“Ahh, these monsters are as stupid as human beings.”
Princess Maas Doulina Salno (Akiko Wakabayashi) is from the small Himalayan country of Selgina. On her way to Japan she becomes possessed by the spirit of a Venusian (a Martian in the American version). She gets up and abruptly walks out of the plane while it is in mid air. The plane then explodes from a bomb that was placed on board to kill the princess. Now possessed by the Venusian spirit she tries to warn people about the danger that is on its way. Everyone thinks she’s just a crazy street person. Except the assassins who tried to kill her. And they are still after her.
In the meantime there is a meteorite shower. One of the largest meteorites contains Ghidorah. Ghidorah is the monster that was responsible for the Venusian spirit's planet’s destruction. Professor Miura (Hiroshi Koizumi) investigates. The meteorite is growing.
As this is all happening Godzilla and Rodan emerge from hibernation. Add to that Mothra’s Shobijin (twin princesses) are in Japan appearing on a television show. Godzilla and Rodan start dusting it up. While they’re busy the meteorite splits open and Ghidorah emerges. He starts trashing the neighborhood.
Mothra, along with its twin priestesses, attempt to convince Godzilla and Rodan to stop their fighting each other and to team up to fight the new monster. Mothra shows up while Godzilla and Rodan are playing volleyball with boulders. Mothra tries to convince Godzilla and Rodan to fight Ghidorah, but the other two monsters are not interested in helping anybody. They just want to fight each other.
“Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster” was released in 1964 and was directed by Ishiro Honda. Produced by TOHO It is the fifth Godzilla movie in the first series. The Ghidorah monster looks really good. He is a golden brown color with three heads two tails two wings and is taller than Godzilla. He can shoot gravity beams from all three heads. There is some silliness to this monster stew, especially when the caterpillar is having a conversation with the two squabbling monsters. Who knew Godzilla could swear? Still it wasn’t totally camp. I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
There are a few differences between the Japanese and the American version of the film; the spirit that inhabits the princess says she is from Mars in the American version but Venus in the Japanese version. Mothra is referred to as a male in the American version, but Mothra is always a female and she is the only female Kaiju. Some of the scenes were switched around in the American version. A few other scenes in the American version are either a little shorter or were deleted. Enough deleted scenes to make the American version about 7 minutes shorter than the Japanese version. The plot is intact and so is most of the action.
This is the final film to feature the Ito Sisters (aka the Peanuts) as Mothra's twin priestesses. This is the only film in the original Godzilla series in which King Ghidorah is not controlled by aliens.
Godzilla may not have suffered much, but his suit did. An upgrade had to be done on Godzilla. After fighting Mothra, King Kong and the Japanese military the Mosugoji suit was in need of some repairs. During the filming of "Godzilla vs. Mothra", the mouth had become wobbly and would not work properly and at one point the head caught on fire. The head of the suit was replaced by a sturdier design. "Mosugoji II," as some fans refer to the repaired suit. It also had more mobility than the original Mosugoji.
English dubbed