Directed by Jun Fukuda • 1972 • Japan
Starring Hiroshi Ishikawa, Yuriko Hishimi, Minoru Takashima
An alien invasion prompts a tag-team battle between Godzilla and Anguirus, the planet protectors, and King Ghidorah and the new monster Gigan, a cyborg with scythe-like claws, an abdominal buzz saw, winglike back fins, and pincerlike mandibles. In this action-packed film, which veers from the sublime to the ridiculous, the cockroachlike aliens—disguised as humans—use Gigan and King Ghidorah as weapons of conquest in their plot to take over a contaminated Earth.
Up Next in Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954–1975
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Godzilla vs. Megalon
Directed by Jun Fukuda • 1973 • Japan
Nuclear testing unleashes mayhem on the undersea kingdom of Seatopia, causing a series of environmental disasters that nearly wipes out Rokuro, the schoolboy protagonist at the center of this film. To exact revenge, Seatopia unleashes Megalon, a gigantic bee...
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Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
Directed by Jun Fukuda • 1974 • Japan
Godzilla’s evil twin Mechagodzilla first reared its head in this Jun Fukuda–directed film. A robot designed by aliens to conquer Earth, the enduringly popular villain has since been resurrected by Toho Studios several times. With the help of earnest directio...
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Terror of Mechagodzilla
Directed by Ishiro Honda • 1975 • Japan
In Godzilla’s last gasp of the Showa era, aliens retrieve Mechagodzilla’s remains and rebuild it with the aid of an unhinged biologist (a scenery-chewing Akihiko Hirata), in hopes of defeating Godzilla for possession of planet Earth. This film marked the r...
