Devil's Whistle
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The Devil's Whistle (悪魔の笛) is a statue made by the ancient civilization of Mu to seal away the monster Jiger which first appeared in the 1970 Daiei Film Gamera vs. Jiger.
History
Showa era
Gamera vs. Jiger
As Japan gets ready to hold the 1970 World's Fair, also called Expo 70, in Osaka, several expo workers get ready to remove a mysterious statue from Wester Island called the Devil's Whistle that they believe to be proof of the ancient civilization of Mu despite the protest of a native, Gibo, warning that the statue keeps a legendary evil monster, Jiger sealed away and the removal of it would free the evil beast. As the helicopters lift the statue up, Gamera lands on the island and holds onto the statue, trying to prevent the removal of statue.
The workers fire their rifles at Gamera, making him let go of the statue. A volcanic eruption distracts Gamera, who flies into the active volcano to feed off the molten rock, allowing the helicopters to load the Devil's Whistle onto the ship Nankai-Maru and transport it to Japan. Later the legend turns out to be true as the monster Jiger bursts out from under the ground the statue stood upon. As the monster goes to drink water after thousands of years of sleeping in her prison, Gamera sensed her presence and challenged her to a fight but losses. With Gamera defeated, she turns her attention to tracking down the statue and destroying it before it can be used against her.
Jiger swims to Osaka and destroys the Nankai-Maru but not before the statue could be airlifted by helicopters. She jumps at them but can't reach them. Gamera arrives on the scene for a rematch with Jiger. It seemed the tides had turned and Gamera would win this time till she sprouted a stinger from her tail stabbed Gamera in the shoulder, infecting him with her parasitic offspring, putting Gamera into a death like coma. Jiger falls asleep. The next morning while the scientists at the Expo hold a meeting on what to do, Jiger wakes up and attacks the Expo. She finds the Devil's Whistle and throws it into the ocean. Two young boys, Hiroshi and Tommy, would steal a miniature submarine and venture into Gamera's body. When attacked by the Baby Jiger they threw their walkies-talkie at it and to their surprise the monster died. Dr. Williams and other scientists hypothesize that Jiger is weak to low-frequency waves as her energy weapons are high-frequency waves, and that the wind passing through the Devil's Whistle created a low frequency sound that kept her at bay much like a dog whistle. Operation Loudspeaker is created, where loudspeakers emulating the Devil's Whistle keep Jiger at bay at the Expo while live wires from a power plant are used on Gamera like defibrillators to resuscitate him.
Gamera wakes up from his coma but the current used to revive him causes the loudspeakers to short out. Gamera quickly flies to the Expo and confronts Jiger for their final battle. When Gamera managed to stun her with a bodyslam and partially bury her, he flies into the ocean and retrieves the Devil's Whistle and returns to the battle, flying above Jiger. Desperate to destroy the ancient weapon, Jiger lunges at Gamera repeatedly trying to get it out of Gamera's clutches. Rather than seal her away so she can once again be freed and once again become future generations' problem, Gamera found a permanent solution. As the ancient demon of Mu leaps up one last time, Gamera throws the statue at her, spike end first like a throwing knife. The spike end goes through Jiger's skull and stabbed into her brain, causing her to fall to the ground and spasm before finally dying.
Still in shock at the fight ending unceremoniously in such sudden and violent final blow, Gamera grabs Jiger's body and flies back to Wester Island. The Devil's Whistle finally doing with Gamera's help what it couldn't do on its own. Ending the constant threat of Jiger once and for all.
Abilities
- Produces a low-frequency noise when the wind blows through it that drives Jiger away.
- Bottom half is shaped like a spike and can be used as a stabbing weapon.
Gallery
The Devil's Whistle transported via the Nankai-Maru.
Alternate Arrow Video Gamera vs. Jiger art by Matt Frank.
Trivia
The idea of statues from an ancient civilization turning out to be a long lost weapon would be repeated decades later in TOHO Studios 1997 film Rebirth of Mothra 2 with the Nilai-Kanai Guardian Towers.
References
This is a list of references for Devil's Whistle. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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