While I am somewhat familiar with Gamera, I haven't watched all the movies. And thus, when I happened to stumble upon the 1971 movie "Gamera Tai Shinkai Kaijû Jigura" (aka "Gamera vs Zigra") here in 2024, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.
I have to admit that I wasn't exactly harboring a whole lot to the movie, as the majority of the Gamera movies I have already have watched haven't exactly been overly impressive. There has a been one or two movies that proved to be entertaining, whereas the majority of them have been subpar and below average.
But I still opted to sit down and watch what writer Niisan Takahashi and director Noriaki Yuasa brought to the screen back in 1971.
The storyline in "Gamera Tai Shinkai Kaijû Jigura" was adequate, though I have to say that it is defintely a movie that is somewhat aimed at a younger audience, given the two main characters are kids. Watchable for what it was, the movie makes for an adequate enough popcorn movie, if you enjoy old Kaiju movies from Japan.
Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, as the movie is four years older than I am. But the acting performances were actually fair enough.
Visually then "Gamera Tai Shinkai Kaijû Jigura" was okay. Of course the creatures and effects are showing signs of being 53 years old. But there is actually something oddly entertaining about that, and I suppose it was because the effects were so campy and cheesy. Truth be told, the cheesy effects actually made the movie all the more enjoyable to sit through.
I was actually adequately entertainted throughout the course of the 87 minutes that the movie ran for. Though I doubt that I will ever return to watch "Gamera Tai Shinkai Kaijû Jigura" a second time.
My rating of director Noriaki Yuasa's 1971 movie "Gamera Tai Shinkai Kaijû Jigura" lands on a five out of ten stars.
