Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

— Japanese tagline

— International tagline

— American taglines

***Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster***  (三大怪獣　地球最大の決戦,   *San Daikaijū: Chikyū Saidai no Kessen*?, lit. *The Three Great Monsters: The Greatest Battle in the Earth*) is a 1964 tokusatsu *kaiju* film produced by Toho, and the fifth installment in the Godzilla series as well as the Showa series. The film was released to Japanese theaters on December 20, 1964.

Released the same year as *Mothra vs. Godzilla*, *Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster* continues the former's trend of bringing another Toho monster introduced in its own standalone film into the *Godzilla* series, this time the flying monster Rodan. The film is also noteworthy for introducing Godzilla's arch-nemesis and one of Toho's most famous kaiju: the three-headed King Ghidorah. Following a meteor impact in Japan's Kurobe Valley, a prophetess claiming to be from Venus appears and warns of great calamities to befall the Earth. Her predictions come true as Rodan resurfaces from Mount Aso and Godzilla comes ashore once again in Japan. While the two monsters battle, the evil King Ghidorah emerges from the meteorite and begins obliterating everything in his path. Now, the only way to save the world from destruction lies in the larval Mothra convincing Godzilla and Rodan to join forces with her; only then can the Earth monsters stand a chance against the extraterrestrial evil threatening their planet.

## Plot

Japan suffered from extreme weather. Intense heat in spite of the January followed, amid nightly meteor shower is flying to the Earth, one of the huge meteorite is Kurobe Dam dropped to near. At the same time, detective Shindo of the Metropolitan Police Department was ordered to escort Princess Sarno of the Sergina Principality of Japan, who came to Japan in secret, but the charter plane carrying her crashed by an assassin's bomb. After that, a man-dressing woman , calling himself a Venus , appealed for the crisis of the earth appeared in Tokyo , and predicted the revival of Radon and the appearance of Godzilla , but no one believed it.

Shindo is convinced that the man's woman is the dead Princess Sarno and begins an independent investigation. At that time, the beautiful women who visited Japan to appear on TV avoid believing in prophecy and boarding the ship. Naoko sister of Shindo is to protect the woman's dressed as a man Yokohama, but stayed at the hotel in the, death squads came from Serujina also see through her and Sarno princess, to attack the hotel. There, Radon, who emerged from Mt. Aso, and Godzilla, who emerged from the sea after hitting a ship, landed and started fighting. The assassination team's plan failed due to the twilight of the beautiful women.

Shindo and his friends suspect Princess Sarno's mental illness and take her to the institute of Dr. Tsukamoto, an authority on psychiatry at the foot of Mt. Fuji , but the results of the examination are normal. In fact, Princess Sarno was spilled by the blood of a Venusian who fled to Earth avoiding the extinction of the Venus civilization, and that was his ability to predict. Soon, 5000 years ago the universe strongest monster that destroyed the Venus to King Ghidorah Sarno princess word street of the said show up, the King Ghidorah from meteorite of Kurobe Dam born.

In order to counter King Ghidra, which roams all over Japan , Kobijin calls on the guardian deity, Mothra , from Infant Island , and Mothra calls on Godzilla and Radon to fight King Ghidora with their power. Godzilla and Radon reject Mothra, but they are moved by King Ghidra's appearance of Mothra who challenges a single battle, and they join forces. In this way, King Ghidorah, which was attacked by the three major monsters, finally escapes to the sky. The assassination corps is annihilated by the falling rocks caused by King Ghidorah, and Princess Sarno regains his ego.

When everything was over, Princess Sarno revealed her faint love for Shindo and quietly returned to Serzina. Godzilla and Radon, who were able to avoid a full-fledged conflict with humanity for the first time, as Mothra and Kobijin returned to Infant Island, saw their sight across the sea from the quay.

## Cast

* Yosuke Natsuki   as   Detective Shindo, Metropolitan Police Department
* Yuriko Hoshi   as   Naoko Shindo, reporter for *Mystery in the 20th Century*
* Hiroshi Koizumi   as   Murai, associate professor at Teikoku Institute of Technology
* Takashi Shimura   as   Dr. Tsukamoto, psychiatrist
* Emi Ito and Yumi Ito   as   Shobijin
* Akiko Wakabayashi   as   Princess Maas Doulina Salno, monarch of Selgina
* Hisaya Ito   as   Malmess, chief assassin
* Susumu Kurobe   as   Assassin
* Akihiko Hirata   as   Chief Detective Okita
* Kenji Sahara   as   Kanamaki, *Mystery in the 20th Century* editor-in-chief
* Toru Ibuki   as   Assassin
* Kozo Nomura   as   Research team member
* Yoshibumi Tajima   as   Ship captain
* Hideyo Amamoto   as   Wu, Princess Salno's butler
* Yoshio Kosugi   as   Infant Island chief
* Minoru Takada   as   Defense council chairman
* Yuriko Hanabusa   as   Sato, Shindo's mother
* Haruya Kato   as   Komaki, reporter
* Ikio Sawamura   as   Fisherman
* Nakajiro Tomita   as   Minister of Defense
* Shigeki Ishida   as   Member of the Diet
* Shin Otomo   as   Man in easy chair
* Yutaka Nakayama   as   Husband
* Senkichi Omura   as   Mount Aso tour guide
* Somesho Matsumoto   as   UFO club chairman
* Kazuo Suzuki   as   Assassin
* Senya and Ichiya Aozora   as   TV presenters
* Henry Okawa   as   UFO club member
* Junichiro Mukai, Toshihiko Furuta   as   Members of the Diet
* Seiji Ikeda   as   Village police officer
* Hideo Shibuya   as   Mt. Aso Volcano Research Institute staff member / villager
* Keiichiro Katsumoto, Shoichi Hirose   as   Villagers
* Koji Uno   as   Misumi Hotel manager
* Daisuke Inoe   as   Spectator in Ueno Park
* Toshio Miura   as   Miura, researcher
* Tamami Urayama   as   Tama-chan, wife
* Takuzo Kumagai   as   Minister of State
* Mitsuo Tsuda   as   Member of the Diet
* Yoshio Katsube   as   Newspaper reporter
* Kamayuki Tsubono   as   Ship crew member
* Kazuo Imai   as   Researcher
* Saburo Kadowaki, Ken Echigo, Toku Ihara   as   Spectators in Ueno Park
* Bin Furuya, Jun Kuroki   as   Research team members
* Yutaka Oka   as   Power company employee
* Haruo Nakajima, Katsumi Tezuka   as   Godzilla
* Koji Uruki   as   Rodan
* Shoichi Hirose, Haruya Sakamoto   as   King Ghidorah

## Staff

* Directed by   Ishiro Honda
* Written by   Shinichi Sekizawa
* Produced by   Tomoyuki Tanaka
* Stock music by   Sei Ikeno
* Music by   Akira Ifukube
* Cinematography by   Hajime Koizumi
* Edited by   Ryohei Fujii
* Production design by   Takeo Kita
* Assistant directors   Koji Hashimoto, Ken Sano
* Director of special effects   Eiji Tsuburaya
* Assistant director of special effects   Teruyoshi Nakano
* "Call Happiness" performed by   The Peanuts, Emi and Yumi Ito
	+ Composed by   Hiroshi Miyagawa
	+ Lyrics by   Tokiko Iwatani

## Titles

* Three Giant Monsters: The Greatest Battle on Earth (Literal Japanese title)
* The Three Great Monsters: The Greatest Battle in the Earth (Japanese: http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1964/cn003520.htm ORiginal Japanese release title)
* Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: The Greatest Battle on Earth (Japanese: ゴジラ·モスラ·キングギドラ: 地球最大の決戦 Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Gidora: Chikyū Saidai no Kessen, Japanese re-release title)
* Space Monster King Ghidorah (宇宙怪獣キングギドラ Uchū Kaijū Kingu Gidora, Japanese 8mm title)
* Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (United States)
* Monster of Monsters, Ghidorah (original international title)
* Frankenstein's Monsters in Battle against Ghidorah (Frankensteins Monster im Kampf gegen Ghidorah; Germany)
* Four Giant Monsters: The Greatest Battle on Earth (四大怪獸地球大決戰; Taiwan)
* Ghidrah, Monster of 3 Heads (Ghidra, Monstruo de 3 Cabezas; Spain; Mexico)
* Ghidrah, the Monster of Three Heads (Ghidra, el Monstruo de Tres Cabezas; Argentina)
* Ghidorah, Monster of Monsters (Gidorah, Canavarlar Canavari; Turkey)
* Ghidrah, the Tricephalic Monster (Ghidrah, o Monstro Tricéfalo; Brazil)
* Godzilla Against Ghidorah, the Dragon of Three Heads (Godzilla contra Ghidorah, el Dragon de Tres Cabezas; Spain)
* Godzilla vs. Flying Bird Rodan (Italy)

## U.S. release

*Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster* was dubbed into English by Bellucci Productions and released in the United States by the Walter Reade Organization, under the title *Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster*. Like many Godzilla films before it, the American version made several alterations to the film.

* Rather than being referred to by his full name, King Ghidorah's name is shortened to "Ghidrah" in the dub, presumably because it sounds more like "hydra." The "o" was also possibly seen as a redundant syllable in English as *Gidora* is always intoned without emphasis on the middle syllable in Japanese.
* Maas Doulina Salno claims to be from Mars in the dub, rather than Venus as in the original version.
* Numerous scenes were rearranged from the order in which they appeared in the original Japanese print, such as the old man whom the Princess trades the bracelet with identifying her in the police station and the battles between Godzilla and Rodan. The Princess originally told King Ghidorah's tale before the monster emerged from the meteorite, and the arrival of the assassins happens at an earlier time than it did in the Japanese version. Godzilla's appearance in Yokohama was mistakenly rearranged, in his first shot of the scene he appears on land, in the next shot he is in the water, and then he again appears on land. Rodan emerging from Mount Aso was mistakenly rearranged as well. In one shot his whole body can be seen rising out of the crater's wall when in the following shots he is still trying to raise his head out from the rocks.
* The majority of Akira Ifukube's original score for the film was replaced with music from other American films.
* Mothra is referred to as a male in the dub.
* The American version runs roughly seven minutes shorter than the Japanese version.

Several scenes were also altered or removed.

* Altered: In Godzilla's first appearance Rodan appears in the sky before Godzilla destroys the ship. The scene originally showed Godzilla rising from the sea and then destroying the boat almost uninterrupted.
* Deleted: Shindo sees Naoko being dropped off by Professor Murai at their home, explaining why Shindo was asking his mother about his sister having a boyfriend when returning home.
* Deleted: Rodan lets out his signature roar when his head emerges from the cave wall.
* Deleted: Brief shot of Rodan hovering over the volcano after he emerges.
* Deleted: Before leaving the hotel room, Shindo witnesses a ship exploding in the harbor after being hit by Godzilla's atomic breath.
* Deleted: The assassins are seen trying to escape Yokohama during Godzilla's landing.
* Altered and Deleted: The Shobijin singing the song "Call Happiness" when calling for Mothra. When the Shobijin first sing the song while appearing on television, the song is dubbed over by a narration that translates the lyrics into English. The scene where the Shobijin sing the song a second time to summon Mothra to Japan is removed entirely.

### United Kingdom release

Mountain Films brought *Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster* to VHS in 1983. Sony released the Japanese version on Blu-ray in 2019 as part of the The Criterion Collection's *Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954–1975* box set.

## DVD

**Toho** DVD (2001)

* Region: 2
* Discs: 1
* Audio: Japanese (1.0 and 5.1)
* Subtitles: Japanese
* Special Features: Audio commentary, isolated score, theatrical trailer, behind-the-scenes footage (11 minutes), Toho Storybook version of the film, 8mm version of the film (4 minutes)

1. ↑ Template:Cite book
2. ↑ 三大怪獣　地球最大の決戦｜ゴジラ　東宝公式サイト (official Godzilla.jp page)