Gamera: Super Monster (1980)
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Gamera: Super Monster (宇宙怪獣ガメラ is a Uchū Kaijū Gamera, lit. Space Monster Gamera)1980 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Daiei Motion Picture Company. It is the eighth and final entry in the Showa Gamera series, and the last Gamera film written by Nisan Takahashi and directed by Noriaki Yuasa. It was released to Japanese theaters on March 20, 1980.
Plot
When the pirate Spaceship Zanon makes its way to Earth to destroy it, all hope seems lost. The Earth's resident superheroes, the Spacewomen, are powerless to stop it and its army of monsters. They must enlist the help of a young boy who has a special connection with Gamera. The friend of all children then fights and kills Gyaos, Zigra, Viras, Jiger, Guiron, and Barugon. He then sacrifices himself to destroy Spaceship Zanon.
Staff
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Noriaki Yuasa
- Written by Nisan Takahashi
- Executive producing by Masaichi Nagata
- Produced by Hirozaki Oba, Shigeru Shinohara, Yasuyoshi Tokuma, Masaya Tokuyama
- Music by Shunsuke Kikuchi
- Cinematography by Michio Takahashi, Akira Uehara
- Edited by Zenko Miyazaki, Tatsuji Nakashizu, Shoji Sekiguchi
- Production design by Akira Inoue, Tomohisa Yano
- Assistant directing by Hiromi Munemoto
- Special effects by Noriaki Yuasa
Cast
- Main article: Gamera: Super Monster/Credits.
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Mach Fumiake as Kilara
- Yaeko Kojima as Marsha
- Yoko Komatsu as Mitan
- Keiko Kudo as Giruge
- Koichi Maeda as Keiichi
- Toshie Takada as Keiichi's Mother
- Kisao Tobita as Driver
- Osamu Kobayashi as Captain of Spaceship Zanon (voice)
International English dub
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Suzanne Vale as Kilara
- Chris Hilton as Driver / Captain of Spaceship Zanon / Punk / News Announcer / Reporter
- Ted Thomas as Policeman / Narrator / Photographer
Appearances
Monsters |
Weapons, vehicles, and races
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Alternate titles
- Space Monster Gamera (literal Japanese title)
- Super Monster (original English title)
Theatrical releases
- Japan - March 20, 1980
- Australia - 1980
- France - 1983
- Poland - 1984
Gallery
- Main article: Gamera: Super Monster/Gallery.
Video releases
Shout! Factory DVD (2010)
- Region: 1
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (1.0 Mono), English (1.0 Mono)
- Special features: Photo galleries
- Notes: Both versions of the film use the same Japanese video track. Packaged with Gamera vs. Zigra.
Mill Creek DVD (2014) [Gamera: Legacy Collection]
- Region: 1
- Discs: 4
- Audio: Japanese (1.0 Mono)
- Special features: None
- Notes: Packaged with Gamera, Gamera vs. Barugon, Gamera vs. Gyaos, Gamera vs. Viras, Gamera vs. Guiron, Gamera vs. Jiger, Gamera vs. Zigra, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion, and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris.
Mill Creek Blu-ray (2014) [Gamera: Ultimate Collection, Volume 2]
- Region: N/A
- Discs: 2
- Audio: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Special features: None
- Notes: Packaged with Gamera vs. Guiron, Gamera vs. Jiger, and Gamera vs. Zigra.
Videos
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Trivia
- Every one of the monsters fought by Gamera in the Showa series appears in this film via stock footage, each with a subtitle regarding their name. In order, he fights Gyaos, Zigra, Viras, Jiger, Guiron and Barugon.
- Actress Mach Fumiake, who portrays the Spacewoman Kilara, was a professional wrestler at the time this film was made.
- The "Gamera March" theme song is absent from this film, and a new theme song, "Love for Future," appears multiple times.
- This film, because of the heavy use of stock footage (which took up over a third of the film), featured only about two minutes of new Gamera footage.
- As can be seen from the poster, the film features a spaceship which bears a suspicious resemblance to an Imperial Star Destroyer, an obvious attempt to capitalize on the success of the Star Wars films.
- As Gamera originally fought Guiron on an alien planet (Terra), a plot device was created for this film that allowed Gamera to travel to his enemies' locations.
- At one point in the movie, Gamera knocks over a billboard. The camera then zooms closer to revealing it as an advertisement for a film titled "Sayonara Dojira," featuring artwork strongly resembling Godzilla, Gamera's box-office rival. Ironically, the Godzilla series had been in a hiatus for over 5 years by the time of the release of Gamera: Super Monster, meaning that there was little competition on the market for Daiei to go up against.
- The name of the antagonistic spaceship in this film, Zanon, appears to be a corruption/transliteration of the chemical element Xenon, a noble gas. This is ironic, given that Spaceship Zanon is particularly villainous.
- One scene shows Gamera flying with Yamato from the anime Space Battleship Yamato and another shows Gamera chasing the Galaxy Express 999 from the titular anime, both of which combine live-action footage of Gamera with animation.
- Daiei contracted Ex Productions to create new Gamera suits and props for this film, as the existing ones had been destroyed in a fire after Daiei went bankrupt. Ex created a suit and a prop for the film, though Daiei ultimately decided to primarily use stock footage from previous films, relegating the prop to a few brief scenes and the suit to a single shot of its lower body.
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