Ghidra, monstruo de tres cabezas

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.

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

"Ghidora, the Three Headed Monster" is an entertaining and overall quite welcome addition to the Godzilla series (and of course the 'canon' of the other monsters appearing). The key to a good Godzilla flick is a solid plot (even if it's just interesting in a hokey B-movie sci-fi way) and interesting human characters, because let's face it, the monster action only actually makes up less than a third of the movie itself, so if the rest is torture to sit through there's almost no point to watching it (unless you're a completist, like myself).

"Ghidora, the Three Headed Monster" doesn't quite have the most interesting story of any of the Godzilla movies, but it's solid enough and we get a healthy dose of the lovable singing fairy girls. It's really the plot inconsistencies that let it down. I would forgive them, especially given that this is a Godzilla movie, but they are so glaring and obvious (why would the fairy girls, not wanting attention, appear on TV?) that they become annoying. The comedy in this film also really just doesn't work at all.

Ishiro Honda is once again the director, and as usual he proves that he is a more talented director than many would give him credit for. This most certainly wasn't the worst Godzilla movie he directed, but it's a shame the special effects couldn't be a little better and enhance the movie a bit. Although I quite like the monster suits themselves for both Godzilla and Ghidora the model work and the puppet work is especially bad and a surprising step down from the previous installment. Everything about "Ghidora, the Three Headed Monster" is a step down from the excellent "Mothra vs. Godzilla", but this is still an entertaining and welcome installment in the series, if deeply flawed.

6/10

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.

Many fans of Japanese monster movies regard the late 50s/early 60s as the Golden Age,and they are generally right.There is a terrific feel to the Toho Studios films made in that period-imaginative,exciting,fun without generally descending into camp,a good stock company of actors,etc.This film,to call it by it's western name Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster,is a direct sequel to Godzilla Vs Mothra,perhaps the apex of the Godzilla series.It is not as completely satisfying as the previous instalment but it is probably even more entertaining.

The build-up is somewhat muddled and lengthy,but the plot is just about intriguing enough to keep one ticking over until,after perhaps too long a wait,the monsters appear and the film really kicks into high gear.The appearance of Godzilla,the pterosaur-like Rodan,and the three headed dragon Ghidorah {surely Godzilla's greatest foe} are all well staged and effective,while Ghidorah's attack on Tokyo remains impressive and was often 're-used' in later films.The Godzilla/Rodan battle is just funny,as is the bit where Mothra tries to communicate with Godzilla and Rodan and get them to fight Ghidorah,a really wacky scene that could only exist in a Japnese monster movie, but the climactic fight,as the three Earth monsters Godzilla,Rodan and Mothra combine their strength against the alien creature is the most rousing climax of a Godzilla film,aided by Akira Ifikube's fantastic theme music.

As usual,the US version was altered and,once again,for the worst,although not as badly as King Kong Vs Godzilla.Still,scenes were cut and shifted about,tightening the pace of the first half and weakening continuity,and some of the music was replaced.Once again,to get a real appreciation of this tremendously enjoyable and exciting movie,you need to seek out the Japanese version.