Shout! Factory brings a slew of Gamera films to DVD

by Chris MaGee

Here's a story for all you kaiju monster movie fans out there. It was recently announced that Shout! Factory, the same people who brought us the special edition Blu-ray of Takashi Miike's psychological horror masterpiece "Audition", are going to try and deliver a different variety of scares when the release of Norika Yuasa's original 1965 "Daikaiju Gamera (Giant Monster Gamera)" on May 18th.

Gamera, a giant bipedal, fire-breathing turtle who awakes form a subzero nap in the Antarctic after the detenation of a U.S. nuclear missle, was created by Daiei Studios as their won answer to rival studio Toho and their genre-defining giant monster Godzilla. This first film in the Gamera series. though, doesn't feature the benevolent guardian Gamera who's a friend of all children. 1965's "Daikaiju Gamera" is all about destruction with the giant turtle unleashing his wrath on Tokyo.

If "Daikaiju Gamera" coming to DVD isn't good enough news as it is Shout! Factory is also packing the DVD with "12-page booklet with an essay by director Noriaki Yuasa, a photo gallery, trailers and more" all assembled by kaiju expert August Ragone. But wait! It gets even better... Once Shout! factory has the first Gamera film out on store shelves they'll be following it up with the next seven films in the series. Very good news indeed.

You can pre-order Shout! factory's DVD of "Daikaiju Gamera (Giant Monster Gamera)" here, but until your copy arrives you can whet your kaiju appetite with the trailer for the film below. Thanks to Nippon Cinema for this story.