDs are being released in sequential order, starting with Gamera: The Giant Monster on May 18, 2010.[1] The first sequel, Gamera vs. Barugon (1966) followed on July 6, 2010. The subsequent films followed shortly thereafter, with Gamera vs. Zigra being released on March 15, 2011 on a double-bill with Gamera: Super Monster.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Gamera web archive (Japanese)
- Gamera tai Shinkai kaijû Jigura at the Internet Movie Database
- Gamera vs. Zigra at AllRovi
[edit] Mystery Science Theater 3000
- "Mystery Science Theater 3000" Gamera vs. Zigra (TV episode 1988) at the Internet Movie Database
- Episode guide: K07- Gamera vs. Zigra
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