Gamera 2: Assault of the Legion

Toronto International Film Festival Program Guide
1996

Gamera 2: Assault of the Legion
Shusuke Kaneko
JAPAN, 1996
99 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: DAIEI Co./ NTV Network
Executive Producer: Yasuyoshi Yokuma
Producer: Tsutomu Tsuchikawa, Miyuki Nanri, Naoki Sato
Screenplay: Kazunori Ito
Cinematographer: Junichi Tozawa
Editor: Shizuo Arakawa
Production Designer: Hajime Oikawa
Sound: Yasuo Hashimoto
Music: Koh Ohtani
Principal Cast: Toshiyuki Nagashima

The last film presented in last year’s Festival, Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe, proved to be a spiritual epiphany for many exhausted Midnight Madness acolytes. It is our great pleasure this year to present the world premiere of Gamera 2: Assault of the Legion, the epic return of everybody’s favourite fire-breathing turtle. Every bit as campy and pyrotechnically intense as its predecessor, Gamera 2 adds new sophistication to the genre. Politically prickly subjects such as subway attacks and nuclear-style blasts on Japanese soil are seamlessly woven into the story, giving the film an unexpected visceral punch. Monster sci-fi doesn’t get much better than this.

One night a comet falls to Earth near the city of Sapporo. The Defense Force Chemical Team, led by Watarase and Hanatani (our heroes), discovers an impact crater, but no debris. Soon, fibre-optic cables and glass bottles start disappearing in Sapporo. Witnesses describe huge, crab-like monsters but are thought crazy. The source of these strange phenomena finally appears in the subway: a mass of aggressive, insect-like organisms. As the insects attack, immense weeds sprout and rip apart a skyscraper. This is the Legion, per Mark 5:9—“And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, My name is Legion: for we are many.”

Scientists, led by Midori Honami, a curious and coquettish young lass, discover that the weeds and bugs have a symbiotic relationship, the monsters protecting the weeds, the weeds produce the highly concentrated oxygen the creatures live on. The creatures would be merely a menace if the weeds hadn’t bloomed; but when they go to seed, Honami discovers, enough concentrated oxygen will be emitted to destroy all of Sapporo. Enter Gamera, to save the day and fight against all the dirty alien tricks the Legion, and their Queen, have to offer.
—Noah Cowan