Little Shark's Outings X GAMERA -Rebirth- 『おでかけ子ザメ』 x 『GAMERA -Rebirth-』

The Not-March Ones (4 of 5)

We have no choice, we must review Gamera vs. Zigra at once!

Gamera vs. Zigra was released on July 17, 1971, and will celebrate 52 years this summer. It is the seventh and final film of what I am defining as the ‘mainline Showa era’ produced by the original iteration of Daiei, and the second-to-last Showa film overall, followed by the eighth film Gamera: Super Monster nine years later.

So, let’s talk about Sugawara Chikako, also known as the Zigra woman, also known as X1 or Woman X, or Lora Lee Vara(?) in the English dub. While, yes, she’s probably most well known for being the film’s eye candy (appreciated), particularly in one infamous sequence where she’s apparently lost access to any memories of what constitutes appropriate human clothing for a civilian disguise (doubly appreciated), later on in the film, Zigra’s control over her is broken and it’s revealed that she’s not actually an alien, but the human geologist who was aboard the lunar rover Zigra appears to destroy/absorb in the opening moments of the movie.

Yes, let me rephrase that: in the span of one year since the last movie, the apparent acceptable roles for women have gone from mother/homemaker to astronaut.

And her character isn’t left there. There’s a whole half hour remaining in the film, over the course of which Chikako starts regaining memories, saddled with the guilt of all the destruction she’s caused and using her returning knowledge to assist the human forces gathered against Zigra. She experiences the highs and lows of the rest of the cast, the sadness when it seems the missing children are dead and the relief when Gamera saves them – after her own knowledge of Zigra’s stasis beam proves instrumental in revealing they can be saved at all.

There are quite a few other women in the film as well, particularly Ishikawa Kiyoko, who connects the two main kids’ families this time around by being Kenichi(kid 1)’s aunt, who’s been hired as a babysitter to take care of Helen(kid 2) and her sister Margie(sidelined kid 3) while their mother is in the hospital with another child on the way(nonexistent kid 4). There’s also Ishikawa Hiroko, who seems to be Kenichi’s mother, Yosuke’s wife, and thus Kiyoko’s sister-in-law (both the dub and the subtitles make it confusing exactly how this family structure works, so this is all pretty much just my best guess). There’s also the Sea World announcer, who gets an extended scene near the beginning of the film and is later one of several women a mind-controlled Chikako confronts rather seductively and steals clothes from, but I can’t find an actual credit to confirm if she has a canonical name (it’s also possible she’s a cameo appearance by an actual staff member at Kamogawa Sea World at the time).

The monster fights in this film are excellent and entertaining, particularly the extended underwater sequences where Gamera fights Zigra in the form where he’s proportioned like a regular shark. This seems especially difficult to choreograph in theory, but the film makes it look easy, and the only real complaint I have is that both fights in this movie play out very similarly, location-wise - an underwater battle that then moves onto the same beach right next to Sea World, both times. MST3K-only viewers will be missing out an amazing, comedic scene where Gamera tries to sneakily steal the bathyscaphe out from under a sleeping Zigra’s nose in something that strongly resembles a Looney Tunes sketch. I also have a particular fondness for the scenes where Zigra leaps off of land and flaps at the air with his large wings/fins, and his stasis beam is a unique ability for a kaiju and creates interesting plot elements in the way it’s used. And then, of course, there’s the famous scene where Gamera plays Zigra’s back like a xylophone and does a touchdown dance. It’s the little things, you know?

Maybe I’m just biased toward films set in beach and ocean-themed environments, but this film is a joy to watch, with beautiful on-location shots at Kamogawa Sea World (including a chase sequence through the aquarium halls) and the surrounding shoreline. There are open-ocean and island sequences too, and of course, the special effects seafloor scenes where the monsters do battle. Not to mention the strong environmental themes, a longtime favorite staple of mine in classic kaiju cinema, of which this movie may be an early, if not the first major example (by one week). Add to all that Chikako’s full character arc, which may arguably make her the earliest Gamera example of a female lead character despite being a villain for the majority of the movie, and this film is easily my favorite of the mainline seven Showa films.

And my shipping heart is pleased that, even if it’s only happening in the background, Chikako and Kiyoko seem to have gotten quite friendly with each other toward the end – especially in the final wide shot of the human cast on the beach, right before the Gamera theme song kicks in, where Kiyoko visibly preens herself for Chikako and then they stand closer together than anyone else in the shot and even take a moment to look longingly into each other’s eyes.

Make an event of this film with jelly sharks, goldfish, Swedish fish, and Sharkleberry Fin Kool-aid. And/or try my Shark Week special: multi-sized pasta shell macaroni and cheese, mixed with fish of choice and topped with old bay seasoning.