Gamera vs Jiger

Plot

In Gamera vs. Jiger, Gamera has his hands full right from the very beginning. Japan is preparing for Expo '70, to be held in Osaka. Construction of the various buildings and pavilions is well under way. On Wester Island in the Pacific Ocean, a large statue of mysterious origin (called the Devil's Whistle) is located by scientists. Workers from the Expo are interested in returning the statue for display and try to remove it for transport by ship. The removal of the statue is hampered first by a tribal member of the Wester Island people, then by the unexpected arrival of Gamera, who aggressively attempts to prevent the removal of the statue, only to be shot at by the crew instead. The statue is removed from the island successfully after a volcano erupts. Shortly after departing the island, members of the ship's crew begin to fall ill. The statue appears to be the source of the outbreak, as it makes a continuous piercing sound, driving many of the crew members insane. Later analysis reveals the presence of a central shaft that runs nearly the length of the statue top-to-bottom. The position of the opening on the statue is creating the high-pitched "squeal" as air passes through it.

After the statue is removed, Jiger makes her first appearance and gets Gamera's immediate attention. The first of several fights ensues and Jiger wins by shooting projectile quills from her face. The quills impale Gamera's arms and legs, piercing all the way through and preventing Gamera from withdrawing his limbs into his shell and taking flight. To make matters worse, Gamera is on his back and cannot move. He pulls himself up with his tail using a large rock, then removes the offending quills from his limbs and is finally able to fly after Jiger.

Meanwhile, Jiger is actively seeking the statue, because it is making a horrible ringing sound that is causing her tremendous pain. Jiger lets nothing impede that hunt as she splits two ships in half and starts tearing through Osaka. Scientists are beside themselves as Jiger displays another weapon: a heat ray that vaporizes not only flesh but entire city blocks. The JSDF does make a token effort to kill the kaiju, but her quills knock down the F-104 Starfighters, ending that involvement.

Gamera returns for round two as the fight is witnessed by several children. Gamera knocks Jiger around and has the upper hand until Jiger pulls Gamera to her. Jiger extends a stinger from her tail and inserts the barb into Gamera's chest, laying an egg inside his lung. Gamera staggers away, roaring in agony. Finally, he barely makes it to the bay and his body turns a chalky white color, almost like ice. Gamera is presumed to have been killed at this point as Jiger heads straight to Expo '70. Jiger finally obtains the statue and throws it into the ocean, ending the painful noise.

The scientists are checking out possible causes of the noise, as it affected humans, causing temporary insanity. The children convinced them to do a medical exam on the comatose Gamera, where it is discovered that there's a dark spot on one of his lungs. One of the scientists served as a zoo director and realised that the spot might not be a fast spreading cancer, but actually a parasitic infant Jiger growing inside Gamera. An operation is needed to remove the threat, so the children took the initiative by taking a walkie talkie and a mini-sub. Communication is established with the kids and they enter Gamera through his open mouth, and after almost going into his stomach, they arrive at the problem lung. The children are able to exit the sub and walk around in the lung. There, they discover the baby.

The baby looks like a tiny version of his mother, except that instead of shooting quills, the baby squirts a sticky goo. The baby attacks them but he has a weakness just like its mother: white noise. The kids discover this is actually a fatal weakness and manage to kill the baby using static from their radio. They leave Gamera's body and report their findings to the scientists. They rig up large speakers to keep Jiger at bay, as well as figuring out that power would have to also be run into Gamera, who cannot recover on his own. The children make a final trip inside Gamera to hook up a set of power lines directly to his heart.

Jiger is kept still by the speakers playing the white noise. It is not enough to kill Jiger, but buys enough time for the other plan to start. Gamera is subjected to high voltage shock before the electrical grid overloads. It is enough that Gamera revives on his own.

Gamera flies over to the World's Fair for the final battle. Jiger tries every weapon she has got, but Gamera has learned from his previous battles with her. After her spears fail to affect him, Jiger then uses her heat ray, the one weapon she has yet to use on him. It does not affect Gamera's shell or even skin (likely due to Gamera's resistance to heat) but the sound it generates threatens to rupture his eardrums. Luckily, Gamera is able to put power poles in his ears to protect them from the sound. After trying all her other attacks, Jiger resorts to her tail stinger again but Gamera is prepared for it this time and uses a building to smash her tail and destroy the stinger. Gamera body-slams Jiger several times from great heights, but Jiger is not affected. However, it buys Gamera the time needed to go into the ocean to retrieve the statue from the sea floor. Jiger, enraged by the statue's return attempts to catch the flying Gamera. Gamera taunts Jiger with the statue, who tries in vain to catch Gamera and retrieve it. Gamera finally ends the fight by throwing the statue at Jiger, which embeds itself in Jiger's skull, killing her. Gamera then returns the devil beast to Wester Island.

Cast

Production

Gamera vs. Jiger was the sixth film in the Gamera series. The American version of the film includes stock footage from Gamera vs. Guiron and Gamera vs. Barugon.

Release

Gamera vs. Jiger was released in Japan 21 March 1970. The film was never released theatrically in the United States. It was released directly to television by American International Television (AIP-TV) in 1970 as Gamera vs. Monster X.

Home video

Shout! Factory has released the film on September 21, 2010 on DVD as a double feature with Gamera vs. Guiron.

Image Entertainment released the American version of the film in 2004.