Japanese Title: "San Daikaiju Chikyu Saidai No Kessen"
AKA: "Ghidora, The Three Headed Monster;" "Ghidrah;" "The Greatest Battle on Earth;" "The Biggest Right (Fight?) on Earth;" "Monster of Monsters"
***Not Rated***
Released: December 20, 1964 (Japan)
Sept. 13, 1965 (U.S.)
Length: 92 min. (Japan)
81 min. (U.S.)
Gojira Movie Number: 5
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Cast: Yosuke Natsuki (as Detective Shindo), Yuriko Hoshi (as Naoko Shindo), Hiroshi Koizumi (as Professor Miura), Akiko Wakabayashi (as Mas Selina Salno, Princess of Sergina), Hisaya Ito (as Malmess, Chief Assassin), Susumu Kurobe (as Mustachioed Assassin)
It’s a Godzilla movie without Godzilla’s name in the title! It’s amazing! And what’s even more amazing is that this movie is actually pretty cool! It has four monsters in it. Not very many Gojira films achieve this!
Well, on to the review. It opens with Godzilla doing battle with Ghidrah in a sort of preview of what is to come. I’m not sure why they did this. It wasn’t needed and there’s enough stock-footage in these films as it is. Anyway, we move on to watch a bunch of evil doers dialogue about a bomb on a plane. Then we go to a plane and watch Princess Salno chat with her attendants. She requests something to drink and then something odd happens. Before she gets drunk, she starts hearing voices and walks out of the plane while it’s in flight. Thus, she escapes in the nick-of-time as the plane explodes once she’s fallen out.
You’d think that would be the end of her, but somehow she survives. But first we have to see the police of Japan, where she was headed for some official visit, put Detective Shindo on the case of her disappearance. Shindo does his job by perusing the paper instead of investigating the wreckage of the plane; and it’s a good thing he did! Why? Because right there on the front page is a picture of a chick in gray fisherman’s clothing that immediately reminds him of the Princess’s picture. This woman claims to be a Martian and that she can predict the future. (I guess that fall did do something to her brain.)
Anyway, Shindo tries to find her repeatedly throughout the movie. The Princess goes to a volcano and warns people to leave because Rodan will appear. Luckily, she’s not the only thing going for this film. We get to see a guy’s hat fly off a cliff and listen as a wife tries to get him to go after it. He won’t go, but the cool actor from King Kong vs. Godzilla will. We know him as Kono, the translator from that movie, but in this one he’s just a person in the crowd. However, he does do some interesting faces as he goes down the mountain in search of the hat. Just as the hat is recovered, Rodan pops out of the mountain.
This is probably the dumbest looking Rodan in all of the Toho movies, but I think he’s probably also the best.
Somewhere around here we get to see a dumb Japanese TV show. The hosts say some rather funny stuff, but other than that, they’re pretty dumb. Some kids are asked what famous person(s) they would like to see and they say Mothra. This makes little sense, but what’s really strange is that the hosts have Mothra’s devoted fairies. So we listen to them jabber about Mothra and how she’s doing and all that rot. Then we listen to their song.
Also, we learn about a meteorite that landed in the mountains. Some scientists check it out and we watch as the things glows and becomes magnetic for short periods of time.
And now it’s another day and another Martian prediction. This time, we see a bunch of reporters interviewing the fairies (AKA Shobijin) as they’re about to leave for Infant Island. Before they can, we hear the Princess proclaim that something terrible will happen to this ship. Somehow, one of the lady reporters manages to take the Princess aside and convince her that she, the reporter, can help. (What’s the reporter going to do? Twist the truth!?!)
Thus, the reporter takes her to a hotel and we find that the fairies have sneaked in too. Right around this time, we switch to another scene in which Godzilla is blowing up the previously mentioned ship. Gojira also sees Rodan fly overhead and he seems to find this bothersome.
Also, the assassins have discovered that their bomb didn’t do the trick. The Princess has made herself famous with her doomsday predictions and they hunt her down to see if she’s the Princess. They even manage to find her in her hotel room. (The reporter had just left and was talking to her brother, Detective Shindo…yeah, I know; predictable plot "twist.") Well, they start an interrogation and what do we see? Well, those fairies of course! They’re sneaking around to douse the lights. But wait! What’s this? Somehow they’ve become normal size instead of keeping their tiny stature! Wow! I didn’t know they could do that! And when the lights do go out, it certainly doesn’t look much darker.
About this time, Shindo comes busting in and there’s a short fire fight. Then we discover the Princess reading to herself in the chimney in the dark. (No, I am NOT making this up!)
Shindo does something smart at this point. He can see that something is wrong with this girl and he takes her to see a doctor. The doctor is a little strange himself as he seems to think that shocking the girl will cure her. Of course, they use some "truth-serum" on her first to "discover" if she’s actually an alien. Before they shock her though, the assassins sneak in and crank the voltage up all the way.
While all this testing is going on, we watch the scientists watch in wide-eyed "horror" as the meteorite hatches. Out comes some funky orange-yellow light that changes into Ghidrah. Ghidrah doesn’t think the humans are worth another look, so he flies off to find something more worthwhile to stomp on.
Godzilla and Rodan have come together in a loving reunion. They fight some and then Rodan picks Godzilla up and drops him on a power line, thus prolonging the Princess’s life for a few more scenes. This also means that the people are too close to the fighting and must flee on foot to escape the rampaging monsters.
By this time, Shindo’s sister and her boyfriend have joined him and they brought along the fairies. Sometime before this the fairies called Mothra for help in defeating Ghidrah. Anyway, Mothra (and we’re talking larva-Mothra, not full-sized mommy-Mothra) comes and tries to convince Godzilla and Rodan to join forces and defeat Ghidrah. The fairies understand monster-talk and we get to "hear" what they say. The fairies exclaim "Ooh, Godzilla, what terrible language." I don’t think he likes Mothra very well. Which is to be expected as baby Mothra sprayed both Gojira and Rodan with some silk to get their attention.
Well, to make this shorter, Mothra finds that Gojira and Rodan are too stubborn and he goes off to take on Ghidrah all by himself. (He’s a "can-do" kind of monster!) This lays a guilt trip on the other monsters and they come to help after we watch Ghidrah beat Mothra up. Godzilla drags Mothra around by his tail and Rodan takes Mothra onto his back and they all work as a team to kick Ghidrah’s butt!
Meanwhile, the assassins try to take out the Princess. She found the monster translations boring and had wandered off. We find her praying to some kind of god as the assassins shoot at her. Shindo protects her and takes a bullet or two before Ghidrah creates a rock slide that kills the assassin. Of course, the Princess has to be returned to normal, so a bullet graze to the head does the trick.
Then we see a quick ending with Shindo and the Princess making eyes at each other before she leaves. And we see the Fairies riding off on Mothra shouting their good-byes to the other monsters.
Yeah, a fairly good movie…better plot than most anyway.
I give it:
