According to Michael Callari — who posted the YouTube video linked below — Film Ventures International began using a legal loophole while releasing movies on VHS in 1989. They took several films and created their own opening and closing credits using footage from a different movie, then claimed that the movie in between was just a clip.

Nine of the FVI movies that aired on Mystery Science 3000 used this magic trick on the legal system. They include:

• Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster
• Cave Dwellers (Ator the Blade Master)
• Pod People (Extra Terrestrial Visitors)
• Stranded In Space (The Stranger)
• Master Ninja I (The Master)
• Master Ninja II (The Master)
• Space Travelers (Marooned)
• City Limits
• Being from Another Planet (Time Walker)

Gamera Strikes Back, which FVI released on home video, also has this alteration, basing their credits off of scenes from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. Of course, they didn’t own that footage, so who can even say how this really was legal.

As that footage is impossible to find, Michael made this version of what he thinks it looked like:

Now, on to the movie.

Also known as War of the Monsters in the U.S. thanks to its English-language dubbing by American International Television, the second Gamera film has twice the budget of the first and realizes what they should have known all along: Gamera isn’t the villain. He’s the good guy and ready to defend children against more dangerous kaiju.

Those dumb scientists and their Z Plan rocket didn’t count on a meteorite letting Gamera escape and come back to Earth. Meanwhile, three ex-soldiers invade a cave — a scorpion kills one and treachery another — before bringing an opal to the surface. And that jewel? It’s an egg. And it’s hatching.

It becomes a lizard called Barugon, who can breathe freezing gas and launch rainbow rays from the seven spines on its back. These are all weapons that can do great damage to our turtle protector.

How do you defeat an undefeatable monster who freezes our hero again? Mirrors and drowning. Yes, Gamera straight up holds Barugon’s head under the waters of Lake Biwa.

In Germany, they screwed up the translation and call Gamera Barugon and Barugon Godzilla. Those versions are titled Godzilla, der Drache aus dem Dschungel (Godzilla, the Dragon from the Jungle), Godzilla, Monster des Grauens (Godzilla, the Monster of Horror) and Gamera vs. Godzilla.

You can watch this on Tubi and Vudu. You can also download it from the Internet Archive.