ice MOTW- Barugon

 

Gamera fought Barugon, the Quick Freeze Monster in his second movie.  Like most of Gamera's foes, Barugon had more than one power.  He had a prehensile tongue that could shoot ice and snow out of it.  Later on, we see the deadly rainbow beam that disintegrates everything it touches.  Oddly enough, for a monster that uses ice vapor as a power, Barugon's weakness was water, which is exactly how Gamera dispatched his foe.

Say what you will, Daiei did do quadrupedal monsters pretty well.  Barugon and Jiger look great, and don't look like actors crawling around on their knees.  Toho tried at first, then stayed away from the four legged critters for quite some time.  It's a well designed suit, nicely but not overly detailed.

This is not my favorite Gamera movie. It is too long- at least the Japanese version, and far too serious for itself.  Much of the movie is about the rather unpleasant characters.

The AIP-TV version runs about 20 minutes shorter, gets rid of much of the unsavory storyline, and then we get far more monster action.  And in most giant monster movies, that's generally a good thing.