I watched this Japanese subbed version on YouTube. In addition to Ghidora and Godzilla, we also meet Rodan (who has previously had his own movie) and Mothra returns. At the start of the movie, everyone is complaining about the heatwave the country is undergoing in January. I really felt this as on the day I watched the film we hit 117F (47C). I mean, it's June but that's still intense, even where I'm at. Anyway, there are 2 plot lines - there is a meteor storm and a UFO society looking for aliens and also a princess from a small, fake country coming to Japan to hide out in order to escape a threat on her life.

I think Rodan is the first one that appears. Apparently in his own film he was buried in a volcano? So in this film, volcanic disturbances cause earth shifting which unburies him. Godzilla awakens, bursting up from the ocean and incinerating an innocent ship. They end up meeting and going after each other, destroying the Japanese countryside in the process. Meanwhile, Ghidorah appears from one of the meteors that fell to earth and he also starts wreaking havoc. I have to say, he is one sexy Kaiju. I mean, the other monsters have tended to look kind of goofy but he is looking good! He's very sleek, his heads are nicely shaped, no derpy looking eyes. Aside from the unexpectedly good-looking kaiju, the miniatures work in this film is just beautiful.

The fairy twins from Infant Island have been on the mainland to be on a TV show (don't ask). They ask Mothra (who is currently in larval form but can still spit webbing) to come to the mainland to try to reason with Godzilla and Rodan because only all three of them working together will be able to defeat Ghidorah. What follows is a pretty amazing conversation between the monsters, with Mothra being the voice of reason and Godzilla and Rodan apparently just wanting to get back to fighting each other. Godzilla doesn't want to help because the humans are always bullying him. Rodan is also not interested in fighting off Ghidora in order to help the humans. Mothra gives up on them and ends up squirming after Ghidorah on her own. The other two relent and join the fight and all three don't defeat Ghidorah so much as drive him off. He'll be back.

Oh, yeah, there was stuff about the princess who was saved from the mid-air plane explosion by an ancient Venusian (or Martian, depending on which version you're watching) spirit and who tries to warn people about Ghidorah before he appears. There are thugs from her small, fake country trying to get her, there is a cop/reporter brother/sister duo. There's a lot going on!

I was wondering if Ghidorah represented something but I couldn't find anything in movie or web reviews about that. Well, except for one site that claimed he represented fears of satellite technology. Not sure how that connection was made and I think that was just one person's theory since I didn't see it anywhere else. This is the first movie that gave Godzilla some characterization other than rampaging chaos. He is reluctantly helping humankind, but only because it also benefits him. I am reminded of when I was watching the Monarch Legacy series they said that even though he was destructive, Godzilla was actually helping us by keeping the other titans in their world. He is a dangerous friend. Kind of. Maybe more the enemy of my enemy is my friend?

Watched June 2024.

I watched this, took notes and promptly forgot about making an entry! It's only when I went to enter my thoughts on the next movie in the series that I realized I was missing this one.

• Story opens with a woman consulting a psychic about her lost-at-sea son. According to the psychic, he's not in the underworld so he must be alive!
• Fishermen tell the woman they've looked but only found wreckage. Undeterred, she sends her younger son to the police with this information. Surprisingly, they are uninterested in following up.
• After being rebuffed, the son notices a poster for a dance contest with the grand prize being a boat. A plan is hatched!
• Cut to the dance contest, 3 days later and only 15 couples are left. Mad props to the ladies dancing in high heel shoes - I can't even walk in those.
• Unfortunately the son is too late to try for a chance at winning the boat. He meets up with a couple of dudes who take him down to the marina and they find themselves on a yacht, which has an occupant but the guy lets them spend the night on the boat.
• During the night the son has taken control of the boat and has thereby conscripted everyone into his mad venture to save his brother.
• Bad luck - a storm hits! Worse luck - a giant claw appears and smashes the boat! The men end up on an island.
• One of them finds a scimitar on the island and from this assumes there are cannibals on the island. Because ... cannibals carry scimitars? Clearly we are being asked to just vibe with things and not ask too many questions regarding the details.
• There is some kind of strange facility on the island!
• The facility is doing a brisk business in importing human slaves and exporting barrles of "X-1"
• Some of the humans attempt to escape by using an outrigger they've found on the beach but THE CLAW ends up getting them.
• During the commotion, a woman slips away, meets up with our sailors and they are all chased by the bad guys.
• Turns out the people are from Infant Island, home of Mothra. The woman says the man's brother is on the island!
• We find out the bad guys are the Red Bamboo.
• We switch scenes to Infant Island where the villagers are trying to wake Mothra. Wait, why is Mothra sleeping? She missed the last monster fight, not like she had to rest up!
• Godzilla just happens to be in a cave on the first island. Is he asleep? Is he dead?
• Our sailors break into the facility in order to free the Infant Islanders and discover the facility has been making heavy water.
• They get caught!
• They escape!
• They get caught again!
• One of our group of sailors gets thrown in with the captive Infant Islanders and finds out that the mystery yellow liquid they are producing is actually Ebirah repellent!
• The other 3 sailors decide that Godzilla needs to be woken up and achieve this by MacGyvering the cannibal scimitar, some wire and lightening to shock Godzilla awake. Rude.
• Ominous surf music is playing throughout these scenes.
• Monster fight! Lots of rock throwing - why throw rocks when you have atomic breath? The fight moves underwater.
• Our sailors use the fight as a distraction to run away from the Red Bamboo.
• Daiyo (the island girl) was not with our group of sailors. She is trying to run away. She gets trapped by Godzilla who then ... falls asleep? What?
• And then he's attacked by a random large monster condor! And then is attacked by planes, to the tune of jaunty surf music. Lots of surf music in this movie.
• The Infant Island twins have made an appearance at some point and requested the captive Islanders make a net, which Mothra will then use to whisk them away from the island.
• Can't remember if Godzilla and Ebirah have been fighting all this time or not but my next notes say: Godzilla rips Ebirah's arms off and, I believe, beats Ebirah with his own arms. Pwned!
• Godzilla tries to go after Mothra next (why? I thought they were on the same side?) but she knocks him down and takes off with her island people.
• The island blows up but Godzilla is safe - he has fled into the ocean.

Whew! That was more of a recap than I usually do but, honestly, I was dependent on my very messy notes since it's been quite a while since I watched this. This was a very light-hearted film with lots of plot threads. This was made on a tighter budget than previous Godzilla films which is why it was set on an island and not in a city which would have required a lot of miniature sets to be built.

Watched sometime between October 2024 and May 2025.

I found this to be a very enjoyable monster movie although, considering the name, I also found it to be kind of light on monster action. I watched a subbed version but I have read other reviews stating the English dubbed version is atrocious so maybe keep that in mind if you're trying to decide between subbed/dubbed.

I have also read that after this movie the Godzilla franchise takes a nosedive in quality and becomes more geared towards Saturday morning kids' fare. Reading this has made me slightly trepidatious about moving forward in my Godzilla Journey!

I enjoy movies on a surface level and don't usually key into underlying meanings very much but Psychocinema, a blog dedicated to providing thematical analysis of Japanese films, has a review of this movie explaining the metaphors and themes and such. It's really good! You should check it out. link

If, like me, you are a huge nerd and like reading multiple takes on something you've watched, then Million Monkey Theater also has a good review of the movie. link

Notes I took as I was watching the movie:

• We open on the United Nations Science Community: Space Port II on Iwo Jima - note: great miniatures set, we have a moon spacebase!
• There is a giant undersea farm where all kinds of fish are cultivated for the monsters contained on Monster Island - "a research habitat of fearful monsters" - Godzilla, Rodan, Anguirus, Mothra, Gorosaurus, Minya. Apparently all the monsters live together in relative peace and are kept on the island by restraint devices tailored to each one.
• Godzilla's restraint appears to be a fleet of 4 ships. We see him walk out into the ocean, give the fleet some mad side-eye and then throw up his arms and head back to land. This Godzilla doesn't look as derpy as previous ones but he does look like he's done with your shit.
• Monster Island and the fish farm are controlled by an underground command center. The official color seems to be safety orange, as that is what everyone is wearing.
• We see a woman scientist get a long-distance call - from the MOON! It is unclear to me who this man she is speaking to is - colleague, friend, brother, romantic interest? I think he must be her brother. Anyway, he lets her know there might be a monster on the moon and he needs Dr. Otani from the command center to come check it out.
• Suddenly, comms are lost! All control systems on the island are down! We learn that the "incident-analysis circuit" is not running.
• All of a sudden, yellow smoke starts pouring into the control room, especially after the scientists open the door. There is yellow smoke out on the island, too, and the monsters are not happy about this.
• We are now in Tokyo where Dr. Yoshida (who is apparently the head of the United Nations Science Community) tries to use the communication satellites to find out what's going on. There's a Random White Guy in the audience (because, United Nations) who declares this is deliberate jamming. The signal is lost and when it's found again they see the top of Monster Island exploding! Our Random White Guy doubts anything on the island could have survived the explosion.
• All of a sudden, there are emergency broadcasts from all over the world! Rodan is attacking Moscow, Mothra is attacking Beijing, Manda is attacking London, Baragon is attacking Paris and Godzilla is attacking New York.
• The press is demanding answers from Dr. Yoshida and the Random White Guy but they have no answers.
• Meanwhile, on the Moon, a spaceship is heading back to base when suddenly a UFO is spotted! The spaceship tries to chase it but it's fast and they are being summoned back to base. Just saying - if UFOs on the moon are a new thing, you'd think the base might want that looked into! But the spaceship is being recalled so it can go to Monster Island. Because .... spaceships can also operate as airplanes?
• The astronauts land safely at the Monster Island base and enter. Kyoko and Dr. Otani are there to greet them but seem somehow ... different. When the Dr. Otani is accused of letting the monsters loose, he disagrees stating they are actually under control and then proceeds to show pictures of Mothra colliding with a train in China, Rodan whacking a jet out of the sky over the Urals and Godzilla atomic-breathing a ship. So apparently they are under control to cause mayhem?
• The astronauts are brought in to meet the remote control inventor who turns out to be a woman decked out in head-to-toe silver lamé. She has a bold agenda - she wants to establish a new "scientific civilization" on this planet. She's apparently from Kilaak, an asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. She's sorry-not-sorry about all the monster destruction but says some sacrifice is necessary to establish a new scientific civilization.
• The astronauts decide to try to physically attack and shoot her but there's some kind of force field protecting her.
• They then decide to try and leave with Kyoko and Dr. Otani but the alien lady starts up the yellow gas again and also gets the rest of the people on the base to try to prevent their escape attempt. They manage to get the base commander out but Kyoko slips away!
• Next we see Dr. Otani being interrogated by Katsuo and Dr. Yoshida and Kyoko is on a beach, spying on the building they're in. Dr. Otani refuses to talk. Dr. Yoshida remarks they can't keep hiding him from the UN secret police(!). He and Katsuo step away from Otani for a smoke break and Dr. Otani walks over to a window and casually JUMPS OUT OF IT.
• Dr. Yoshida and Katsuo go down to the beach to check on Dr. Otani (who is very dead) only to be met by Kyoko and henchmen in black suits with ray guns. They try to march off but, all of a sudden, the UN secret police (in ugly brown suits) are coming! Kyoko calls for a tactical retreat.
• One of the henchmen stops to try and cut something out of Dr. Otani's neck but is foiled by Katsuo. During the autopsy, they find a strange object embedded in Dr. Otani's neck. The doctor thought it was a hearing aid but no - it's a radio receiver! The team is off the find the transmitter.
• Meanwhile, not entirely coincidentally, an old man in a Japanese rural area finds a small, round, metallic knobby thing that he tries to bring to the attention of a Japanese policeman who is completely uninterested. They are then visited by scientists using hand-held radio receivers that zero in on the mystery object. The mystery object is a remote monster control device!
• Our next scene is a meeting where the press is being told about all the remote monster control devices that are now being found around the world in all kinds of places - in a church steeple in Spain, the cliffs of Dover, in a ravine in the Alps, even inside a coconut in Guam. Dr. Yoshida explains how the transmitters work.
• The secret police are now checking all citizens coming out of the subway for suspicious neck marks but somehow Kyoko, who is clearly under control, passes inspection. She's just in time to see Rodan circling the city. It's not just him - the monsters are converging on the city. There's some nice puppetry work showing Manda winding itself around an elevated track.
• Missiles are being launched against the monsters. Now Mothra's joining the party. Someone wonders why all the other major cities only got attacked by one monster while Tokyo is getting them all.
• Tokyo lies in ruins (again). Dr. Yoshida says the Kilaaks are interested in the Izu Peninsula and contact has been lost with every hot spring in the area. My mind is trying to come to grips with why individual hot springs would be monitored? Apparently because the script says so. Anyway, the doctor is sure that the Kilaaks are the reason because Baragon, a subterranean monster, is in the area.
• In answer to why Tokyo got all the monster attacks, the Dr. Yoshida says it is because those other attacks were just a distraction while the Kilaaks were setting up a new base.
• Kyoko brazenly walks in! Katsuo wants her to go away but she wants the reporters to hear what she has to say. She wants the Kilaaks' "residency rights" recognized and negotiations towards "coexistance" and "coprosperity." In return, the Kilaaks will return the monsters to the island. Katsuo starts manhandling Kyoko and then rips out one of her earrings. OUCH! But, they were controlling her - that's why she didn't have a neck lump. She passes out and then comes to again with no memory of what has happened.
• Our little space/terrestrial ship is now looking for the secret base on Izu Peninsula. Godzilla is preventing them from landing so missiles and tanks start attacking. The tanks are apparently being jammed - by Anguirus? The attack is called off but the crew on the ship sees a UFO like the one they saw on the moonbase. They try following it but Rodan is bheind them! The ship flies up to where there is no atmosphere in order to lose Rodan.
• The UFO went to Mt. Fuji so lots of soldiers, scientists and secret police go there looking for the Kilaak's base but Godzilla is waiting for them! While trying to hide from Godzilla, our astronauts find an entrance into the mountain. They explore and then are met by a whole group of silver-lamé clad Kilaaks who show them a vision of an underground base with lots of UFOs that they claim are theirs They also issue a proclamation that the Mt. Fuji area is theirs and invaders will be driven back.
• Monster Island control is up and running again and the monster control devices are being analyzed. The signal source is confirmed to be on the moon so the spaceship is sent back to investigate and finds UFOs in Cassini Crater.
• They land in a crater, only to be attacked with jet flames! They escape in a rover, stop in front of an entrance way and attack the entrance with what my subtitles are repeatedly calling a "maser" cannon. The Kilaaks are watching from their UFO bay and are at first smug but then start to get worried.
• Moonbase command warns the astronauts they might be vaporized so suggests everyone have some coffee. (....what?....)
• The spaceship crew goes in the destroyed UFO base (apparently the "maser" cannon was successful) and are congratulating themselves that every science has a weak point when they suddenly notice silvery squiggly things among the rock debris. IT'S THE KILAAKS in some kind of weird, liquid metallic form. They are apparently dying because they can ony survive in high temperatures and destroying the base has caused the temperature to fall.
• The transmitting signal device is found and is still operating. The crew has to use the "maser" cannon to cut through the support holding it, which causes the cords attaching the "maser" to the control box to flame up. At which point, I would stop using my "maser" cannon but this does not overly worry the astronauts. Upon acquiring the signal device, the crew flies back to earth and the ruined underground lair explodes like a Roman candle.
• Back on earth, the Kilaak rock is being studied. Apparently it's alive but needs a temperature of thousands of degrees to reactivate (which leads me at least to wonder how they were living on an asteroid which is a noticeably COLD climate). This is where we find out the Kilaaks are a living metal (which would explain the silver lamé manifestation).
• Plans are made to attack the Mt. Fuji base with freeze rays. Control of the monsters has been regained and they will be used to attack the base. Monsters start converging on Mt. Fuji. Godzilla is in charge, apparently, because he decides where to attack. There is a television crew stationed on the mountain, giving us play by plays of events as they unfold.
• King Ghidorah shows up!! He has been summoned by the Kilaaks, who break into comms to say all of the monsters together are no match for King Ghidorah and to contact them when we're ready to talk.
• MONSTER FIGHT!! Mothra is cocooning, Kumango is webbing, Minilla is jumping around like a 5 year old hopped up on sugar and absolutely not helping (also like a 5 year old). It's ultimately a monster victory but then a Fire Dragon appears to destroy them! While the Kilaaks are gloating about this, Godzilla finds them and attacks them with his atomic breath. The Kilaaks turn back to ston and they find out that the spaceship sent to fight the Fire Dragon is just a flying saucer made to look like a dragon. They promptly destroy it.

The end, I guess, because that's where my notes end! I think the monsters all ended up back on Monster Island, living their best captured lives being contained and fed untold quantities of farmed fish.

Watched January 2026.