Mothra
Starring: Furanki Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyoko Kagawa
Directed by: Ishiro Honda
Rating: Approved
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy
1961

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After two miniature women are taken from the island of Beiru, the monster Mothra emerges and seeks to bring them back.

Review:

Tim: I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the creature Mothra. It just seems like such an absurd idea. You have giant lizards, dinosaur-like things, a three-headed dragon monster, and then you have a moth. And yet, Mothra holds his own and is one of the coolest of the kaijus. I'd seen Mothra in a few Godzilla movies before I went back and watched his introduction. I have to say that while not quite a good movie, Mothra is a fairly solid entry into this larger mythos.

Mothra really comes across as a genuine, more caring monster. He has no explicit desire to cause death and destruction. Sure, the creature has no problem doing this, but it's for a clear purpose- to return the miniature fairy women back to his island. In this film, the villain isn't the giant monster- it is a selfish, egotistical entertainer who wants to use the fairies for his own benefit. Mothra causes great calamity, but it isn't just a rampaging brute. I really liked that subject change. It made me feel for this giant moth. When you have a series of movies about giant monsters, you have to do something to make your film feel different and unique. Mothra is certainly able to accomplish that.

The effects are fairly decent for the time. I really enjoyed seeing Mothra swimming and the cocoon scene with the Tokyo Tower was definitely a highlight. I really loved how it showed Mothra building its cocoon. I know the effects used were fairly basic, but I still marvel at what Toho was able to achieve. The cocoon scene it probably the most enduring image from the film. There is some decent destruction scenes toward the end of the film, but mostly feature Mothra causing damage by flapping its wings. I don't really know how the wings alone could produce super-hurricane winds, but hey.

The two fairy women are fun to see, especially when shown in relation to other people (they are only 12 inches tall, after all). I enjoyed that odd aspect of the film. The human characters are all pretty weakly written. There's very little character development and almost nothing that creates any kind of connection with the humans. All the human characters are completely interchangeable here. As a result, they aren't memorable in the least. This is a big weakness of the film.

These movies always seem to venture into absurd territory (even more absurd than a giant moth), and this film succumbs to that towards the end. I'm still not sure how ringing church bells and drawing a simple on the ground could possibly summon Mothra. Scenes like that are examples of lazy writing. If you're going to ask me to believe in a giant moth, at least make some of the film believable.

In reality, most of the Japanese kaiju films from the 1950s and 1960s weren't very good. That is a fact. Movies like Mothra might not be good, but it gets awfully close to that mark. Mothra plays a huge role in the continuing Godzilla canon, so it's absolutely worth seeing the origin of this interesting character.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Gojira, G Godzilla Raids Again, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster