In director Shusuke Kaneko’s first Gamera film in a trilogy, the titular kaiju is awakened by a group of scientists near the coast of the Philippines. While adults tremble in fear, teenager Asagi Kusanagi (Ayako Fujitani) forms a psyche bond with the giant flying turtle. At the same time, ornithologist Mayumi Nagamine (Shinobu Nakayama) is investigating reports of flying monsters on the Goto Islands. It will be up to Gamera to defeat these bird-like monsters known as Gyaos.

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe was released in the same year as Godzilla versus Destoroyah. It was credited for bringing kaiju filmmaking to the modern era while Godzilla has become complacent with its same old formula. Kaiju has been a staple in Japanese cinema for more than half of the twentieth century. Its unique blend of popular entertainment and social consciousness has inspired many in and outside of Japan. Yet, few films have reached the artistic heights of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, the first kaiju film selected by magazine Kinema Junpo as one of the year’s ten best films in 1995.

This screening at M+ will present the latest 2021, 4K restored version of the film.

The screening on 17 June will be followed by a post-screening talk with Ariel Esteban Cayer, Co-Director of Asian Programming, Fantasia International Film Festival, and M+ Curator of Moving Image Chanel Kong.

Shusuke Kaneko (b. 1955, Japan) began as a writer for TV anime shows, including Urusei Yatsura and Creamy Mami and the Magical Angel, in the early 1980s. His experience working on pink films at Nikkatsu led to his directorial debut Koichiro Uno's Wet and Swinging (1984). In the 1990s, Daiei Film hired Kaneko to revive the Gamera franchise, which includes Gamera: Guardians of the Universe, Gamera 2: Attack of Legion, and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris. The three films, collectively known as the Gamera Heisei Trilogy, are celebrated for giving the much-maligned franchise a long-awaited makeover.