--- title: "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" year: 1964 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/ghidorah-the-three-headed-monster" fi1m_id: "ghidorah-the-three-headed-monster" imdb_id: "tt0058544" tmdb_id: 15766 wikidata_id: "Q588011" fi1m_score: 70 critics_reviews: 1 published: "2026-09-28T20:29:22.387234+00:00" updated: "2026-09-28T20:30:03.888392+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) Directed by Ishirō Honda · 1h 32m · MPA NR · Science Fiction, Action, Fantasy ## Identity Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/ghidorah-the-three-headed-monster - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** ghidorah-the-three-headed-monster - **IMDb ID:** tt0058544 - **TMDB ID:** 15766 - **Wikidata ID:** Q588011 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058544/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/15766, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q588011 **Fi1m score: 70** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* The fate of the Earth rests on whether a caterpillar can talk Godzilla out of a sulk > The fifth Godzilla film gives the series its best-looking monster and its funniest scene, a summit meeting translated by two fairies. Between those, a princess, an assassin and a psychiatrist wait around for something to happen. Worth it for the monsters. ## Synopsis Detective Shindo (Yōsuke Natsuki) is assigned to guard Princess Salno of Selgina (Akiko Wakabayashi), due in Tokyo on a state visit, but her plane explodes in mid-air before it lands. Days later a woman in fisherman’s clothes who looks exactly like her turns up in Japan, predicting disasters and insisting she is not who she appears to be, while Chief Assassin Malmess (Hisaya Ito) hunts her down. Naoko Shindo (Yuriko Hoshi) is covering the visit of the tiny twin Shobijin (Emi Ito, Yumi Ito). In the mountains, Professor Murai (Hiroshi Koizumi) studies a meteorite that keeps getting heavier. Dr. Tsukamoto (Takashi Shimura) is asked to examine the woman who may be the princess. Then Godzilla and Rodan reappear, and something else is waiting inside the meteorite. ## Review *Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster* is the Godzilla film where the big lizard changes sides. Ishirō Honda, who directed the original ten years earlier, and Shinichi Sekizawa, who wrote this one, have made a film in two halves that take turns rather than mixing. One half is a police thriller about a princess who insists she is not from this planet. The other half is three monsters being asked, politely, to save the world from a fourth. The second half is a pleasure. The first is 92 minutes’ worth of waiting room, and it is not on screen for 92 minutes only because the monsters keep interrupting. The human plot is more elaborate than the series usually bothers with. Yōsuke Natsuki’s Detective Shindo is a decent, worried man with a gun he never seems to want to fire. Akiko Wakabayashi plays the princess in a trance for most of the film, staring past everyone and announcing disasters in a flat voice, and she is better at it than the part deserves. Hisaya Ito leads a squad of assassins in dark suits and sunglasses who keep turning up at the wrong moment, like a Bond film shot on a fraction of the budget. Takashi Shimura, whom most readers will know from [*Seven Samurai*](https://film.one/film/seven-samurai), is the psychiatrist who examines her, and he lends the hospital scenes a gravity the script has not earned. We were bored in those scenes, and we say so plainly, because the film has cast one of the great actors of Japanese cinema and given him a clipboard. Then the meteorite cracks. A fireball rises out of the crater and a shape forms inside it: gold, two tails, wings, and three heads on long necks that move separately from one another, each looking a different way. The cry is an electronic cackle that sounds like a radio being tuned by someone with a grudge. We sat up. Ghidorah is the best thing anyone at Toho ever built, and the six names under costume design, Teizô Toshimitsu and Keizô Murase among them, deserve the credit. Hajime Koizumi shoots the miniatures from low down so the necks fill the top of the frame, and Akira Ifukube gives the creature a brass theme that stamps rather than soars. The famous scene comes when Godzilla and Rodan, who have been fighting each other with boulders for some time, are visited by a very small Mothra, still a caterpillar, who has been sent to ask for their help. The two Shobijin (Emi Ito and Yumi Ito) translate. Godzilla, we are told, does not see why he should help humans who have never been anything but rude to him. Rodan agrees. The caterpillar keeps trying. We laughed out loud at the two big monsters throwing rocks and then snickering at each other like schoolboys, and then, when the fairies passed on Godzilla’s complaint about how he has always been treated, we felt something closer to sympathy than we expected. It is silly and it is sincere at the same time, and Honda plays it entirely straight. The trouble is that the two halves never touch. Ryôhei Fujii cuts from a hillside full of scientists with binoculars to the monsters and back again, and the humans do little more than describe what we have just seen. The princess plot is resolved on its own terms, in its own corner, and the monsters could be removed from it without much loss, which is an odd thing to say about a monster film. Sei Ikeno and Hiroshi Miyagawa supply a pop song for the Shobijin’s television appearance, and it stops the film dead for as long as it lasts. Takeo Kita’s sets for the government offices and the hospital are functional and grey, and the eye slides off them. Honda’s first Godzilla was a grieving film about a country that had been bombed. Here the same creature is a sulky neighbour who has to be coaxed into doing the right thing, and it would be foolish to pretend nothing has been lost. But *Mothra vs. Godzilla*, earlier the same year, had already begun the softening, and this film at least knows what it is: a matinee, made with care, for children who will grow up remembering the gold dragon and not the detective. If you have someone under twelve on the sofa, the monster scenes will hold them and the rest will be a chance to fetch drinks. Watch for the necks. Whoever operated them was paying attention when nobody else in the script was. *Fi1m score 70, published 28 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster worth watching?** *Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster* is worth watching for the monsters, and we scored it 70. Ghidorah itself is the best creature Toho ever built, and the summit scene in which a caterpillar Mothra tries to talk Godzilla into saving the world is the funniest in the series. The human plot about a princess and an assassin is a long wait between them. **How long is Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, and what is it rated?** *Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster* runs 1h 32m and is rated NR by the MPA in the US. It is a science fiction and action film. **Where can I watch Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster in the US?** *Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster* is streaming on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, The Roku Channel and Apple TV in the US, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How does Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster compare to Pacific Rim?** *Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster* is the cheaper, sillier and more charming of the two, and [*Pacific Rim*](https://film.one/film/pacific-rim) is del Toro's tribute to films like it made with money they never had. Both are stronger when the monsters are on screen than when the people are talking. We would send children to Ghidorah and adults who want spectacle to Pacific Rim's Hong Kong fight. ### Reviews we read (1) - **Slant Magazine**, Rob Humanick (3/4): Humanick finds the film charming, despite its less interesting human drama. He praises its playful monster battles and the simple morality play of former rivals uniting against a greater threat. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/ghidorah-the-three-headed-monster/) ## Details - **Director:** Ishirō Honda - **Director:** Ishirō Honda - **Screenplay:** Shinichi Sekizawa - **Cinematography:** Hajime Koizumi - **Editor:** Ryôhei Fujii - **Music:** Akira Ifukube, Hiroshi Miyagawa, Sei Ikeno - **Production design:** Takeo Kita - **Costume design:** Yasuei Yagi, Nobuyuki Yasumaru, Teizô Toshimitsu, Kanju Yagi, Keizô Murase, Eizo Kaimai - **Cast:** Yōsuke Natsuki as Detective Shindo; Yuriko Hoshi as Naoko Shindo; Hiroshi Koizumi as Professor Murai; Takashi Shimura as Dr. Tsukamoto; Emi Ito as Shobijin; Yumi Ito as Shobijin; Akiko Wakabayashi as Princess Maas Doulina Salno of Selgina; Hisaya Ito as Chief Assassin Malmess - **Runtime:** 1h 32m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 13 September 1965 - **Genres:** Science Fiction, Action, Fantasy - **Box office:** $3 million ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: free - Hulu: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Apple TV: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-28.* Also available in: CA, JP, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Mothra vs. Godzilla* (1964): The film from earlier the same year, sharper on the humans and just as playful - *Rodan* (1956): Honda’s flying monster in his own film, when the series still meant to frighten - *Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris* (1999): A giant turtle film that takes the collateral damage seriously; the best of its kind - *The Host* (2006): Bong Joon-ho’s Seoul river monster, with a family as hapless as any Toho cast - *Pacific Rim* (2013), Fi1m 70: Del Toro’s love for the rubber suits, with the budget they never had — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/pacific-rim.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/ghidorah-the-three-headed-monster