128) Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

Halloween 2022's Godzilla-Maniapalloza Extravaganza #4...For the Love of Godzilla.

All Hail, the Monster King!

"We, too, want a world where we can trust one another."

Director
Ishirō Honda

Cast
Akira Takarada - Ichiro Sakai
Yuriko Hoshi - Junko Nakanishi
Hiroshi Koizumi - Professor Shunsuke Miura
Yū Fujiki - Jiro Nakamura
Emi and Yumi Itō - the Shobijin
Yoshifumi Tajima - Kumayama
Haruo Nakajima - Godzilla

I think in my monster-loving heart that after King Kong, Mothra, the giant sentient larvae and/or moth, is the second most well-known Japanese monster whom general audiences can name from memory when it comes to Godzilla movies.

For this review I watched the U.S. version of the fourth Godzilla film "Mothra vs. Godzilla." American audiences in 1964 and later knew it under the title "Godzilla vs. The Thing." 

As Columbia Pictures released the 1961 movie "Mothra," American Pictures, which released this movie, likely wanted to avoid legal issues. So, Mothra became "the Thing." But she's just as majestic as I mentioned it my review of "Mothra."

I own both versions of the movie, but as my kids were watching this with me, I put on the American version so they wouldn't get bored. They simply can't read subtitles fast enough yet. And they know as much Japanese as I do, which is to say none! Unfortunately, they still claimed the movie was boring. 

The film starts with a massive storm hitting the shores of Kurata Beach. When it subsides, and the sun rises in the morning, journalist Ichiro Saki (Akira Takarada) and a photojournalist Junko Nakanishi (Yuriko Hoshi) discover a weird object floating among the rubbish left by the storm. 

Soon after, a giant egg is spotted floating out in the ocean. 

When the egg washes ashore in Shizunoura, a scientist named Professor Shunsuke Miura (Hiroshi Koizumi) goes out to study it, and look at it, and pretend he knows something about it. 

However, the villagers of Shizunoura take it upon themselves to sell off the egg to a greedy businessman named Kumayama (Yoshifumi Tajima).

His plans are to build an attraction around the big egg and bring in tourists with money. The money part is especially important.

Kumayama meets with his financial broker, Jiro Torahata (Kenji Sahara) to discuss his giant egg attraction, which he's calling the "Shizunoura Happy Center."

During their business meeting, tiny twin fairies called Shobijin (Emi and Yumi Itō) appear to beg and plead with them to return the egg to Infant Island where Mothra abides. 

But being the bumbling greedy businessmen that they are, Torahata and Kumayama try to kill the fairies. 

Friggin' Mothra!

So, they ditch the businessmen and appear to Saki, Nakanishi, and Miura to tell them the egg belongs to Mothra and was washed away from her island during the storm. 

I'll add here that twenty minutes in, we haven't yet seen Godzilla. 

Anyways, the three of them agree to try and get the egg returned to mommy Mothra. 

Saki gets to work by writing a venomous article about this proposed Shizunoura Happy Center.

Also, still no Godzilla. 

I'll skip to that part. After the three of them find out that the object they found at the beginning of the movie is radioactive, and they have to be decontaminated, Godzilla emerges from underground and starts tearing sh*t up. 

Everyone panics and starts screaming and yelling, and running for safety. You know the drill. 

The Japanese Self-Defense Forces are deployed to try and lead Godzilla away from the heavily populated areas and towards the coast. 

Saki, Nakanishi, and Miura head to Infant Island to plead with the Shobijin and the natives to talk to Mothra and maybe...you know...send her over to help take care of Godzilla. 

They're surprised to find Infant Island desolate and bleak thanks to all the nuclear testing Japan was involved with. 

The island natives capture them. So, they take that opportunity to make their pleas. Both the natives and the Shobijin refuse without hesitation. They're royally pissed with all the nuclear testing, and what that did to their beloved island. And, to add insult to injury, the folks over in Shizunoura won't return Mothra's egg. 

Saki and Nakanishi start pleading even harder. They point out how flawed society is, and the need to make the world better, and the importance for all of us to trust one another, and the cruelty of deciding who "deserves" to live. 

Somehow, their preaching works, and Mothra herself agrees to help.

Meanwhile. Kumayama loses his finances and is ruined. He confronts Torahat, beats him up, and steals from his hoard of cash.

Torahata shoots him and tries to escape. But Godzilla destroys the building they're in. So much for corporate greed. 

Godzilla continues to head for the egg. 

The Shobijin warn that Mothra is actually sick, and if she flies to the mainland, she won't have the strength to return to Infant Island. But Mothra still flies over regardless. 

Emi and Yumi Itō as the Shobijin in "Mothra vs. Godzilla."

She attacks Godzilla before he can destroy her egg. 

Finally, the egg hatches, and two twin larvae crawl out and head straight for Godzilla. 

Mothra gets in the fight. And the monster brawl is on. 

Mothra manages to get in some hits. She grabs Godzilla by the tail and drags him around. 

The fight really takes place between the twin larvae and Godzilla. 

They maneuver around Godzilla, shoot out silk to cover him as he flays around and roars. And then falls into the ocean while completely covered in their silk webs.
The larvae win and swim to Infant Island. The end!

I've often found Mothra to be a strange opponent to the King of the Monsters. 

I think her history deserves mentioning.

The giant moth made her first appearance in the 1961 Japanese Kaiju movie "Mothra" produced by Toho Studios and directed by Godzilla director Ishirō Honda.

After her bout with Godzilla in this movie, both titans would go head-to-head later in their next one-on-one duel movie "Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth" (1992). 

Again, Mothra against Godzilla seems like an unfair fight. No doubt the folks over at Toho thought the same thing. So, they gave her some powers. They had to.

Of course, Mothra can fly which works in her favor. 

And she can spin miles and miles of silk. That proved victorious for her twin babies in this movie. 

She's also durable as seen when the Japanese military hurls what they got at her in other films. 

Her wings can create winds of hurricane speed. She has used her tiny claws to do Godzilla some physical damage as well. 

In this movie, she drags Godzilla by the tail which shows she has some strength. She also flies right into Godzilla and knocks him down. 

And when a last resort is needed, Mothra can emit a yellow poisonous powder from her wings which disorients Godzilla. However, it hinders her ability to fly. 

Mothra's larvae have enough strength to plow right through buildings. Granted, these abilities gradually reveal themselves through multiple Godzilla films co-starring Mothra. 

In "Mothra vs. Godzilla," the fight is more between Godzilla and the larvae of Mothra. 

Despite the nostalgic fun at seeing Godzilla take on Mothra, the movie goes on and on about the egg, and corporate greed before getting to the act audiences really came to see. Godzilla doesn't show up until 30-minutes into the story. And it feels like a longer journey until the fight at the end. 

Mothra brings the Godzilla franchise into a mystique fantasy realm, primarily with her fairies. These fairies accompany her in the movies that follow.

There's a blatant anti-nuclear message in the movie. It's mixed in with an anti-corporate greed message as well as depicting people unifying for the sake of peace, despite their differences. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. 

Godzilla's epic intro scene from "Mothra vs. Godzilla."

The best I can say is that this isn't the worst Godzilla film, but it's certainly nowhere close to being the best, nor among the best.

Emi and Yumi Itō, real life identical twin sisters and a Japanese vocal group who portray the Shobijin, were professionally known as "The Peanuts." They play Mothra's fairies in "Mothra" as well, so it makes sense they carry over to this movie. They also play the fairies in "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" which is coming up next.

Most of the movie is slow as it tries to continually bolster up intrigue about an egg until the monsters finally fight in the last act of the movie.

When Godzilla and Mothra do fight, Mothra does a lot of hovering while Godzilla does a lot of flaying and swinging.

The depiction of widespread panic is much better shot than in previous movies. Before, especially in "King Kong vs. Godzilla, a lot of green screen is used.
Here, they have great shots of terrified people running through the streets and roadways.
For it's place in Godzilla filmography, and what it sets up for future films, "Mothra vs. Godzilla" is decent enough. But it feels precisely like a movie meant to serve as a set-up for something later. Still, it brings a smirk to my face and earns the label of "classic."