San daikaijû: Chikyû saidai no kessen (1964)

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writer:

Shinichi Sekizawa (writer)

Release Date:

13 September 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The Three-Headed Monster battles Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan for the world!

Plot:

After a meteorite unleashes a three-headed beast upon Tokyo, Mothra tries to unite with Godzilla and Rodan to battle the extraterrestrial threat.

Plot Keywords:

Rodan | Godzilla | Mothra | Princess | Monster

Cast

Yosuke Natsuki	...	Detective Shindo
Yuriko Hoshi	...	Naoko Shindo
Hiroshi Koizumi	...	Professor Miura
Akiko Wakabayashi	...	Mas Selina Salno, Princess of Sergina
Emi Ito	...	Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
Yûmi Ito	...	Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
Takashi Shimura	...	Dr. Tsukamoto
Akihiko Hirata	...	Chief Detective Okita
Hisaya Ito	...	Malmess, Chief Assassin
Minoru Takada	...	Prime Minister
Senshô Matsumoto	...	Alien Expert
Ikio Sawamura	...	Honest Fisherman
Kôzô Nomura	...	Geologist
Kenji Sahara	...	Editor in Chief Kanamaki
Susumu Kurobe	...	Moustachoied Assassin
Tôru Ibuki	...	Short-Tie Assassin
Kazuo Suzuki	...	Showoff Door-Opener Assassin
Haruya Kato	...	Journalist
Shin Ôtomo	...	Boss of Assassins
Senkichi Ômura	...	Would-Be Hat Retriever
Yutaka Nakayama	...	Tourist with Lost Hat
Heihachirô Ôkawa	...	Astronomer
Yutaka Oka	...	Meteorite Scientist
Eisei Amamoto	...	Princess Salno's aide
Yoshio Kosugi	...	Chief of Infant Island
Yoshifumi Tajima	...	Heedless Ship Captain
Kôji Uno	...	Hotel Clerk
Shigeki Ishida	...	Guy in Crowd
Toshihiko Furuta	...	Villager
Kotaro Tomita	...	Villager
Haruo Nakajima	...	Gojira
Shôichi Hirose	...	Kingugidora
Masaki Shinohara	...	Radon
Katsumi Tezuka	...	Mothra
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ichiya Aozora	...	Little Boy
Senya Aozora	...	Little Boy
Kenzo Echigo
Bin Furuya
Yuriko Hanabusa	...	Shindo's mother
Yoshio Hattori
Toku Ihara
Shôji Ikeda	...	General Hyodo
Kazuo Imai
Daisuke Inoue
Saburo Kadowaki
Keiichiro Katsumoto
Takuzô Kumagai
Jun Kuroki
Oshio Miura
Junichirô Mukai
Haruya Sakamoto
Hideo Shibuya
Nakajiro Tomita
Kenji Tsubono
Mitsuo Tsuda
Tamami Urayama
Kôji Uruki	...	Radon

Directed by
Ishirô Honda

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Shinichi Sekizawa		writer

Produced by
Tomoyuki Tanaka	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Akira Ifukube

Cinematography by
Hajime Koizumi

Film Editing by
Ryohei Fujii

Production Design by
Takeo Kita

Art Direction by
Takeo Kita

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Koji Hashimoto	....	assistant director
Ken Sano	....	chief assistant director

Sound Department
Osamu Chiku	....	sound mixer
Hisashi Shimonaga	....	sound effects editor
Fumio Yanoguchi	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Sadamasa Arikawa	....	special effects cameraman
Tadashi Koibe	....	special effects assistant production manager
Yukio Manoda	....	matte photography
Shigeru Nakamura	....	production manager
Teruyoshi Nakano	....	chief assistant director of special effects
Sokei Tomioka	....	special effects cameraman
Eiji Tsuburaya	....	special effects director
Akira Watanabe	....	special effects art director
Taka Yuki	....	matte process

Visual Effects by
Kuichiro Kishida	....	special effects lighting
Hiroshi Mukoyama	....	special effects opticals

Stunts
Haruo Nakajima	....	stunt choreographer

Camera and Electrical Department
Shoshichi Kojima	....	lighting supervisor

Music Department
Hiroshi Miyagawa	....	composer: song "Call Happiness"

Other crew
Joseph Bellucci	....	dubbing director

Production Companies

• Toho Company

Distributors

• Toho Company (1964) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Continental Distributing (1965) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Admit One Video (video)
• Filmax Home Video (video)
• GoodTimes Home Video (video)
• Hollywood Home Theatre (video)
• Interglobal Home Video (video)
• International Film Distributors (1966) (Canada) (as "Ghidrah) (the 3-Headed Monster")
• Kuk Dong
• Prism Entertainment Corporation (video)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (video)
• Toho Video
• VCII Home Entertainment (video)
• Video Connection (video)
• Video Treasures (video)

Other Companies

• Toho Sound Effects Group  sound effects
• Toho Studios  sound stages

Also Known As:

Earth's Greatest Battle (literal English title)
Ghidora, the Three-Headed Monster
Ghidrah
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (USA)
Gojira Mosura Kingu Gidora: Chikyu saidai no kessen (Japan) (reissue title)
Monster of Monsters: Ghidorah (International: English title)
The Biggest Battle on Earth
The Biggest Fight on Earth
The Greatest Battle on Earth
The Greatest Fight on Earth
Three Giant Monsters: The Greatest Battle on Earth (International: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

92 min | Japan:73 min (1971 reissue) | USA:85 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

Cameo(Frankie Sakai): Man addressing the Diet.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: During one of the scenes in which the pick axes and rocks are being attracted to Ghidorah's meteor, a hand is seen throwing the last rock.

Quotes:

Naoko Shindo: [Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra are conversing]
Naoko Shindo: Oh it looks like they're having a conversation. Oh Shindo, what do you think they're saying to each other?
Detective Shindo: Huh, how would I know? You expect me to understand monster talk?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo (#10.23)" (1999)

One of Toho's best!

Wow! Certainly one of the best of the Godzilla series. This movie introduces Godzilla's most popular villain, King Ghidorah! With Ghidorah threatening to destroy Earth, it requires the combined strength of Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra to stop him. By the way, this is the first movie that Godzilla journeys into as "the good guy." While Godzilla and Rodan weren't too happy to meet each other, it was actually Mothra who urged the two monsters to cooperate to battle Ghidorah and help mankind. And, this movie has a whole lot- towering monsters, a marshan, a princess, detectives, doctors, reporters, and, of course, Mothra's tiny twin fairy priestesses, who once again did their little song and dance and chat in unison. Honda's solid directing, Sekizawa's terrific script, and Ifukube's fantastic music score permeated the movie's success. There may be a lot more "human" scenes than "monster" scenes but since the plot is so solid, it made each human scene interesting and inspiring. Would this actually happen to Mars (Venus in the Japanese version) one day as stated in the movie? Go figure...........

Grade A