“Ghidrah: The Three-Headed Monster” Review

**Quick Note**I couldn’t decide whether to use “Ghidrah” or “Ghidorah” (the more accurate spelling) for the title of this film. Instead, I went with the original spelling for familiarity’s sake. In this post, however, the former spelling of the name will be represented when I discuss this film and the latter when I am discussing the kaiju itself.

I had heard quite a bit about Ghidrah: The Three-Headed Monster while growing up. I kept hearing it was one of the better Godzilla films in the franchise and that every fan should watch it. In 1998, with the release of Tristar’s Godzilla, as well as a plethora of Godzilla related merchandise, I finally had my chance. Read on for my review of this film!

Synopsis: Princess Salina Salno, of Selgina, is on a flight headed towards Japan. When a mysterious light puts her into a trance, and the voice that follows telling her to get off the plane, her plane explodes shortly after.

Detective Shindo, initially assigned to be her bodyguard, goes on with his work. It isn’t until a short while later that the princess is discovered wearing clothing from an old fisherman and claiming she is a Martian (a Venusian in the Japanese cut). When her father finds out she’s still alive, he sends out Malmess and his thugs to finish her off. Princess Salina prophetically announces the coming of Godzilla and Rodan. The two kaiju do arrive at the exact moments she prophecies and the two trampled their way across Japan.

Meanwhile, a meteorite has crashed to earth and Dr. Mira has discovered strange magnetic abilities within the asteroid and it’s also growing in size. Eventually, the asteroid explodes unveiling the three-headed space monster: Ghidorah.

Godzilla and Rodan meet up and battle in the Japanese countryside. Shindo and Naoko track down Salina to bring her memory back to normal. But her assassins are hot on their tail. Ghidorah lays waste to Tokyo and Mothra, after a while, convinces Godzilla and Rodan to help her fight Ghidorah. As the kaiju are battling it out, the assassins and Shindo are engaged in a gun fight. When one of Ghidorah’s lightning bolts creates a rock avalanche, Malmess and his goons are vanquished.

A bullet graze to her head gives Salina her old memory back. Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra continue their attack on Ghidorah. After being spun into a partial cocoon by Mothra’s webbing, Ghidorah is tossed down the side of a hill where he decides to fly off into space and to finish the battle another day.

Story: The story of this film begins the Godzilla’s franchise into an area of light-heartedness and targeting a younger audience. After four consecutive films with more adult oriented stories, aliens and space monsters enter the Godzilla franchise. While assassination attempts on heads of state are by no means a sign that the franchise did a complete 180 degrees with this film, it certainly was a start and came into completion with 1965’s Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero.

Personally, I find the story to be fun. While many may consider it to be campy, and I’m not arguing that it isn’t, it’s that what makes this film fun. Salno saying she’s a Martian, some of the occasional bits of silly acting, etc. It’s what helps to make this film a lot of fun.

However, I don’t think this film executes its story as well as some of the films previously and right after it. This film, of course, was rushed into production after Mothra vs. Godzilla was a box office hit. So, with such a short production schedule, sadly, some things will not come out as well as one would hope.

Nevertheless, the story is good enough to keep the audience engaged throughout most of the film.

Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya turns out some good effects here, but I have to admit, this isn’t his best. This is due to the extremely short shooting schedule this film had. Despite that, however, Tsuburaya is able to give us his best for the limited time.

The new Ghidorah suit is fascinating to look at and the Rodan suit is also pretty neat. There is one scene where Rodan knocks Godzilla over in a lake and there are a few trees superimposed at the bottom-right corner of the screen. This was due to the stage being caught on film and Tsuburaya filled in that section with trees to hide the stage. I never noticed it until I listened to the commentary on the DVD and it was pointed out. That is definitely some good effects work if I had to have it pointed out to me!

But there are some downsides. Puppets of the kaiju are used far too often and they don’t look all that convincing (although they are better than the puppets in Godzilla Raids Again). Godzilla’s flame, for many scenes, is a watery mist and the miniature work is about middle of the road.

I don’t really blame Tsuburaya for any shortcomings in the effects. I put the blame on Toho for wanting to crank out another Godzilla film in a very short period of time.

Acting: While I am not a fan of many of the characters in the film, I do like the actors. I feel that, despite the lack of characterization and interesting arc stories, the actors did very well despite the little they were given with their respective characters.

Akiko Wakabayashi deserves a special mention for her magnificent performance as a stoned-face Martian with an icy-cold stare. When she is the princess, she snaps right back into that role perfectly. In the movies I’ve seen her in, she never disappoints.

Battles: The movie doesn’t have a lot of kaiju battles, but with the two battles we do get, they are decent in length.

I love the Godzilla vs. Rodan battle towards the end of the film and the final battle is choreographed very well and is exciting to watch.

The human battle sequences are a bit entertaining, but get more boring as the film progresses due to the audience finding out, early in the movie, that the assassins are extremely incompetant. But it’s the monster battles that save the day for the film, because that’s the reason why we watch these films.

Human Drama: This is the weakest part of the whole film. The short filming schedule led to a pretty uninteresting and underdeveloped story by Shinichi Sekizawa. Once again, it’s not his fault; but the film does suffer as a result in this area.

The characters are uninteresting and their plight is not suspenseful. Their actions do not lead to the monsters showing up in the film, although I will give the Shobijin credit for calling Mothra and getting Godzilla and Rodan to join her in fighting Ghidorah.

The human drama isn’t strong with this movie despite the great cast. It’s not terrible, just not interesting enough. Out of the Godzilla movies that were produced in the 50s and 60s, the human drama, here, is one of, if not the, weakest out of those batches of movies.

Overall: For a very long time I was underwhelmed by Ghidrah: The Three-Headed Monster. I always heard, and read, how grand this movie was until I saw it the first time. Over time, I’ve found myself really enjoying it despite its shortcomings.

The story is fun, but a little bland due to the characters being uninteresting. This is unfortunate due to the talent that brought in for the film. But the sci-fi elements of story excite the kid in me and I am, therefore, able to find some gems through dirt.

The battles are entertaining and do make up some ground on the boring human story. They are fun to watch and well choreographed.

Ghidrah: The Three-Headed Monster is an important film in the franchise for starting the process of turning Godzilla into a hero. Ghidorah is a maniacal character in this film, but, personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of the golden dragon from space. The kaiju battles are fun and, especially, to see three kaiju fight against one is very exciting even though I find it to be a bit excessive since Ghidorah could probably be disposed of by Godzilla without too much of a problem.