A hibernating species of giant carnivorous birds is awakened on a Japanese island shortly after the military encounters an unidentified mass moving beneath the water off-shore.
Space aliens arrive on Earth with their giant shark and intend to take over the planet but they must first destroy Gamera.
When a rare species of butterfly is found in a mysterious valley in Japan, a pair of entomologists go to investigate and find more. However, when they get there they find an uncharted lake and as they are observing it they are caught in a landslide and killed. A reporter named Yuriko, the sister of one of the men decides to go to the area to find out what exactly happened. She is accompanied by another entomologist named Kenji and a reporter named Horiguchi. When they get to the village where the men were last seen alive they find out about a legend regarding a giant monster. They soon find out that it is not a legend and the monster named Varan is very much alive. Soon Varan leaves the valley where he has lived for millions of years and is heading for Tokyo.
In the Arctic, an unknown aircraft is shot down by an American jet fighter. The aircraft crashes and its cargo, a low-level atomic bomb, explodes. The resulting cataclysm awakens a prehistoric monster that has the appearance of a giant turtle with teeth and large tusks. Japanese scientists on an expedition nearby (including Drs. Hidaka, Kyoko and Aoyagi) are given a "devil stone" by an Inuit chieftain, who explains that the creature is called Gamera.
Set six months after the events of Gamera, the Giant Monster, a meteorite collides with the Z Plan rocket transporting the creature to Mars. Now free, Gamera returns to Earth and destroys Kurobe Dam in Japan. At the same time, three mercenaries are sent by Kano, a World War II veteran, to an island in the South Pacific to retrieve a huge opal he once found and hid in a cave. Despite warnings from the local villagers, the trio find and locate the opal, but one dies from a fatal scorpion sting. The second man, Keisuke, Kano's younger brother, is betrayed by his fellow expeditioner Onodera and apparently killed in a cave-in.
Japanese miners are killed by giant prehistoric insects awakened by nuclear testing. After dealing with the bugs, the military discovers an even bigger threat has been awakened by the tests. Yup, it's Rodan, a pterodactyl-like monster that flies at super-sonic speeds. Soon another Rodan shows up and the two wreak havoc. What in the world will Japan do?
Earthquakes in central Korea turn out to be the work of Yongary, a prehistoric gasoline-eating reptile that soon goes on a rampage through Seoul.
Kaseki' draws many parallels with 'Ikiru', both are about old men, which don't know what to do with life once they hear the dreaded news. While in 'Ikiru', he's alone and he builds a playground, in 'Kaseki' he repels everyone's friendliness and travels around various parts of Europe including France, Spain and Italy.
The movie focuses on the plight of ten war orphans hailing from different cities across Japan. With nowhere to go, they scavenge around train stations, scratching out an existence by means of black market work for a one-legged tramp whilst avoiding being picked up by the police for vagrancy. Soon however, they find a more inspiring role model in the figure of a nameless soldier just repatriated after the war. An orphan himself, the soldier also has no home to return to, and so sets out across the country with the kids in tow in search of work before settling on the goal of leading them to the orphanage where he himself grew up.
The film portrays the experiences of Takashi Nagai as a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, a doctor working in the Nagasaki Medical College who suffered radiation exposure and severe injuries in the bombing.
Set in post-World War II Japan, midwife Nobuko is resolved to move on as she stands at the grave of her son Koji who died, alongside thousands of others, when the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the civilians in the southern city of Nagasaki. However, upon returning home she is visited by an apparition. which continues to return in order to commiserate and reminisce with the woman about the past, family, affection and war.
Hiroshima, the movie, is based on a book called "Children Of Atomic Bomb", which is a collection of stories by child survivors of the attack. Ninety thousand Hiroshima residents, many of them hibakusha (a term referring to the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), labour unions and a head of university volunteered to help the pro-peace and pacifist movie to be made as no commercial entity and studio would help or touch it. The Japanese teachers' Union financed the film to promote peace. The film is now restored as best as possible following its rediscovery. It depicts the period during World War II prior to and during the atomic bombing and the physical and societal aftermath.
