Mothra

After a typhoon, four shipwreck survivors are founded on Infant Island. This site had been used by Rolisica for atomic testing but the men show no ill effects. They recount that previously unknown natives had protected them by feeding them a special juice. A joint expedition is sent and strange things are discovered including two miniature women. The natives are massacred and the two fairies are kidnapped. The giant moth creature Mothra is hatched by the natives.

The colors are bright. The story is strange. Mothra doesn't appear until halfway through the movie. The tiny singers are the strangest cinematic creations and that's in the same movie as Mothra. There is a lot of miniature and green screen work. This is a classic Japanese monster movie.

They'd done Godzilla. They'd brought us color monster madness with Rodan. Now Toho continue to improve their Kaiju films with Mothra. Once again Mothra is the result of nuclear radiation, but those themes are just around to explain her size. The main plot is Mothra's rescue attempt of two miniature women taken from her island. Strange? Certainly, but it's nice to see the monster with a clear agenda and some actual motivation. The models and effects are the best so far. Remote controlled vehicles, green screen, monster puppets, are all thrown in to give us some truly exhilarating city smash ups. Even when "people" are obviously dolls, it's OK. Films don't have to be a replacement for the imagination. I was never dragged out of the film's universe, and the scenes of the dam bursting had me appreciating film making more than any CGI filled computer game-a-like. The use of a fictionalized nation allows you to easily ignore any overbearing political agendas. It isn't as dark as the previous efforts. But when your monster is a big moth, you don't get as much horror. Luckily, it also manages to create a more atmospheric and artistic approach. Mothra's initial hatching is juxtaposed with a beautiful and rather trippy song. A tale of, once again, man's mistakes. Only this time, it's the exploitation of these mistakes that brings destruction.

Mothra is a movie based on a fantasy novel "Glowing fairies and Mothra" co-authored by Shinichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta. Name of the main protagonist Zenichiro Fukuda are combined names of these three co-authors (Chinese character Yoshi is also pronounced Zen in Japanese). The co-authors reportedly never received much loyalties from this movie.

If the original Godzilla was the '50s classic kaijyu movie, this is that of the '60s, spawning many movies that follows featuring Mothra.

This movie was created on the following year Japan signed the "Treaty of mutual cooperation and security between Japan and U.S." of 1960 and reflects the politically charged atmosphere against US at the time in Japan. For instance, country Rorisika is a combined name of Russia, and America (in the original novel, the name was even more obvious Russirica, but was changed for the world wide release of the movie), and New Kirk city is an obvious synonym for New York city. US and Russia by the way were the only countries in the world performing hydrogen bomb experiments at the time, and No. 2 Genyomaru's, encounter with the test was also a hidden criticism against these experiments.

In the original novel, the location where Mothra spews the cocoon is the parliament building, but this was viewed as a political statement against the said treaty, and was changed to Tokyo tower. The movie features a real life twins The Peanuts (Emi and Yumi Eto) who were popular singers in Japan at the time. The Mothra song they sang were written by Tomoyuki Tanaka, Ishiro Honda, and Shinichi Sekizawa first in Japanese, and Indonesian student residing in Japan at the time translated it into his language. The original manuscript of this handwritten song is now displayed in Yuji Koseki (who was the composer for this song) museum in Fukushima city Japan.

The plot and special effects are tour de force. One of Mothra's lava costumes had 8 men in it with Godzilla suit actor Haruo Nakajima taking the lead. Mothra is the first kaijyu that's not just out for destruction, but is a protector of the environment. When the Mothra lava spews silk, it really looks real. The silk was made from rubber contact cement thinned down with solvent and shot out of Mothra's mouth using air brush. Actor Hiroshi Koizumi reprises his role as Shinichi Chujyo in 2003 movie Godzilla vs Mecha Godzilla Tokyo SOS after 42 years this movie was made.

Still after half a century, this is one of the best kaijyu movie ever created.

I think what makes this movie special is not the "giant insect" aspect but the mysticism involved. Godzilla is a legend in the original at least but Mothra is actually a deity--and a hands-on deity at that. Inlikethe other creatures in this bestiary, Monthra is beloved of those who live with it and is protected by it, often by direct intercession.

Unlike the other monsters, Mothra can die, and has done so. But it continues to protect its people by reproducing the old fashioned way--it lays eggs. IT is also intelligent and intuitive, and its nature is NOT aggressive or violent. It's almost Buddhist in nature.

The only other time they tried to work this kind of mysticism into these movies was with King Cesar--a giant cocker spaniel with contacts. The beast was just too goofy to be taken seriously.

Mothra is a great addition to the canon.

This is a very unusual movie because the monster isn't an evil killing machine as was the case with Godzilla. The only reason for the destruction is because of Mothra's uncontrollable urge to rescue its priestesses. Mothra is what I call part of the holy trio of the Toho monsters (the other two being, of course, Godzilla and Rodan). This is the first film in which the audience actually roots for the monster and the true monster is the villian, Clark Nelson. This not only is a wonderful science fiction film but a very humorous parody about the consequences of over commercialization.