- For the Season K episode, see MST3K K07 - Gamera vs Zigra.
- For the Season 3 episode, see MST3K 316 - Gamera vs Zigra.
Gamera vs Zigra is a 1971 kaiju film directed by Noriaki Yuasa. It is the seventh film featuring Gamera, the giant flying turtle.
Plot[]
Without warning, an alien spaceship attacks a Japanese moon base.
On Earth, Dr. Yosuke Ishikawa and his young son Kenichi (aka "Kenny") witness the spaceship descending into the ocean. They go to investigate, joined by Kenichi's friend Helen and her father, Dr. Tom Wallace. The group is soon captured by a teleportation beam that brings them aboard the spaceship.
Inside the spaceship, a human-looking woman appears to them and reveals that she is from an alien race called the Zigra. Demonstrating Zigran technological prowess, she creates a gigantic earthquake that wreaks havoc in Japan. She reveals that she had previously caused two other earthquakes, one in Peru and the other in Arabia. She then tells her prisoners of Zigra's history and its great scientific advances which have resulted in the destruction of their planet In searching for a new home, Zigra has found Earth.
The Zigran woman contacts authorities on Earth and orders them to surrender or she will kill her prisoners. Tom declares that the Zigran woman is insane. She puts the two adult men into a hypnotic trance. Kenny and Helen take action, successfully using the ship's control console to escape. Enraged, the Zigran overlord—a strange, shark-like being—orders the woman to go to Earth and kill the children. She says it would be simpler to kill all the people of Japan, but the great Zigra tells her that humans must be preserved so they can be used for food.
Gamera, intent on discovering the identity of the alien interloper, flies in and rescues the children and their fathers. The UN authorities, after questioning Kenny and Helen, resolve to attack Zigra. The Defense Force jets scramble, but the Zigran spaceship defeats them with its powerful lasers. The alien woman, disguised as a normal human, arrives on earth and begins her search for Kenny and Helen. She hitches a ride with a Sea World dolphin trainer back to the facility, which the military is now using as its center of operations. She finds the two children, but before she can catch them they summon Gamera.
"The Maidenform Woman. You never know where she'll turn up."
Gamera begins an underwater assault on the Zigran spaceship, which transforms into the giant shark-like monster. Zigra grows larger and larger, and finally immobilizes Gamera with a ray that suspends its cell activity. Gamera sinks into the sea. Zigra then makes contact with the people of earth, saying that they should give up and surrender all the seas to him.
Back at Sea World, the dolphin trainer and the facility's scientists discover a way to break the alien's hypnotic control with sonic waves. They manage to disable the Zigran woman, but then that she is actually a human woman named Lora Lee who had been in a moon rover during the initial lunar attack and was captured and used by Zigra. Drs. Wallace and Ishikawa employ a bathyscaph in an attempt to wake Gamera. Kenny and Helen stow away to join them. Zigra suddenly attacks them and again demands the immediate surrender of the earth or he will destroy the bathyscaph. The UN commander reluctantly agrees to the alien's terms.
An electrical storm approaches the bay, and a bolt of lightning revives Gamera, who snatches the bathyscaph from Zigra and returns it to the surface. Gamera and Zigra face off a final time. Zigra's superior underwater versatility enables it to slice Gamera's chest with its blade-like dorsal fin. Gamera takes hold of Zigra, flies into the air, and then drops at high speed, slamming the alien monster to the ground. Gamera further incapacitates Zigra by jamming a boulder over its nose, pinning it to the ground. Finally, Gamera destroys Zigra by setting its body on fire, reducing it to ash and saving the Earth.
Cast[]
- Koji Fujiyama as Dr. Tom Wallace
- Yasushi Sakagami as Kenny
- Isamu Saeki as Dr. Yosuke Ishikawa
- Eiko Yanami as Woman X / Lora Lee
- Reiko Kasahara as Ryoko Ishikawa
- Akira Natsuki as Doctor
Notes[]
- Zigra in full shark mode resembles a Goblin shark, a rare species of deep sea shark found most commonly near Japan.
- Gamera vs. Zigra was the only classic Gamera film not released in the U.S. until the advent of home video. Gamera vs. Zigra first appeared in the U.S. on television through Sandy Frank's distribution company, several years after its Japanese release.
- The Sandy Frank version is set in 1985 (as indicated by the hermit with the radio). This is most likely because that was the same year the dub by William L Cooper Jr. was produced.
MST3K Connections[]
- Director Noriaki Yuasa was also director for Gamera, Gamera vs Gaos, Gamera vs Guiron, and Gamera vs Jiger (for which he was also a special effects technician), as well as director of stock footage and special effects for Gamera vs Barugon.
- Writer Niisan Takahashi was also writer for Gamera, Gamera vs Barugon, Gamera vs Gaos, Gamera vs Guiron, and Gamera vs Jiger.
- Koji Fujiyama also portrayed the U.S. Arctic Base Commander in Gamera and Onodera in Gamera vs Barugon.
- Reiko Kasahara also portrayed Sumiko Kanamura in Gamera vs Gaos and Florbella in Gamera vs Guiron.
- Yoshio Yoshida (unspecified role) also portrayed the Eskimo chief in Gamera.
- U.S. version producer Sandy Frank was also producer for the U.S. versions of Humanoid Woman, The "Legend of Dinosaurs", Gamera, Gamera vs Barugon, Time of the Apes, Gamera vs Gaos, Fugitive Alien, Gamera vs Guiron, Mighty Jack, and Star Force: Fugitive Alien II.
- Composer Shunsuke Kikuchi was also composer for Gamera vs Guiron and Gamera vs Jiger.
- Monster designer Ryôsaku Takayama was also monster designer for Gamera, Gamera vs Guiron, and Gamera vs Jiger.