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Film: Mothra vs. Godzilla (Mosura tai Gojira)
Year: 1964
Director: Ishirô Honda
Writer: Shin’ichi Sekizawa
Starring: Akira Takarada, Yuriko Hoshi and Hiroshi Koizumi
Review:
This film begins by showing us a typhoon. The storm is hitting a beach that has just had its grand opening. We then see something large gets washed on shore. A newspaper writer, played by Akira Takarada, and his rookie camerawoman, played by Yuriko Hoshi, show up to the scene the next morning after the storm has passed. We see an industrialist who is upset with the article that Takarada wrote, saying that his pumps are going to fix the area and everything will go on as planned. Has Hoshi is setting up to take a picture, she finds a weird disk.
Some local fishermen find a giant egg is floating in their bay. They decide to bring it onto land to sell it. It is purchased by Yoshifumi Tajima. Takarada, Hoshi and a zoologist, played by Hiroshi Koizumi are looking at it as Tajima brings his bill of sale. The three try to convince him that it is more important for science, but he will not hear any of it.
The three try to continue to convince him and his business partner, played by Kenji Sahara. They want to build an amusement park with this egg as its center piece and whatever hatches from it. The twin fairies, who are the protectors of the egg, played by twins Emi Itô and Yumi Itô. Sahara and Tajima instead try to capture them. They also have a structure built to incubate the egg.
The Itô Twins instead meet with Takarada, Hoshi and Koizumi. They tell them that the egg needs to be returned to Infant Island. This island is where they have done nuclear testing and the land has become desolate. The egg contains a baby Mothra, the protector of the island. The three tell them that they will do what they can to ensure it gets returned, but cannot make promises. We learn that the Itô Twins were brought there by Mothra from the last film.
There is a bigger problem. The land that was flooded has been drained, but something is moving in the mud. From it comes Godzilla. He begins his rampage once again, attacking Japan.
The military start on a plan to attack and stop him, but Takarada’s editor, played by Jun Tazaki, wants them to come up with a way. Another writer says to have Mothra defeat him. They realize that Mothra might help, to defend her egg. The three decide they will go to Infant Island to seek her help.
As they get there, they find it worse than what the Itô Twins stated. The three need to convince the natives of the island that they mean no harm. They have to drink a liquid to dispel evil spirits and they take them to see the Itô Twins. They take them to Mothra, who we learn does not have much longer to live. It takes some convincing, but they get her to battle Godzilla.
Godzilla continues to destroy everything in its path. Godzilla finds the egg and attacks the structure it is kept in. Mothra appears and they begin to do battle. Mothra gains an early upper hand, but is defeated by Godzilla. Mothra ends up dying next to her egg. The Itô Twins state she didn’t have a lot of strength left.
Godzilla’s wraith moves to the coast. The natives on Infant Island continue to pray for the egg to hatch as well as the Itô Twins sing to it to awake the new Mothra. The egg finally hatches and emerging is two Mothra larvas. Can they defeat Godzilla? Is it too late?
I have to say that this is technically the third Godzilla versus another giant monster and this one has been the best so far. I like that this film creates some continuity that the Mothra we see is the one from its own film and I like that Mothra has a short life-span, much like a normal moth. The fight scenes between the full-grown and the larva Mothras are pretty solid. Also it is good to see Godzilla destroying cities and everything in its plan. We also see humans trying to stop him, but with no success.
This film does come with its issues though. To start off with, I like there is some continuity, but they still always are shocked to learn about these things. You would expect that Mothra and Godzilla have attacked in recent memory that there would be some prior knowledge, but there is minimal knowledge of both. I do not like that Infant Island in the Mothra film was an anomaly that despite nuclear testing, it was a lush paradise. This film has it as a desolate island, with only an oasis to keep the natives alive. I also didn’t care for the story surrounding the giant monsters, as I feel it is the same thing that we saw for Mothra’s film, except this time it is the giant egg, not the twin fairies being the attraction.
With that said, I still enjoyed this film. The stars are truly the giant monsters, Godzilla and Mothra. Their battle scenes were pretty good for the technology at the time. The surrounding story was a bit repetitive as the previous film. The acting with it was okay. I will say that the Itô Twins are cute in their tiny form. This film does present its issues, but overall not bad. I will say that this film is from Japan, so you will need to watch it with subtitles or you need to watch it dubbed, where the voices will not line up. If you like Godzilla or Mothra, I would recommend this film. If you are watching this series of Godzilla films, I would recommend continuing the series with a viewing of this. I also learned that this is the last time in this series that Godzilla was the bad guy and the next one he appears in he becomes the Earth’s protector. Not a bad film, so if you like this genre, I would recommend giving this a viewing.
My Rating: 6 out of 10