Mothra vs. Godzilla

GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA (AKA GODZILLA VS. THE THING) (3+ outta 5 stars) I remember going to see this movie at a kiddie matinée as a tot. The ads never showed what "The Thing" was... but I expected some big, mean, scary creature that would be even more formidable than 'Zilla himself! I sure wasn't expecting... a giant moth. (Or a pair of baby slugs for that matter.) Now, of course, this all sounds pretty ridiculous to all the non-Godzilla-fans out there... but, of all the Godzilla films ever made, this is the one that is most fondly-remembered. There are some great scenes in this one: Godzilla's best entrance ever (he comes bursting out of the earth tail-first) Godzilla taking apart some grand Japanese architecture piece by piece is still impressive even when you *know* that it is only an actor in a suit taking apart a miniature model. Plus there are the two, tiny twins who come to Tokyo from their remote island paradise to ask for their giant radioactive back after it washes up on a Japanese beach. Mothra is, well, he's a giant moth... and he's on the verge of dying... so how much of a fight is he going to put up? But he only has to occupy 'Zilla until the egg containing his successor hatches. Anyway, silly as it all sounds, the movie works really well... definitely the 'Zilla movie to watch if you've never seen one before.

Two years after the rather underwhelming but financially successful King Kong versus Godzilla, Toho Studios continued its most important franchise with fourth entry Mothra versus Godzilla. This movie is one of the highlights in the franchise and its best movie of the sixties along with Invasion of Astro Monster. The story has many interesting facets such as greed, perseverance, renaissance, sacrifice and spirituality.

After a terrible typhoon, a strict news reporter and his creative photographer find a mysterious object in the debris. A gigantic egg is also discovered next to a village and quickly bought by a greedy entrepreneur and the backstabbing businessman behind him. Two tiny twin girls from Infant Island reveal that the egg belongs to gigantic moth Mothra and that the dying gigantic monster will be reborn as a larva once the egg hatches. The entrepreneur and businessman ignore the twin girls' warning and the complaints of local fishermen but soon get into an argument regarding promotion and wealth. Meanwhile, the reporter and photographer contact a professor and they discover that the mysterious object is a radioactive scale. When they investigate the place where they found the debris again, they are immediately stopped by a selfish politician who wants to avoid negative articles. However, the ground suddenly starts to shake as Godzilla rises from the underground as it becomes obvious that the radioactive scale belonged to him. The king of monsters goes on a rampage and attacks the city of Nagoya. The military isn't able to stop the monster this time around. The reporter, photographer and professor ask the tribe from Infant Island to send Mothra as her egg is also likely to get destroyed by Godzilla. The tribe is initially hesitant to agree but the twin girls convince them and decide to summon Mothra to fight Godzilla.

This highlight in the franchise convinces on multiple levels. The film criticizes egoism, greed and ignorance by spreading powerful, relevant and even timeless messages.

The story is quite diversified with its many twists and turns. The story about the greedy businessmen is as captivating as the reporter's, photographer's and professor's quest for truth and the dramatic battle between the two titular gigantic monsters.

The settings are particularly exotoc this time around. Especially the scenes filmed on Infant Island are splendid to watch. The rituals to summon Mothra are certainly highlights as well.

The speciall effects have greatly improved since the previous installment. The opening scene with the terrible typhoon is already quite impressive. The gigantic egg is stunning to watch. Aged moth Mothra, a resilient Godzilla and the larva that hatches from the egg are beautiful as well. Even the fight choreographies between the monsters are of a rare intensity.

Mothra versus Godzilla might not reinvent the kaiju movie genre but it's an impressive return to form for the frachise after nine years. This movie sets the bar for all upcoming Showa Era Godzilla movies. Fans of the franchise will find everything they like about it here such as sympathetic characters, moral lessons and impressive monsters.

I grew up on the fancier Godzilla flicks of the 1980s and 90s, so it took me a while to accept the flabby-faced, goofy-lookin' Godzilla of the 1960s. Even in his first appearance, the big G looked a lot more convincing, and menacing, than he is here. This film, like the one that preceded it, is part of a downward trend in the series' production values. It certainly is tough to take seriously.

But...so flippin' what? Despite screamingly obvious flaws, this flick is a blast. The surprisingly rich storyline involves corporate greed, nuclear testing, and totally bizarre mysticism. The science fiction and fantasy elements blend well, and it's fascinating as always to get the occasional insight into Japanese culture.

The acting is obviously good, even in the dubbed version, and some of the directing isn't bad (although Honda did a much better job on the first film - perhaps he had less money for this one). The fights are a bit silly, of course, but there is the occasional thrilling moment, such as when Godzilla's head gets set on fire, and when he melts a whole mess of nicely detailed model tanks. Ifkube's dramatic score elevates the film considerably, except of course when he gets into wailing horns turf, which is when I always reach for the "volume down" button.

If you can't stand the cheese, stay out of Godzilla's way. If you can, there's some fun to be had here.

Before shared-universes like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Extended Universe, Star Wars, Star Trek and even the current Legendary Pictures Monster-Verse, Toho Studios, in Japan, was doing their own shared Monster-Verse back in the 1950s. It began with a little film called Gojira (1954), which introduced to the world, the name of Godzilla. As the 1950s went on, Toho-Studios realized they had a hit on their hands and immediately released a sequel, Godzilla Raids Again (1955). Toho-Studios began to branch out to other characters and released Rodan (1956) The Mysterians (1957) and Varan the Unbelievable (1958), but it was the run-up to this film, that things got really interesting.

In 1961 they released Mothra (1961) and followed that up with King Kong VS Godzilla (1962), which blew the doors off of movie screens around the world. It cemented this kaiju (monster), franchise as being an ageless one. The Japanese filmmakers knew they needed to keep things going, so this time they squared the great lizard-king against another one of their previous successes, Mothra, the giant butterfly-like mystical protector of Infant Island. Mothra VS Godzilla (1964), would be another great clash of the titans and would become the film, that best explains what a classic Godzilla movie was all about. It would become the text-book example of why these films appealed to millions over the last 70 years. It explains why these films were creative, always exciting, sometimes even scary and playfully executed. They were the best representation of the science fiction nerd's imagination.

This brings me to the plot of this film, because it carries over from what we saw in the two films that proceeded it. Mothra VS Godzilla (1964), opens up with a major typhoon hitting the Japanese coastline. Huge waves swirl onto the beaches with the winds knocking everything over in its path, flooding the areas inland. The pounding soundtrack by legendary, Japanese film composer Akira Ifukube, is thundering in the background. A few days later, in the wake of the storm, the people of the area begin the clean-up of their coastal towns. In one particular area a giant Mothra-sized egg washes close to shore. In another area, while pumps are sending the storm-waters back into the sea, a giant kaiju tail ascends up from underneath the sand and dirt, washed ashore by the storm. Godzilla has returned. This is where the previous two movies come in.

At the conclusion of King Kong VS Godzilla (1962), Godzilla disappears into the sea. Gojira, probably bored of his fight with Kong, goes into hibernation and doesn't return until the storm in this film washes him ashore. It is actually the Mothra egg that wakes him up. As the audience gets reunited with Mothra and the magical tiny twins from Infant Island (The Peanuts - Emi and Yumi Ito), we are reminded of what we learned in Mothra (1961). Mothra is an ancient mystical creature, that the twins (who could be just as old), are telekinetically linked to. Their peaceful island existence was ruined by human-kind's atomic tests, thus rendering Infant Island useless. Only the great power of Mothra has kept the island going and somewhat still alive. Now with Godzilla on a rampage and Mothra's egg in the hands of corrupt businessmen, the stage is set for a battle of the century.

Part of the Japanese filmmakers' craft was creating the monster suits for the various kaiju found in the films. The technical, physical effects in these movies consisted of various special effects techniques. One of the main technical hurtles was the monster suit design. The best suits had the following positive criteria; the suits were slick-looking, concealed the actor inside well and looked real enough for audiences of the time period. To put it bluntly, the craft revolved around guys in giant monster suits. It was a cost-effective way of trying to tell a special kind of science fiction story on film. As we would find out, kaiju films, especially in Japan, made a boatload of money and the preferred practice of Japanese special effects artists, for more than 50 years, was an actor in a monster suit. Once you get past this you can accept the films easier. It's what all movies usually are trying to do. The goal of a film is to make things a two-way street. That is done, by the filmmakers presenting their craft and the audience using their imaginations. The Japanese kaiju films play a large part in world-cinema history.

With the suits aside, the other physical effects involved the miniature cities, mountains, towns, oceans, coastlines, vehicles, planes, you name it. The Japanese would build whole cities in order to capture the clash of the actors inside the suits. It was basically world-building on a warehouse scale. It is that aspect of these films, that truly make them good. The amount of work it took to create these mini-cities and landscapes, the attention to detail the artists took and the idea that all of that hard work is mostly going to get destroyed, is what sold these movies the most. You also get a clever science fiction story, that usually has to go on a two-prong attack in order to be successful. The stories need to involve sub-plots involving the human characters in the film, as well as a basic reason why the monsters are here. The monsters need their story too.

This film has all these components. It has all the big names that made this sub-genre a cult-classic favorite. Along with music from Akira Ifukube, legendary Japanese special effects master Eiji Tsuburaya and director Ishiro Honda, this film contains all the main filmmakers needed to be authentic. It also has some of the best actors found in these films. Repeat classic, legacy actors like, Akira Takarada (who was in the original Gojira (1954), Hiroshi Koizumi (who's in Mothra (1961) and Kenji Sahara (King Kong VS Godzilla (1962), are just to name a few. This is a text-book example of the best of 1960s Japanese kaiju films. It also came before the embarrassing kaiju era, that turned Godzilla into a superhero. Those films are another conversation for another day.

It also is important to note, that finding the original American version of this film would be good for fans to see as well. When this film was being marketed to the international box office the decision was made to shoot an extra scene needed for the international market. The international distributers felt the film needed one more, extra, action scene. Something that would appeal to the west, most notably the United States. This scene was also done by the same Japanese special effects artists, bur featured an American Frontier missile attack against Godzilla on a beach. The film was released in America as Godzilla VS the Thing (1964). The English-dubbed version has many of the talented voice-actors who helped entertain millions of American kaiju fans all through the 1960s and 70s. This film is the one to see, if you have an interest in, what is now referred to as, the Showa Era of Godzilla (1954-1975).

7.6 (C+ MyGrade) = 7 IMDB.

In Mothra v. Godzilla, all the best elements of the series come together. Godzilla is back in his full fury and with an excellent, realistic costume, and co-star Mothra, in fighting for her egg, shows personality and emotion, a trait of all the finest monster movies (such as "King Kong"). And odd though it may seem, the ubiquitous human subplot is actually interesting, giving the viewer much to think about regarding the demands of big business versus the health of the environment. (Not bad for a film made in 1964!)