Franchises: Godzilla. Mothra vs. Godzilla (Godzilla vs. The Thing, Godzilla vs. Mothra) (1964)

I have a great story about the first time I saw this one. It was one of five Godzilla movies our town's video rental store had and, while there were two in particular I rented quite often, I only rented this once. Why, you ask? Because when it got to the part where Godzilla kills Mothra, I started crying! Yes, even though I loved Godzilla more than any child possibly could, when he mortally wounded her with his atomic breath and she flew over to her egg in order to shield it with her body before she died, my tear glands just exploded and continued to for the rest of the movie. It was ridiculous and, to this day, I don't know why that happened. For one, this was the first movie I saw that featured Mothra, so it wasn't like I had a deep connection to her, and for another, even now, while I don't hate her, Mothra isn't exactly one of my favorite kaiju, so your guess is as good as mine. Regardless, while I never rented this movie again, and even kind of avoided it whenever it was on TV for that very reason, I eventually got over that emotional trauma and finally bought it on VHS when I was around eleven or twelve (I had actually wanted it for a while by that point but could never find a VHS that wouldn't screw up while it was playing, as was the case with a handful of Godzilla movies when they were put on videotape). Once I owned it, my attitude changed completely, as it became one I watched quite a bit and thoroughly enjoyed, and I'm not the only one, as this is often considered to be the best film in the series outside of the original, and for good reason. It's very well made, with Ishiro Honda's direction and Shinichi Sekizawa's screenwriting coming together very well, and everything from the story and characters to the special effects working wonderfully. There are some hiccups here and there but, on the whole, it's a true gem, both in its original Japanese version and American version (it was the first Godzilla movie to be released here, more or less, as is, and its dubbing is considered among the best ever done for the series) and is still very much one of my personal favorites.

After a powerful hurricane devastates a development area at Kurata Beach, newspaper reporter Ichiro Sakai and his photographer, Junko Nakanishi, find a large, strange scale among the wreckage. Later that day, an enormous egg is discovered floating in the harbor of a fishing village and is hauled ashore. While trying to decipher the egg's nature and origin, noted scientist Prof. Miura, along with Sakai and Junko, meet Kumayama, an entrepreneur who reveals he bought the egg for his company, Happy Enterprises, and plans to turn it into a tourist attraction. Later, Kumayama and Torahata, his business partner, meet in a hotel room to discuss their plans but are visited by two tiny women, the Shobijin, who tell them the egg belongs to them. The two greedy men try to capture them but they escape and later meet up with Sakai, Junko, and Miura, explaining that they're from Infant Island, which has been devastated by atomic testing, and the egg, which was lost in the hurricane, belongs to their monster god, Mothra. Hearing their pleas, the trio do what they can to help, but Kumayama and Torahata will have none of it. Realizing there's nothing that can be done, the Shobijin leave with Mothra, thanking Sakai, Junko, and Miura for trying. Afterward, Sakai tries to sway public opinion against Happy Enterprises with his articles but it doesn't do much good, as the opening day for the tourist attraction approaches. Prof. Miura then contacts him and Junko and puts them through a decontamination process, explaining that they were slightly irradiated and the strange scale they found at Kurata Beach is radioactive as well. Arriving there to test for more radiation, the three of them, along with a large crowd gathered to witness the progress of the cleanup operation, are horrified when Godzilla suddenly emerges from the ground, having also been washed ashore by the hurricane and buried beneath the mud. The monster begins rampaging through the countryside and Sakai and the others realize their only hope is to go to Infant Island and ask the natives if Mothra can help them. While the natives, including the Shobijin, refuse at first, they make their case and Mothra herself agrees to help them. However, the giant moth is old and dying, meaning the real hope for Japan may lie with Mothra's unborn offspring inside the egg.

In-between King Kong vs. Godzilla and this film, Ishiro Honda released two other movies: Matango and Atragon. Matango is a very bleak, dark story, more akin to horror than science fiction and considered one of his personal best, concerning a group of shipwreck survivors forced to consume an edible fungus in order to survive, only for it to cause them to lose their minds and eventually become fungi themselves. While there are other films of Honda's I'd rather watch, I do agree that Matango is rather creepy and haunting. Atragon, on the other hand, is a science fiction/fantasy spectacle about a powerful submarine used as defense against an undersea kingdom taht attempts to take over the surface. It's notable for introducing the snake-like monster Manda, who would go on to make occasional appearances in the Godzilla series, his biggest role being in Destroy All Monsters. Upon returning to Godzilla, while Honda may not have cared for the lighter and sillier direction the series began taking with King Kong vs. Godzilla, here he was able to more successfully combine his sincere sensibilities with the lighter touches of screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa. This movie hits just the right balance to satisfy both parties, as it's a fun and entertaining film, nowhere near as dark as the original Godzilla, but, at the same time, nothing about it is played for laughs, with Honda managing to tell a straightforward, serious story that has some nice allegory all its own and depicts both Godzilla and Mothra as powerful, awe-inspiring creatures. That said, Sekizawa is still able to continue making the monsters characters in and of themselves who react to the humans just as much as the humans react to them. You couldn't ask for a more perfect union between these two men, one that, at least in the Godzilla series, they would never quite be able to replicate.

A decade after playing Ogata in the original Godzilla, Akira Takarada, who had become a very popular actor by this point, returns to the series in the role of newspaper reporter Ichiro Sakai and, while he would appear in other Godzilla films afterward, I think he gives his best performance in the series here. He portrays Sakai as likable and compassionate enough but, at the same time, fairly cynical and someone who doesn't suffer fools. He gets rather impatient with his rookie photographer, Junko, when she continually proves how green she is, taking far too much time to set up a shot and accidentally snapping a flash bulb in Prof. Miura's face, even though there's more than enough light. He also admonishes her for calling him by his first name, saying it's inappropriate since he's her boss, but, that said, he never comes across as mean or bullying, and there are moments where he comforts her when she's upset or frightened. A very good-natured person, Sakai realizes from the get go that it's not right for Kumayama to take sole possession of the egg and also proves to be quite savvy in how he figures Kumayama must have someone backing him, leading him to discover Torohata's involvement. After he and his friends meet with the Shobijin, he does what he can to help them return the egg to Infant Island, but when they confront Kumayama and Torahata, he's disgusted with how greedy and unscrupulous they are and quickly realizes that trying to reason with them is a lost cause. Though he does intend to write an article about the Shobijin's plight, Sakai knows that, even if they manage to sway public opinion in their favor, it won't lead to any legal action against Happy Enterprises, which is exactly what happens. Ultimately, he decides to stop writing the articles altogether, as they do nothing but churn up more publicity for them. 

Later, when Godzilla begins attacking Japan and the idea comes up to ask the Infant Islanders for Mothra's help, Sakai isn't crazy about it, commenting on how it's a horribly selfish thing to do, especially after they didn't return the egg. Regardless, he, along with Junko, go with Miura to the island and, when they are initially refused, even by the Shobijin, he makes a great speech about how they, too, want a world without distrust and that, even though conflicts arise when so many

people live together, they won't give up working to make that world a reality. His words are so inspiring that they apparently convince Mothra herself to offer her assistance. During the movie's second half, he, like most of the other human characters, fall by the wayside as the monsters take center-stage, although he does come up with a plan to save a group of children and a teacher stuck on Iwa Island while Godzilla is busy fighting the Mothra larvae. And at the end of the movie, when Godzilla has been defeated and the Shobijin are returning home with the two Mothra larvae, someone asks, "Shouldn't we at least thank them?", to which Sakai replies that the only way to thank them would be to ensure that world without distrust becomes a reality.

Junko (Yuriko Hoshi), Sakai's photographer, is portrayed as inexperienced and naive but also very kind-hearted and strong-willed. While she does get on Sakai's nerves due to how little she knows about taking pictures for a newspaper, and she's annoyed by him telling her not to call him by his first name and not sticking up for her when Kumayama insults her at one point, she does agree that Kumayama shouldn't be allowed to buy the egg just like that and exploit it, citing its value to science. She's also especially determined to help the Shobijin and is just as disgusted by Kumayama and Torahata's attitudes, notably in how, when she, Sakai, and Prof. Miura have their fruitless meeting with them, she stands up to the latter when he insists he has no part in Kumayama and Happy Enterprises' decisions, accusing him of playing dumb. Afterward, she tries to cheer the Shobijin up by telling them Sakai will put their story in the newspaper but, like the girls, she's disappointed when he says doing so won't grant them any legal recourse. Later, she also agrees with Sakai about how going to Infant Island to ask for Mothra's help against Godzilla would be both insensitive and pointless, since they probably wouldn't help them anyway. When they do go to the island and see how desolate it is due to the atomic tests, she especially understands why the natives refuse to help them. Still, before Sakai makes his speech, Junko makes a case of her own, telling them how many, many people, both good and bad, are being killed by Godzilla and that even bad people have a right to live. Along with Sakai's speech, this seemingly inspires Mothra to decide to help. One last thing I'd like to mention about Junko is that, as is the case with the series as a whole, they don't try to force a romance between her and Sakai, as would happen if this were a typical American monster movie; instead, it goes about as far as Sakai occasionally putting his arm around her in order to comfort her. 

Another returning actor is Hiroshi Koizumi as Prof. Miura, the scientist who joins Sakai and Junko in their quest to take Mothra's egg back from Happy Enterprises. While his role here is more memorable than his bland series debut in Godzilla Raids Again, Koizumi, again, doesn't have much to do except just go along with the other two leads, although he does manage to make Miura a likable guy. Initially, he's annoyed by Sakai and Junko when he first meets them, as they try to interview him while he's busy examining the egg, but their mutual dislike for Kumayama's purchase and intended exploitation of it prompts them to join up against him. At the same time, he's the first one to note that the authorities wouldn't be of any use to them in the matter, commenting on how long it takes for them to do anything. Also like Sakai and Junko, he feels for the Shobijin and the Infant Islanders after what they've been through and does anything he can to help them, becoming quite discouraged when they fail to get Mothra's egg back. Later, when Godzilla begins attacking, Miura agrees that going to the island to ask for Mothra's help is a selfish thing to do but, because people are suffering, he's willing to try, saying the islanders may listen if they make a sincere appeal. When he arrives on the island with Sakai and Junko and they see the devastation caused by the atomic tests, he's especially sympathetic towards the natives and, when they refuse their request for help, he not only understands but is also about ready to give up and head back, feeling there's nothing they can do, although Sakai and Junko prove him wrong.

To this day, I'm not sure what exactly the relationship is between the Shobijin (Emi and Yumi Ito), the two tiny twin girls associated with Mothra, and Mothra herself. I don't know if they're her guardians, caregivers, or personal priestesses, but they obviously have a closer bond with her than anyone else on Infant Island, as she listens to and understands them when they talk, or sing, to her. While later, alternate versions of the characters would be depicted as undoubtedly fantastical, the Shobijin's exact nature, both in the original Mothra from 1961 and in the Showa series as a whole, is left more ambiguous, though you can deduce that there is something supernatural about them, given their small size and ability to read thoughts. In any case, they, like Mothra herself and the other inhabitants of Infant Island, are peace-loving and prefer not to resort to force. Thus, when they first appear, initially to Kumayama and Torahata, and then to Sakai, Junko, and Miura, they merely plea for Mothra's egg to be returned to them rather than demand it (which they could do, since Mothra is with them). Unfortunately, this course of action doesn't sway the greedy businessmen at all and they're forced to return to Infant Island without the egg, although they thank the three leads for their help and kindness. That said, though, they, like the rest of the Infant Islanders, refuse the group's plea for help against Godzilla as they now have no faith in the outside world. This is surprising in retrospect, as the Shobijin are almost always depicted as being very sympathetic to the plights of others and offer Mothra's assistance if it's needed but, divine, supernatural origin or not, you understand why they feel this way. They also sincerely apologize to their friends for not being able to help, a sentiment the natives also seem to share, despite their hostility. However, after Junko and Sakai make their cases, the Shobijin inform them that Mothra has decided to help them, but add that she's old and dying and won't be able to return. Once Mothra reaches Japan to battle Godzilla, the Shobijin arrive as well, telling the main characters they always keep their promises. Even though Mothra loses her life to Godzilla, they explain that the egg can be hatched and that Mothra's young will deal with him. Thus they, along with the natives back on the island, perform a ritual on the island that prompts the egg to hatch.

Yu Fujiki, who played the cowardly Furue in King Kong vs. Godzilla, is here again as Nakamura, another reporter who works alongside Sakai and Junko and who loves eating eggs. Like Furue, Nakamura is meant to be comedy relief but he's not as overtly silly, as the comedy mostly comes from how much he loves to eat soft-boiled eggs and how he's constantly being chewed out by Murata, the editor. Speaking of which, later in the film, he stays close to Mothra's egg, even when Godzilla's nearby, because Murata told him if he didn't stick to his assignment, he'd be fired, which he admits worries him more than Godzilla (in the English version, he explains, "I'm not as afraid of Godzilla as I am of the editor. He's meaner,"). Notably, he's the one who suggests asking Mothra for help against Godzilla and is so startled with how Murata reacts to his idea that he initially thinks he said something wrong. During the second half of the film, Nakamura witnesses the battle between the two monsters with the three leads and then, after Mothra's killed and the military retreats, he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, holding onto the back of an army jeep that ends up taking off with him! But, as a result of this, he later learns that Godzilla is heading for Iwa Island, where a teacher and a group are children are trapped, and brings the others to the nearby harbor, where they set out on a boat to rescue them, while Godzilla is busy battling the Mothra larvae.

Another actor who returns from the previous film is Jun Tazaki, here playing Murata, the extremely volatile newspaper editor. A pretty grouchy guy who's always on the lookout for a big scoop and is on the back of anyone who isn't doing the same (namely Nakamura), he also gives Sakai something of a lecture about a newspaper's responsibility when he says he's going to stop writing articles about Happy Enterprises because they're not getting them any legal recourse against the company. He tells him, "What would happen if newspapers had suck power? We're champions of the people." Moreover, when Sakai says the articles are just giving Happy Enterprises more publicity, Murata goes as far as to question the effectiveness of his writing, suggesting his words might not be strong enough! Sakai almost starts an argument with him over that but is then interrupted by a phone call. When Godzilla appears and begins rampaging, Murata has no faith in the military, and when Nakamura suggests getting Mothra to battle Godzilla, he says it's a great idea (but even then, he lambasts Nakamura for not sticking with Mothra's egg and tells him he'll be fired if he does it again). He also insists that Sakai and the others go to Infant Island to ask that favor, since they are the only ones who are able to talk to the Shobijin, and when Sakai is reluctant, he tells him they don't have a choice, as Godzilla will completely destroy Japan otherwise.

Yoshifumi Tajima, an actor who pops up quite frequently in Toho's sci-fi and monster flicks, usually in small parts, gives probably the most memorable performance of his career here as Kumayama, the entrepreneur who purchases Mothra's egg for his company and intends to exploit it. Of the film's two human antagonists, Kumayama is the more comical due to Tajima's fairly hammy acting. He portrays Kumayama as big and blustery, with nothing on his mind other than money, and so greedy and lacking in scruples that, when Sakai, Junko, and Prof. Miura have the Shobijin make their pleas for the egg's return, he and Torahata, who'd tried to capture them when they suddenly appeared to them the previous night, offer to buy them in order to put them on exhibition along with the egg. He's also just a massive asshole in general, like when he blows cigarette smoke in Junko's face when she attempts to photograph him and obnoxiously laughs at Torahata's question as to whether Mothra gives them power of attorney. But, through it all, he's portrayed as so bigger than life and somewhat buffoonish through his actions and facial expressions (the latter get particularly funny at times) that you can't bring yourself to truly hate him. However, despite his bravado, Kumayama is not as buffoonish as he would have been if he appeared in a film like King Kong vs. Godzilla, as he gets really serious when someone interferes with his business, threatening the three leads with legal action and becoming quite angry when the villagers demand their money for the use of the land where Mothra's egg is housed, telling them he'll have it for them the next day before throwing them out. He gets out and out violent during his final scene, where he angrily confronts Torahata for swindling him out of money, which was further compounded when Godzilla appeared and scared away all potential tourists, causing him to lose everything. He brutally beats Torahata's face until there's blood pouring out of his nose and proceeds to try to get back at his former partner by taking all of the money he has stored in a large cabinet in his hotel room. But then, Torahata puts a bullet through his head, ending their partnership permanently.

Jiro Torahata is much more unlikable, with Kenji Sahara really getting to play against type and make him the personification of rampant capitalism. Torahata is just a bastard, greedier than even Kumayama and using his political connections to get whatever he wants. He not only plans to make far more money off the egg than Kumayama ever thought but, in the end, goes as far as to ensure his own partner was the one losing money in their deal. He also has a large cabinet in his hotel room that's filled to the brim with money but we never learn how he got it or what he intends to do with it, meaning it's likely for some other scheme he has on the back-burner. When Kumayama tries to get him to lend him some of it so he can pay off the villagers, Torahata simply says, "That money is for something else." He's also ruthless enough to attempt to capture the Shobijin when they first appear, possibly either to kill them or, as he and Kumayama later propose to the leads, as a means to make more money. And finally, he's just really snide and arrogant, especially during the scene where he and Kumayama meet with Sakai, Junko, and Prof. Miura. He claims to simply be the money-man, that Kumayama and Happy Enterprises make the decisions, and when Junko calls him out on this, saying, "You're playing dumb," he smugly responds, "I'm not playing dumb, young lady." Although he and Kumayama seem initially intimidated when they're told the egg belongs to Mothra, Torahata then makes a crack about her supposedly giving the leads power of attorney, a statement that really disgusts Sakai. Later on, Torahata so smoothly talks Kumayama into a deal that ends up ruining him that you feel, Kumayama's silent aggravation aside, he's the type of guy who could sell ice to a polar bear. And when Kumayama later angrily confronts him about the money he lost, Torohata coldly says, "Don't blame me. You should have known better." Despite getting his face smashed in for that, he shoots Kumayama when he tries to take the money from his cabinet. But, like his former business partner, his greed is what ultimately does him in, as he takes the time to gather up his money, even though Godzilla is approaching the hotel, and doesn't make it out before Godzilla destroys it, crushing him beneath the falling rubble.

In writing the screenplay for Mothra vs. Godzilla, Shinichi Sekizawa essentially combined elements of both King Kong vs. Godzilla and the original Mothra. Like the latter, the film begins with a storm (the name of which is basically the same in both), the leads are a male reporter, a female photographer, and a male scientist, and the human antagonist is a greedy capitalist whose narrow-minded, selfish ambitions result in the loss of many lives and a lot of property damage. And as with King Kong vs. Godzilla, you have the concept of

Godzilla being pitted against another popular movie monster; since the original Mothra had been quite popular when it was released in Japan in 1961, it was logical that would she be the King of the Monsters' next opponent. However, while we're on the topic of that film, here's an interesting question: is Mothra vs. Godzilla in continuity with the original Mothra? You'd think the answer would be an obvious yes but, when you stop and think about it, it's not quite so clear-cut. For one, the events of that film are never mentioned here, and

for another, even though everyone in Japan, not to mention the world at large, knew of Mothra and the Shobijin by the end of that movie, here the characters seem absolutely surprised when the Shobijin appear and tell them of Mothra. You'd think Kumayama and Torahata, at least, would have remembered what happened the first time a greedy businessman like them messed with Mothra and not act so smug about it (although they do seem to recognize the name). Speaking of Mothra

herself, her portrayal and characterization here is much different than in the original movie, which we'll get into when we talk about the monsters. In the original film, Infant Island was said to have been a victim of nuclear testing, as it is here, but, unlike the completely barren rock it is in this film, there was a lush green jungle with strange plant-life in the center and the natives seemed much more primitive and savage than the ones here. Indeed, the connection between the movies is

fairly shaky, but it's not like Toho were all that concerned with very strong continuity at this point anyway, with monsters returning after they were seemingly killed beyond all doubt, the same actors playing different roles throughout the series (Hiroshi Koizumi was also the lead scientist in the original Mothra), and very vague connections to past films that weren't originally meant to take place in the same universe. As we'll see time and again, it's best to not think about this stuff too hard or your head will explode.

Not only does the film comment a bit on the place and role of newspapers and journalism in general but, like Mothra, it also makes a statement about the consequences of unchecked capitalism. However, it's very possible that Honda, who asked Shinichi Sekizawa to write it into the script in the first place, had much more influence on its execution time time. In Mothra, the capitalistic villain, Clark Nelson, is so overtly evil and villainous that you'd expect him to be in a comic book of the day, but here, despite some occasional

buffoonish actions from Kumayama, he and Torahata are more straightforward and, especially in the case of Torahata, meant to be symbols of capitalism, rather than villains who are so over the top that they're difficult to take seriously. This allegory is very indicative of the time period, when Japan's economy was very quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with (by 1968, it would be the second most powerful in the world, right behind the United States). It's also interesting to note that

in Mothra, Nelson was from "Rolisica," a fictional country which was a thinly veiled stand-in for the United States, whereas here, you have two men who are 100% Japanese doing every underhanded and immoral thing they can to get as much money as possible. Given the general attitude of Japanese business, which often value social good over pure profit, it's not surprising why they went the route they did in Mothra, but I have to wonder why Honda felt it necessary to make such a statement with Japanese characters here. Maybe he felt Japan was becoming too prosperous too fast and that this type of greed could come about as a result? Since I obviously never met the man, this is just a theory and one that I wouldn't press unless I had more evidence, which I don't, so I won't say any more.

Honda also added the idea of hope for a world without distrust. As I said back in my review of the original Godzilla, Honda's wartime experiences made him a firm pacifist and you can see the speech Sakai gives to the natives of Infant Island about how they want a world without suspicion and distrust and that they won't stop working for it, despite all of the conflicts that tend to arise, as the director himself telling us his humanistic  viewpoints. While I do like the original Japanese dialogue, I think the way it's written in the

American version affirms Honda's feelings even more so: "Just as you distrust us, so we distrust others as well. It's wrong. We're all human. As humans, we are responsible for each other. We are related. Refuse us and you abandon your brothers. We must learn to help each other." That "brotherhood of man" speech, as it's called, so wonderfully sums up what Honda was trying to say with this scene that I have to give major props to the American writers. Some may call this overly sentimental and saccharine but, honestly, is a world

without distrust, suspicion, or hate really that much of a crackpot idea? This allegory also trickles down into another, more familiar theme, albeit one that hasn't been mentioned since the original Godzilla: atomic tests. While it's not nearly as prevalent here as it was there, Mothra vs. Godzilla does remind us that Godzilla is the result of nuclear tests, an aspect of his character that, save for occasional mentions here and there, would disappear altogether until the "Heisei" series of films in the 80's and 90's. Not

Not only is his presence indicated by high Geiger readings, like when Prof. Miura uses the counter on the object that, I believe, is his scale, and when the counter goes haywire when he emerges from the ground, but Sakai and Junko also have to be put through a decontamination process as Miura realizes they're slightly irradiated, no doubt from handling the scale. But where it really hits home is when Sakai, Junko, and Miura travel to Infant Island and see how it's been completely decimated

by the tests conducted there. They're all shocked by what they see, with Junko commenting she feels partly responsible, whereas Sakai sums it up best by saying, "Calls to ban nuclear weapons are a dime a dozen now back home, but when you actually see something like this..." Undeniably, Honda felt that Japan, and perhaps the world as well, shouldn't forget about the impact of the atomic bombings, even at this point, when it had been almost twenty years since the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I said I think that thing is Godzilla's scale, given its radioactive nature, but I'm not entirely sure (I used to think it was meant to be a piece of Mothra's egg, given how Junko notes how lovely it is and how it has bits of blue and orange color, but that's obviously not the case). That ambiguity is something you tend to get in a number of Godzilla and Japanese tokasatsu films, especially of this era, when they were often written by Shinichi Sekizawa. In his screenwriting, Sekizawa never focused much on details, instead concentrating on

whether or not something worked dramatically and kept the story moving and entertaining. Ergo, this object is meant as a means to introduce the notion of lingering radioactivity at Kurata Beach into the story, thus leading to the eventual reveal that Godzilla is there and allowing you to piece together that the object is probably a skin fragment from him. It doesn't matter in the long run anyway, though, as that object is disregarded once Godzilla awakens and begins rampaging. Speaking of

Godzilla, like the "scale," his emergence from the ground at Kurata Beach is never fully explained, but as I've said, it's easy to surmise that the hurricane washed him ashore and he got buried beneath all the mud and debris. However, one area here where Sekizawa's scripting does feel a bit contrived is the revelation during the third act that Godzilla just happens to be heading to an island where a group of children and their teacher are. As Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle note in their commentary on the Classic Media release of the film, it just feels like a reason to keep our main group of characters in the story, as they take the opportunity to save them while Godzilla battles Mothra's larvae.

While there are scenes set in metropolitan areas, like the offices of Sakai's newspaper, Prof. Miura's laboratory, the military headquarters, and cities like Yokkaichi and Nagoya, where Godzilla rampages immediately following his awakening, much of the story is set in the coastal areas of Kurata and Shizunoura, the latter of which is where Mothra's egg is brought ashore and Kumayama begins building his amusement park and tourist attraction around it. Set dressing-wise, they effectively capture the aftermath of a powerful typhoon at

Kurata Beach in the first act, with plenty of piled up and floating debris, as well as flooded sections of land. I like the simple fishing villages and towns in this area, as well as those on Iwa Island during the climax, as they reminds me a little bit of the setting of Odo Island in the original Godzilla. The same goes for the villagers, who are so scared of Mothra's egg when they first see it that a priest has to say a prayer to prompt them to go out to it and bring it in, and whose mayor attempts to get rich by selling the egg to Kumayama and allowing him

to build an incubator for it on the land. There are also a handful of more developed spots in this area, mainly Kumayama's business office around the incubated egg and the nearby hotel, where Torahata lives in luxury. One of the most amazing instances of set design in the early Showa series is in the scene where the Shobijin visit Kumayama and Torahata in the latter's hotel room. Normally, they're realized either through matte work and compositing or through the use of small dolls, but in this instance, they actually built a set of oversized furniture for Emi and Yumi Ito to walk across, hide behind, and run through, and the effect is very well done.

What wasn't as well done as it could've been, at least in Ishiro Honda's eyes, were the sets for Infant Island. Again, compared to the vast, lush place in Mothra, this depiction of the island is almost completely barren and composed of rock, with bones littering the beach and immediate interior (there's a skeletal turtle in the beach shot whose head rocks back and forth and whose eye blinks!) and pools of nasty-looking, contaminated water. The islanders themselves, while still primitive, don't come off like savages the way did there, and

have some interesting looks to them, such as a set of men who dress in orange and have red powder on their skin, and their chief, who wears a fur kilt, a headdress of tall, white feathers with a furry, white shoal going down his back, and has a long, white beard. The place is also very, very tiny. The main hub for the islanders is a cavern-like space with primitive markings and symbols on the walls, a large urn with a burning flame, a kiln in the wall, and a spot with a stone chair and an idol containing an elderly face that seems spiritually connected to

Mothra's egg, as it gives off the same colorful flashes and thunder-like crackling the egg does before it hatches. Just beyond that is an oasis, a spot of lush vegetation and a small pool of pure water, which the Shobijin say is all that sustains the islanders. And finally, beyond that is a small tunnel that leads into a little quarry and a large alcove in the rock where Mothra is revealed to be sitting atop what they call a "sacred rock." Honda was not at all satisfied with this, as he had planned to really show

the devastation and suffering wrought by the nuclear tests but budget cuts made that impossible. He also said that those in charge at Toho didn't think it was necessary to tell the story and, while it would've been interesting to see what Honda had envisioned for the scene, and I can't deny that the sets, as they are, are rather threadbare, I think the point is gotten across well enough without needing to revel in it.

I'd originally planned on saying that this film is where this second Godzilla comes the closest to being akin to the unstoppable bringer of death and destruction his predecessor was but, upon watching it again for safety's sake, I realize that's not entirely true. Mind you, unlike in King Kong vs. Godzilla, he's not played for laughs at all (save his first attack, where he occasionally comes off as clumsy), and his design here is quite menacing, but he mainly comes across, again, like a confused creature that's just wandering around the countryside and causes death and destruction either by accident due to his immense size and girth or when he's defending himself upon being attacked. There are only a few instances where he seems truly malevolent: when he intentionally sets fire to a section of the industrial complex during his first appearance, when he's menacing Mothra's egg (the look on his face as he stares at indicates some pretty insidious intentions), when he glares at the Mothra larvae while using his atomic breath to create a fire to block their path, and, possibly, his not returning to the sea but, rather, continuously plowing through Japan. Otherwise, all of the property damage is either simply because he has no choice but to walk through the numerous buildings and other small structures or through pure accident, like when he destroys Torahata's hotel by turning and whacking the building with his tail. And as I already mentioned, he acts particularly clumsy during his first attack and appears to succeed in causing destruction in spite of himself (it's weird how, despite how silly he acted in King Kong vs. Godzilla, he seemed more intent on actually causing destruction there). Of course, he destroys a lot of military vehicles and mortally wounds Mothra but, again, it's because he was attacked first and was defending himself. In fact, he actually ignores the military's assault on him for the most part and it's only after they attempt to kill him with artificial lightning that he becomes enraged enough to deliberately destroy their tanks and the apparatus they used for conducting the lightning. And yes, it's clear he intended to do something ghastly to Mothra's egg, given how he went out of his way to destroy its incubator in order to get at it, but he only attacks Mothra herself because she came at him first. Mothra even has the upper hand throughout the fight and is only killed when Godzilla manages to get a lucky shot with his atomic breath. You could say that he goes to Iwa Island just to escape all the craziness on the mainland but, once there, has to defend himself yet again from Mothra's larvae. This reading of Godzilla's characterization here doesn't hurt the movie, as you still get the idea that he's a menace to Japan and needs to be stopped, but I think it would have worked a bit better if they'd made him come across as malevolent as his design.

Speaking of which, his design here is another inspired piece of work. He's much thinner here than he was previously, along the lines of Godzilla Raids Again, but unlike that film, it actually works and doesn't come off as awkward. He has fewer reptilian features than he did before (his head, as I'll get into, has a bit of a mammalian look to it), his tail is much longer, and, while his color is still very much a charcoal gray, there seems to be a slight touch of green in there as well. The most striking aspect of Godzilla's look here, though, is

his face, which is very menacing, especially when looked at straight on. The enormous brows above his eyes give him a very angry, frowning expression, and he also looks particularly malevolent when viewed in profile, like when he first appears at Kurata Beach. You may notice that his upper lip tends to wobble around a lot, which is due to an accident that resulted in the teeth getting knocked loose (when my step-cousin and I were kids, we rationalized the wobble by saying he had leftover baby fat). Unfortunately, they still make

use of a puppet for big close-ups of Godzilla's head, notably during his battle with Mothra and when he turns to blast the tanks after destroying the electrical towers, and like before, it doesn't quite fit with the suit's head, as it's much more reptilian in appearance and the eyebrows aren't as prominent; to be fair, though, this puppet does look better than those in the previous films. And in shots of Godzilla swimming to Iwa Island (which are done from the back) and when he falls into the ocean

after being cocooned by the larvae, they used the suit from King Kong vs. Godzilla, as they'd already decided they wanted to use the main suit for the next film and wanted to keep it from being damaged as much as possible (although, nevertheless, they would have to make some repairs to it). His atomic breath is still a very hot, radioactive vapor when you see it in close-ups but it's beginning to look more and more like a beam of energy in wide shots. Finally, his roar has now evolved into what many consider to be his official sound and, save for some minor tweaking, it would stick with him for the rest of the Showa series. 

In Mothra, the title character went on a deadly and destructive rampage to save the Shobijin, who described her as having no concept of right or wrong but rather, guided by the instinct to take them back to Infant Island. Here, though, Mothra is portrayed as not only being very intelligent but also possessing a type of divine morality and even a faculty for forgiveness. She could have easily gone on a rampage like she did before and take her egg with force but, instead, she seems to want peace just as much as her people. Not only does she go

along with their plan to peacefully take back the egg, she may have been the one who came up with the idea to begin with, seeing as how the Shobijin tell Sakai, Junko, and Prof. Miura that she's asking for their help as well. And when it becomes clear there's no peaceful way for them to reclaim the egg, she and the Shobijin simply head back to Infant Island without causing any destruction or going in and grabbing the egg. You could chalk that up to her being old and dying, as you eventually learn, but it feels like more like the behavior of an actual deity, rather than the single-minded, if still somewhat divine, creature she was originally. The same goes for how Mothra seems to chirp her agreement to Sakai's "brotherhood of man" speech before any of her people, including the Shobijin, makes her come off as both morally and spiritually superior to them all. That's especially true in how she agrees to help Japan, regardless of the fact she's dying and probably wouldn't be able to return to Infant Island even if she did manage to defeat Godzilla. While she does give Godzilla a run for his money, she's ultimately mortally wounded and uses her last bit of strength to shield her egg from him. (The notion of this sacrifice and that she's "resurrected" when her egg hatches has inspired some to ascribe Christian symbolism to Mothra, which isn't so far-fetched, as, in the original film, the ancient symbol related to her was in the shape of a cross and they used the sound of church bells to stop her rampage.) When the two larvae later hatch from the egg, they instantly know who their enemy is and follow Godzilla to Iwa Island, again displaying far more intelligence than their mother when she started out as a larva in the original Mothra. Although it takes a while, the two of them do manage to defeat Godzilla, cocooning him with their silk and sending him tumbling into the ocean before returning to Infant Island with the Shobijin.

It's amazing to watch the battle between Godzilla and Mothra with the knowledge that it's a man in a suit fighting a big marionette because, especially in Mothra's case, you'd swear you were actually watching two enormous creatures battling it out. Indeed, not only were they able to make Mothra's design look both insect-like and lovely, with the color patterns on her wings and body, and give her a massive scale that allows her to measure up to Godzilla (when the marionette is beside Haruo Nakajima in the Godzilla suit, you can tell it's

huge), they also create a true performance simply by maneuvering and swinging around the marionette. The grace and swiftness she demonstrates during the battle is impressive, as she banks, turns in midair, and very rapidly flaps her wings to create a windstorm that blows Godzilla around, without ever looking clunky. She doesn't have many actual weapons with which to fight but her agility, strength, and powerful winds still make this a surprisingly challenging battle for Godzilla. However, near the end of the fight, she

deploys a yellow powder that, despite supposedly being a type of poison, doesn't seem to affect Godzilla at all, and she has no defense against a direct hit from his atomic breath. Like in the original Mothra, her larvae are brought to life through people in suits and yet, they're able to make them come off as large, crawling caterpillars rather than humans on their hands and knees. (I've heard that Katsumi Tezuka is supposedly one of the larvae and, if so, then he again proved that, despite

what Nakajima always said, he was up to the challenge of suit-acting, in spite of his age.) Though unable to fly, the larvae are still very agile, able to dodge Godzilla's atomic breath with easier while spraying him with their strong silk. They retain the same vocalizations they had in the 1961 film: Mothra has a high-pitched screech that's very fitting for an enormous insect, while her larvae make these loud squeaks which fit them as well.

Ten years after their first attempt to make a kaiju movie, Eiji Tsuburaya and his crew had truly become masters of their craft, as the special effects work in Mothra vs. Godzilla really shine. The models and miniature sets look great, with the large miniature of Nagoya Castle and of Mothra's egg in the incubator being especially impressive (although, they model-makers ended up making the former sturdier than necessary, as Haruo Nakajma had a hard time destroying it), the model tanks and airplanes Godzilla battles look more convincing

than in previous films, Godzilla and Mothra themselves both look really good, the way they make the adult Mothra feel like a living creature in the way she flies and fights is very impressive and the same goes for her larvae, and there's some good matte work to be found here, such as in the wide shots where you see Mothra's egg with a crowd of people around it. They use some interesting tricks involving camera speed during Godzilla and Mothra's fight, where it seems like the action gets much faster than normal. For a long time, I thought

it was stop-motion but, upon closer inspection and doing some research, it seems like they just shot the action at a faster rate. It does look a little odd when compared to other sections that are shot at normal speed, and the switch between the two is a bit jarring but, on the other hand, it makes the action feel much more exciting that it already is and it also helps give Mothra a more convincing feel of an enormous but agile insect. 

But, overall, Tsuburaya and his crew are still having a little trouble with compositing and blue screen work in scenes where the monsters can be seen in the same shot as the normal actors and when the normal-sized characters interact with the Shobijin. It's much more well-done than the painfully dated and amateurish-looking optical work we saw in King Kong vs. Godzilla, mind you, as Tsuburaya had convinced Toho to buy an optical printer just prior to production, but the composited elements still look a little faded or blue when compared to

everything else around them and you can sometimes clearly see the matte lines, particularly in shots involving the main actors and the Shobijin. Plus, in some of the shots of the Shobijin running to Mothra's location on Infant Island, with the main characters following them, they almost look transparent, and you can also clearly see the transition from the optical effect back to the normal footage when the Shobijin leave the screen and the full-size characters come running in behind them. However, a good lesson

they learned from the original Mothra regarding the Shobijin is that, while they still use dolls as stand-ins for them in some shots here, they only film them from the back. If you've seen Mothra, you'd know how they often filmed those dolls from the front whenever someone picked them up and, even for that type of film, it looked faker than all get-out. There are also a number of shots where Godzilla is composited into the background with live-action elements like real building and

buildings in the foreground and, while some look better than others, none of them are all that great. In close-ups of Mothra during her fight with Godzilla, you can clearly see the strings holding up the marionette and, while it looks good in other parts of the movie, the use of the Godzilla puppet in some shots during the section of the fight where Mothra attacks his head makes that part look rather fake and laughable.

The first effects sequence in the film is at the very beginning, as we see the devastatingly powerful typhoon come in and all but decimate the resort at Kurata Beach. Eiji Tsuburaya always had a real knack for recreating nature's fury and this sequence is no exception, as this sequence looks as convincing as it can be. Chairs, tables, and a tent overhead get blown away, electric poles are snapped, a big stone awning gets blown down as if it were nothing, and gallons upon gallons of

seawater rush in, completely flooding the beach, with even a boat getting blown ashore, while another is smashed along the docks. In fact, the lead-up to this destruction sequence, which is the opening credits over the stormy, turbulent center of the ocean, is just as impressive and helps to get the film off to a very good start. Shortly after that, we get some well-done shots of Mothra's egg first appearing in Shizunoura Bay, with an overhead shot of the fishing boats making their way towards

it being especially impressive, and then, the egg has been run aground, as both Prof. Miura and Kumayama are introduced to Sakai and Junko. Later, when the Shobijin appear and introduce themselves to Sakai, Junko, and Miura, they explain to them how Mothra's egg was unearthed by the recent typhoon after being underground for many years. We get a quick flashback to the moment when that happened, as the shoreline of Infant Island cracks open from the force of the typhoon and the egg falls down into the roiling

ocean. The Shobijin also tells them that Mothra herself is there and when they look behind them through the treeline, they see her sitting in a clearing. She promptly gives a flap of her wings, causing a mild but still forceful gust that forces them to seek cover. Near the end of the first act, when their attempts to reason with Kumayama and Torahata have proved futile, the Shobijin depart for Infant Island with Mothra, with the three leads watching as Mothra flies off into the night sky.

The real fun, though, starts when Godzilla makes his first appearance a little over thirty minutes in, which is a doozy of a scene. Just as they're about to leave Kurata Beach after doing testing for radiation, Junko tells Sakai that she saw movement while trying to get a shot of the area. Sakai then looks through the long lens of her camera and, sure enough, a large section of the ground rises up and falls, with a geyser-like projection of vapor suddenly appearing in one spot. Miura points his

Geiger counter and he gets an extremely high reading of radioactivity. The movement settles down for a few seconds but then, Godzilla's tail bursts out of the ground and the onlookers begin to run in a panic, as he totally rises up out of the dirt. Everyone promptly evacuates as he turns and roars, shakes the dirt off himself, and begins moving across the countryside. Radio reports of his appearance are quickly circulated as he first heads for Yokkaichi, plodding through an oil field, with

his feet smashing through metal walkways and large piping on the ground, while his tail destroys a fuel tank and he blasts a large factory on the grounds with his atomic breath. A squadron of fire engines then heads out to try to contain the blaze and a large mass of civilians run for it, while Godzilla continues marching onward. The citizens of Nagoya are warned of his approach and the city streets become crowded with people trying to flee. Godzilla then enters the heart of the city and this is where he suddenly starts acting really clumsy,

almost as if he's drunk or half-asleep. First, he turns and gets his tail stuck in the base of a tower. After some struggling, he manages to yank it out but stumbles forward, while the tower falls down beside him and onto a building. Godzilla appears to get angry at this and tears at both the fallen tower and the building it's now lying on before moving on. As more people are evacuated, Godzilla approaches Nagoya Castle, when his foot slips off the side of the inlet around the castle and he tumbles right into it. Getting angry again, Godzilla tears at the castle until it falls apart and after doing so, he moves off into the countryside. 

Upon arriving on Infant Island and initially being rebuffed by the chief when they ask for help, Sakai, Junko, and Miura hear the Shobijin singing nearby and run to find them sitting by a small spring in the one patch of greenery on the island. While it tends to get on my nerves in some of the later movies, I think the Shobijin's singing in this film is really beautiful. This particular song, called the Sacred Spring, is very pleasing to the ear but, at the same time, has a very sad sound to it which is so

palpable that, even if you don't understand the words (which I don't), you can sense it has to do with the ruined nature of the island, especially when, after they get done singing, they tell the main characters the spring is the only thing that's sustaining the islanders. After that, when Mothra appears to chirp her consent to the speech that Sakai gives to the islanders and everyone follows the Shobijin to where she is, they then sing her main song to her, which they first sung in the original Mothra. Their singing it to her here is

likely meant as one last push to get her to help Japan, though I personally think she'd already made up her mind and didn't need any more convincing. Speaking of the song itself, it sounds okay here but I prefer the much bigger and more elaborate number it was in Mothra, as well as the way it sounds in later movies; mind you, I get why it's done in such a low-key manner for the scene. In any case, once that's done, the Shobijin tells the trio that Mothra will help them, but also that she's old and dying. They then mention that she'll reborn through her young when her egg hatches

Getting back to Japan, the military prepares to herd Godzilla into an area where they can use machines that conduct artificial lightning as a means to try to kill him. While they prepare the nearby area for the attack, (some of the shots of the equipment clearing away dirt is taken from the sequence in King Kong vs. Godzilla where they were preparing the huge pit, making this the first instance of reused stock footage in the series), a squadron of tanks follows Godzilla, as he marches across the

hills and repeatedly fire on and around him. Godzilla completely ignores this relentless attack, even when a couple of the shells hit him right in the head and other parts of his body, and continues walking forward. At the end of the sequence, though, he does turn around and look at the tanks as if saying, "You done?" While our main trio, as well as Nakamura, await Mothra's arrival near the incubator, we see the violent fallout between Kumayama and Torahata. After getting badly beaten in the face until he's all bloody, and getting

shoved back when he tries to stop Kumayama from taking the money in his cabinet, Torahata looks out the window and gasps when he sees Godzilla approaching. Pulling a pistol out of his desk drawer, he kills Kumayama with a shot to the head and starts gathering up his money, never mind the fact that he can hear Godzilla roar nearby. He reaches the hotel just as the guests and staff evacuate, with Torahata lagging behind. Before he can escape, Godzilla turns and smashes the hotel with his tail, causing the inside to collapse and crush Torahata beneath the rubble.

Godzilla then sets his sights on Mothra's egg as it sits in the incubator, clearly having some interest in it (I always assumed he wanted to eat it; maybe he could make an omelet with his atomic breath). He uses his tail to smash the glass until the egg is completely exposed and looks down at it menacingly. However, Mothra arrives and immediately catches his attention as she flies over him and then heads to the hilltop where Sakai, Junko, Miura, and Nakamura are watching. After she does, the Shobijin appear to the humans, while

Mothra comes back around at Godzilla. He approaches her, smashing through the large pipes connected to the incubator, only for her to use her wings to whip up a windstorm powerful enough to make it hard for him to keep his balance. The winds destroy the rest of the facility and Godzilla tries to hit Mothra with his atomic breath but misses due to being off-balance and is blown back, was what's left of the incubator flies off and the egg rolls away. After the egg comes to a stop beside a large rock, Mothra ends her windstorm

and flies in to attack Godzilla who, still interested in the egg, leans his body over it to keep Mothra away. He swipes at her with his claws, as well as tries to hit her with his atomic breath again, when she grabs the tip of his tail and actually drags him away! He desperately grabs at the ground for support but it's to no avail, and Mothra manages to drag him a great distance before finally letting go. He, again, tries to blast her but misses, as she flies around the back of his head, turns around, dodging another blast in the process, and then attacks his

head from behind. He swipes at her furiously and even tries to grab her, but can't turn around far or fast enough to get at her and eventually loses his footing and falls on his back in a large pit. Mothra begins emitting her poisonous yellow powder, and while it doesn't seem to do anything except enrage Godzilla, he's unable to get to his feet as she continues blowing it onto him, as he blasts his atomic breath here and there (there's a really good compositing shot here of the humans watching the

battle from a nearby hillside). Despite her weakened, dying state, it looks as if Mothra has Godzilla on the ropes, but then, she gets hit right in the face with a blast of atomic breath. While she's stunned from this, Godzilla seizes his chance and sits up and blasts her again, this time burning her right wing. Critically injured, Mothra flies over Godzilla and lands on a nearby hill, her wing still smoking. Seeing he's injured his opponent, Godzilla approaches Mothra, intending to finish

her off, but just as he's almost on top of her, she manages to take to the air again, sending him tumbling back into the pit. With her strength now completely spent and her injury compounding her weakened state, Mothra flies over and lands next to her egg, covering it with her left wing as her life gives out. Godzilla manages to get back to his feet but, instead of going after the egg again, simply walks away, probably satisfied enough with the knowledge that his opponent is dead.  

With Mothra dead, the military begins its operation to kill Godzilla, starting with what they call "Operation A." Soldiers drive their vehicles along a road that snakes around a mountain, then disembark and jump over the guardrail to reach their positions (that footage would be reused again and again in later films when they needed stock footage), as a squadron of tanks follows after Godzilla (it also suddenly becomes dark). Watching from his small command post, the general orders the First Airborne Squadron to join

in and then, on his command, both they and the tanks begin attacking Godzilla, while the soldiers from earlier fire cannons and mortars from the ground. Enormous explosions blast all around him but Godzilla doesn't react all that much to them and continues moving forward. At one point, two blasts occur right in front of him and set his head ablaze, an onset accident that looked so cool, they left it in (because his head was inside the suit's neck, Haruo Nakajima didn't even realize it had happened until someone told him about it!). With that, he turns

and walks right towards the towers that conduct the artificial lightning. Once he' in range, the general orders the generators switched on and Godzilla is zapped with the artificial lightning when he steps on some charges on the ground. Two towers zap him at the same time, with one hitting him across his chest, neck, and face, while the other hits him on the side. This does seem to hurt him somewhat, but it's not strong enough to keep him from marching up to the tower directly in front of him and pushing it over, destroying the current. With their first plan foiled, the military falls back to begin preparations for Operation B, while the tanks continue following Godzilla.

There's a short bit of business here where we see the Shobijin, as well as the natives on Infant Island, trying to get Mothra's egg to hatch. Standing near the egg, and as Sakai, Junko, and Miura watch from behind them, the Shobijin sing my personal favorite song in the film. Not only do I like the way Emi and Yumi Ito sing their part, I also like the addition of a short cutaway to Infant Island, where we see the islanders' performing a ritual ceremony of chanting and dancing to try to help get the egg to hatch as well. Not only is the song itself just beautiful to listen to, this juxtaposition makes the whole thing feel epic, that Japan's future is hanging in the balance over whether or not the egg will hatch.

Meanwhile, the military begins Operation B. As Godzilla enters another area containing towers that generate artificial lightning, he's surrounded by tanks and bombed from above by a plane until he's in the right position for the Second Airborne Squadron, this one a group of helicopters who drop a metal net on him. Once he's ensnared in it and struggles to remove it, he's blasted with artificial lightning from all sides. As he struggles against the attack, with the net conducting the electricity into him, two more nets are dropped on him, making

the electric charge all the more potent. After being repeatedly shocked zapped, Godzilla goes down, where the onslaught continues. It seems as though the military has him but, just to be sure, the general orders the power to be turned up higher. A soldier warns his superiors that the generators won't be able to take any more voltage but one of them, of course, doesn't listen and orders it turned up anyway. While this does manage to hurt Godzilla even more, the generators overload and blow out. Now that he's not being zapped, Godzilla manages

to get his head free of the nets and hits one of the towers point blank with his atomic breath, causing it to glow red hot and crumple on top of itself. Getting to his feet, he then turns his attention to the tanks that have been shadowing him this whole time and gives them a taste too, melting and setting them aflame. Now definitely beaten, the military retreats to Shizunoura, where the seaside village is being evacuated. In the midst of the chaos, a schoolteacher runs to the docks, where a ferry is

quickly being emptied of passengers. He realizes that another teacher, Ms. Kobayashi, is not among them and, realizing she's still on Iwa Island, where the boat just came from, asks the captain to take him out to the island. The captain refuses, as the boat would have no chance against Godzilla, and he and officer try to force the man off the boat. He then tells them that ten schoolchildren are on the island with Ms. Kobayashi, but at that moment, Godzilla looms over the mountain behind them, forcing them to flee. He then marches into the village, crushing some houses beneath his feet.

While he makes his way to Iwa Island, the Shobijin and the Infant Islanders continue the ritual to make the egg hatch. Now, it's beginning to have a magical effect, as the egg begins to glow, in conjunction with a similar effect of flashing colors and the sound of crashing thunder around an idol on the island. It all builds to a head as the Shobijin chant, "Mothra! Mothra! Mothra!", before the eggshell finally cracks open, accompanied by the same sound of thunder. A larva pokes its head out through the shell, which initially startles Junko and

causes her to recoil into Sakai. She then looks back and the three of them watch as the larva squeaks... only for a second larva to poke its head out behind its sibling. Nakamura then arrives on the scene and tells them of Godzilla's advancement on Iwa Island and the students and teacher who are trapped on the island. On the island, Ms. Kobayashi tries to lead the kids to safety, as Godzilla can be heard approaching, while the protagonists arrive in the village and dig the professor out from underneath some wreckage he got caught under when Godzilla

plowed through the village. Even in his injured state, he's thinking only of the children, pointing at the island and yelling that they need to be saved. As Ms. Kobayashi leads the children up a hillside, back in the village, they see that the two Mothra larvae are following Godzilla to the island. Sakai then comes up with the idea to go to the other side of the island and save the children and Ms. Kobayashi while Godzilla has his hands full with the larvae. With help from the ferry captain from before, they put their rescue plan into motion.

Godzilla arrives on the island (which is the exact same coastline as the fishing village), with the larvae not too far behind. He does notice them, but just roars and turns around, heading farther inland, as the larvae come ashore. Walking through the small village on the island, he turns around when he's past the outskirts and sees the larvae are still following him. He proceeds to set a big section of huts on fire with his atomic breath to keep them from getting to him, then turns back around and continues walking, not realizing that the larvae

easily manage to get around the fire. One continues following right behind him, while the other heads off to the left in order to cut him off up ahead. After walking a little farther, Godzilla stops and scans his surroundings, while elsewhere, Ms. Kobayashi and the children take shelter inside a large cave on the coastline, and the ferry makes its way around to the island's rear side. The larva that followed Godzilla watches his thrashing tail, waiting for the opportunity to attack, while the

other crawls into one of the many openings and tunnels that can be found within the island's rocky landscape, preparing for her own attack. Finally, Godzilla unknowingly puts the tip of his tail right in front of the caterpillar behind him and she bites it. Roaring in both pain and frustration, he flings his tail and the attached caterpillar around like mad, trying to throw her off. Maneuvering himself around while thrashing his tail, he manages to knock the larva off by slamming the lower part of her body down very roughly. He continues whacking her with his tail while she flings herself back and forth on the ground, as though trying to bite him again. The sound of this frightens the children nearby.

Seeing that her sibling's in trouble, the other Mothra larva sticks her head out of the tunnel she's hiding in and sprays Godzilla right in the face with her silk. She continues spraying him as he swings at the silk and then forces her to retreat back into the tunnel with a blast of his atomic breath. With his face and spines covered in silk, Godzilla heads for higher ground and both larvae follow him to get in position to attack together. They take turns spraying him with silk, covering his arms and chest, as he futilely tries to block it. When one of

the larvae crawls over to another position and begins spraying him again, he fires at her but she ducks behind a rock and resumes spraying with her sister. They continue covering Godzilla until his hands end up fused together, along with a good portion of his upper body covered. He shoots his atomic breath again but only manages to melt a large rock, and when that doesn't work, he begins kicking rocks furiously, trying to hit them. Meanwhile, the main characters manage to save the kids and teacher and get them onboard the boat.

Godzilla continues kicking rocks like crazy, as well as blindly firing his atomic breath, only managing to melt another large stone in the process. He almost gets one of the larvae with another blast and the other has to dodge some rocks that are flung at her when his tail smashes a large pile but, after they each dodge, they go back to spraying. By this point, the silk on Godzilla is so thick that it's like he's wearing a straight-jacket, and since he's unable to see because his eyes are covered, he's just

swinging around and kicking rocks with either his feet or his tail, desperately trying to score a hit. He loses his balance and falls on his back, destroying everything around him as he struggles to get free, which the caterpillars remedy by continuing to spray him. Eventually, he rolls off down the side of the island and plunges into the water below (if look closely at the silk-covered head, you can tell it's the suit from King Kong vs. Godzilla being used), as both of the larvae squeak victoriously And with that, the children and their teacher are returned to the village, while the Shobijin head back home to Infant Island with Mothra's young, as the main cast says and waves goodbye to them.

Just like Ishiro Honda, composer Akira Ifukube brought his A-game to Mothra vs. Godzilla, creating one of his best scores for the series and many of his most well-known themes and motifs. The film opens on a tense, thrilling lead-up to the main title piece, which is where we first hear the now fully-realized Godzilla theme that everyone knows, after King Kong vs. Godzilla almost had it but not quite. The loud, hard-hitting brass notes perfectly make Godzilla feel like a menacing force of destruction, and are put to good use when he first bursts out of the ground at Kurata Beach, as well as whenever you first see him when he's on the attack. You hear two versions of the follow-up to the main part of the theme: one, which you first hear when he's marching through the Yokkaichi oil field, has a very slow and somber sound to it, likely meant to reflect the damage he's causing and innocent lives he's endangering, whereas the other, which plays during the opening credits is much faster-paced, more exciting, and thrilling. There are some moments where this latter follow-up leads into a very loud and harsh, "dom, dom, dom," sound, most notably when Godzilla is destroying the incubator containing Mothra's egg. Speaking of which, music that corresponds with Mothra is mainly different instrumental versions of the songs the Shobijin sing. most notably the one you hear when they and the Infant Islanders are trying to rouse the egg into hatching. This motif for Mothra is often re-orchestrated to fit many different moods: loud and very threatening, like when the main characters see her for the first time; mystical and powerful, during her and Godzilla's battle and the final battle between him and her larvae; out and out beautiful, when she and the Shobijin leave Japan after failing to get the egg back; and sad when she's fatally injured by Godzilla and dies after flying over to and covering her egg with her wing.

The Shobijin themselves have a theme which you hear when they first appear, which is a soft, twinkling, magical bit of music that fits well with their tiny, fairy-like nature. When they first appear to Sakai, Junko, and Prof. Miura, this theme is followed up with a small, delicate instrumental version of the Sacred Spring. Mothra's egg itself has an awesomely atmospheric and mysterious theme when it first appears floating in the ocean and when it's being hauled ashore, and just like Mothra's own theme, it's given different sounds throughout the story. It's made to sound very bombastic when we see how the egg was washed into the sea during the typhoon, and then somewhat forlorn and abandoned when we see it sitting by itself at the complex after Godzilla first appears. You hear another mysterious piece of music, one that's more threatening, when Miura analyzes the scale that Sakai and Junko found and discovers it's highly radioactive. When the main characters go to Infant Island, you hear an empty, forlorn theme created by horns that fits well with the shots of the desolated, barren landscape of the island. And, going back to the Sacred Spring one last time, a very beautiful, instrumental version of it is heard at the very end of the movie, when Godzilla has been defeated and the Shobijin are returning home with the Mothra larvae. It's initially nice and soft as Sakai tells Nakamura that the only way to thank them for what they've done is to make a better world, one without distrust, and as they wave and yell goodbye to them, the last notes of the music swell into a wonderful, sweeping finale that still gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it. It not only makes you feel good, it also makes you hope that the world Sakai is talking about will come to pass, not just in the reality of these films but in our own as well.

In stark contrast to the long gaps between the Japanese and American releases of the first three Godzilla movies, Mothra vs. Godzilla was released in America, under the title Godzilla vs. The Thing, in September of 1964, just five months after its release in Japan. American International Pictures distributed it and, while their version was certainly the first American release of one of these films to be extremely faithful to the original Japanese version, the same can't be said of their marketing campaign. In addition to the title change, the trailers and posters didn't show Mothra at all (although the egg was shown in the former), instead opting to build some suspense around whatever it was Godzilla would be battling in this film. The various posters showed Godzilla either tangling with an enormous question mark or with some tentacled creature whose full appearance was censored because it was deemed, "too horrific." Such an advertising campaign was typical of the times, especially from a company like AIP, but you still have to wonder how audiences reacted when they went to see the film and learned that "the thing" was nothing more than Mothra (whom the characters in this version, including the Shobijin, constantly refer to her as). I also used to wonder if AIP felt that Mothra's presence wouldn't mean much to American audiences, even though they were certainly aware of her, since Columbia Pictures had released Mothra in America in 1962 (although, I'm not sure how well it did over here, as I can't find that information; notably, they also downplayed her identity in their own marketing). However, according to Steve Ryfle on his and Ed Godziszewski's audio commentary, the heads at AIP simply thought they could get more publicity and money if they made the identity of Godzilla's opponent a mystery, and given how well-known AIP's penchant for exploitation was, I see no reason to doubt him.

And now, let's have a little lesson on the various titles this film has had since its original American release. When it was released on VHS, the title was changed to Godzilla vs. Mothra, which stuck with it for the rest of its run on video and when it was first released on DVD. As a result, when 1992's Godzilla vs. Mothra was released over here, they had to change that film's title to Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth in order to avoid confusion with the earlier one. I saw the original American theatrical trailer, with the Godzilla vs. The Thing title, on the Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies compilation I've mentioned many times on here, and even though it never showed Mothra herself, I recognized her egg, as well as some of the clips, and realized this was actually Godzilla vs. Mothra. I was proven to be right when I got the Godzilla Compendium, as well as learned that Mothra vs. Godzilla was the Japanese title, a switch-around that surprised me when I first saw it. In any case, since Godzilla vs. Mothra was the title both the VHS and the actual movie went by, I continued to call it that up until the 2007 Classic Media DVD, which featured both the Japanese version and the English version, now called Godzilla vs. The Thing once again. Now, I typically call it Mothra vs. Godzilla but, when I'm talking to those who aren't as privy to the many alternate titles, I typically say Godzilla vs. Mothra to avoid confusion since that's what they usually know it as (that is, until they find out about the 1992 film, which opens up a whole other can of worms and I now have to explain that to them!).

While not 100% perfect, as some of it can still be a little over the top and silly, the dubbing for the film is still amongst the best in the series. The voices fit the characters well, especially those for Sakai and Junko (the one for Prof. Miura I'm not exactly crazy about, as it comes off as kind of stiff, but it still works for the most part), the original dialogue is translated well and in some cases, such as in Sakai's "brotherhood of man" speech, is improved upon, and the actors doing the dub actually try to make their voices sound Asian, adding just a little extra bit of authenticity. Fans of Speed Racer likely know that Peter Fernandez, who voiced both Speed

and Racer X, does a little bit of dubbing here and his voice would be heard in several more AIP-released Godzilla films down the line. The only major complaint I have about the dubbing is how they constantly call Mothra "the Thing," even after she's revealed to be Godzilla's foe and not whatever tentacled monstrosity they'd hinted at in the American publicity. I guess they felt they had to call her the Thing given what they'd titled the movie, and it's not a deal-breaker, regardless, but I do find it weird for the characters, including the Shobijin, to continually call her that.

Content-wise, not much was lost in translation. There are some minor trims, including a moment where Kumayama and Torahata realize they didn't catch the Shobijin in their hotel room when they thought they did (here, they just have Kumayama jump to try to cover them with a coat and then say he can't find them), some shots of Sakai's newspaper articles at a vendor and Kumayama proudly announcing the upcoming opening of the exhibit of Mothra's egg, a little bit of the Sacred

Spring song, and Kumayama's onscreen death, but that's about it. Also, in stark contrast to King Kong vs. Godzilla, Akira Ifukube's score was completely retained, as were the Shobijin's songs, as it would be in the English versions of the movies featuring them. The only change I don't like is at the end, where they completely remove Sakai's assertion that the best way to thank the Shobijin for their help would be by creating a world without mistrust; instead, they cut from the characters

seeing them returning home with Mothra's larvae straight to them simply waving goodbye. It's still a nice ending and all, and you get to hear the great, final piece of music either way, but, nevertheless, as much as I liked it when I was a kid, it did feel abrupt and somewhat truncated. When I finally saw the original Japanese version when I was 19, not only were my suspicions confirmed but I also wondered, "Why didn't they just keep that material in and dub it?" I know the speech Sakai made on Infant Island in this version wasn't exactly what was said in the original but still, if they could write that, then I think they could've had Sakai say something just as impactful and meaningful to close the movie out.

Like the previous films, Godzilla vs. The Thing does feature some added material, but what makes it stand out is that, rather than being shot after the fact, it was scripted by Shinichi Sekizawa, filmed during actual production in Japan, and features special effects created by Eiji Tsuburaya and his crew. Moreover, it's the only instance of an American version having exclusive material involving Godzilla himself, although whether it was supposed to be in the Japanese version but was cut or was always meant to be exclusive to the American version is up to debate, as different sources give different answers. The scene is really

just a typical Godzilla/armed forces battle sequence: after the sequence in Nagoya, the American Navy takes a shot at Godzilla with their newly developed "Frontier Missiles." It doesn't add anything to the plot but, nevertheless, it is very interesting to see the Americans taking Godzilla, if for just a few minutes. They don't really hurt him as they repeatedly fire on him with these Frontier Missiles, which are supposed to be really powerful, as he walks along a beach, but they do manage to temporarily knock him down. And yet, even though the missiles didn't kill Godzilla, the American Navy doesn't do anything else to aid Japan after this scene, as if they decided, "Well, we tried. You guys are on your own now." (That's our boys. America, fuck yeah!) All joking aside, though, this sequence is a fun addition and, to my knowledge, this version is still not available in Japan. 

(Unfortunately, it seems like Godzilla vs. The Thing is now in danger of going out of circulation like all of the other AIP versions of these movies, as it was not included in the Criterion Collection Showa era Blu-Ray set, likely due to all the complex rights issues that surround those versions. So, for now, you better hold onto that Classic Media release.)

Whether it's the Japanese Mothra vs. Godzilla or the American Godzilla vs. The Thing, this film is a true high point of the series. Both Ishiro Honda's direction and the Shinichi Sekizawa's screenwriting are solid, the acting is great all-around and the characters likable, the pace is really good, the themes and allegory are well explored, the special effects work is among the best of the early Showa era, the monsters look great, and the score is definitely one of Akira Ifukube's best pieces of work. In addition, despite some hiccups here and there, the American version is very respectful to the original, keeping all of the important material, the great music, and songs, putting in some exceptionally good dubbing, and even adding in an interesting sequence of its own involving Godzilla. It's small wonder why this is often considered the best film in the series outside of the original; it's definitely one of my favorites, as you can probably tell. So, if you're thinking of getting into Godzilla but don't know where to start, this is most certainly one to go for, as it's just exquisite and a shining example of not just the Godzilla franchise but the kaiju genre in general.