MOTHRA
REVIEW DATE: 2/21/99
As of now I have reviewed two of the so called big 3 Japanese monster (daikaiju) movies, Godzilla and Rodan. The plan has been to review these three and the move on to the rest of the Godzilla series.
Of all the early Japanese monsters Mothra has to be one of the most popular. Made just one year before King Kong vs. Godzilla by the same director (Inoshiro Honda) and writer (Shinichi Sekizawa), Mothra is by far one of the most imaginative monster movies I have yet to see.
Our story begins, quite literally, on a dark and stormy night. A Japanese ship is forced ashore by a storm and its crew is rescued days later. Back in Japan scientists puzzle over the crew. It seams that the island they landed on happened to be ground zero of an "atomic grave yard" used to conduct atomic tests (you just knew atomic tests would have something to do with this, didn't you?), yet the crew is completely unaffected by the radiation. The only reason the sailors can think of as to why they weren't affected is the fact that they where given a berry juice by the islands natives.
Well this really gets our scientists puzzled, so, faster then you can say "How can anyone live on an island that was ground zero for nuclear testing?", its off to the island. Going along with our scientists is reporter Tsinchan (Frankie Sakai), and evil rich guy, Nelson. Nelson is played by Jerry Ito, and is suppose to come from the fictional country of Rosilica What? You mean you don't know where Rosilica is? We'll get to that a little later, but first. . .
Arriving on the island our intrepid band finds not only natives, but moss the size of humans, and two foot tall singing identical twin women. Nelson, being an Evil Rich Guy, captures the singing girls and puts them in his own personal talent show in Tokyo.
But all is not well, here. Turns out that these aren't any ordinary foot tall singing girls, oh no, they're the foot tall singing priestesses of Mothra. Mothra is the Giant Monster/Protector/God of the natives, who are mighty pissed at having the two girls kidnapped. So, after some really cool dance numbers, a giant egg splits open and Mothra plows him/her/it's way to (where else) Tokyo to search for the girls, while Nelson flees to his native country of Ameri--er, Rosilica and our intrepid reporter and his photographer Michi (Kyôko Kagawa) try to get the girls back before any more life is lost.
While not as politically charged as Godzilla, Mothra is still some great fun to watch. The monster appears relatively early and destroys stuff at a fairly good pace. The only problem I really have is that Mothra, in its caterpillar form, simply plows through buildings, causing them to collapse. Why is this a problem? Well, when you see buildings shatter like they do here it becomes pretty obvious that the buildings have little or no internal structure. I have similar complaints with almost all giant monster movies.
But on the plus side Mothra's moth form is really well done. And because of his/her/it's size Mothra's wings cause some really violent whirlwinds as it flies over. One of the real stand out shots in this movie is when Mothra flies over New Yor--er, Newkirk City and its wings cause cars to spin around in the street and crash into buildings.
The acting here is quite good. The dubbing sucks, but that's to be expected. Jerry Ito walks through his roll with a sour expression and a ridiculously evil voice. Sakai and Kagawa on the other hand have great chemistry, if their parts had been written a bit more they might have been really interesting characters. Probably the best actors here, though, are Yumi and Emi Ito as the priestesses. And man can they sing. I originally watched this movie on cable as a child and I was totally blown away by their singing. Of course, the fact that they are both knockouts helps.
In the end Mothra is defiantly one of the better daikaiju movies to come out of 1960's Japan. If you can find it out there in your local video store (I personally saw the copy I have on the sci-fi channel and had the good sense to tape it) then you can rent with confidence and get a good return on your investment.
And maybe I'm wrong about Mothra not being politically charged. After all all the Rosilicans are played by Americans, and Newkirk city does look a hell of allot like New York city, after all. . .
RATING (OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE)
I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE WOULD LOVE TO SEE NEW YORK BLOWN AWAY BY A GIANT MOTH.
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