This is, of course, the first film appearance of the legendary title monster in Japanese monster cinema.
There are several interesting plots working at one time in the wonderful film from Toho Studio. A young woman named Naoko (Yuriko Hoshi) is working on a TV show about strange events in the 20th century. Her brother is a detective (Yosuke Natsuki) and he is assigned to protect a princess from a very small country who is coming to visit Japan.
The Princess (the very beautiful Akiko Wakabayashi) jumps off of her plane just seconds before it explodes and she is presumed dead. Very soon a mysterious woman claiming to be from Venus arrives and starts telling the people of Earth they are in danger. Naoko becomes interested and tries to interview her.
While all this is going on there is a meteor shower and several of the meteors make it to Earth. Also the small country which the Princess used to rule sends a group of assassins to Japan to make sure she is dead because the Venusian woman looks just like her. Before you know it one of the meteors breaks opens and gives "birth" to Ghidorah.
The Venusian woman tries to warn Earth that this monster also destroyed her planet and that they must fight or die. Two two fairies from Infant Island arrive and Mothra is the first to challenge the three headed dragon and gets whooped big time. Rodan and Godzilla join Mothra to fight for the Earth. In the meantime Detective Shindo is shot trying to save the Princess/Venusian.
Will the three Earth monsters get rid of Ghidorah? Will the assassins kill the princess? Damn I love this movie, especially in it's original Japanese version which is presented here from Criterion in a beautiful and very colorful print.
This is a textbook example of how the Japanese were making monster movies back in the glorious 60's. It has multi-level plots and plenty of monster fun. What more could a true monster movie fan ask for?? Monsters, assassins, aliens and a romance plot about a love that could never be. Yep, this is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED movie.
All of the Criterion Showa Godzilla films are presented in their original versions with subtitles.
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