Meeting a Gamera Series Legend!

Yoshiro Uchida. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On March 30, I had the distinct privilege of meeting former child actor Yoshiro Uchida, who is best known for playing Toshio in the Daiei classic Gammera the Invincible (1966). Of course, the original Japanese version was released domestically in 1965. 

One topic of conversation was traditional tokusatsu techniques. Uchida-san mentioned that he felt the hand-made special effects in The Poseidon Adventure (1972) were preferable to the CGI used in Titanic (1997). I asked if he'd ever seen Gandhi (1982), whose amazing crowd scenes would probably be done by computer graphics today. He said he hadn't, but I strongly recommended the film.

I had a wonderful time meeting Uchida-san. Hopefully, it won't be the last!