Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (San dikaiju: Chikyu saidai no kessen)
Directed by Ishiro Honda
Written by Shinichi Sekizawa
1964/Japan
Toho Company
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] Detective Shindo: Ahhh, these monsters are as stupid as human beings![/box]
I was in the mood for a fun, mindless movie and this was just the ticket.
As the film begins, a princess’s evil retainers plan to assassinate her by blowing up her plane. Instead she is sucked out of the window into another dimension and appears on earth as a Venusian. She tells anyone who will listen that the planet will be destroyed as her own was by Ghidorah if no action is taken. Ghidorah has already arrived on earth and is preparing to hatch from its meteorite.
Obviously, the only force strong enough to defeat Ghidorah will be other indestructible monsters. The two little maidens from Infant Island pray to Mothra who eventually convinces the reluctant Godzilla and Rodan to join forces and kill the foe of mankind.
I got exactly what I expected from this movie and that was good enough for me. Not the best in the series nor the worst.
This was the final film in the “Godzilla” series in which the great Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura appeared. As usual in these things, he is playing a scientist.
