I haven't seen any conclusive numbers, but supposedly the average US viewer watches 100 movies per year, according to one site. Another article suggests that since streaming services became the norm, many viewers now watch more than 20 a month. And a different article stated that some watch at least one movie a day. That's quite a lot. I only got to my tenth movie in mid-April. I watched #50 yesterday:
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| Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964). Godzilla, Rodan, and baby inchworm Mothra vs the three-headed menace from Venus. |
In case you think all I watch is depressing, confusing Euro auteur farthouse, it's my third Shōwa era (1926 - 1989) Godzilla film this year. I hope to get around to the Heisei era (1989 - 2019) next year.
This one's rushed. Ishiro Honda was forced to get this done and released because his pal Akira Kurosawa was late with his scheduled feature,* and the studio had promised audiences a film for the new year. He delivered as best he could, but it's still a mess. The bad guys wear Elizabethan ruffs:
They team up with local yakuza to kill Princess Saino of Selgina by blowing up her plane, but she receives a telepathic message just in time and jumps out without a parachute. Next time you see her, she claims to be a prophet from Venus and has no memory of Selgina. She looks like a stylish waif in a bippity boppity hat. She eventually regains her memory, but not before the Venusian spirit possessing her warns the earthlings of Ghidorah's attack. An 'alien scientist' helpfully theorizes that the plane's explosion opened up a door into another dimension which she fell into, and that's how she survived. Ooooookay then.
Baby Mothra (a girl of course) has to convince the other kaiju (boys, of course) to team up and fight the greater menace of Ghidorah:
A couple minutes of the three in a standoff, shrieking conversation at each other and translated by the tiny twins (The Shobijin, as played by The Peanuts, who get to sing the "Moootooora! Mooootoooora!" song twice in this one) to the audience, who, like me, did NOT sign up for Kaiju Theatre's My Dinner with Andre, and would like to speak with the manager. Eventually they chase Ghidorah off. Mostly by annoying him. The first Godzilla movie which was intentionally comedic. He went from villain to hero in this one - Earth's Protector.
Princess Saino thanks the BEST COP ON THE BEAT for saving her life thrice and mimics Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's before going back to Selgina after the crisis.
And Mothra (who can swim, btw, as seen in Godzilla Vs Mothra, like a stack of inflated inner tubes propelled by JUSTICE) and the Shobijin swim back to... [checks notes]... Infant Island. Yes. Infant Island.
It's always nice to see Takashi Shimura and a couple of other Toho regulars, at least one other frequent Kurosawa collaborator, and one from silent era Ozu.
Anyhow...
GOOD MORNING.
* Red Beard. Infamously ran over schedule and budget by quite a lot. Last Kurosawa/Mifune collaboration for several reasons, one of which was that Mifune couldn't get work during filming delays because he couldn't shave the damn beard. Kurosawa and Toho acrimoniously parted ways here. Kurosawa attempted suicide a couple years later.
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