Shinobu Nakayama Movies
Daei studio's answer to Toho's wildly popular Godzilla, Gamera -- a monstrous fire-breathing turtle -- appeared numerous films from 1966 until 1971. In 1995, he made his triumphant return with Gamera Daikaiju Kuchu Kessen (Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe) which featured slick new special effects, a smart script by Kazunori Ito, and sharp direction by Shusuke Kaneko. Gamera 3 opens with scientist Mayumi Nagamine (Shinobu Nakayama) finding the corpse of a Gyaos in a remote Fillipino village. Cut to teenage girl Ayana (Ai Maeda), who is forced to live with her relatives in a rural village near Nara after Gamera killed her parents. One day, a gang of bullying classmates forces her to venture into a cave that supposedly houses a demon. Instead, she finds a rock that lights up at her touch. Later, a tentacled baby beast emerges from an adjacent egg; Ayana cares for it and names it after her dead pet cat, Iris. This, she surmises, could be her means of vengeance against Gamera. Meanwhile in Tokyo, Mayumi attends a meeting of the Monster Damage Control Committee. There she meets the creepy government astrologer Mito Asakita (Senri Yamasaki) and her simpering colleague, an extraordinarily creepy game designer (Toru Tezuka). Just as the meeting is about to commence, a Gyaos attacks Tokyo with Gamera in hot pursuit. Soon, a train station is blown up, glitzy buildings are trashed, and Gamera is dubbed enemy number one by the government. Back in Nara, Ayana finds the desiccated shells of animal as her pet monster has grown to the size of a house. Yet in order for it to reach its full strength, it fuses with its adoptive mother in a manner that is incredibly slimy. Later, Asagi Kusanagi (played by Steven Seagal's daughter Ayako Fujitani) -- the protagonist in the previous two Gamera films -- returns from studying abroad to help Mayumi and Gamera thwart this new villain, Iris. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shinobu Nakayama, Ai Maeda, (more)
- 1995
- NR
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Prehistoric and Intergalactic megamonsters beware! Japan's jet-propelled, flying giant turtle returns, after a 14-year absence in this deliberately retro Japanese sci-fi fantasy, to defeat his giant nemesis Gyaos and to keep the world safe for children everywhere. The trouble begins when a plutonium transport is botched; somehow this disturbs an atoll, causes the disappearance of a professor and an entire village, and reawakens three Gyaos, gigantic flying lizard things with enormous wing-spans who fly about Japan making a lot of noise and causing infinite destruction. The clever scientists observing the birds decide that there is only one structure in Japan big enough to cage the pesky supercreatures: the Fukuoka Dome baseball stadium which has a roof that can open and close. All of the ensuing hullabaloo manages to awaken Gamera, the monster turtle, from his long slumber. He promptly destroys the stadium and releases two of the Gyaos. Disaster ensues as he and the scientists endeavor to stop the avian invaders from destroying the entire world. The film's exciting, climactic battle between Gamera and Gyaos takes place in the smoldering ruins of Tokyo. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tsuyoshi Ihara, Akira Onodera, (more)
Jet Li stars in this historical Hong Kong action film, as Chen Zhen, a Chinese student in Japan in the 1920s. When his master is killed during the Japanese occupation of China, he returns to avenge his teacher's death. Back in China, he finds himself caught in the escalating racial tensions between the Chinese and the Japanese. The martial arts sequences in this 1994 film are handled more seriously than flashy acrobatics of other kung fu epics of the time and are perhaps a better showcase for Li's awe-inspiring fighting abilities. This story is inspired heavily by Bruce Lee's classic Fists of Fury. ~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jet Li
