Ghidrah, le monstre à trois têtes

This is the seventh kaijyu (monster) movie written by Toho's screen writer Shinichi Sekizawa, and the first to portray the monsters in a comical light which would become Toho's style for the following 10 years. The story differs somewhat between the Japanese version and the American version. This commentary is about the Japanese version.

Princess Mars Dourina Salno (Eiko Wakabayashi) of Sergina requests Japanese police to give her protection due to political instability of her country. Detective Shindo (Yosuke Natsuki) is assigned by his boss Okita (Akihiko Hirata) to body guard the princess, but the plane carrying the princess explodes on its way to Japan. Shortly afterward a woman proclaiming to be from Venus appears and prophecies that Rodan and Godzilla will appear in Japan. Thinking that his assignment was over before it got started Shindo goes home, reads about mysterious Venusian woman who's attracting media's attention looks exactly like princess Mars. Convinced that the self proclaimed "Venusian" is princess Mars, he launches his own investigation. His sister Naoko who is a reporter is also on the heel of the Venusian woman. In the mean time a mysterious asteroid falls in the Kurobe area of Japan. Assistant professor Murai (Hiroshi Koizumi) is the team leader that's sent to investigate the asteroid witnesses the asteroid turning into a three headed monster. Naoko finally catches up with the Venusian woman and escorts her to a near by hotel. By this time assassins from Sergina is also on her trail suspecting that the Venusian woman is princess Mars. They converge at the hotel and shooting ensues between the assassins and detective Shindo. Assassins flees and detective Shindo, and Naoko escorts the Venusian to Dr. Tsukamoto's (Takashi Shimura) lab to see if her memories can be revived. In the mean time Rodan and Godzilla is sited and they converge near Mt. Fuji and starts a battle. Vanusian woman tells a story that 5000 years ago Venus was attacked by the monster King Gidora and was turned into a waste land, and that Gidora is now on earth. Mothra is called to Japan to ask Godzilla and Rodan to fight against King Gidora, but the two monsters aren't exactly interested in helping mankind.

The plot of this movie is superbly written with each element supporting the entire flow of the story. Many die hard Godzilla fans might not like the campy flavor of this movie, but so many elements crammed into this movie that runs just over 90 minutes has intricacies and originality never seen in previous Japanese monster movies. This movie by far has the most intricate plot of movies written by Shinichi Sekizawa, but is hidden behind the tong in cheek humor that runs throughout the movie.

In the US released DVD, three men accuses the Venusian woman as "kichigai" (crazy). The broadcast code in Japan has tightened up since this movie was made and this word is no longer allowed to be used in a movie, so the Japanese DVD has this word changed to another dialog, but you will hear it as it was in the US release DVD. Princess Mars' full name Mars, Dourina, Salno is a play on the Japanese phrase "Ma, sudori, nasaruno" (Are you just going to pass me by ?) and is intended to be an injoke.

You'll get much more out of this movie if you catch the details of the movie. It was the first time Gidora was seen on screen. Gidora became a staple of subsequent movies guaranteeing a crowd draw for Toho.

Watch this movie to see if you can catch the details.

Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster has been considered a classic by many kaiju fans, and for good reason: introducing Godzilla's arch nemesis, the titular monster King Ghidorah. And while it is overall an entertaining flick, it does have it's flaws. The story is rather simple: Godzilla, Rodan, and Ghidorah all show up at the same time, and Mothra has to convince Godzilla and Rodan to fight Ghidorah with her. It's pretty simple stuff and works effectively. One of the categories where it faults, though, is the characters. While they're likable enough that you're not bored, they're not really particularly memorable or interesting either. They're one-dimensional but the plot happening with them is interesting enough that it keeps you invested during the human scenes. King Ghidorah looks great, Mothra Larva is an improvement over her previous appearance, and Godzilla looks good too, but Rodan's design is a downgrade from his debut film, but he still looks fine, and the overly dopey look has yet to come. Godzilla's character ark occurs here, where he goes from destroyer to defender, though the reason why he decides to help against Ghidorah after refusing several times is questionable. He just sees Mothra get blasted and suddenly decides to help. The same is true for Rodan, and even more questionable, is what exactly this Rodan is. In the original Rodan, there were two: a male and a female. Both were killed. Then one Rodan comes out of the same mountain in this movie, and it's supposedly a male. Did the male regenerate? Did the male actually not die? Is this they're unknown offspring? It's unknown even to this very day, not even official Toho books ever really clarify. While it's nice to see Rodan appear in a Godzilla movie, this is rather jarring. The special effects, while quite a bit looks impressive considering the especially big time constraints, it does falter quite a bit during the Godzilla and Rodan fight, especially with the cringey puppetry. Despite this, the fights are entertaining, with Godzilla and Rodan's fight still being a joy to watch, and having quite a few memorable moments. And of course, the final battle with all four monsters is also quite entertaining, even more so, and the special effects in that scene are a big improvement, and everywhere else they are consistently well-done. Akira Ifukube once again delivers the goods with this film's soundtrack; his music sours. It's no wonder many of it is still used and remembered today. Overall, Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster is a flawed movie, but it's positives outweigh the negatives and is an enjoyable and memorable entry in the franchise. It's not one of the best, but it's far, far from the worst.

When a world ending three headed monster by the name of Ghidorah arrives on earth chaos ensues!

Godzilla, Rodan & Mothra are all on the scene but fighting one another. Can Mothra and the martians convince them to work together to fight this seemingly unstoppable force?

So once again we have the grade A cheese, men in monster suits, stop motion animation, ridiculous fight scenes and terrible acting. And yet somehow/someway this is actually the best Toho film I've seen.

It suffers with all the usual tropes and arguably the plot is even worse than usual but it works and makes for a fun monster epic.

The Godzilla films are certainly niche and not for everyone but this is a fun little effort.

The Good:

By this point it's actually starting to feel like a franchise

Builds up to a solid climax

The Bad:

Opening is really daft

Some of the outfits are embarassingly bad

Plot is a tad confuddled

Godzilla moves like a teletubby

Franchise is getting goofy

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The mini martian ladies are growing on me

Mid battle giant monsters often enjoy games of catch with boulders

Yes it's goofy but damn it's awesome! I keep wondering how the creatures/effects were made back then. Sometimes hard to keep up with the subtitles too, but still nice to enjoy occasionally - I'm not judging. Japanese uniqueness can be quite a wonderful thing!

I hate to make Godzilla fans mad, but there are very few great Godzilla films. Most are interesting as campy fun, but this one is actually captivating. Even the plot about the missing princess turned Martian is interesting and even though it drags away from the monster fights, it is one that can be easily followed and is well-acted. The effects for Rodan are horrible, unlike the original RODAN movie; Godzilla's suit is the same as always; but Mothra is not the giant moth, it is one of the giant larvae leftover from GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA. That sort of disappointed me, but the twin fairies, monster fights, and excellent music helped make up for it.