I also watched Gamera vs. Barugon. Despite being made the year after Gamera, this movie was in color. Gamera was black and white.
This movie should have been titled “Barugon with a little Gamera at the end.” Gamera returns from his one-way trip to Mars when his rocket is hit by a meteor and he is released. Gamera spins his way back to Earth. Meanwhile, a greedy ex-soldier tells his buddies about a giant opal he hid in a cave on an island around New Guinea. His buddies all pony up money to sail down there and retrieve the gemstone. The natives tell them that the cave is dangerous, but they would have had to cut the vs. Barugon out of the title if they listened to them.
The opal is actually an egg. After being accidentally exposed to radiation from a lamp that is used to kill athlete’s foot (seriously, I’m not making this up!), the egg hatches and Barugon is born. He grows fast, too. When the ship gets back to Japan, sans most of the greedy opal party (killed by one of the even more greedy fellows in the group), Barugon destroys the ship and begins rampaging about the land.
A native girl comes back to Japan with one of the party members that was rescued from the cave-in caused by the super greedy dude to retrieve the egg, but is too late. Fortunately, she brought the giant diamond that Barugon-type creatures can’t resist. She then reveals Barugon’s weakness—water. Barugon hates water, and is paralyzed when it rains. They try to use the irresistible diamond to lure Barugon into a lake, but it doesn’t work. Then the scientists realize that they needed to irradiate the diamond just like what happened to Barugon’s egg. Then it seems to work, but the greedy guy returns, steals the diamond (he has a thing for gemstones I guess), and is eaten by Barugon.
Having completely failed to destroy Barugon, Gamera shows up and kicks Barugon’s lizard-y hide. Gamera did have an earlier appearance, but Barugon’s shoots ice out of his tongue, which froze Gamera until this point.
I rate this movie 1 empty seat: Gamera’s. Even though he had top billing, his part in the movie was quite small.
Ooh, I can’t believe I forgot to mention Barugon’s super special power. No, not the ice shooting from his tongue, this is even better! Barugon shoots rainbows from his back, and they blow up whatever they hit. How cool is that?