GAMERA VS GYAOS (1967)

• Director: Noriaki Yuasa
• Starring: Kōjirō Hongō, Kichijirō Ueda, Reiko Kasahara
• Release date: 1967
• Running time: 86mins
• Members Bar: Doors 7pm | Intro 7:30pm | Film 7:45pm [18+ only]

Volcanic activity unleashes a bloodthirsty monster called Gyaos that Gamera must confront.

After GAMERA: THE GIANT MONSTER (1965) became an unexpected box office smash, the giant turtle franchise stomped through several iterations. This third spawning is often celebrated as one of the finest, featuring Gamera going into battle with a giant vampiric bird, Gyaos, and establishing the strange cocktail of gore and child-friendly mayhem that would define the series’ footprint.

If you’re familiar with the (now fading?) cinematic battle between Marvel and DC franchises, you’ll be able to decode the glorious 1960s boom in kaijū cinema. GAMERA VS GYAOS 大怪獣空中戦 ガメラ対ギャオス | Daikaijū kūchūsen: Gamera tai Gyaosu (1967) was pitched as Daiei Studio’s response to the previous film in our season, Toho Co’s FRANKENSTEIN VS BARAGON (1965). Rather than simply creating another giant version of a classic movie monster, Daiei transformed Dracula into a blood-sucking flying mega beast with a ‘supersonic scalpel’ in its mouth…

According to kaijū lore, director of seven of the first eight Gamera films (1965 to 1980), Noriaki Yuasa, suffered a Godzilla-sized inferiority complex but was delighted when he received praise from founding father and frequent Godzilla director, Ishirō Honda, for this film. Gyaos turned out to be a popular enemy for Gamera, turning up like iMacs in many different ‘flavours’ throughout the film series (Super, Hyper, Original etc.), and featuring as main villain in the celebrated reboot (1995). 

Polite notice: We are showing GAMERA VS GYAOS (1967) in Japanese with English subtitles from the best available digital source.

Part of ATOMIC ORIGINS, an apocalyptic season of sci-fi films unleashed by the monstrous power of the atom bomb. Hosted by queer film fanatic Token Homo (creator of BAR TRASH and QUEER HORROR NIGHTS), all films screen in the Members’ Bar with an introduction, intermission, and subtitles/captions (where possible!). Tickets £8 (£5 for Picturehouse members). Adults 18+ only. Follow @tokenhomo on Instagram for news and updates.