Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster is a 1964 Japanese kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Studios, it is the fifth film in the Godzilla franchise, and was the second Godzilla film produced that year, after Mothra vs. Godzilla. The film stars Yosuke Natsuki, Hiroshi Koizumi, Akiko Wakabayashi, with Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla, Masanori Shinohara as Rodan, and Shoichi Hirose as King Ghidorah. In the film, a Venus alien, possessing the body of a princess, warns humanity of the arrival of King Ghidorah, with Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra being their last hope for survival.
The film was rushed into production in order to replace Red Beard, which fell behind schedule, in Toho's New Year's holiday slate. The Godzilla suit and Mothra larva prop were recycled from the previous film, with modifications added, while new suits were produced for Rodan and Ghidorah. Principal photography began and ended in 1964 in Mount Aso, Yokohama, Gotenba, and Ueno Park.
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster was released in Japan on December 20, 1964, and received a theatrical release in the United States on September 29, 1965 by Continental Distributing as Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster. The film marks the debut of King Ghidorah, a recurring antagonist of the Godzilla franchise. The film was also the turning point in Godzilla's transformation from villain to hero, with Godzilla taking on a radioactive superhero role. The film was followed by Invasion of Astro-Monster, released on December 19, 1965.
Plot
Reporter Naoko Shindo attends a communications session with the UFO society for her television program. After deeming the session a failure due to Naoko's skepticism, a meteor shower descends on Japan, with the largest crashing in Mount Kurodake. Shindo, a police detective and Naoko's brother, is assigned to guard Princess Salno of Selgina from a political assassination during an unannounced visit to Japan. En route to Japan, an alien entity leads Salno to jump from her plane before it explodes. Professor Miura leads a research team to Mt. Kurodake to investigate the large meteor, where they discover it randomly emits magnetic waves. Naoko is sent to investigate a prophetess claiming to be from Venus, who predicts that Rodan will emerge from Mount Aso.The Prophetess catches the attention of both Shindo and Salno's uncle, both who believed her to be dead. Responsible for the assassination plot, Salno's uncle sends the assassin, Malmess, to kill her and arrives in Japan after Rodan awakens. After participating in a TV program, the Shobijin, Mothra's twin fairies, prepare to depart for home but are warned by the Prophetess to not sail. Naoko takes the Prophetess to a hotel to interview her, and discover that the Shobijin had followed them, heeding the Prophetess' warning before Godzilla sunk their ship. After confirming that the Prophetess is Salno, Shindo finds her at the hotel and saves her from Malmess. They evacuate after Godzilla and Rodan converge on the city and battle throughout the countryside.
After Dr. Tsukamoto, a psychiatrist, determines the Prophetess to be normal, she predicts the arrival of King Ghidorah, a monster that destroyed her home on Venus. Miura and his team witness the meteor explode, unleashing the golden three-headed space dragon Ghidorah, who proceeds to attack Matsumoto city. The authorities plea with the Shobijin to summon Mothra for help, but they warn that Mothra alone could not defeat Ghidorah, and their only hope would be for Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra to join forces. Under hypnosis, the Prophetess reveals that some Venusians escaped to Earth from Ghidorah and assimilated with humans, resulting in them losing their abilities with the exception of predictions.
After Malmess overhears Tsukamoto recommend shock therapy next, he increases the voltage knowing it will immediately kill her but fails after the power lines are destroyed by Godzilla. After thwarting off Malmess and his crew, Shindo evacuates to the mountains with the Prophetess, Tsukamoto, Naoko, Murai, and the Shobijin. Mothra attempts to convince Godzilla and Rodan to set aside their differences to save the planet, but both refuse due to years of harassment from humans. After seeing Mothra attempt to battle Ghidorah on her own, Godzilla and Rodan rush to her aid. The Prophetess wanders off and regains her memories after Malmess nearly kills her. Shindo protects her in time and Malmess falls to his death. The monsters overwhelm Ghidorah and force it to flee into outer space. Prior to departing for home, Princess Salno reveals to Shindo that she doesn't recall her recent memories as the Prophetess but remembers the three events when Shindo saved her and thanks him and Naoko for their help. Godzilla and Rodan watch on as Mothra journeys back home with the Shobijin, who bid farewell to all.
Cast
Production
Production credits- Ishirō Honda – director
- Eiji Tsuburaya – special effects director
- Ken Sano – assistant director
- Shigeru Nakamura – production manager
- Takeo Kita – art director
- Sadamasa Arikawa – special effects photography
- Mototaka Tomioka – special effects photography
- Akira Watanabe – special effects art director
- Teruyoshi Nakano – special effects assistant director
- Hiroshi Mukoyama – optical effects
- Yokio Manoda – optical effects
- Taka Yuki – optical effects
The film also includes a new monster, King Ghidorah. Ghidorah was designed as an homage to Yamata no Orochi. Yoshio Tsuchiya was originally attached to play Malmess but his commitments to Red Beard prevented him from participating. Honda felt "uncomfortable" with Toho and Eiji Tsuburaya's decision to anthropomorphize the monsters, particularly the summit scene, stating, "I used the Peanuts as Mothra's interpreters, but even that was something I had to force myself to do." The film was shot on various locations, such as Mount Aso, Yokohama, Gotenba, and Ueno Park.
Akiko Wakabayashi was briefly blinded by the flash of light that represented the Venusian. Additionally, Honda permitted Wakabayashi to sleep on the gurney during the shock therapy scenes, due to Wakabayashi working the previous night without sleep for a separate film. Wakabayashi noted that the Venusian's homely attire came about when Honda spotted her walking the studio in jean's and a "bug guy's hat." Honda liked the attire and chose to adopt it for the Venusian. Wakabayashi chose to play the Venusian as someone who sleepwalks, stating, "I tried to play the character as someone who was sleepwalking. I tried not to look at each person's face.' The track Cry for Happiness was written by Hiroshi Miyagawa.
Special effects
The film's special effects were directed by Eiji Tsuburaya, while Teruyoshi Nakano served as the assistant special effects director. For Ghidorah's hatching scene, a variety of techniques were used such as a miniature meteorite prop, pyrotechnics, and rapidly edited explosions. Optical animation was used for the hovering fireball and Ghidorah's rays. For the Yokohama sequence, pyrotechnics were wire-rigged to send up debris and fans used to emulate strong winds. Haruo Nakajima reprised his role as Godzilla. The effects crew recycled the Godzilla suit from Mothra vs. Godzilla, however, alterations were made to the head. The original glass-like wooden eyes were replaced with radio controlled eyeballs. The installation of mechanics flattened the head by a small margin. Katsumi Tezuka portrayed the Mothra larva prop. The prop was recycled from Mothra vs. Godzilla and its eyes were changed from blue to red. Masanori Shinohara portrayed Rodan. A new Rodan suit was constructed with a different appearance for the face, with a muscular neck and triangular wings.King Ghidorah was designed by Akira Watanabe and portrayed by Shoichi Hirose, who spent hours hunched over inside the costume, holding onto a crossbar for support. A team of wire work puppeteers manipulated the necks, tails and wings. As many as seven men were in the rafters over the sound stage working the wires. Effects cameraman Sadamasa Arikawa stated "There were times when all three necks got tangled up or the plastic wires would reflect the studio lights, or the wires would get caught in Ghidorah's scales. It was an agonizing operation!" Due to this, it took longer to film Ghidorah's scenes. Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa suggested to Tsuburaya that the Ghidorah suit be built from light weight silicon-based materials to allow more mobility for the suit performer. The wings were originally intended to have a rainbow hue. Small models of the monsters were also used for far away shots or flying shots of Rodan and King Ghidorah.
The set for the base of Mt. Fuji was built at 1/25th scale and took 12,000 hours to build. The set was raised so cameras could be positioned at low angles.The miniature buildings were built with working sliding doors, lights, and were built backless, to be seen from one direction. The miniatures meant to be destroyed were pre-cut and compressed. Miniature buildings that were not meant to be destroyed were repurposed for later scenes or other sets. While filming Godzilla and Rodan's battle in Toho's massive water tank, one of the edges of the tank was exposed on film. Tsuburaya hid this error by superimposing trees on the exposed area.
Release
Theatrical
Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster was released theatrically in Japan on December 20, 1964, by Toho,on a double-bill with Samurai Joker. The film became the fourth highest-grossing film of the 1964–1965 season in Japan. The film earned in distribution income at the Japanese box office.
Months after the film's Japanese release, the film was acquired by Walter Reade-Sterling, Inc., with plans to distribute the film in the United States through their subsidiary, Continental Distributing. The film was theatrically released in the United States on September 29, 1965, as Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster. The film opened to 83 theaters in Boston, on a double-bill with Agent 8 3/4. In later areas, it was double-billed with Harum Scarum. Continental boasted to Variety that the film earned $200,000 in film rentals within five days of its release and $1.3 million overall. To promote the film in the United States, Ghidorah masks were created as promotional tie-ins with local super markets and radio stations.
American version
The dubbing of the American version was supervised by Joseph Belucci and runs at 85 minutes. The American version shifts some scenes and removes some outright, Akira Ifukube's score is replaced with library music during some of the Godzilla/Rodan battle scenes, and a rough translation was provided for Cry for Happiness, which is read off-camera by Annie Sukiyaki. Author David Kalat opined that the American version is superior in some ways, stating that the film is dramatically tightened and that continuity corrections resulted in an "improvement over the original".Critical response
In a contemporary review, Vincent Canby noted that the film "at least provides a smile or two as Ghidorah lurches and lunges through a veritable anthology of Japanese monster picture plots." and that "This fascination, on the part of contemporary Japanese film makers, with the destruction of their land by fantastic, prehistoric forces only 20 years after Hiroshima, might be of interest to social historians. The film, otherwise, is strictly for the comic book set." Variety noted that "When the viewer finds himself cheering on the trio of unlikely allies, it's a tribute to Honda's ability to capture an audience" while noting that the dubbing in the film was "as usual, atrocious."From retrospective reviews, the American version was reviewed by Leonard Maltin who gave the film two and a half stars, calling it "one of the better Toho monster rallies”. Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction noted that the film's visual effects "are better than usual and the cast includes Okada, best known for his performance in Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour, as well as the brilliant Shimura, star of Kurosawa's Ikiru."
Slant Magazine stated that the film "embodies much of what the popular monster films have come to be known for over the years: reptilian wrestling matches on a citywide scale, human drama paralleling the monster threat, rubbery creature effects, and the gleeful destruction of many a miniature architectural set piece."