As part of the 60th anniversary project for the "Gamera" monster film series, the "Showa Gamera Film Festival" will be held at Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho (Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo) and other locations from December 5th. The festival will screen 4K digital restorations of the series' first film, "Gamera the Giant Monster" (1965), second film, "Gamera vs. Barugon" (1966), and third film, "Gamera vs. Gyaos" (1967). The restorations were overseen by Shinji Higuchi, special effects director for the "Heisei Gamera" series, and Shunichi Ogura, who has overseen the 4K digital restoration of many classic films. Starting November 21st, the "Heisei Gamera" series will be revived in theaters in Dolby Cinema versions, with "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" (1995), "Gamera 2: Attack of Legion" (1996), and "Gamera 3: The Awakening of Iris" (1999). We asked Higuchi and Ogura to talk about the appeal of "Gamera."
◇Show the atmosphere of the movies of that time
--What is the appeal of "Gamera"?
Higuchi: Simply put, it was the ability to fly. And to spin around. Apparently, making it spin was extremely difficult at the time. You had to prepare four gunpowder sticks with the same amount of fire at the same time, and each one would produce that much fire. It had to be custom-made, and sometimes one wouldn't fire, so it cost quite a bit of money. So the later it got, the harder it was to spin around.
Mr. Ogura is an ally of children and his love of protecting them is what makes him so appealing.
Higuchi: There aren't many films that are so clearly aimed at children. There are children in "Gappa," but that was after "Gamera." There are some children in the first film, but there are no children in the second. It was decided that it would be better to have some. It's inevitable to compare it to "Godzilla," but the approach is a little different. The monster in "Gamera" has a living creature-like quality, and it tries to be analyzed scientifically. Of course, there is no such creature, and it's not scientific, but in order to defeat the monster, human ingenuity is used, and Gamera also tries his best to find its weaknesses. I think that's what makes Daiei's monsters unique.
--A 4K digital restoration will be screened. What is the condition of the original film?
Ogura: This time, we scanned from negative film, and the condition of the negative was not bad. There was almost no shrinkage, scratches, or unevenness. There was almost no shaking. There were only a few black frames, but these were included in the original editing, and there were no missing parts. The film was in very good condition, so the restoration was completed relatively quickly.
Mr. Higuchi: Rather than trying to make the images clear at all costs, I tried to capture the atmosphere of the films of that time. Is it because of the low ISO that the images are so beautiful? The graininess and thickness are unique to the films of that time.
Ogura: That's right. Negatives have a lot more information than positives, so I was able to bring that out. Details like black came out.
Higuchi: It's easy to erase what's in the photos. However, if you erase it, it will also disappear from history. That's why we try to preserve it. The same goes for the piano wire that suspends the plane. It's possible to erase it, but we've left it. It has to remain as information. We tried hard to erase it, but you can't tamper with what's already in the photos.
Depending on the supervisor , Ogura-san might say, "Erase everything." Higuchi-san said, "Let's stop erasing what was on the screen at the time." Even the piano wires stand out after being restored, but we chose not to erase them.
Higuchi: It's exciting because it shows things that we can't even imagine now. When you see the piano wire, you realize that something so big was moving. When guiding Barugon, a helicopter appears to make it rain artificially, and that helicopter is also very well made. It's easier to understand than before.
--Do you have a sense of mission to convey the technology of that time, and love and respect for the work?
Mr. Higuchi: Of course.
-What are the characteristics of the special effects technology in "Gamera"?
Higuchi: As anyone who's been to Daiei's studio knows, the stage is very long horizontally. They take advantage of that spaciousness to create their images. The long shots are spacious. Gamera and Gyaos are on either side of the screen, with long beams of light shining from them. Because the set is so wide, there aren't many cuts. Tsuburaya Productions has a TV show called "Fireman," which is just as wide. I wondered why, and it turns out the set was made by Daiei. Tsuburaya Productions also made a movie called "The Great Monster Battle: Daigoro vs. Goliath," which is also wide. In a small studio, you have no choice but to cut, but at Daiei's studio, the set is so wide that you can stand there and shoot. When I go to Daiei's studio, I shoot long shots.
Ogura-san, the photography design will also change.
◇What if you were to film "Gamera" in the Reiwa era?
--The "Heisei Gamera" series had a huge influence on monster movies that followed. At the time, I felt like they were trying to make monster movies that adults could enjoy as well.
Higuchi: The original "Gamera" was aimed at children, and I think the other monster movies at the time, such as the "Heisei Gamera" series, were aimed at children. Before that, there was "Jurassic Park," a movie with dinosaurs, but it wasn't aimed at children. I thought, "Maybe we could do something like that with "Gamera." The producer who approached me, Tsutomu Tsuchikawa, had made films like "Dunhuang," which had a huge production budget, so I thought we'd get a budget for this! I was excited, but in reality, we didn't have that much of a budget (laughs). But my ambitions were high.
-Have you considered making a comeback to monster movies?
Higuchi: Back then, if you said you wanted to make a monster movie in the film industry, you were laughed at. I felt that if you made it properly, it would be interesting. At the time, Ogura was on the front lines, having worked on films starring Juzo Itami and others, so when I heard he was coming to "Gamera," I was like, "Are you serious?!"
Ogura: When I first received the script, I was excited because it was aimed at adults. It was a time when CG synthesis was rapidly developing in terms of filming technology, so I felt it was something new, and it was spectacular when they destroyed the Fukuoka Dome.
Mr. Higuchi: It would cost a lot of money to do what we did back then, so it's cheaper to do it all with CG.
Mr. Ogura, you are doing things that you can't do now.
--What if you were to film "Gamera" in the Reiwa era?
Higuchi: For me, "Gamera" was the three films of the Heisei era where I did everything I wanted to do. I let it all go. I couldn't win against the youth and energy I had back then. At my age, I can't do something so reckless. I don't want to compete with my former self.
Anima Mitsuru/MANTANWEB
