Shot in black and white, this 1965 Japanese monster movie was the Daiei company's answer to Toho's famous Godzilla series. A skirmish between U. S. and unknown "enemy" planes results in an atomic explosion over the Arctic which unthaws and unleashes the giant flying turtle Gamera, who eventually settles into Japan to wreak havoc while seeking out hydro-electric sustenance. However, this fire-eating (and breathing) behemoth displays a compassionate streak when he saves the life of a young boy who nearly falls to his death from a toppled lighthouse. Panicky scientists and military officials vainly try to find ways to destroy Gamera while the boy seeks to bond with his misunderstood reptilian hero. Like many of its celluloid Japanese monster brethren, Giant Monster Gamera has not aged all that well, but the well-staged and photographed assault on Tokyo makes for festive mayhem. Overall the film is good entertainment for young kids as well as the inner children of the adults who grew up on these monster mashes. -Bryan Reesman.

In this classic documentary, one of the world's finest directors captures the colorful pageantry and emotional intensity of the 1964 Olympics. Kon Ichikawa's Tokyo Olympiad is both a celebration of Japan's postwar recovery and an artistic statement about athletic competition. To produce this epic work, Ichikawa (The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain) brings together an impressive team, including his wife and collaborator Natto Wada, renowned cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon), and 164 ubiquitous cameramen. Using his talents as a novelist, Ichikawa searches out the human side of the Olympics in such dramatic moments as Vera Caslavska's virtual sweep of the gymnastics medals and Billy Mills' astonishing, come-from-behind victory in the 10,000-meter race. The 1964 Olympics in Tokyo were a milestone as much for the intense athletic competition as the joyous commemoration of Japan's recovery following its defeat in World War II. Director Kon Ichikawa (The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain) created an epic film of the event, a documentary that covered the entire athletic competition while also capturing the surrounding atmosphere. Early in the film is a stunning aerial shot of Hiroshima, which first shows the devastated area, where destruction from the atom bomb has been preserved, before focusing on a beautiful park where an Olympic ceremony was being held. The scenes of athletic competition, some of which were shot by cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon), work beautifully on two levels. The camera frames the extreme effort expended by such athletes as the great American runner Bob Hayes, and thus the film functions as a credible sports documentary, yet the camera also goes in for close-ups, lingering on the athlete's muscled forms to provide images that would look perfectly at home on the wall of a photography gallery. The narration in Japanese is accompanied with English subtitles, and this edition retains the widescreen look of the original theatrical release (in a letterboxed format) as well as the complete 170-minute running time. [+]