Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

A meteorite crashes in a mountain valley in Japan, carrying with it King Ghidorah, a three-headed space dragon that sets out to destroy the country. At the same time, Godzilla and Rodan awaken and begin fighting each other as well as the Japanese military, while a woman who claims to be a prophet from Venus warns that humanity faces annihilation if it does not change its ways. With both monsters refusing to cooperate, the giant moth Mothra intervenes, trying to persuade Godzilla and Rodan to set aside their hostility and join forces against the extraterrestrial threat.

The film is directed by Ishirō Honda, the sixteenth of the twenty-five features he directed, following Mothra vs. Godzilla the same year and preceding Invasion of Astro-Monster in 1965. Shinichi Sekizawa wrote the screenplay, and the cast includes Yōsuke Natsuki as Detective Shindo, Yuriko Hoshi as Naoko Shindo, Hiroshi Koizumi as Professor Murai, Takashi Shimura as Dr. Tsukamoto, and Emi and Yumi Ito as the Shobijin. Forty cast members and forty-four crew members are credited.

Released in Japan in December 1964, the film runs 92 minutes and mixes action, adventure, fantasy and science fiction. It took about 3 million dollars worldwide, a modest figure for a Toho monster production of the period. On IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from around 9,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7 out of 10 from 298 votes, indicating a somewhat more favourable response among that site's users. A critics' rating of 5.8 out of 10 from 13 reviews places it below the audience scores on both platforms.