Happy Godzilla Day

Last night I revisited 1964's Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster so it could be discussed today. I had to pay tribute somehow: 

Happy Godzilla Day, everyone. A film involving The Big G needed to be viewed given that the original Gojira made its debut on November 3, 1954. Instead of revisiting Gojira or even seeing one of the few pictures from the franchise that remain unexperienced, instead it was one I saw years ago but speculated could be rated differently by me. Turns out, that was true.

Ghidorah was rushed into production because Kurosawa’s Red Beard had a protracted production; true story. What a wacky story they created. The “human moments” included a woman claiming to be a Venusian who warns of King Ghidorah destroying Earth, a princess from a fictitious country (where the people dress as if they’re from the 1700’s) who is a target of assassins, and what a duo of reporter Naoko & her police detective brother. This time around, I less minded that there’s no kaiju action until the second half of the picture when they created all those plot threads in the first half.

The second half does deliver; the introduction of Ghidorah is epic in terms of the EFX and the always quality score from Akira Ifukube. As typical, the destruction of all those miniature sets are unforgettable due to the stellar work of Eiji Tsuburaya. The monsters doing battle against one another proves to be aces, no doubt aided by the direction from the great Ishiro Honda. Those veterans to the franchise helped me swallow this nonsense & have fun w/ the debut of arguably Godzilla’s most famous villain.

Thankfully, the charms of Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster are better appreciated by me. As this featured Godzilla’s face turn and he remained a hero through the rest of the Showa Era, there’s another reason for someone to tackle this if they are a franchise newbie. You'll never forget the twin fairies translating the argument Mothra has with Godzilla and Rodan to help humanity instead of acting like petulant children and wanting to brawl with each other and not help humans because humans have always attacked them.