Cast and Crew: Tomoyuki Tanaka (Producer); Shin’ichi Sekizawa (Writer); Akira Ifukube (Score); Eiji Tsuburaya (Effects); Takashi Shimura, Akihiko Hirata, Kenji Sahara,

What It’s About:  The Princess of Segrina, a small country in Nepal, Mas Selina Salno (Akiko Wakabayashi) narrowly escapes an assassination attempt when she’s possessed by the spirit of an ancient Venusian and leaves her plane just as it explodes.  Detective Shindo (Yosuke Natsuki), assigned to investigate her disappearance, notices the resemblance between Salno and a strange prophetess, claiming to be a Venusian and preaching of the end of civilization, his sister, reporter Naoko (Yuriko Hoshi), interviews.  At the same time a strange meteor falls into the Japanese mountains and is investigated by Professor Miura (Hiroshi Koizumi), who is also interviewed by Naoko.   Godzilla returns to Japan and Rodan wakes up from hibernation….and just when the Venusian prophecy seems about to come true, a third, previously unknown, monster explodes from the meteorite.  Is this the end of the world?  Can the lone Mothra larva surviving (recruited by the visiting Shobijin/Twin Fairies/Peanuts (Emi and Yumi Ito) through Naoko and company) convince Godzilla and Rodan to fight for the Earth against this new, extraterrestrial menace?  Can Shindo protect Salno from further assassination attempts?

Why Watch it Today?:  Director Ishiro Honda was born on this date in 1911.  Honda is best known as the director of the first Kaiju film, Gojira, and its many sequels and follow-ups made at Toho studios from the 1950s until his retirement with 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla.  Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster marked the first time in which Godzilla moved from villain to sort-of hero and features some of the all time best effects work in the series.

Other Choices:  Previous Honda Movies of the Day include Rodan, Mothra, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Monster Zero, The H-Man, Matango, Godzilla vs. Mothra, King Kong Escapes, and Latitude Zero.