Gamera vs. Barugon

A group of men searching for treasure on a remote island in the South Pacific find what looks like a valuable opal and bring it back to Japan. The stone turns out to be an egg, and once it hatches it grows into a giant creature called Barugon, which can freeze whatever it touches and fire a destructive rainbow beam from its back. At the same time, the giant turtle Gamera frees himself from the capsule that has been carrying him through space and returns to Earth. Barugon's attack on Osaka leaves the city in ruins, and Gamera is the only force capable of stopping him.

Shigeo Tanaka directed the film, which came after I'll Cry Alone in his filmography and before The Woman Gambler's Tenth Game. Nisan Takahashi wrote the screenplay, Masaichi Nagata and Yonejirô Saitô produced it for Daiei Film, and the cast of 27 includes Kōjirō Hongō, Kyōko Enami, Yūzō Hayakawa, Takuya Fujioka, Kōji Fujiyama and Sho Natsuki. The film belongs to the Gamera series, in which the monster first appeared in 1965 and here faces a new opponent.

Gamera vs. Barugon runs 106 minutes. It holds a rating of 5.1 out of 10 on IMDb from around 3,100 votes, while on TMDB it has a 6.4 out of 10 from 99 votes. The gap suggests a small, more favorable group of viewers on one platform against a larger and more mixed response on the other.