Franchises: Godzilla. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster) (1964)

The first movie I ever saw with the monster King Ghidorah was actually the next one, Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, which was also the second Godzilla movie I saw period. Being very, very young at the time, like around four or five, I wasn't able to comprehend how, in that film, the characters mention that Ghidorah had appeared once before and was driven from Earth, so I just assumed it was the first time Godzilla ever encountered his most iconic foe. It wasn't until I read that Crestwood House book that I learned of this film and how it not only had Godzilla and Rodan but also Mothra, who's not mentioned at all in Monster Zero, battling Ghidorah. Not long after that, I saw the trailer for the American version, and I'll give you a hundred bucks if you can guess where. Say it with me, now: Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies. The trailer started up with Godzilla blowing up a ship, followed by Rodan appearing out of a crater, and then came the title: Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster. At that point, I knew the character as either Monster Zero or Ghidorah, as its name was pronounced in Godzilla vs. Gigan, which I owned by that point, but the minute I saw Godzilla, which naturally piqued my interest anyway, and saw the Three-Headed Monster, I knew exactly what they were talking about. The trailer went on to show highlights of the battle, some of which I'd already seen as stock footage from Gigan, and I especially liked the sight of Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra working together against Ghidorah. But this was during a period when Godzilla films were very, very hard to find, and Ghidrah wasn't one of the five at our local VHS rental shop, so I wouldn't see it for a while. In fact, I kind of forgot about it and the others I hadn't seen until I got back into Godzilla hardcore in late 1997. Fortunately for me, the 1998 film prompted the re-release of many of the movies on VHS, Ghidrah among them. When I finally got to see it, I thought it was good, but I didn't absolutely love it, which is how I still feel about it. A lot of fans really, really like this one, calling it one of the best of the Showa era, and I agree that it is entertaining, but it's not one I find myself going back to that often. It's definitely a significant film in the franchise for many reasons, but because of my much deeper-rooted nostalgia for it, I prefer Monster Zero (which is weird, considering how much less monster action there is in that film).

Late one night, during an unnaturally hot January in Japan, a club of UFO enthusiasts attempts to make contact with beings from other worlds in the hope that they can explain what's happening to the Earth. Though they fail, they do witness a meteor shower, one of many visible all over the world, culminating in one particularly large meteorite crashing in a gorge near Mt. Kurodake. The next day, a team of scientists, led by the renowned Prof. Murai, hike their way through the wilderness to investigate. Upon finding the meteorite, they set up camp nearby and discover it has sporadic periods of a very strong, attractive force, as well as that it appears to be growing. Meanwhile, Shindo, a police detective, is assigned to act as bodyguard for Princess Mas Dorina Salno of Selgina while she's in Japan, as she's under the threat of assassination. Though her plane is destroyed by a bomb en route, a mysterious force takes hold of her beforehand and makes her jump out. Presumed dead, she later appears in Japan, wearing normal clothes and claiming to be from the planet Venus. She acts as a prophet and attempts to warn anyone who will listen that the Earth is in danger, starting with a warning about Mt. Aso. This prediction comes true when the flying monster Rodan breaks out of the volcano's crater. Later, she warns that a ship meant to take the visiting Shobijin, back home to Infant Island must not sail. Sure enough, when it does, Godzilla rises from the sea and destroys it. With two monsters now threatening Japan, Shindo does his best to find and protect Salno from her assassins, who've traveled to the country to finish the job. She then makes one last prediction: King Ghidorah, a powerful space monster that completely destroyed the civilization on Venus, has arrived on Earth and will do the same to it. Again, she's proven right when the fallen meteorite cracks open and the evil, three-headed dragon emerges and begins wreaking havoc across the countryside. With Ghidorah an even bigger threat than Godzilla and Rodan, the government turns to the Shobijin and Mothra, the former of whom suggest that, if Mothra can persuade her fellow monsters to battle alongside her, they might have a chance. But with Godzilla and Rodan caught up in their own battle and unwilling to help mankind, the question now is whether Mothra can get them to cooperate before it's too late. 

History repeated itself with Ghidorah's development in that, just like with the original Godzilla a decade earlier, it was quickly put together to fill a vacant slot in Toho's release schedule. As a result, 1964 would be the one and only time two Godzilla movies would be released within the same year, with Ghidorah hitting theaters less than eight months after Mothra vs. Godzilla. Moreover, in the interim, another kaiju film, Dogora the Space Monster, was released in August, and while I've never seen it myself, I've heard it and Ghidorah have many similarities, such as a combination of kaiju action and a "cops and criminals" human subplot, as well as some of the same actors. Notably, both of these movies mark the point where Toho's tokasatsu films began to go absolutely insane, with everything but the kitchen sink being thrown into the stories. While some of the stuff that would come later, especially the 70's Godzilla films, would make Ghidorah look downright reasonable (even the next one is much more heavy on the sci-fi), it's still pretty out there. Besides the typical plot of a monster threatening all life on Earth, you've got the political intrigue of this princess character and the policeman trying to protect her from assassins, an apparent case of possession with the princess claiming she's from another planet, and predicting the future, and, craziest of all, a literal debate between Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra about whether or not they should try to save the Earth from Ghidorah! Between that and what I've heard about Dogora, which concerns a jellyfish-like monster that eats diamonds and is defeated by bee venom, 1964 must've also been when Shinichi Sekizawa just said, "Fuck it," and came up with the craziest stuff he could think of. And, again, it only gets crazier from here on out.

As should be clear, the early to mid-1960's were very busy years for director Ishiro Honda. With Toho's output of tokasatsu flicks at its absolute peak, they had Honda at the helm of at least one movie a year, with 1964 being an especially active one that saw him direct Mothra vs. Godzilla, Dogora, and Ghidorah virtually all in a row. The idea of three special effects-heavy kaiju movies being released within four months of each other, with the latter two's productions overlapping, is insane but, nevertheless, Honda and his team pulled it off. What's even more unbelievable is that some of these movies are not only good but damn good, with Mothra vs. Godzilla being revered as a bona fide classic and Ghidorah remaining a beloved fan favorite, a true testament to the abilities of not only Honda but his associates, notably producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, writer Shinichi Sekizawa, and effects maestro Eiji Tsuburaya. But, while he would never complain and did what was required of him, Ghidorah is where Honda really start to become uncomfortable with where the studio was taking the depiction of the monsters, especially Godzilla, as he would later admit he filmed some scenes through gritted teeth.

The characters are a very mixed bag, with some being quite interesting, while others likable but not exactly deep. As the film's ostensible lead, Detective Shindo, Yosuke Natsuki (who was also in Dogora and plays almost the same character) falls into the latter. He's little more than a really decent guy but that's enough to make him worth rooting in his determination to protect Princess Salno. There's no question he's a little bit enamored with her when he first looks at her picture, and it's obvious he's very compassionate towards her in general, but his duty is what comes first. When she turns up in Japan after supposedly dying from her plane exploding, Shindo not only goes out of his way to track her down and protect her from the assassins but also to get her some help and find out why she's going around saying she's from outer space. Even though they're both full-grown adults, Shindo also has a very childlike, bickering relationship with his sister, Naoko. The two of them have spats here and there and tend to poke fun at each other, particularly when it comes to Naoko's obsession with her career as a reporter, whether or not Prof. Murai is her boyfriend, and Shindo's overall dour demeanor. A little scene at their home, where Naoko leans over and puts her weight on Shindo's torso to change the TV channel for their mother (yeah, apparently they still live with their mother), while he irritably tells her to get off, especially looks like a squabble between a kid brother and sister. Their sibling rivalry comes to a real head when Shindo discovers Naoko has found Princess Salno and is hiding her at a hotel. Not wanting him to mess up a potentially big story, Naoko takes the room key from Shindo and hides it behind her back, but Shindo makes it clear that, sister or not, he will arrest her if she continues to interfere with police business. Fortunately, Naoko comes to her senses and decides helping the princess regain her senses and protecting her is more important than her career. Shindo comes across as especially courageous during the climax, when he has a firefight with and takes a bullet to the arm from the chief assassin, Malness, while trying to protect Salno, though a rock-slide caused by the nearby monster battle is what ultimately puts an end to the gunman. At the end of the movie, before Salno returns home, she thanks Shindo for protecting her and, while there's not been any romance between them, mainly because she wasn't herself through most of it, the way they look at and speak to each other, as well as how Shindo watches her plane fly off at the airport, does suggest a kind of connection between them (Ishiro Honda based this ending on that of the film, Roman Holiday, and told the actors to think of it during filming).

Back from Mothra vs. Godzilla is Yuriko Hoshi, this time as Shindo's reporter sister, Naoko. While she plays another member of the press, the big difference is that, rather than a naïve and inexperienced rookie who wasn't that skilled in her job, she's now a very savvy go-getter of a television reporter who follows up on any lead to a big story, especially when it comes to the self-proclaimed Venusian prophet. She's all about her job, too, and has no time for any kind of private life. When Shindo and their mother chide her for having a possible romantic interest in Prof. Murai, Naoko insists she's talking to and spending time with him to get a story for the program and she really means it too, much to her mother's chagrin. She's so good at her job, in fact, that she actually manages to track down and find Princess Salno long before Shindo, taking her to a hotel where she plans to interview her. Her determination is so strong that she risks forcing her own brother to arrest her for interfering with police business by initially refusing to allow him to see the princess. But Shindo eventually makes her realize that protecting the princess and figuring out what's wrong with her is more important and she goes along with him for the remainder of the movie. However, she does get to record Princess Salno's final statements to everyone before she returns to Selgina, which will probably be used in the upcoming special.

Also back from the previous film is Hiroshi Koizumi, who, as in both Mothra vs. Godzilla and Dogora, is once again playing a scientist, this time Prof. Murai, a geologist who leads a research team to investigate the fallen meteorite eventually revealed to be housing King Ghidorah. Honestly, though, if it wasn't for the very slight changing of his name (Miura to Murai), you'd swear he was playing the exact same character from the previous film (and possibly Dogora as well). As I've said before regarding Koizumi in these films, he's always likable and believable as a scientist but, unfortunately, he doesn't have much else to do except stand around while pontificating and giving scientific conjecture. Murai does have a couple of significant moments, such as when he suggests the government turn to the Shobijin and Mothra for help when Ghidorah begins ravaging Japan, leading to the Shobijin suggesting Mothra join up with Godzilla and Rodan to battle the space monster. He also helps a little bit during a shootout at a clinic, as he whacks one of Princess Salno's would-be assassins over the head with a wrench and shoots back at them with a discarded gun, forcing them to flee, all of which is in stark contrast to his role in the previous film, where he was totally passive. But, in the end, he doesn't do that much except act as a rather intelligent bystander.

By far the most interesting character is Princess Salno (Akiko Wakabayashi), the lovely heir to the throne of Selgina. Besides being the frequent target of assassination, she also becomes possessed by some strange, otherworldly power while flying to Japan. As a result, we don't get to see much of the princess herself, but it's clear she's a kind soul and would most likely be a benevolent ruler to her country. Also, even though she doesn't remember much from when she was possessed, she does

know that Shindo saved her life three times and is very grateful to him, thanking him personally at the end of the movie. For 98% of her screentime, though, Salno is under the influence of a mysterious and unexplained presence that not only saves her from being killed when her plane explodes en-route to Japan but uses her as a vessel through which it tries to warn the people of Earth that the planet is in danger. The exact identity of this "entity," or whatever it is, is never explained, and it goes away just as suddenly as it appeared. One way to interpret it is that, rather than an alien entity possessing her, it's actually the emergence of an ancient Venusian instinct for seeing into the future that she later claims is a holdover from Venusians who escaped to Earth when Ghidorah destroyed the planet. That trait, which was buried deep within her subconscious, could've forced itself to the surface when it sensed the oncoming calamity, which would also explain why being grazed by Malness' bullet caused her to return to normal, as it forced that instinct back.

 

But then, if it's just a deeply buried, long dormant instinct, what was that bright light outside the plane when it first took hold of her? Why does Salno claim to be a Venusian? Why does she not recognize Malness when she sees him? And how is she able to read in the dark, sense when somebody is hiding in a room, and resist the effects of a drug meant to rid her of any psychiatric delusions? It's also interesting to note how, when this change takes hold of her, she dispenses with the royal garb

she was originally wearing, including the bracelet that identifies heras part of a royal lineage, as she sees it all as frivolous, and instead opts to wear the plain, raggedy clothes of the fisherman who found her floating on the ocean's surface after she jumped out of the plane. Even though she doesn't put up a fight when Naoko gets her some nicer, more womanly clothes to replace those old bags, she still doesn't care about them at all. Very intriguing subplot, one of the most interesting human storylines in the entire franchise, in fact, and there's no clear-cut explanation for it by the end, with even the psychiatrist who treated her admitting he's unsure where that personality came from or if it will ever return.

Just like Kumayama and Torahata in Mothra vs. Godzilla, Malness (Hisaya Ito), the leader of the assassins out to kill Princess Salno, is easily one of the best human antagonists in the franchise, albeit in a different way. Unlike them, he's not afraid to get his hands dirty and has done so, as he admits to having killed Salno's father. Furthermore, when she survives his first attempt to kill her by placing a bomb on her plane and he's sent to Japan to finish the job, he proves to be absolutely determined not to let anyone or anything stand in his way, not even the monsters. Though a big incentive is his being threatened with execution as punishment, you get the sense that Malness does also take some pride in his work. He has a pretty intimidating presence, coming off as cold and emotionless in the way he talks and acts, and he's basically faceless, as he's always wearing those dark glasses. Despite his determination to off Salno, Malness is also smart enough to make sure this so-called Venusian woman really is her, as he's still initially unsure of her identity when she doesn't recognize him at the hotel. Thus, when he and his fellow assassins confront her, he tries to get her to admit she's the princess, interrogating her about what she did with the royal bracelet. When she confirms she gave it to the fisherman who found her, Malness prepares to kill her with the same knife he murdered her father with (the matter-of-fact way he admits that to her is a perfect example of how cold and unfeeling he is). However, he's interrupted when the Shobijin, who were also in the room, turn off the lights, and after a shootout in the dark with Shindo, he and the others flee. 

Even though Godzilla and Rodan begin ravaging the countryside that night, and King Ghidorah emerges from the meteorite not too long afterward, Malness isn't about to back down. When he learns Salno is at a psychiatric clinic at Mt Fuji (Naoko very stupidly blurts that out on live television during a meeting at the Diet Building, even though she knows about the plot against her), he and his men head to the site, ignoring warnings about Godzilla and Rodan, who are battling nearby.

Malness even tries to make Shindo and Dr. Tsukamoto kill Salno themselves by increasing the voltage of their electroshock therapy all the way to 3,000. That doesn't work, either, thanks to damage caused by the monster battle, and he and his men are forced to break off their assassination attempt due to Shindo and Prof. Murai's intervention, but he continues following her during the evacuation. While driving along a mountain road, the assassins' car is crushed by a rock-slide caused by Ghidorah,

killing everyone except Malness, who staggers out of the car, just a bit banged up. He eventually finds Salno in a deep gorge further up in the mountains and, despite his injuries, still attempts to snipe her out. He manages to graze her head, snapping her out of the alien personality that's taken hold of her, and shoots Shindo in the arm, making him unable to protect Salno. He's then about to kill them both, when he himself ends up dying when a large boulder knocked loose by the nearby monster battle sends him tumbling down into the gorge (he could've easily waited for the monster action to die down before taking his shot).

Back once again are the Shobijin, played for the third and last time by Emi and Yumi Ito, and it's interesting to see how their roles have evolved since the original Mothra. The relationship between Japan and Infant Island (and, by extension, Mothra), has certainly turned around completely; instead of being very tense and full of distrust due to the nuclear tests, it's much, much friendlier, to the point where the Shobijin are a couple of celebrities in Japan, making their first appearance here on a TV show. In fact, that introductory scene is a twist on how they were unveiled to the Japanese public in Mothra, with the major difference being how they're appearing on this show by choice rather than being forced to by a cruel man who's claiming ownership of them (even the way they dress here is more akin to how they looked when they were first seen in Mothra, as opposed to the costumes and makeup Nelson forced them to wear). But, while they do appear to enjoy doing it for the Japanese public, they later say they would rather not to be fussed over so much the next time they visit. They also have their most proactive roles in the Showa era, as well as the Godzilla series overall, in this film. Not only are they smart enough to listen to Princess Salno's warning that the boat they're about to sail home on must not leave port, they themselves save the princess from being killed by Malness at the hotel and then warn Shindo and Naoko that the assassins are in the room, saving them from getting shot. Most importantly, they come up with the idea of Mothra talking to Godzilla and Rodan and convincing them to help battle King Ghidorah. They also allow the characters, and us, to eavesdrop on the conversation between the three monsters by translating the dialogue. Unfortunately, as much as I like the Shobijin here, this is where their singing starts to grate on my nerves, as they sing a new song called Cry for Happiness, not once but twice (and I mean the entire, two-minute or so length of the song) and that sucks, as I hate the way it sounds.

The supporting cast is made up of a regular repertoire of familiar faces from past films. Shindo's superior, Chief Okita, who personally assigns him to be Princess Salno's bodyguard, is Dr. Serizawa himself, Akihiko Hirata. He doesn't have much more to do here than he did in his brief role in King Kong vs. Godzilla but it's nice to see him and, again, he does his best with what material he's given. Somesho Matsumoto, who had the brief role of Dr. Ohnuki in King Kong vs. Godzilla,

appears here as the head of the UFO enthusiasts club. He only has a couple of scenes but he's memorable in how much of a firm believer he is in flying saucers, aliens, and multiple dimensions, and he believes that making contact with other beings in the universe is vital to Earth's survival, as they might be able to explain what's going on with the winter heat-wave and such. He's also not too fond of Naoko's presence at their attempted communication session at the beginning of the

film, as he and another member feel her skeptical brainwaves are keeping the aliens away. The ever reliable Kenji Sahara has a couple of scenes here as Kanamaki, Naoko's boss, who first informs her of the prophet's appearance and, later on, has a meeting with everyone about how best to approach getting a story on her. He's sort of a less gruff version of Maruta in the previous film, as when one reporter says that no one knows where Salno is, he goes, "Then go find her. You have eyes and legs, don't you?" Speaking of Sahara, his partner-

 in-crime from the previous film, Yoshifumi Tajima, is also here in one scene as the captain of the boat meant to take the Shobijin back to Infant Island. He makes the mistake of not listening to Salno's warning about not sailing and orders her to be removed from the boat; that night, Godzilla destroys the boat. Ikio Sawamura, a minor actor who first appeared in the series as a Faro Islander in King Kong vs. Godzilla, appears briefly as the fisherman who found Salno and brought her to shore. Not much to say about him except that he

does come off as honest as he says is, having fairly traded her some of his clothes for her royal bracelet. He also confirms that she is the prophet when he picks her out of a photo lineup. However, the most notable supporting character is Dr. Tsukamoto, the psychiatrist who Shindo brings Salno to for treatment. He's played by none other than Takashi Shimura, Dr. Yamane from the original Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, in what would be his last appearance in the Godzilla series (but not his last Toho kaiju flick, as he would

appear briefly at the beginning of Frankenstein Conquers the World the following year). He brings that same feeling of gravitas he did to the original, coming across as very knowledgeable and sincere in doing what he can to figure out why Salno is saying she's from Venus. While he finds there's nothing physically or mentally wrong with her, he puts her through several tests to find out why she's calling herself a Venusian, which don't produce any results either. At the end of the movie, while he explains why she returned to normal, he admits that he doesn't understand where that Venusian mindset came from or if it will ever return. Interestingly, though Shimura is given a fair amount of screentime, I've read he shot all of his scenes in one day, as he was working with Akira Kurosawa on a movie at the time (namely Red Beard, the film whose place Ghidorah took in the release schedule). 

Before we move on, one last comment I would like to make about the cast is that I remember reading or hearing somewhere that the man you first see during the scene at the Diet Building, whom you see here with the glasses and mustache, is Frankie Sakai, who starred in the original Mothra. I cannot for the life of me remember where I first heard or read that (I thought it was either in David Kalat's book or his audio commentary for the film's Classic Media release but, after checking, it turns out I'm wrong) but I was sure it was true. Take away the glasses and mustache, the guy certainly looks like Sakai, but at the same time, Ghidorah is not listed on his IMDB filmography, so I could be wrong. If anyone knows if I'm right or suffering from early onset Alzheimer's, please let me know.

 

Of the early Showa films, Ghidorah is the one that benefited the most from the HD treatment afforded by the Criterion Collection. Even when it was first put on DVD by Classic Media in 2007, the picture quality wasn't the greatest, as it looked desaturated and washed out, with a lot of black in the image. But Criterion nicely remastered it, giving it a lusher look and bringing out the colors a little more, though not to the point of overdoing it. I also can't stress how, after watching so many of these movies on crappy, full-screen VHS tapes for my

entire childhood, I'm now able to view them in wide-screen, as they were originally shot, and see so much more of the image. I bring that up because there are a number of scenes involving one or more people talking that were so badly cropped on those tapes, with the picture focusing on only one of the actors, cutting everyone else out, or they would sometimes have to make a cut within what was originally a single shot. In scenes where the Shobijin sing the Song of Happiness and we cut to

shots of Infant Island with them superimposed over the scene, I could only see one of them, if that, on video, and because of the cropping, they would appear to just float in out of nowhere when, in the widescreen releases, you could see their images moving from one side of the screen to the next. So, for all you youngsters who watch these movies in high-def and crap on them for looking "fake," just be glad that they're available to you in such nice presentations to begin with.

This film, in particular, features a lot of location work. In Tokyo, Ishiro Honda shot scenes at Ueno Park for when Princess Salno first appears as a prophet, some material in the Shibuya ward, and scenes at the port and streets of Yokohama. He also actually shot at Kurobe Dam in Toyama, managing to get a big, wide shot of the dam itself and nice vistas of the surrounding mountains, forests, and gorges, and at Mt. Aso for the scene where Rodan emerges from the crater, getting even more impressive shots of the location, such as its huge,

smoking crater and the surrounding valleys and canyons. And, as he often did, he shot quite a bit at Gotemba near Mt. Fuji, featuring the actual city in much of the action, as well as the surrounding forests. As for actual sets, the police station where Shindo has his scenes with Chief Okita is reused from Dogora, while other interiors include that of the quaint house Shindo and Naoko share with their mother, a coffee shop where Shindo meets Prof. Murai formally, and a hotel where the first, brief confrontation between Shindo and the

assassins takes place. Among the more noteworthy sets are the television studio where the Shobijin make their first appearance, with a large stage and red curtain, behind which is a cardboard backdrop meant to represent Infant Island, which the Shobijin ride through on a small, flying carpet (again, this is quite similar to their first public appearance in the original Mothra). There's also the Diet Building, where the authorities have a meeting about how to deal with the rampaging monsters,

and Dr. Tsukamoto's clinic at Mt. Fuji, which serves as the location for another shoot-out. And there are some sets meant to stand in for actual locations, like a bit of forest Prof. Murai's research group hikes through, the valley where the meteorite lands (which is mostly a miniature) and a rocky spot nearby where the group makes camp, and a gorge where the final confrontation between Shindo, Princess Salno, and Malness takes place. While you can tell these aren't real places, some of

them work well enough for what they are. The shots of the meteorite sitting in the small valley are well-done and eerily atmospheric, especially the nighttime scene right before Ghidorah emerges from it, and the same goes for that gorge, which has a breeze blowing through it to hammer home the effect.

 

Unfortunately, like in the previous film, you can tell some of the sets suffered from budget cuts. Remember how Infant Island looked rather cheap and constrained? Here, all we see of it here is a cavern-like chamber where the islanders are seen praying to Mothra, as she sits atop a large stone platform all the way in the back (the compositing of the live-action actors with the miniature set and Mothra is quite good, though). All we ever see of Selgina, Princess Salno's home country, is a small office belonging to the man behind the plot to kill

Salno, which has no furniture or decorations apart from some statues. Also, everyone from this country dresses like they're living during the Renaissance, complete with ruffled collars. There aren't as many enlarged sets for the Shobijin this time, as they're mainly composited into sets with the normal-sized characters. One well-done exception, though, is when Malness first threatens Salno in the hotel room and the Shobijin peek out from behind a mirror to see what's happening. The

mirror also reflects the actors, which is a nicely executed touch (going back to the VHS releases, because of the cropping, it looked as though one of the Shobijin was peeking out from behind the scene itself), as is when the Shobijin step onto a smaller table and hit an oversized light switch on the wall to save Salno's life. And finally, in a first for the series (though it wouldn't be the last), the military doesn't do anything. During the meeting at the Diet, the Defense Ministers talks about how

they're monitoring Godzilla and Rodan's movements and that they're in contact with international coalition forces in the hope that they can help against King Ghidorah, but, in the end, they take no action against the monsters whatsoever. The minister briefly brings up the possibility of using nuclear weapons but, of course, no one wants to even consider it, so they just leave it up to the Shobijin and Mothra to save the Earth.

A big reason why this isn't an absolute favorite of mine is I find the first half or so to be rather boring, and that's because I'm not that interested in many of the subplots involving the human characters. While I like Shindo enough as a character, and I do think Malness is a great human antagonist, I find myself not really caring about the assassination attempts on Princess Salno's life and Shindo trying to keep her alive. I think the reason why Shinichi Sekizawa wrote this element into the screenplays for both this and Dogora was due to the popularity

of yakuza gangster flicks in Japan, as well as the growing worldwide popularity of the James Bond films at that time, but the way it's implemented here makes the whole thing feel overwritten. Because I find what's happening to Salno herself and the investigation of the meteorite to be much more fascinating, I wish the human side of the story was focused exclusively on that, without all these distractions. Instead of having her be a princess, it might've been better to have Salno be a 

normal woman who suddenly has this come over her and focus on Naoko's attempts to interview her and find out what she knows. That would more cleanly and directly tie the human story in with the monsters, with Salno, like in the film as it is, correctly predicting the return of Rodan and Godzilla, and then attempting to warn everyone of this massive threat developing within the meteorite. Eventually, it could get to the point where they try to find out if she really is from Venus or not, only to learn nothing conclusive, with this other side of her disappearing once King Ghidorah has been defeated. And you could still keep the idea of Mothra having to convince Godzilla and Rodan to help her fight Ghidorah.

Not only does the film feel overwritten but, as Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski note in their book on Ishiro Honda, the script might've benefited from another rewrite (though the rapid production probably made this impossible). For instance, at the beginning, there are a number of elements brought up that are dropped almost as quickly: the group of UFO enthusiasts, the January heatwave that's made it warm enough for people to go swimming at New Year's, and an outbreak of encephalitis. While it does create a feeling that

something strange and ominous is happening to the Earth, making for a nice lead-in to the many disasters Princess Salno predicts, as well as the ultimate arrival of Ghidorah, none of those elements really factor into the overall story. The head of the UFO club does return later on but it's a very random moment. When Shindo and Okita discuss how Salno could've survived her plane exploding, Shindo says he found someone who could explain it and the film then cuts to the man,

as he explains she survived because the explosion created a gap between dimensions. But rather than coming off as a quick flashback to when he told Shindo this, the guy delivers this information straight to the camera, as if we suddenly bungled into a theatrical lecture. Also, I've heard that the man behind the plot to assassinate Salno is meant to be her uncle but, if that's the case, then Sekizawa did not make it clear at all. And like in the previous film, we have Japan requiring Mothra's assistance and her larval form's silk playing a major part in winning the day.

Going back to the movie's early half, I really don't care for the section focusing on the TV show that both the Shobijin and Mothra first appear on. Like I said earlier, it is an interesting twist on the girls' forced public appearance in Mothra, and there's also a bit of Japanese culture here, in that it features a "manzai" comedy routine between the two hosts (sort of the Japanese equivalent of the back-and-forth banter Abbott and Costello would do). But I feel like the segment goes on a little too long, especially when the Shobijin sing Cry for

Happiness in order to conjure up images of Mothra for two little boys who want to see her. And speaking of that damn song (which, thankfully, was not the work of Akira Ifukube), I, again, am not a fan of it all, and yet, when you watch the Japanese version, you have to endure it in its entirety not once but twice! When the authorities plead for the Shobijin to call Mothra, they sing the song again and, once more, we have to sit through this dream-like sequence of their images superimposed over

shots of the natives worshiping Mothra, before she finally gets the message and heads to the ocean. Given the urgency of the situation, as Ghidorah just flew overhead and blasted much of Tokyo to bits, the song stops the movie completely dead for several minutes before we can get back to the action.

While there were elements of it in King Kong vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah is where Godzilla truly becomes a full-on character instead of just a mindless rampaging monster or, as in Godzilla Raids Again and Mothra vs. Godzilla, a purely animalistic one. Here, Haruo Nakajima portrays him with a tenacious, take no crap personality that never backs down from a fight and can also be very stubborn and thick-headed. The film is also often noted as being the start of Godzilla's transition into a hero but, while he does certainly help to vanquish King Ghidorah and save the Earth, it doesn't happen until well into the third act. When he first appears, he blows up a ship (seemingly because it scared off some whales he was after), and then heads inland to Yokohama, where he causes some destruction. Initially curious about Rodan when he first sees him, he gets blindsided by him out of nowhere and his refusal to run away from a challenge kicks in, leading to a fight that lasts for quite a while until Mothra arrives and breaks it up to talk with them (Godzilla shows off his sillier, human side when he laughs hysterically at Rodan getting sprayed with Mothra's webbing). During the conversation between the monsters, Godzilla makes his feelings very clear: he doesn't see any reason to help humans, saying they're always causing him trouble and "bullying" him. Some may feel Godzilla is being a dickhead who can't take responsibility but, you have to remember that this isn't the monster who intentionally reduced Tokyo to rubble in the original film. When this Godzilla first appeared in Godzilla Raids Again, he was harassed by Anguirus, shot at when he simply came ashore at Osaka after being attracted to the light of a fire, and harassed by the Air Force and buried in ice when he did nothing but come ashore on Kamiko Island. While he did cause some damage in King Kong vs. Godzilla, you could say he attacked the Arctic base because they shot at him first and the scene with train was just him walking through the mountains. His only truly malicious act was when he took clear joy in beating on King Kong. And in the previous film, he was blown ashore by a hurricane, buried under mud and debris, stumbled around some cities without intentionally causing destruction, got bombed and shot at repeatedly, and only caused death and destruction when he was defending himself from either the military or Mothra and her larvae. He also has a point here when, according to the Shobijin, he wants Rodan to apologize first. Godzilla did seem intent on following Rodan for whatever reason when he first saw him but he didn't actively try to harm him; Rodan, however, attacked without provocation.

 

In any case, Godzilla, as well as Rodan, initially refuses to help Mothra, forcing her to face King Ghidorah on her own. But after he and Rodan watch her crawl away, Godzilla shows back up, apparently looking for her, and sees her getting brutalized. Clearly not liking how unfair this fight is, he comes to her rescue, and he and Rodan don't give up until Ghidorah is driven away. While I'm skeptical as to whether Mothra's speech had any effect on him, as I don't think Godzilla, for the most part, ever becomes an out and out hero to

Japan but, instead, defends Earth because it's his home too, this does mark a turning point in Godzilla's character. For the rest of the Showa era, the only property damage and death he intentionally causes is under the control of aliens, as in Godzilla vs. Monster Zero and Destroy All Monsters, or against villainous humans and aliens.

Because of how quickly Ghidorah went into production after Mothra vs. Godzilla, there wasn't time to create an all-new Godzilla suit, leading the one there to be the first used in more than one movie. However, while the body remained the same (the skin appears to be a much darker shade of gray, though), the head had to be reconstructed due to its suffering damage during filming of the previous movie, though the original head was used for the scene where Godzilla first appears and destroys the ship. While the next head still has the

prominent eyebrows from before (I don't think they're quite as striking), it's more flattened out, the eyes are radio-controlled and more expressive, and the tongue is quite prominent, really sticking out of his mouth in some shots. And they also had to have made some modifications to the body, as Haruo Nakajima is able to move around much more agilely and fluidly than in the previous film. This film marks the last time puppets would be used extensively for close-ups of Godzilla's head and torso in action scenes, and it's a good thing,

because the time crunch the technicians were under for this film is apparent in how bad they look. The puppets are mostly used for the fight between Godzilla and Rodan, and they look quite hokey with how stiff and awkward their movements are, bobbing up and down like they're on sticks. There's also a moment where the Godzilla puppet stops moving and sits perfectly still, moving its eyes around a little bit after the Rodan puppet pecks, which I thought looked bad

even when I was a little kid. There are also some obvious puppets in long shots during this sequence but, fortunately, they're not used as extensively. Finally, this is the last time Godzilla's ultimate weapon can be described as "atomic breath," as from the next film on, it becomes the concentrated blast of energy we know it as today. Like in the last movie, it's depicted as a mix between the two, looking like a beam of atomic energy in wide shots whereas in close-ups, like when Godzilla blasts Rodan, it's still a very hot, radioactive vapor.

Since pitting Godzilla against another popular Toho monster worked out so well last time, the studio decided to up the ante and not only bring back Mothra but also introduce Rodan into the series, eight years after he first appeared in his own movie. Or rather, I should say a Rodan, seeing as how there were two of them in that movie and it's never explained what happened to the second one or if this one here is actually their offspring. Regardless, after breaking out of Mt. Aso, Rodan mainly just flies through the skies above Japan, until he inexplicably attacks Godzilla, starting a rather lengthy battle between them. In general, Rodan seems to have a pretty bad attitude, given that unwarranted attack and how he continuously pesters Godzilla by pecking him in the head, flying into him, and using the hurricane force winds his wings generate to knock him off-balance. He's also enough of a schmuck to laugh at Godzilla when Mothra sprays him with silk to get his attention, though his laughing stops dead when he gets sprayed as well. I like how, as Godzilla now laughs at him, Rodan looks absolutely dazed, like, "What just happened?" Like Godzilla, Rodan is initially unimpressed with Mothra's speech about saving the Earth but when it becomes clear she's no match for Ghidorah, he also proves to be decent enough to help out. He gets Ghidorah to chase him away from Mothra and later gives her a boost so she can use her silk against the dragon.

I've always hated how, when Rodan became a part of the Godzilla series, they continually designed him to look downright stupid in the face. Like with King Kong, I understand that they couldn't make him look too fearsome due to the lighter direction the series was taking but, as I also said when discussing Kong's lackluster design, did they have to make him look out and out crappy? In the original movie of Rodan, he looked really cool, like the gigantic Pteranodon he's supposed to be; here, he has a very dopey look to him, with a

longer, narrower beak and kind of googly eyes. Ironically, the puppets used in his fight with Godzilla look better than both the actual suit and the Godzilla puppets. There appear to be several different ones, as his face and neck look a bit wider in some shots and his eyes aren't as prominent in others. Personally, I think he looks the best and more like an actual bird in his close-ups when Mothra enters the scene and sprays both him and Godzilla with silk. I also like the way he looks in a

shot where he moves straight for the camera as he flies at Godzilla, as well as when you first see his head when he's breaking out of Mt. Aso. Unfortunately, these moments aside, Rodan mainly looks kind of lame, and his look would only get worse as the Showa series went on. 

 

Rodan is played by Masanori Shinohara, who would also play him in the next movie. He does what he can, given the restraints of this particular suit, and manages to give Rodan something of a personality, but, like I said, his best moments come when puppets are used to portray him. (You can also sort of see Shinohara's head in the suit's neck, which has quite a bulge in some shots). Although he had a cyclone-like blast of air he could expel from his mouth in the original Rodan, similar to Godzilla's atomic breath, for the rest of the Showa

era, his main weapons are the strong windstorms he generates with his wings, which are quite effective in causing damage and make fighting him a challenge for Godzilla. His sharp beak proves to be a pretty useful weapon too and he also demonstrates incredible strength when he lifts Godzilla up and carries him a short distance before dropping him. And apparently, Rodan is kind of like a parrot because, in his first appearance at Mt. Aso and when he and Godzilla begin fighting, he

mimics Godzilla's bark-like sound! That totally threw me as a kid, especially since his first appearance comes before Godzilla's. It's never explained, he never does it again in any other movies, and other than those two moments, his vocalization here is his distinctive screeching, bird-like cry.

More so than ever before, Mothra truly comes across as a creature of divine origin in how she understands from the Shobijin's song that the world is in danger and she must make Godzilla and Rodan see that they have a responsibility to the Earth. In fact, she becomes like the human character of Sakai in the previous film, using a well-said argument about how the world belongs to everybody to try to persuade her fellow monsters to help her battle Ghidorah. And when she fails to do so, Mothra decides to take Ghidorah on all by herself, as much as she knows she has no chance. Not only is this a very brave and selfless act on her part, but when she receives an expected brutal beating, she doesn't back down or run at all, which seems to inspire Godzilla and Rodan to help her. I also like how, despite her good nature, Mothra has her limits and can be forced to use not so lady-like measures, like when she has to spray Godzilla and Rodan with her silk when they're too busy fighting to hear her calling to them. As a result, this is easily my personal favorite appearance of hers in the Showa series.

 

It's confirmed early on that this Mothra is, indeed, one of the two larvae that hatched from the egg in the previous film, but we also learn from the Shobijin that the other one died in-between films. We're not told why (as many have suggested, it could've been the result of the larva getting smashed along the rocks when she bit onto Godzilla's tail), but, once again, Infant Island has one Mothra watching over it as a deity (budget constraints are likely why both larvae couldn't be in the film). That does suck, especially after the big

battle they both went through against Godzilla, but it's never bothered me that much. In the original screenplay, Mothra was in her adult form, but when they realized how difficult it would be to have three flying monsters operated by wires (even with two, it still proved to be a nightmare to shoot), they kept her in her larval form. The suit is one of the two used previously, albeit with red eyes now instead of blue, and inside it is Katsumi Tezuka, who also played one of the larvae in the last film

and, as he did there, proves to be very good at making this thing move like a real, undulating caterpillar, rather than like a man crawling around inside of a suit (when Mothra moves, you can hear the mechanisms inside the suit working, as well as her hundreds of small feet skirting along the ground). I'm pretty sure this was Tezuka's last bit of suit acting before he bowed due to his becoming far too old for it.

 

The monster "summit meeting," if you will, makes for an interesting twist on a recurring theme of Ishiro Honda's tokasatsu films, which was prevalent in the previous one: the notion of the brotherhood of man and the responsibility we as humans have towards one another. Only this time, it's the brotherhood of monsters! Again, Mothra trying to convince Godzilla and Rodan to stop their squabble and help her fight King Ghidorah to defend the Earth is akin to the speech Sakai gave the Infant Islanders in Mothra vs. Godzilla. And

just like the Infant Islanders, Godzilla and Rodan's initial attitudes are, "Why should we care if all humans die?" Godzilla himself adding, "Humans are always bullying us," is akin to when the native chief laid out what the outside world had done to their island to prove they had no reason to help. And like Sakai's insistence that everyone wants a world without distrust and humans are responsible for each other, Mothra tells Godzilla and Rodan, "The Earth doesn't belong to humans alone. It's

ours too, and we should defend it." But, again, her speech doesn't do much to change their minds, as Godzilla and Rodan are petty enough to demand apologies from each other, with Godzilla almost starting the fight over again when he blasts Rodan from the side. And so, Mothra is initially forced to fight Ghidorah by herself, which goes about as well you'd expect. It's only when Godzilla and Rodan see how unfair the fight is and that she's getting her ass kicked that they come to help. While they're still not fond of humans, this idea of the "brotherhood of monsters" and doing their part in defending their home does come through in their actions.

 

This whole scenario is admittedly quite silly, and most may find it hard to take the movie seriously as a result (I myself have been guilty of that in the past), but it's another example of the unique take on things Japanese filmmakers have. Not only is it a very unusual and interesting way to approach the monsters and get across some allegory in an entertaining way but, for the first time, we get to hear Godzilla's thoughts and get a read on his personality, making him more of an actual character. Most feel this degrades the

awe-inspiring power he once had but, given the lighter tone they were now going for, as well as for the sake of the series as a whole if it were to continue, some evolution was necessary (again, wait till to we get into the Millennium series to see how the films fare when there's nothing to Godzilla). Plus, if nothing else, it's what makes the franchise stand out from its peers. For a long time, I was curious as to how Ishiro Honda felt about this, given that, despite his disdain for the monsters

being anthropomorphized and made out to be more comical, this theme is one he was quite passionate about. Well, having now read the book, Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, From Godzilla to Kurosawa, it seems as though this was yet another development in the monsters' evolution as characters that he wasn't thrilled about. While he had no problem with them defending their home from a deadly invader, he didn't like the idea of them joining forces in a humanistic cause. He later said in an interview, "I used the Peanuts as Mothra's interpreters, but even that was something I had to force myself to do."

 

Despite being the title creature (at least, in the international and American versions), King Ghidorah doesn't appear until almost an hour in, but the build-up to that first appearance is very suspenseful and kind of creepy. When I first saw it as a kid, I thought it was eerie how, after the meteorite containing Ghidorah lands in the gorge near Mt. Kurodake, it just sits there for a while, seemingly biding its time, while Prof. Murai and his research team discover it has sporadic instances of a force akin to magnetism and gravity, strong

enough to drag their metal tools and rocks across a great distance. Even creepier than that is how the meteorite gradually becomes bigger as it sits there, emitting a glow from within, as well as a constant thunder-like rumble (I've sometimes wondered if it's actually an egg and Ghidorah is gestating inside, waiting to grow strong enough to hatch). This scenario was spooky to me because it reminded me a lot of The Blob: something from outer space contained inside a meteorite that lands in an unpopulated area, with nobody aware of the

imminent and growing danger. Also like the Blob, we never learn the Showa Ghidorah's exact origin. We learn it, or maybe an ancestor, wiped out the advanced civilization on Venus thousands of years ago, but we never learn from where exactly Ghidorah itself hails. Again, the meteorite may be an egg, or it could just be something Ghidorah creates around itself in order to enter another planet's atmosphere, after which it has to regain its strength before it can emerge. In fact, later films

have Ghidorah exploding out of a similar type of object before heading for Earth, so you could either say it's the latter, or it was an egg this first time and something else afterward. But even then, it's obvious Ghidorah is capable of leaving Earth by simply flying off, so I don't know why it just couldn't arrive the same way. And finally, was that "egg" just floating around the universe until it crashed on Earth, or was it deliberately sent? The next film does suggest the latter but, in the end, there's no concrete answer. I, for one, find the idea of something out there in space sending this monster to destroy planets without any warning (as possibly what happened to Venus) to be quite chilling.

As popular a monster as it is, to the point where it's considered Godzilla's arch-enemy, Ghidorah, in most of its incarnations, doesn't have much of a personality. Case in point, once it emerges from the meteorite here, it only has one thing on its collective mind: chaos and destruction. It just flies around while constantly whipping its three necks and heads around like mad, attacking and blowing up everything around it. Its movements are so hyper and violent that it comes off like a living, breathing embodiment of mindless chaos. It may not be able to walk very well due to its enormous girth, but it makes up for it in how agile and quickly it can fly, as well as how erratically it fires its signature lightning bolts, making it hard to predict where each one is going to hit. Speaking of these bolts, I've often heard and read them called "gravity beams." They were kind of hinted as such when the meteorite put out a similar force, and when Ghidorah is going to town on various cities and villages, you can sometimes see debris flying up around them, as if they are messing with the Earth's gravitational field, but for the most part, they just blow stuff like lightning bolts, so that's what I've always called them. Regardless of what you call them, they're formidable weapons, able to reduce large sections of a big city like Tokyo to rubble in seconds. And while they don't seem to seriously hurt Godzilla (except when he gets tagged in the crotch and rear end), poor Mothra gets blasted around like nothing when she takes a hit from them and Rodan is intimidated enough to take cover when he's being shot at. In addition to its lightning, Ghidorah, like Rodan and the adult Mothra, can create hurricane-force winds from its wings. Even though it has no arms, it proves hard to fight up close due to its immense size and strength, managing to easily shove Godzilla back when he first grapples with it. And finally, as mindless as it seems, Ghidorah appears to enjoy causing destruction, with its distinct, bell-like cry almost sounding like giggling laughter, suggesting it's the first kaiju that's just plain evil.

While we're on the subject, the three heads have always made me refrain from using singular pronouns like "he" and "him" when talking about Ghidorah, as it doesn't feel appropriate. Up until 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, it was never been made clear if each of those heads has its own thoughts and personality or if they're all controlled by a single consciousness, like a hive-mind (and even if the case of that film, I found it more appropriate to refer to each individual head as "he" and "him," rather than Ghidorah itself). Because of this, I prefer to designate Ghidorah as an "it," as that pronoun feels broader and less specific, and I will continue to do so in these reviews. You may find it odd or nitpicky, but it's just the way I've always done it.

 

Going back to the book on Ishiro Honda's life and career, I learned from reading it that there was a feeling Ghidorah, because of its undeniable resemblance to Chinese dragons, was meant to represent the threat of Communist China, who accomplished their first successful nuclear weapons test in October of 1964, while the film was in production. However, in the same interview where he decried the monster summit meeting scene, Honda insisted that Ghidorah was actually based on Yamata no orochi, a similarly multi-headed dragon from Japanese mythology. He also said that, with few exceptions, such as their 1963 film, Atragon, screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa didn't inject politics into his scripts (he seems to have been an apolitical person, all around). His final word on the matter was, "It is fine for the audience to think that way, but I do not believe it was written with such a political notion."
 

Ghidorah is, by far, the most outlandishly-designed kaiju Toho created during the 1960's, as it feels like something you'd see in a fantasy or mythological movie, rather than a science fiction film. Because of its fairly bright, golden color scheme, it actually has a kind of beauty to it, with the three necks atop its bulky torso coming of as very swan-like, while the heads have the traditional dragon horns, along with some tufts of hair in the back. But what's most amazing are its enormous, leathery wings, which give it a very strong presence whenever it's

on-camera. In fact, if you watch this or any of the other movies featuring Ghidorah in widescreen, you'll notice that, because of the wings, the monster takes up almost a third of the frame in the wide-shots! About the only part of it that isn't huge are its short, stubby legs, and I've always found it strange that it has no arms, though I've tried to imagine it with arms and have a hard time doing so. It makes up for it with two tails, no doubt so it can more properly balance its enormous body. Like the adult Mothra, marionettes of varying sizes were

used for the flying scenes, whereas the suit was used when Ghidorah was on the ground. Inside the suit was Shoichi Hirose, the powerful man who played King Kong, and because of its huge size and girth, it's obvious why they picked him. Unfortunately, it was a very thankless role, as all he really did was support the suit's weight and rather awkwardly walk around, while off-camera technicians imbued the monster with life and personality by controlling the heads, wings, and

tails with wires. Finally, the aforementioned bell-like cries Ghidorah makes, which are actually the modified sounds of an electric organ, are rather unique for a giant monster, and each head emits a different variation of the sound. Over the years, that sound has been reused in many films and TV shows, not just as kaiju vocalizations but also as alarms and ring-tones. Ghidorah's wings also create a distinct, high-pitched ringing sound whenever it's in flight, sometimes signaling its presence before you actually see it.

The movie's short, grueling production schedule, combined with the other films produced in rapid succession at the time, was no doubt hardest on Eiji Tsuburaya and his effects crew. Not only did they have to create a number of big effects sequences, especially for Ghidorah, in such a short amount of time, but a number of them were quite challenging to pull off, requiring the ingenuity that Tsuburaya was known for. But, while the schedule did catch up with them in some regards, like those Godzilla and Rodan puppets, and an instance where some

trees had to be hastily superimposed in the corner of a shot to cover up the edge of a miniature set, for the most part, they were able to once again work their magic and show how far they'd come since the original Godzilla. Not only do the monster costumes, especially Ghidorah, look really good, but the miniatures are as convincing and detailed as ever. As good as it looks when Godzilla comes ashore and does some damage, Ghidorah's attack on Tokyo is absolutely spectacular, with miniature buildings blowing up left and right on a

set that was rigged to blow debris up into the air, while powerful fans were used to create the gusts of wind from Ghidorah's wings. The same also goes for when Ghidorah lands in a mountain village right before the climactic battle and starts blasting everything. The miniature landscape of the slopes and area around Mt. Fuji, where the battle takes place, is so extensive, intricately designed, and realistic that you'd swear it was all shot on location. The optical effects, which had already

been improved on in the previous film, look even better here. You can still the matte lines sometimes, yes, but the blending of two separate elements, such as the full-size actors and the Shobijin, as well as real people in the foreground while monsters battle in the back, are very well done. The animation used for long shots of Godzilla's glowing spines and atomic breath, as well as Ghidorah's lightning bolts, are also executed nicely, looking like they're actually coming out of the

monster's mouths. And Ghidorah's entrance introductory scene is not only full of great pyrotechnics on the set but the shot of it materializing in the sky after exploding out of the meteorite is quite a spectacle, with only a noticeable jump-cut from animation to the actual prop hurting the effect.

Knowing the monsters were now firmly the stars, as well as that the film would very gradually build up to them, with their first appearances being very quick, the filmmakers had the opening credits play over shots from later in the film, with bits of Godzilla and Rodan's fight and Mothra grabbing onto one of King Ghidorah's tails. However, they were also smart enough not to jump the gun with their new monster, as you never see a full-on shot of Ghidorah itself, save for an extreme close-up of

its scales behind the actual title. Getting into the story proper, Mothra is the first monster we see, when the Shobijin appear on the TV show. Incidentally, I used to think the images we see of the Infant Islanders worshiping Mothra as the Shobijin sing Cry for Happiness were what the two boys were seeing, as the Shobijin say they'll see her if they close their eyes during the song. But apparently not, as we see the image of her on the TV screen at the end of the sequence. How they're getting those images is anybody's guess. In any case, Mothra doesn't do anything when we see her here, except sit up on that rocky ridge in front of the islanders and slowly waft her head back and forth.

 

For a while after that, the film focuses on Princess Salno reappearing as a prophet, Shindo and Naoko's individual interests in her, and Malness learning of her appearance in Japan and being sent there to finish the job, as well as Prof. Murai's ongoing investigation of the meteorite. Then, following her first prediction, concerning something happening at Mt. Aso, Salno appears to a crowd there, telling them they must leave, as they're in great danger. Rather than an eruption, she

says Rodan is about to awaken and emerge from the crater. One tourist decries her claims, telling his scared wife that there's nothing to be afraid of, when a gust of wind blows his hat off and it rolls down the slope of the mountain. The guy himself is reluctant to go get it, but another guy offers to get it for him... but not for free. After he whittles the price from 700 yen to 500 and, finally, 200, he climbs down the slope, angrily rebuffing Salno's warning that he's endangering himself. Right

before the man reaches the bottom, Rodan begins breaking free from a rock wall not too far from the hat. The guy finds the hat, but before he can climb back up, he sees what's happening and panics. Falling on his butt, he screams for help and frantically tries to climb back up the side of the crater, as the onlookers above see Rodan's head emerge from behind the rocks. When Rodan looks up and screeches at them, that's all it takes to get them running like scared rabbits. As the edge of the crater is evacuated, with the tourists running back

to the parking lot and climbing aboard their buses, Rodan manages to completely free himself from the rocks and flies out of the crater. Hovering above it for a little bit, he then flies off, causing a little bit of property damage with his winds. 

 

Not too long after that, just as the Shobijin are preparing to head for home, Salno appears at the dock, warning that the ship must not sail. Naturally, when the captain is told of this, he orders her to be removed immediately. Naoko then takes the initiative and has Salno come with her, just as she's about to thrown off. That night, in a hotel room, the women discover that the Shobijin left the ship as well, saying they understood what Salno meant. As Naoko asks them to clarify, Salno repeats her

warning. Naoko asks if there's something wrong with the boat itself, to which she answers, "It's too late now." Out at sea, the ship comes across a group of whales (the old cropped, dark transfers of the film made it very hard to tell exactly what these things are; I have read that they are, indeed, meant to be whales, but even in a really good transfer, they look downright alien), seemingly fleeing something. If you hadn't already guessed what they could possibly be scared of, Godzilla emerges from the water behind them. Apparently, he was actively chasing them for food, as when he surfaces, he looks around and appears confused when he doesn't see them. Thinking the ship had something to do with their escaping him, he promptly fries it with his atomic breath.

After a small shootout in the dark between Shindo and the assassins in Princess Salno's hotel room, which ends with the assassins somehow escaping using the outside balcony, Shindo and Naoko prepare to take Salno to a specialist for treatment. Just as they're leaving, there's a massive explosion outside. Shindo looks out the window and sees that a ship in the harbor is engulfed in flames. People on another ship begin panicking, screaming that it's Godzilla. Sure enough, the smoke from the fire

clears away and shows Godzilla wading through the bay. As that other ship is evacuated, he comes ashore and begins moving inland, as the nearby district of Yokohama is evacuated. Godzilla moves through the outskirts of the city, when he stops and looks around upon hearing a high-pitched screeching sound up in the sky. After scanning the clouds, he sees that the source of the sound is Rodan, who emerges from them. Curious about him, Godzilla keeps his eyes on him as he comes down and circles the city. He gestures and roars at

him, smashing a small building with his tail in the process. Rodan flies past a tower and then heads off into the night just as suddenly as he appeared, though his presence prompts the authorities to intesify the evacuation. Godzilla seems keen to follow him, marching forward and knocking over a smaller tower as he heads onward into the countryside. As both monsters depart, we get one last look at the evacuation and see that the assassins are among those fleeing the city.

The more action-packed latter half of the movie begins when, while being examined at Dr. Tsukamoto's clinic, Princess Salno first warns them of King Ghidorah and that the monster is already on Earth. At that moment, they overhear a security announcement that both Godzilla and Rodan are heading towards Mt. Fuji. As Godzilla wades through a river towards a small village near the mountain, Rodan appears and flies straight at him. Godzilla turns just in time to see him and roars at

him, with Rodan answering by imitating his voice. Within an instant, Rodan slams right into him, clocking him in the left side of the face and knocking him right on his back in the water. Rodan circles back around, destroying some houses with his winds, while Godzilla gets to his feet and roars angrily at him. Rodan manages to get behind Godzilla and flies at him again, as he comes ashore and heads inland. We then get a major continuity error, as the film cuts to a nighttime scene, despite

the previous few scenes and the sequence of events afterward taking place across the span of one day (one of several such mistakes which the American version actually fixes). Regardless, Prof. Murai and his party are sleeping in their tents near the meteorite, when they awaken upon hearing a loud sound akin to a thunderclap. As they rush outside, they're nearly blinded by a bright flash of light. They move closer to see what's going on, when the meteorite pulls in a bunch of rocks with its powerful, gravitational force and flashes brightly

on the inside, accompanied by more "thunder." Murai runs out from behind his cover to get a Geiger reading, when the flashing forces him to retreat. The meteorite suddenly cracks open, releasing a thick cloud of white vapor, and as it continues flashing and thundering from the inside, sparks billow up on either side and in front of it, forming a virtual wall. The force of all of this is so powerful that the tent they were previously sleeping in collapses. The meteorite is then completely destroyed in a huge explosion, and a

massive fireball is tossed up into the air. Through a series of bright flashes, it morphs into a fiery silhouette that begins to quickly form into a solid object, as Murai and his colleagues watch. Within seconds, the silhouette becomes the image of the powerful space monster King Ghidorah, which hovers up in the sky and cackles. 

 

The next day, the people of Matsumoto City are warned of Ghidorah's appearance (somehow, they even know its name), just as the dragon is spotted heading right for them. A warning siren blares throughout the city and some people on a rooftop run for it when they see Ghidorah approaching in the distance. Various stores and cafes are also evacuated, as the eerie ringing sound generated by its flying grows steadily louder. The city's entire populace runs for cover, as storeowners close down

their shops, as well as bring down their storm doors and board up the fronts, as you would if a hurricane or a similarly strong storm were approaching. Ghidorah flies in and, while it doesn't seem to cause much damage aside from blowing some shingles off a pagoda it flies over, we can probably guess it did a lot more that we didn't see before finally leaving the area.

While the officials discuss what to do at the Diet Building in Tokyo, Godzilla and Rodan are now in a full-on battle at Mt. Fuji. Godzilla tries to keep Rodan in his sights as the giant bird flies around him, but in a long shot, we see that he managed to get behind Godzilla again. Rather than attacking, Rodan just hovers above Godzilla as the two of them square off. When Rodan gets right in front of him, Godzilla gives him two shots of his atomic breath, which doesn't affect him at all. Shrugging it

off, Rodan repeatedly pecks at Godzilla's head and the tip of his snout. Godzilla shakes his head and his eyes dart around, as Rodan moves in to attack again. While this is going on, Prof. Murai introduces the Shobijin to the officials, explaining that, because Mothra once defeated Godzilla, they should have them ask Mothra to battle Ghidorah for them. But, knowing that Mothra wouldn't stand a chance alone, they instead say that the best course of action would be for her, Godzilla, and

Rodan to join forces. No sooner do they suggest this than Ghidorah appears in Tokyo and begins laying waste to it, forcing everyone in the Diet to take cover. (This is a rare instance where the government and military officials find themselves caught up in the monster action. Usually, they monitor everything from the safety of a base or bunker, with movies in the later periods having them watch everything on big video screens.) This is the first time we see Ghidorah use its lightning and we realize just lethally efficient it is at causing

destruction. Flying over the city and swinging its heads back and forth as it fires, its beams spread all over the city, decimating a good chunk of Tokyo in little more than one minute. Dozens of buildings and other structures are blown to bits, the upper half of a large tower falls over after being hit in the center, and debris goes flying everywhere from the powerful winds generated by Ghidorah's wings. Once Ghidorah flies off, the officials, knowing they have no other recourse, urge the Shobijin to call Mothra right away. They do so by singing Cry for Happiness again, and at the end of the song, Mothra crawls off her rock and heads for the ocean.

Back at Dr. Tsukamoto's clinic, when Salno continues to insist she's from Venus, despite being under the influence of a new drug, Tsukamoto suggests they try shock treatment. At the same time, ignoring warnings that Godzilla and Rodan are getting closer, Malness and his group of assassins head to the clinic to kill the princess once and for all. Shindo and Tsukamoto also carry on, while the nearby village is evacuated. The assassins sneak inside and Malness, figuring out what's going on when Shindo comes out and turn

the voltage up to 500, then cranks it all the way up to 3,000 volts. Back at the ongoing battle, Rodan tags Godzilla in the back of the head and knocks him onto the ground. With his foe struggling to get up, Rodan lands on Godzilla's back, pecks at his head, and then manages to fly up into the air and take him with him, holding onto him on either side of his spines. He carries Godzilla a fair distance and those watching the battle take cover when he finally drops him right onto an electrical tower (on his crotch, no less). The ensuing power outage

stops the fatal shock therapy just in the nick of time. When the lights go out, Shindo goes to see what's wrong and runs right into Malness and his men when he opens the door, starting another shootout. While Shindo holds them off from the doorway, Tsukamoto gets Salno to safety. At that moment, Prof. Murai and Naoko arrive with the Shobijin, when they hear the gunshots. Murai tells Naoko to stay by the car, while he heads inside. Passing by some panicking nurses, Murai grabs a

wrench and, when one of the assassins comes through the door, he whacks him right on the head (his reaction is a lot funnier in the American version), causing him to drop his gun. Picking it up, Murai fires on the assassins from the door behind them, forcing them to retreat out the window. With the coast clear, Tsukamoto brings Salno out from hiding and he, with the assistance of Murai and some other doctors, walk her out of the clinic. Shindo, after reloading his pistol, pursues the retreating assassins, firing at them but failing to hit any of them. He's joined by Naoko, who tells him that Mothra is coming. The two of them then join the others in evacuating the clinic.

Getting back to his feet after being dropped, Godzilla sees Rodan standing on a nearby rock, squawking at him. After a little bit of squaring off, Rodan flies at Godzilla, who walks towards him. After getting pecked on the head again, Godzilla decides he's had enough and turns around, bends over, raises his tail up, and whacks Rodan on the head, knocking him to the ground. With the giant bird dazed, Godzilla grabs him, picks him up, and slams him on the ground, before turning back around and whacking him some more with his tail.

However, that proves to be a mistake, as Rodan manages to right himself and bites the tip of Godzilla's tail. After struggling a bit, Godzilla manages to yank his tail out of Rodan's beak and swings around to give him another taste of his atomic breath. Again, this doesn't injure Rodan but it does daze him, and he and Godzilla grapple at each other. Rodan manages to jump away from Godzilla and use his hurricane winds to upset his balance and blow him back. Not able to get at him, Godzilla uses large rocks as projectiles, kicking

them and whacking them at him with his tail. At that moment, Mothra arrives and the Shobijin tell Shindo, Naoko, and the others as they're in the midst of the evacuation. The humans stop their car and head up the hill in order to reach a better vantage point to see what's going on. Mothra approaches the site of Godzilla and Rodan's battle, as Godzilla loses his balance due to Rodan's winds but continues to fight back by pelting him with large rocks, which seem to be wearing the flying

monster down. Mothra crawls up to them and squeaks to get their attention, but they're too busy fighting to notice. It escalates to the point where Godzilla and Rodan begin whacking rocks back and forth between each other, with Rodan using his head to bounce them (this was inspired by the Japanese Women's Volleyball Team, who had won at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics). Mothra continues squeaking at them but when that still doesn't work, she's finally forced to spray Godzilla right in the

face with her silk, which Rodan finds hilarious. After getting hit with the sticky stuff, Godzilla groans in disgust as he tries to pull it off (the sounds he makes are Manda's vocalizations from Atragon), while Rodan continues laughing... until Mothra sprays him as well. Now, it's Godzilla's turn to laugh at Rodan, who looks rather confused once the spraying stops. Godzilla takes a seat while continuing to laugh at his foe's bewilderment.

Mothra crawls up onto a ridge to where she can talk to Godzilla and Rodan and, as the humans watch from nearby, the Shobijin translate their discussion. Meanwhile, the assassins push by those evacuating on the mountain road, when Ghidorah enters the area. It flies over the village and randomly shoots its lightning bolts, one of which hits the mountainside and creates a rockslide that crushes the assassins' car. All of the assassins are killed, save for Malness, who staggers out of the backseat, banged up and bloody, but otherwise, just

dazed. Ghidorah lands in the village, while Mothra continues trying to get Godzilla and Rodan to help her. Despite her assertion that they must forget the past, Godzilla and Rodan begin demanding that the other must apologize. Godzilla blasts Rodan, causing him to swing around and shove Godzilla with his wing. The two of them scuffle a bit, but Mothra manages to stop it before it escalates. While the negotiations continue, Ghidorah begins its attack on the village, stomping through it while firing its bolts at the houses. The humans and the

Shobijin are then told by a man in the group of evacuees that the road is blocked and Matsunoki Pass is now the only way out. They move to a safer spot and the Shobijin then continue translating the conversation. Mothra's statement that the Earth belongs to everybody, not just mankind, seems to finally win Godzilla and Rodan over, but then, the Shobijin say it still didn't work. With having reached an impasse, the Shobijin say that Mothra is going to fight Ghidorah by herself. Godzilla and

Rodan watch as she crawls off and, when she reaches the outskirts of the village, she sees the powerful space dragon laying waste to it. Ghidorah levels a torii gate at the edge of the village with its lightning and stomps on some of the houses with its enormous feet, all while seeming to gleefully and sadistically enjoy causing the destruction. Even though she's clearly outmatched, Mothra approaches the village and Ghidorah wastes no time in acknowledging her presence, blasting its 

lightning around the caterpillar and blowing up more houses right in front of her to intimidate her. Ghidorah then targets Mothra herself and hits her dead on, sending her flying up into the air. After landing, Mothra turns and looks at Ghidorah, who promptly blasts her up into the air once again, as the humans watch in horror.

Just when it seems like Mothra has bought the farm, Godzilla appears on a nearby ridge. Seeing Mothra get blasted, he heads down the hillside to help, with Rodan appearing in the sky above. Reaching the bottom, Godzilla heads straight for Ghidorah. He gets blasted back by the lightning but is undeterred, charging towards the dragon again and grabbing its three necks. He ends up getting shoved backwards, falling onto a nearby bridge, and almost getting half-buried when the side of the mountain crumbles down on him as a result.

Ghidorah fires its lightning again, hitting the nearby forest and starting a fire, blocking off the last escape route for the evacuating villagers. Rodan flies in to help and whacks the top of Ghidorah's heads with his feet. This gets its attention and he proceeds to lead the dragon away from Godzilla and Mothra. As Ghidorah chases Rodan, Godzilla helps Mothra up the side of the ridge by letting her grab onto the tip of his tail with her mouth so he can drag her up. Rodan leads

Ghidorah farther into the countryside and then, when the dragon least expects it, swings around and rams right into it. Ghidorah falls right on its stomach onto an enormous boulder (ouch!), but Rodan also gets knocked on his back by the impact. He manages to get up, but has to take cover behind a rock in order to avoid Ghidorah's bolts. Godzilla and Mothra arrive but, while Ghidorah does seem to notice them, it continues focusing on trying to get Rodan. That attitude changes when Godzilla throws a rock at its back, and when the dragon turns around to face him, it gets pelted with more rocks. 

 

Meanwhile, Princess Salno, who slipped away from the others, prays on a ledge in a nearby gorge for the Earth to be spared from destruction. Malness finds her, but so does Shindo, and after Salno gets grazed by a bullet from Malness, Shindo fires some shots at the assassin. He then climbs down to get down to Salno, who fell off and onto a lower ledge after she was shot. Malness tries to shoot him, but his clip clicks empty and he has to reload, as well as move to a better vantage point. Shindo gets down to the princess and bandages her

head, while Malness has reloaded and, once again, has them in his sights. He fires but misses, and Shindo fires back. Salno looks out from behind Shindo and, seeing Malness, runs out into the open and calls him a traitor, revealing that she's regained her senses. Getting her back to cover, Shindo explains that he's her bodyguard, when Malness manages to shoot him in the right hand, causing him to drop his handgun. As Shindo attempts to shield Salno with his body, Malness shoots him

again, this time in the left arm. It seems as though he has them cornered but then, a stray bolt from Ghidorah causes a rockslide that sends him falling to his doom (he actually catches one of the large rocks, which I don't think was supposed to happen). Tsukamoto, Murai, and Naoko come along and find them, as Salno helps bandage Shindo's arm. They're then rescued.

Back at the battle, Godzilla continues pelting Ghidorah with rocks but then, he and Mothra get blasted by the dragon, which sends Mothra flying off to the side. Ghidorah decides to play dirty, blasting Godzilla in the neck and face before trailing the bolts down his body and zapping his crotch (Godzilla's privates are taking a lot of abuse here, aren't they?)! Rodan then flies up behind Ghidorah and lands on its back, pecking the backs of its heads, while Godzilla attacks from the front. Mothra crawls around behind Ghidorah and bites

the tip of one of its tails but gets flung around like a ragdoll, while Rodan gets thrown off and Godzilla shoved onto his back. Mothra manages to hold onto the tail, while Rodan attempts to fly onto Ghidorah's back again, but is unable to do so this time due to the dragon's movements. Mothra continues holding onto the one tail as Godzilla attempts to get back onto his feet but, just when he does, Ghidorah apparently shoves him with its heads, causing him to fall forward, flat on his face (I think that's what happens, anyway; the editing

makes it hard to tell). As Rodan lands behind Ghidorah and Mothra continues to hold onto the tail for dear life, Ghidorah decides to be an asshole again and zaps Godzilla right on the butt! That definitely gets him back on his feet and he runs forward, while Ghidorah fires its bolts around him. As Rodan watches, Mothra finally loses her grip on the tail. Godzilla fights Ghidorah from the front again, while the caterpillar attempts to spray it with her silk. Realizing what she's trying to do but also seeing that she can't get up high enough for it to be

effective, Rodan allows Mothra to crawl up his wing and onto his back. He flies up into the air, while Godzilla grapples with Ghidorah's necks and gets shoved on his back again. Mothra begins spraying Ghidorah's back and necks with her silk, and when it turns around to face her and Rodan, Godzilla comes up behind it and grabs its tails. Mothra continues spraying, as Godzilla attempts to drag the space monster backwards. As the villagers continue trying to escape to safety, Mothra is

starting to make progress in cocooning Ghidorah's heads, while Godzilla continues dragging it backwards. Unfortunately for the villagers, a rockslide caused by the battle buries what's left of their ruined village. On the upside, Ghidorah's heads are now almost completely cocooned. With the dragon unable to see, Godzilla drags it up a hill and swings it around and throws it down the other side. As the frazzled monster gets to its feet, Godzilla throws rocks at it again until Ghidorah 

realizes it's been beaten and retreats, flying up into the sky. The battle finally ends, with Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra watching Ghidorah flee the planet. And right at the end of the movie, Godzilla and Rodan are shown watching Mothra and the Shobijin begin their journey back to Infant Island, akin to the previous movie's ending with the human cast.

Just like how he perfected Godzilla's theme in Mothra vs. Godzilla, Akira Ifukube comes up with two iconic leitmotifs in his score for Ghidorah. The first is Rodan's new theme, which you first hear during the opening credits and often plays after the main notes of Godzilla's theme, which it remained tied to for many years afterward. It's a grand, soaring horn piece that's actually a louder version of a fairly soft motif Ifukube first used in 1958's Varan, and which I'm sure most kaiju fans can hum as soon as it comes to mind. The other is Ghidorah's theme, which you first hear when the monster emerges from the meteorite. The theme doesn't start right away but rather, has a mysterious, otherworldly build-up as the meteorite goes berserk and it cracks open. Near the end of the sequence, when the rock is finally destroyed, the theme hits full blast, with its distinctive, chaotic horn sound, and it really gives Ghidorah's first appearance a dynamic punch. But, if there's a problem with these themes, it's that they're played way too much. You almost can't get a look at Rodan or Ghidorah without hearing those motifs and, as such, they, along with Godzilla's theme, are practically the only music you hear during the third act. As good as this music is, it gets old very quickly as a result. You even hear it during the shootout at the Tsukamoto clinic, which I think is especially egregious, as well as odd, given it's a scene involving the human. I know Ifukube was a very in-demand composer during that period and was under such a constant time crunch that he often went back to the well for musical inspiration, as he did here, but a different theme during that sequence would have worked much better in breaking up the monotony. Some other notable music includes the soft, peaceful horn piece when Prof. Murai and his colleagues first head for the site of the meteorite crash, a rather freaky female vocalization accompanied by a threatening bit of music when they first see the meteorite, and a nice variation of the theme for Mothra's egg in the previous film which, fittingly, is often played whenever Mothra herself is onscreen. Honestly, the only bit of music I can say I don't like is, again, Cry for Happiness, which I've ranted about enough. Plus, like I said before, Ifukube didn't write it.

While Mothra vs. Godzilla more or less remained when it was brought to America as Godzilla vs. The Thing, Ghidorah, which was released in the U.S. in September of 1965 as Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster, was altered quite a bit, though not as drastically as the first three Godzilla films, as there's no newly shot footage (and wouldn't be for the rest of the Showa series). The changes comprise a lot of re-editing, some of which is unnecessary, while others correct continuity errors found in the Japanese version. There are also some minor tweaks made to the story but nothing drastic. The most obvious change is the renaming of the title monster from "Ghidorah" to "Ghidrah." Just like how "Gojira" became "Godzilla," this change came about as a result of English interpretations of the Japanese name's pronunciation. The leap from Ghidorah to Ghidrah isn't that improbable; all it took was the removal of a vowel, and if you listen to how the actors pronounce it in the Japanese version, you hear that they're saying "gee-doe-rah," which can be easily interpreted as just "gee-drah," due to how quickly the Japanese language is spoken and how vowels are sometimes skipped. This American transliteration persisted for quite a long time, and because the next film has Ghidorah often referred to as Monster Zero (it is called Ghidrah as well but I didn't catch it when I was a kid), and the later film, Godzilla vs. Gigan, has the name pronounced as "gi-dor-ah" in the dub, I never knew what to call this monster when I was young. I sometimes joked that it has as many names as it does heads! Eventually, Toho stipulated that they prefer the name be written as "Ghidorah," and while you could argue back and forth about the pronunciation, I've always just referred to it as "gi-dor-ah" in order to avoid confusion... until I have to explain this transliteration issue, in which case, confusion reigns supreme. I mentioned this back in my Godzilla introduction but I want to reiterate that, when I write "Ghidorah" in these reviews, I'm pronouncing it in that way. You can pronounce however you wish. (We're going to have more of these translation discussions for later films, so be prepared.)

Some consider the dubbing for Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster to be amongst the best in the series, but I don't quite agree with that. I've heard worse dubs, for sure, but, at the same time, I've heard a lot better. The dubbing for the male characters, like Shindo, Malness, Prof. Murai, and Dr. Tsukamoto, are pretty good and fit with the characters. I especially like the dubbing for the manzai hosts of the television show the Shobijin appear on. The dub actors manage to play off each other rather well, and I like how, when one comments the shorter one is almost the same height as the two five-year old boy, his buddy says out of the corner of his mouth, "Cut it out, will you? We're on-camera!" It feels very natural, like two friends joshing each other, which fits since those two actors were actually a popular comedy team in Japan. In addition, the dubbing done for Princess Salno is also quite good and the actor manages to change the tone of her voice to suit the character's state of mind. When we first see her on the plane, her voice is very prim and proper, but when she's possessed by that force, it becomes monotone and emotionless, save for when she's trying to warn people about impending danger and near the end of the film when she's praying for the Earth to be spared. It becomes emotional again after she returns to normal. (And while we're on the subject, in this version, Salno claims to come from Mars instead of Venus, probably because Mars was, and still is, the most popular planet to have alien life that comes to Earth.) Unfortunately, she's the exception, as a lot of the female voices are rather shrill and high-pitched. Naoko is dubbed this way, which is unfortunate because I like the character, and she also comes off as a bit ditzy due to the dub actor's performance. The Shobijin, despite their delivering the priceless line, "Oh, Godzilla, what terrible language!" in this version, are also pretty annoying and they're talking in unison only makes it more so. The most unusual instance of dubbing is how they get around the Shobijin's song: they keep the singing but have a woman talk over it, translating it in a monotone voice for both you and the television audience, as their dialect is said to be their own, whereas in the original version, it's just Japanese. Also, if you watch the Japanese version, you know that the woman's translation is only vaguely accurate. You still have to listen to the whole song, but only once in this version.

Again, the biggest changes are a re-shuffling of the sequences of events in various sections, while other moments are deleted altogether. As I said, some of these changes work really well. The best example is how the editors have Ghidorah emerge from the meteorite after the scene where Godzilla comes ashore at Yokohama, which works much better since both scenes take place at night. Also, princess Salno's warning about Ghidorah comes after the monster has emerged in this version instead of before; some feel that undermines the effectiveness of her otherworldly abilities but I never thought it was a big deal. Plus, the scene ends with her saying Ghidorah is already on Earth, a statement that is very much correct since it's already hatched. The meteorite carrying Ghidorah lands immediately after we see the start of the shower, instead of after Princess Salno's plane blows up, as in the Japanese version. I think either way works well, although I prefer the way it plays out in the Japanese version, as I think the transition from seeing it crash into the gorge to Prof. Murai and his team arriving the next morning to search for it is a bit smoother. Plus, after the meteorite crashes in this version, we hear some sirens, which suggests an emergency response to it but nothing more is said about it. Those sirens were meant as an emergency call for an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis but, since the scene which explains this is removed here, you wouldn't know that. Like with the perceived weakening of Salno's ability to predict the future, it's not a huge deal but it's something I've just thought about. I also agree with the removal of scenes like Kanamaki instructing his reporters in how to approach the story on the prophet and Shindo and Naoko driving Salno to the Tsukamoto clinic because they're not necessary to the plot. And in this version, they completely remove Cry for Happiness when the Shobijin call Mothra; we just hear them sing Mothra's name a few times, cut to a shot of Infant Island, and see Mothra head to the sea.

The number of changes that I feel are unnecessary or create more problems are less than those I find beneficial. One part that always confused me was when Shindo comes home and says, "Oh, I see sis has a new boyfriend," and then, both he and his mother tease Naoko about being romantically interested in Prof. Murai. In the Japanese version, there's a shot where Shindo, while walking home, sees Naoko getting out of Murai's car, which explains where he got that idea; it's removed here, so Shindo's comments come out of nowhere. When I was younger, I wondered if I'd missed something that would explain it but it turns out I didn't. And as much as I appreciate them sparing me from hearing Cry for Happiness a second time, I wish they'd done something about the extended shot of Infant Island we get after the Shobijin call for Mothra. In the Japanese version, they sing the first lyrics of the song over that shot but, since the song is totally removed here, the shot comes off as overly long and a bit awkward. One change that David Kalat praises in his chapter on the film in A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series is how they have Godzilla first catch sight of Rodan after emerging from the ocean They put in a later shot of Rodan flying in the sky and a shot of Godzilla reacting to him, which Kalat feels corresponds with Godzilla coming ashore at Yokohama, making it seem as if he's after Rodan. He says this softens Godzilla's character a bit and makes his transition into a good guy more acceptable. I could buy that if it weren't for how, after he emerges from the ocean and sees Rodan, Godzilla still fries that boat and kills everyone onboard for no reason other than he just wanted to (in fact, the inclusion of Rodan dilutes his doing it because he felt the boat made him loose those whales he was after). Be it in the Japanese version or in the American version, he's still causing death and destruction before he and Rodan are recruited by Mothra to help her fight Ghidorah, so I don't see what impact that re-editing made. Others may agree with Kalat's assertions but I just don't see the significance.

While it wasn't completely excised like in King Kong vs. Godzilla, a good chunk of Akira Ifukube's score did not survive the journey to America and was replaced with stock music. As with the film re-editing, I feel that some of the changes were beneficial, while others were completely unnecessary. The biggest benefit is that the inclusion of new music breaks up the monotony of the third act's sound, especially Godzilla and Rodan's battle. The music that replaces Ifukube's work in the fight is rather bland, and the bit that plays when Rodan picks Godzilla up and carries him has a rather obnoxious sound, but I think the music that plays during the shootout at the clinic is much more appropriate than continuing to play the monsters' music and, again, helps it feel less monotonous. When Prof. Murai and his colleagues hike through the mountains to find the meteorite, the quiet, peaceful music Ifukube composed is replaced by a much eerier and more ominous piece. I'm sort of torn because I do like the way the music sounds but, since nothing sinister is happening, it feels out of place. Plus, I don't like that they removed the freakish female vocalization when they finally see the meteorite. They also put music into the scene where Malness attempts to kill Princess Salno in the gorge near the end, which was not scored originally. I think that works for the better and helps give the scene more dramatic impact. However, I don't understand why they felt the need to replace Rodan's theme in his first appearance, especially since they would keep it in for much of the rest of the movie. The music they replaced it with sounds fine, but if they'd kept his theme here and then still replaced much of it during his and Godzilla's fight, I think it would have worked just fine. I don't agree at all, though with how, when Godzilla first comes ashore, they replaced his theme with something else. There is no reason for them to have done that, especially since they kept his theme during his first appearance not too long before and would continue to play it during the latter part of the movie. They tended to make these decisions in a very inexplicable and nonsensical manner.

Whichever version you watch, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster is a fine film in the Godzilla franchise. It has some interesting aspects and concepts in its story, the characters, despite some of them not being very deep, are likable and worth rooting for, there's a lot of really good monster action during the third act, Ghidorah itself is a cool creature and it's not surprising it became as popular as it did, and seeing Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra working together to defeat it makes for a very exciting and fun climax. But, there are some legitimate issues I have with the film: while I like the possession angle with the princess, I don't really care for the subplot of the assassins trying to kill her, it takes a while for the monsters to enter the picture and, as a result, the first half tends to drag for me, the puppet effects used here are really bad and fake-looking, I don't care for the Shobijin's song, and in the Japanese version, the sequence of events during the second act is choppy, with some noticeable continuity errors, and the music score gets really repetitive at points. While the American version does fix some of those problems, it has some issues of its own due to some of the dubbing, the re-editing, and the replacement of musical cues. But still, in either form, those issues aren't enough to keep it from being a pretty entertaining monster flick overall and so, I do recommend it.