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Gamera vs. Barugon, a review by Danae Cassandra

Gamera vs. Barugon  (Daikaiju ketto: Gamera tai Barugon)
Year of Release: 1966
Directed By: Tanaka Shigeo
Starring: Hongou Koujirou, Enami Kyouko, Hayakawa Yuuzou, Fujioka Takuya
Genre: Science-Fiction, Disaster, Tokusatsu, Kaiju

Overview:
Once the fear of Tokyo, Gamera returns to Earth to save it from the malevolent monster Barugon who is able to freeze anything its path. This unholy battle between fire and ice challenges the survival of mankind while bringing them an incredible slam-bang, knock-down monster slug-fest!

My Thoughts:
Witness the birth of Barugon! See him shoot his freeze ray! Cower before his magnificent and terrible rainbow!

If you think that a rainbow-shooting monster is absurd, Barugon isn't the silliest of Gamera's foes. He's actually a kinda cool monster, especially the contrast of his cold powers to Gamera's fire. We again have the theme of unstoppable forces of nature awakened by mankind's greed/stupidity. Gamera is still very much a force of nature here - he's not so much fighting on the side of humanity as he is against Barugon. There's also a lack of any annoying child characters. Not the best of the Showa films, but not the worst either.

Bechdel Test: Fail
 
Overall: 2.75/5

(From Gamera! on February 27th, 2016)

Early Summer, a review by Antares

Early Summer (1951) 57/100 - It pains me to say this, with the amount of time I spend watching Japanese cinema, but this one did not click for me. I bought this blind from Criterion a few years back, and have tried on four separate occasions to watch it in its entirety, failing to even make it to the halfway mark before giving up. This time I was determined to finish it and now I can see why it took me so many attempts in the past. Everything that was touching, beautiful and memorable in Late Spring, is completely absent from this film. At one point, I found myself wondering how the Japanese found time to fight World War II with everyone so anally fixated on who is and who's not married in each neighbor's family. I found myself distantly uncaring for almost all of the members of this family, with the exception of Noriko. I never even briefly felt that these people were real. And I think it comes from the way that Ozu shoots his films, with the back and forth editing of character conversations, which makes the actors look like actors performing. This technique, while visually interesting, just makes each scene seem somewhat vacant in character chemistry, timing and interest. I know a lot of people consider this one of Ozu's best films, but for me, it pales in comparison to Late Spring.

What the color coding means...

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on March 28th, 2014)

Charmed Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

13. Repo Manor
When The Charmed Ones consider moving, they're forced to stay under the same roof by a demon that miniaturizes and imprisons them inside a dollhouse replica of the Manor.

My Thoughts:
This is another good... but standard episode.  Pretty much everything in this episode we seen in previous episodes... just brought together into a single episode... we have The Charmed Ones being shrunken and placed into the Dollhouse.... demons impersonating The Charmed Ones... all been done before.

14. 12 Angry Zen
Piper searches for information about Leo and discovers a message from Lo Pan, a monk and keeper of a sacred Buddhist staff containing the power of influence.

My Thoughts:
A good episode.. and something different this time as well... Buddha's Staff. Also in this episode Billie finally finds out how to find her sister.

15. The Last Temptation Of Christy
Paige is torn between dating mortal Henry or a magical suitor who proposes marriage, while Billie finds her sister, Christy, who has been held captive by demons for several years.

My Thoughts:
A good episode... Billie and Christy takes care of the Demons that kept Christy captive for all these years. Even though all is not as it seems. Also in this episode Paige and Henry get engaged. I like the Henry character... but it seems like they are rushing it a bit. Of course that is understandable since they knew this would be the last season... and only had so much time to tie everything up.

16. Engaged And Confused
Paige and Henry's cold fee put their engagement in jeopardy.  Meanwhile, a demon kidnaps Christy in order to lure The Charmed Ones into attacking the Triad and prevent them from taking over the Underworld.

My Thoughts:
A Really good episode... Christy gets taken again... but not for long this time. Plus we find out more about what the Triad is up to. Unfortunately you can feel the show coming to an end... all the loose ends being tied up a little more with each episode.

(From Charmed Marathon on July 16th, 2008)