When I finally did watch it, one of the things that struck me was the depiction of Mothra herself, the Shobijin, and the civilization on Infant Island, which are all much different than they usually are in the Godzilla films. For that matter, it didn't have much of the music I've always associated with Mothra, and I found out that's because Akira Ifukube, who came up with that music, didn't score this first film. Another thing that also surprised me was the length of the movie: 100 minutes in the Japanese version and 90 minutes in the American version, which is unusually long for a kaiju movie during this time. Overall, I think it's a fine movie, with likable and memorable characters, nice effects work, good direction, it's definitely nice to look at, with its lush, color photography, and it's another significant film, in that it set the stage for the direction the kaiju genre would take during the 60's. But, that said, it's still not an absolute favorite of mine, as I don't find the effects sequences with Mothra to be as exciting and thrilling as those in other films and, due to its length, I feel it drags at points.
The Genyo-Maru is caught up in a powerful typhoon that's heading for the Japanese mainland and they find that it's blowing them towards Infant Island, the site of many atomic tests. Despite the danger of radiation poisoning, the crew is forced to abandon ship when it runs aground and then sinks. Once the storm passes, a rescue party is dispatched and four survivors are found. After being taken back to Japan, they're examined and it's discovered that they've suffered no contamination whatsoever. Despite the authorities' attempt to keep it away from the press, determined reporter Zen "Snapping Turtle" Fukuda and his photographer, Michi Hanamura, of the Nitto Press manage to sneak into the hospital where the survivors are being examined. When asked how they think they survived the radiation, the survivors suggest that it was due to a red juice given to them by "the natives," a statement that surprises Fukuda, as Infant Island is supposed to be uninhabited. Rolisica, the nation who conducted the atomic tests, announces a joint expedition with the Japanese to investigate the island, an expedition made up of radiation specialist Dr. Harada, anthropologist and linguist Prof. Chujo, and the mysterious Clark Nelson, the leader of the expedition, who refuses to allow the press to come along. Fukuda, however, manages to stow away, only to be found by Nelson, who threatens him with a gun. Nelson is convinced to allow him to stay, as long as he acts as a cabin boy and nothing more. Reaching Infant Island, they find that, in stark contrast to the barren shoreline, the interior is a lush, tropical jungle, albeit one containing some bizarre plants, including a vampiric one that ensnares Chujo. However, he's saved by the intervention of a pair of native girls who are a mere twelve inches tall. Though the team is initially incredulous of his claim, Chujo is vindicated when they find the girls, whom Fukuda dubs the "Shobijin" or "tiny beauties," the next day. Nelson attempts to take them but, when a hostile native tribe appears, he lets them go. The expedition returns to Japan and keeps what they found secret, as the Shobijin wished for their island to be left alone. However, the greedy and immoral Nelson returns to the island and this time succeeds in abducting the Shobijin, his men killing a number of the natives in the process. He proceeds to exhibit the Shobijin in a show in Tokyo, much to the disgust of those who were part of the expedition. When they get a chance to speak with them, the Shobijin tell Chujo, Fukuda, and Hanamura that they will return home soon enough, when Mothra comes for them. But, they add that their monster god's appearance will cause Japan to suffer a great misfortune. Soon, Mothra hatches from her egg on the island, makes her way to Japan, and will not end her destructive rampage until she finds the Shobijin.
A number of Toho regulars fill out the incidental characters: Kenji Sahara appears at the beginning as a helicopter pilot searching Infant Island for any survivors of the shipwreck, while Akihiko Hirata appears briefly as a doctor working with Harada in examining the survivors, and Yoshifumi Tajima plays a military official who joins the story when Mothra makes it to Japan and enters Tokyo. In addition, one of the shipwreck survivors, the one who mentions the natives and the special juice, is played by Ren Yamamoto, a bit player who, most notably, appeared in Godzilla as Masaji, another shipwreck survivor (he fares better here; in that movie, he's ultimately killed during Godzilla's first rampage on Odo Island during a storm). A couple of Caucasian actors familiar to fans can also be seen here. The Rolisica ambassador who gives a statement at the beginning about how they thoroughly Infant Island before conducting their atomic tests and later agrees to let the Japanese user their atomic heat ray cannons to destroy Mothra's cocoon is played by Harold Conway, who appeared in a few tokasatsu films like The Mysterians, Battle in Outer Space, King Kong vs. Godzilla, and an added scene in Godzilla vs. The Thing, the American version of Mothra vs. Godzilla. Even more notably, a Rolisican official (IMDB lists him as a police captain but that's never made clear in the actual film) who appears during the climax in New Kirk City, and is the one who sees to it that all of the city's church bells ring at a given time, per Chujo's instructions, is played Robert Dunham, who would go on to play the ruler of Seatopia in Godzilla vs. Megalon.
Mothra marks a significant turning point in the kaiju genre in that it was when it began shifting away from the dark, dead-serious nature of previous films like Godzilla and Rodan and instead, would go on a more light-hearted, sometimes downright whimsical, path. While people still die in this film, either from being shot or as a result of Mothra's rampage, their deaths are not graphically dwelt upon like before, and the film also isn't heavy-handed at all, despite dealing with the familiar themes of atomic testing and Japan's relationship with other countries. This new approach can be traced to the film's screenwriter, Shinichi Sekizawa, whose approach would have a major impact on where tokasatsu films, especially those produced by Toho, would go during the Showa period. Sekizawa had worked on science fiction films before, like Varan the Unbelievable and Battle in Outer Space, but Mothra was where he really began exerting his approach to writing these types of films, which was an emphasis on pure entertainment, with some satire thrown in. He also felt that too much story detail would bore audiences and that you should put in just enough to keep the story moving. The original story treatment for Mothra, which was done by three writers, went into great detail about the civilization of Infant Island, was more overt in its political overtones, had four Shobijin instead of just two, and there was a subplot with one of the girls becoming enamored with one of the protagonists, all of which Sekizawa either paired down or eliminated. But perhaps Sekizawa's most significant contribution to the genre is that he strove to make the monsters themselves characters and, usually, sympathetic, with the human villains being much more loathsome. That is definitely true here, as Nelson is more monstrous than Mothra, whose motives are clear and whose destructive rampage is merely a result of his greed; Sekizawa would continue to make the monsters defined characters throughout his career, starting with the following year's King Kong vs. Godzilla (he would become the Godzilla franchise's main writer, writing the stories and final screenplays for ten of them up until his retirement in 1974).
One very noteworthy aspect of Mothra is the fictional country of Rolisica, where the villain hails from, as there's no secret to what country it's meant to be a stand-in for. Think about it: it's a country of Caucasians, which is depicted as being very capitalistic in nature, has conducted nuclear bomb tests, and whose largest city is named "New Kirk." Yeah, they made up a new name because they were afraid of alienating potential foreign distributors, but there's no doubt that this is supposed to be the United States. In fact, it's actually meant to be a combination of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, which you can tell if you look at the flag behind the Rolisican ambassador in an early scene (note how it incorporates both the American stars and stripes and the Russian hammer and sickle). Also, the name "Rolisica" is meant to be a combination of America and Russia. In any case, looking at the film, it's clear why they made it into a fictional country, as Rolisica isn't depicted in the best light. Not only do they let a greedy and self-centered man like Nelson head the expedition to Infant Island, which they conducted atomic tests on, but they continuously support him, even after he abducts the Shobijin and forces them to perform in a show in Japan. Mothra's initial appearance and destruction of an ocean liner does nothing to dissuade them from supporting the rights of one of their citizens abroad and it's only when more severe death and destruction occur that the Rolisican government turns against Nelson, ordering him to release the Shobijin before they then offer to aid Japan in destroying Mothra with their atomic heat ray cannon. And when Mothra emerges from her cocoon as an adult and heads to Rolisica, endangering New Kirk City, everyone is firmly against Nelson, with a warrant out for his arrest. In addition, following the shipwreck survivors saying that they were saved from radiation sickness by natives, the Rolisican ambassador insists that they made sure that the island was uninhabited before they conducted their atomic tests. However, this comes off as a little fishy, given the number of natives and the size of their temple, as they either must not have looked very hard or they simply said the island was uninhabited so as not to interfere with the tests.
Their conflicts aside, by the end of the movie, the cooperation of the Japanese and the Rolisicans are what ultimately stop Mothra's rampage, a concept of mutual understanding among people that the deeply pacifistic Ishiro Honda often put in his films. However, the way in which they stop Mothra is not through defeat on her part; in fact, they stop fighting her altogether and simply give her what she wanted to begin with. How do they calm her down enough to where they can safely reunite her with the Shobijin? Through surprisingly religious means. During the climax in New Kirk City, Prof. Chujo discovers that the symbol that represents Mothra in the ancient writing he found on Infant Island is similar to a church's cross in a halo of light and it gives him the idea to attract Mothra to an airfield by painting an enormous version of the symbol at the nearby airfield. Moreover, when Michi comments that the sound of the city's ringing church bells is similar to the Shobijin's song for Mothra, they arrange for them all to be rung at 3:00 in order to further ensure that she comes. They manage to resolve the problem by, instead of treating Mothra like an evil, destructive monster, simply treating her with the respect a deity deserves and righting the wrong that was made against her and her people by Clark Nelson. This also fits into Honda's want for international cooperation and peace, only now, it's on a universal and spiritual level. The Shobijin and the islanders prayed for their god to help them and, right before Chujo comes up with the idea to stop Mothra, one of a pair of priests standing nearby says, "Now, we must rely on God's will," and they begin to pray, the other saying, "Father, have mercy on us." The church bells then start ringing, which gets the attention of Chujo and the others, leading to the inspired plan. The iconography of two very different religions come together to finally resolve a great conflict, as if their respective higher powers are in agreement. For someone who, in the area I live in, sees firsthand how the practitioners of some faiths have no respect whatsoever for the faiths of others, to the point where they think they're superior, it's nice to see something like this.
The subject of the effects of atomic testing is present here, although it's much less prevalent than in past kaiju films and, by the second act, it's all but forgotten. The opening, with the crew of the Genyo-Maru having to decide between either braving the fury of the typhoon or seeking shelter on an island that's contaminated with radiation, is another take on the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident that inspired the opening of Godzilla, and when four men are found alive and well, claiming they were saved by some natives who weren't supposed to be there, an investigation is launched to discover how both the survivors and any natives could possibly survive on the island. Though Chujo does give a rushed explanation as to where the juice that protects anyone who drinks it from radiation is derived, it's dropped as soon as he, and, by extension, Nelson, become interested in the Shobijin, the matter is dropped altogether. The notion of atomic power only comes up again when Rolisica agrees to use their heat ray cannon to burn Mothra's cocoon but nothing more is made about it. I'm sure this disappointed Ishiro Honda, who said the film's fantastical elements were more Shinichi Sekizawa's thing than his own and that he wanted to go into more detail about how the Infant Islanders survived the radiation but time and money wouldn't allow it.
Having seen all of the other incarnations of Mothra that have made over the decades before finally getting to this original film, one thing that struck me is how different she and everything associated with her is portrayed. While Toho's kaiju and tokasatsu films can be considered an early example of a shared cinematic universe, you have to keep in mind that there was no thought of any kind of crossover when films like this, Rodan, Varan the Unbelievable, Atragon (which introduced the creature Manda, which later appeared in Destroy All Monsters), and others were originally made. The idea only came about when the enormous success of King Kong vs. Godzilla proved Godzilla's viability as a creature worth building a franchise and even then, continuity was never exactly a top priority of the Showa era filmmakers. Therefore, when looking at this film in context with Mothra's portrayals in the first series of Godzilla films, particularly her introduction into it in Mothra vs. Godzilla, things don't quite line up. First, there's the depiction of Infant Island and its inhabitants. While Mothra vs. Godzilla does mention the atomic tests that were conducted there, in that film, the island is completely barren, save for one little spot, whereas in this film, it seems barren around the shoreline, but the expedition party discovers a very lush jungle in the center of it, one that contains some plants that actually suck blood. You could make the argument that, by the time we get to Mothra vs. Godzilla, the effect of the atomic tests has almost completely destroyed the island's greenery, but that doesn't explain what became of the cave containing the bizarre fungus that Chujo theorizes is the source of the juice that the natives drink to keep from becoming ill from the radiation. In fact, in that later movie, it's made clear that the natives are really suffering from the contamination. Speaking of the natives, while they are primitive in that movie, here they look almost feral and are kind of threatening when they come to the Shobijin's aid, moving in on the team members and repeatedly pounding their instruments as they do so. They also don't speak, save for when they pray to Mothra, with those scenes being more in line with how they're portrayed in later movies. The same goes for the area where they do their praying and dancing, as it's similar to what's seen later, particularly in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.
And then, there's Mothra herself. While still very much a deity to the people of Infant Island and a sympathetic monster, whose motives are understandable, she's portrayed as more single-minded and indifferent towards the suffering she's causing for others while on her quest to retrieve the Shobijin. In other movies, she's portrayed as a very wise and understanding creature, one who is able to communicate with her people in her own way, as well as have complex discussions with other monsters, like when she tries to convince Godzilla and Rodan to help her defeat King Ghidorah in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and, in the 1992 film, Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth, where she becomes friends her former enemy, Battra, and promises to fulfill his mission if anything happens to him. And while that latter film does make her an antagonist for the better part of the second act (for the very same reason as it is here), she's still an intelligent creature who, once the Cosmos, as that incarnation of the Shobijin are called, tell her that they're okay and that she needn't cause any more destruction, immediately stops her rampage and is about to leave peacefully, when things suddenly go south for her. But, in this film, Mothra is driven by the instinct to rescue the Shobijin, finding where they are through her telepathic link with them, and they say that they can't do anything to stop her, as she wouldn't understand. You could chalk this up to her having just hatched and being in her young, caterpillar stage for the entire second act, but even when she emerges from her cocoon as a giant moth, she's still on a blind, one-track rampage when she follows them to Rolisica. As she flies over New Kirk City, using the powerful winds from her wings to cause even more destruction, she's whipped up in such a rage that, even when our main trio finally retrieves the Shobijin, they can't simply present them to her for fear that she'll come right at them. It's only when they draw her symbol on the airport runway and have the church bells ring in the tune of the Shobijin's song that she calms down enough to where they can safely give them over to her.
Several different techniques were used to bring Mothra to life, with her caterpillar form making use of a couple. In big, long shots of the caterpillar crawling through the miniature sets, they used a four-foot long mechanical prop, whereas the close-ups of the destruction she causes were achieved through a massive suit that was nearly forty-feet long and required seven people in total in order to make it move (the man at the head of the costume was the ever reliable Haruo Nakajima). Despite its wormy quality, this first iteration of Mothra's larval form is more pleasant to look at than later versions (the larvae in Mothra vs. Godzilla and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster are downright ugly), with a more appealing face. But, while she does cause a lot of destruction, she's pretty helpless against the military's more powerful weapons, which overwhelm her when she reaches Tokyo Tower. The only true offense she has, aside from her sheer mass, is the silk she sprays, which is shown to be strong enough to down a helicopter, but that happens unintentionally while she's making her cocoon. Her adult form, however, is something else altogether. First off, I think it goes without saying that the full-blown Mothra is quite a lovely kaiju, with her bright coloration, brilliant wings, and sense of delicacy to her. However, she proves herself to not be as fragile as she seems, as the winds her wings generate wreak absolute havoc on New Kirk City, sending vehicles and other projectiles flying, and she also manages to topple a building as well as the city's bridge. And the military's assault on her proves totally useless, as she doesn't react to their firepower at all. Mothra is often derided as being weak and easy to take down (if you've played that first Godzilla game on the NES, where you have a choice between the two of them, you know that if you pick Mothra, you don't stand a chance), so it was interesting for me to see how much of a legitimate threat she is in this first film and it makes me wish they'd kept her this powerful in her subsequent appearances. As always, she's portrayed by a marionette in her adult form and it's done very effectively, making her come off like a living creature as she flies around, gracefully flapping her wings and moving around very agilely. They managed to give her both a sense of lovely femininity and destructive power, which is not easy to do. And her familiar sound effects, both her high-pitched, insect-like squeals and the mystical, whirring sound she makes when she flies, do originate from this film.
Mothra was larger in scope than any tokasatsu film Toho had produced at that point but Eiji Tsuburaya and his team more than rose to the challenge and did some work that it is amazing even by today's standards. There are some great instances of miniature work sprinkled throughout the first half of the film, like the Genyo-Maru getting caught up in the typhoon and running aground on Infant Island (though, the dark lighting and wind-blown rain obscures it), Mothra's destruction of an ocean liner while on her way to Japan, Mothra being napalmed in the ocean, and her destroying the Okumura Dam when she finally reaches the mainland, creating a massive wave that takes out a bridge, but all of it feels like dress rehearsal once she finally reaches Tokyo. The miniature sets used in these latter parts of the film have to have been among the most spectacular Tsuburaya ever created, as they replicate huge expanses of the countryside near Tokyo and the city itself. When Mothra is making her way towards the city and when she's moving through it, there are several overhead, panning shots of the sets, complete with moving cars on the roads as well as well-detailed and placed buildings and fake shrubbery, and said buildings look great when she plows through them. The same also goes for the military vehicles and the destruction they unintentionally cause when firing at Mothra in the heart of the city. The crowning jewel of the miniature Tokyo set is the recreation of the Minato Ward, where Tokyo Tower is. That set is so well-made that, in shots where you see a helicopter flying with it in the background, it's impossible to tell if what you're seeing is a model helicopter filmed in front of the miniature set or if it's in front of a blue screen with footage of the actual place. And you need only look at the shots where the Mothra puppet is in front of the Tokyo Tower model to see how big that thing is.
Originally, the film's ending was much smaller in size, with Mothra chasing Nelson into the mountains and eventually causing him to fall to his death in a volcano. However, Columbia Pictures, who were already slated to distribute the film in America, wanted a much bigger ending and offered to pick up the cost for it. And with that, the actual finale in New Kirk City was filmed. The miniature set for the city was just as, if not more, impressive as those made for Mothra's rampage in Japan. It's so huge, with a big bridge that's filled with moving vehicles, boats in its harbor, long shots of the inner city streets, and big wide expanses of the shoreline, with activity in the foreground, that it does look like a real city in a number of shots and I wouldn't be surprised if Tsuburaya was inspired by some of the city shots in Fritz Lang's Metropolis, as there are some similarities. Of course, miniature cities are made to be demolished, and when Mothra lets loose her fury onto it, whipping up powerful winds that send objects as big as vehicles flying through the air, crumbling buildings and the bridge, and causing huge waves in the bay, it's great stuff all-around. Granted, the miniatures don't always look 100% realistic but they look well enough in conjuction with those that do look real, such as those shots of a store front as debris rains down in front of it and a car smashing through a window, that you can very easily suspend your disbelief.
The optical effects in Mothra are also quite well-done; in fact, I would say that they're some of the best ever seen in a kaiju movie of this period. There are some really good matte paintings, like that of the lush jungle at the center of Infant Island and in the wide shots of the island itself, and, most of the time, the compositing of live-action and miniature elements, like the interior shot of the crew when Mothra attacks the ocean liner, the superimposition of real actors with the effects of Mothra's attack on the Okumura Dam (when Fukuda runs to save the baby that's been left behind on a bridge being threatened by huge rapids, the compositing of Frankie Sakai with those elements looks especially good and the blend is helped by the dark photography of the scene), and of foreground extras during her rampage towards and through Tokyo, as well as when she lands at the New Kirk City airport, all look really good. There are some slightly wonky bits of compositing during the evacuation scenes, as well as in some of the shots of real actors matted in with the miniature vehicles, Mothra's cocoon placed behind some foreground elements of the actual city while she's emerging from it (your eye is naturally drawn to look at the larger parts of those latter shots, though, so you're unlikely to see how uneven the melding is unless you're looking for it), and some moments during the finale at New Kirk, but they're all much better-looking than similar effects you'd see in other movies; King Kong vs. Godzilla, for instance, is full of blue screen and matting effects that look much worse than anything here. And there's also some nice instances of animation used for distant shots of Mothra flying and when the atomic heat ray cannons fire on her cocoon. Those devices are most definitely a prototype for the maser cannon, which would first feature in The War of the Gargantuas, would pop up in some of the later Godzilla movies, both through stock footage and new material, and would even be update for the Heisei and Millennium series of movies.
As if Tsuburaya's team didn't already have their hands full with the effects centered around Mothra, they also had to make Emi and Yumi Ito into the foot-tall Shobijin. They accomplished this typically through one of two methods: shots of just the girls themselves were done on sets that were built to be much larger than normal and, when they had to be in the same shot as the live-action actors, they were filmed in front of a blue screen. While they had Ishiro Honda directing them, they never interacted with the actual actors; in an interview, Hiroshi Koizumi said that they used little dolls to show him the eye-lines and that he responded to tape recordings of the girls' dialogue. As with most of the other optical effects, those shots of the Shobijin interacting with the other actors look quite good. Yeah, you can tell that there's an effect going on simply because of how different the composited elements look but they're not all that distracting, save for a moment on Infant Island when one of Nelson's cronies picks them up and then holds them in his hands. One moment with them that's very dream-like in how it's executed is when, during one of their performances, where they float down to the stage in a tiny carriage that's pulled along by wires, they start to sing and the background disappears and is replaced by a nighttime shot of Mothra making her way through the ocean, a prelude to when she destroys the ocean liner. The carriage is still in the shot with Mothra and you then see a side-view of it traveling through the air, with a starry background behind it, as the Shobijin continue singing. It's one of the most unusual moments to appear in any tokasatsu movie and it's one of the movie's most memorable. If there's one effect in the entire movie that doesn't work at all, it's a couple of shots where the Shobijin are grabbed by Nelson's henchmen. Try they as might, the filmmakers can't disguise that what they're picking up are just stiff, lifeless dolls. Thankfully, those dolls are only in a couple of scenes and this technique was never tried again in any other movie featuring the Shobijin.
As much as I've been praising the effects work and other parts of the film, you may remember that I said in the introduction that, while I think it's good, I don't find it to be as exciting and thrilling as I do other kaiju films. A big part of that is, while she's definitely unique among monsters, Mothra and her mythology have just never grabbed me in the way that Godzilla, Rodan, or even Gamera do. The idea of her being more of a divine deity than just another monster is interesting, and it's not uncommon for monsters in Japanese cinema to be revered as gods anyway, but, being a guy, I think I prefer the primal power of those other monsters more. Also, as well-done as the miniatures are, both in their construction and destruction, watching Mothra slowly crawl through the sets and blow through the buildings isn't as exciting to me as seeing Godzilla stomping on them and setting them ablaze with his atomic blast. And while Mothra's winds may be very powerful and destructive, they don't pack the same punch as Rodan's truly ferocious winds in his debut film do.
The movie opens with a very powerful typhoon that's heading for the Japanese mainland and a warning goes out about the vessel, the Genyo-Maru, which is caught near the storm's center. Out in the roiling, wind-blown ocean, the ship is trudging through the rough waves, rocking back and forth as it goes. The captain asks his navigator what their position is and he's told they're about four miles east of Infant Island. Aware of the island's history as a nuclear testing site, they know that this isn't good news, especially since the storm is pushing them towards it. The ship crashes onto a reef, knocking the men off-balance, and they begin taking on water, huge waves absolutely swamping the deck. The captain orders for all men to abandon ship and the crew scrambles for the lifeboats, one of them falling into the crazy ocean below, as the craft sinks beneath the waves. The next day, after the storm has passed, a rescue team heads to the island, with ships patrolling the nearby sea while a helicopter searches from the air. Initially, there's no sign of any survivors and one of the pilots is told that they're running low on fuel. He reports the situation and says that they're returning to base, only for them to actually spot four people waving for help on the rocky shore. The pilot quick relays the information and a small rescue boat heads towards the shore, sounding its siren at the survivors as they continue motioning for help. News of their rescue reaches the mainland and, at the National Synthesis Nucleus Center, where they're being examined, reporters are clamoring for an interview with them. This leads into the introduction of Zen Fukuda and Michi Hanamura, when they manage to sneak in past the security and are allowed to talk with the survivors.
While trying to interview Prof. Chujo, there's a comedic sequence where, when it becomes clear that he won't let them photograph him, Michi is putting her camera aside when she suddenly jumps up off the couch she and Fukuda are sitting on and lets out a startled scream. Wondering what's going on, Fukuda pulls back one of the pillows and reveals a small mouse roaming around on the cushion. Chujo calls for his little brother, Shinji, who comes from upstairs with a couple of friends and is admonished for not keeping his pet up in his room. Shinji said he was looking for the mouse, whom he calls Chiro, and he and Fukuda look under the couch and see Chiro crawling around the wall next to the staircase. Fukuda elects to grab the little mouse and bends under the stairs, calling for Chiro. He suddenly bends back up and Shinji asks him if he found Chiro. It turns out, he did, as he starts gyrating and contorting, motioning that the mouse has ended up in his suit. He puts his foot on the couch and pulls Chiro from out of his pants leg, handing him to Shinji. Fukuda finds himself in another, fair less funny, misadventure when, after he, Michi, and Shinji attend the celebratory castoff of the expedition to Infant Island, he breaks away from them and finds a way to sneak aboard (his actual stowing away is not shown). En route to the island, the devious Clark Nelson is searching around his cabin, when he hears a clattering behind a curtain on the opposite side of the room. Grabbing a pistol, he demands who it is to show themselves and he yanks the curtain back, finding Fukuda, wearing the uniform of a crew member. He tries to come up with an alibi and says that he's simply cleaning, when Nelson yanks away a piece of parchment he's using to wipe down the walls. Fukuda asks him what it is but Nelson ignores the question and searches the inside of his suit. Finding his reporter badge, Nelson angrily smacks the side of his face with it and tells him that a reporter doesn't make for a good cabin boy. Meekly taking his badge back, Fukuda tries to slip out but Nelson stops him at gunpoint, asking, "You don't think I'm just going to let you walk out of here?", before laughing sinisterly. Fortunately for Fukuda, Chujo comes in to talk with Nelson, giving the reporter an opportunity to escape.
Later, they reach the island and suit up to protect themselves from the radioactivity before going ashore; Dr. Harada also adds that their suits have a special alarm transmitter on the right shoulder, which they can press in case they run into trouble. They walk along the barren, rocky shoreline and up a steep ridge, atop which they find a lush jungle in the center of the island. Heading down into the jungle, they spend some time talking samples and gathering data, but Clark Nelson seems to be searching for something else on the small, parchment map he has with him. Fukuda watches him from nearby, only to accidentally snap off a twig and get his attention. When Nelson demands to know what he's doing, Fukuda says that he's lost and is looking for Chujo; after saying this, he turns while holding his rifle and knocks the side of Nelson's face-plate with the barrel, much to his growing irritation. Elsewhere, Chujo comes across a small but very strange cave, one filled with bizarre growths, akin to fungus or mold. Somehow, he comes to the conclusion that they're the source of the juice the survivors drank in order to stay alive, before finding some ancient writing on the side of a large rock. Back with the main group, Harada is trying to decide where they should go next, when Fukuda and Nelson rejoin them, the former telling Harada that he can't find Chujo anywhere. At that moment, while exploring the jungle beyond the cave, Chujo finds himself ensnared by the vines of a plant that feeds on blood. Struggling, he manages to hit the alarm built into his suit (the sound of it is a high-pitched noise that was later reused in one scene in Godzilla vs. Monster Zero) and the others hear it. Chujo begins to lose consciousness as his blood is drained but, as his vision blures, he sees what looks like a couple of tiny, foot-tall girls standing nearby. Just as he passes out, the plant drops him to the ground, as the team, after making their way through the jungle, finally finds him. Fukuda and Harada try to awaken him but he remains out until after they manage to get him back to the ship. Coming to, he tells them about the blood-sucking plant and then, he realizes that the two tiny women were who saved him. He clarifies that when he says they were "small," he means barely a foot tall, and is sure that he didn't imagine them. Harada decides not to go back to the island until morning and they leave Fukuda to recuperate... all but Fukuda, who wants to know exactly what happened between him and the "Shobijin," as he names the two women. Chujo then appears to hit upon something and Fukuda is eager to hear it, but the professor then simply tells him, "Good night," and pulls the cover over his head, much to Fukuda's chagrin.
The next day, they're back in the jungle, when they again hear Chujo's alarm going off. The group again comes running to where he is but, when they reach him, he tells them that he's not in trouble. He's removed the pack with the transmitter through his suit and is sending off into the jungle. The Shobijin again show themselves and this time, everyone sees them. Chujo explains that he figured they came to his aid before because they heard the alarm and he switches the alarm off. The Shobijin start making a sound that comes off like a type of singing but Chujo says that it's their language. Harada asks Chujo if he knows what they're saying and he says that it sounds like they're asking for their island to be left alone. It makes sense to Fukuda, given all of the atomic tests, and the Shobijin stop speaking upon realizing that they understand. Chujo tells them that there won't be any more tests and the Shobijin happily wave to the group before starting to head back into the jungle. However, Nelson looks at one of his cronies and makes a motion with his head towards the girls. His henchman reaches out and grabs them, much to the ire of the rest of the group. Nelson says that he's taking the girls, whom he has a use for, and as the girls reach out, helplessly speaking (if you listen to the rhythm of their speech, it's the same as their song for Mothra), Fukuda demands he release them. Nelson pulls a gun on him from his boot, prompting Fukuda to back away, and he gives his sneering smile. Within an instant, the group is surrounded from all sides by natives, who close in on them, each one of them clanging a pair of rocks together, making for a very loud and threatening sound. Both Harada and another scientist demand Nelson let the Shobijin go but he refuses. Harada tells him that they're not going to fight for him and has their sentries put down their weapons. The other scientist again demands Nelson release the girls and, realizing he has no alternative, Nelson has his henchman release the Shobijin. He hands them over to Chujo, who puts them down on the ground, and within an instant, the natives stop their playing. The Shobijin thank and wave to Chujo before heading back into the jungle, as the natives do the same. Harada then has everyone return to the ship, and before they do, Fukuda comments on the island being a very sacred place.
Upon returning to Japan, Nelson appears to immediately head back to Rolisica, giving no statement about what happened on the island. However, unbeknownst to anyone else, he returns to the island with a team of his own and, just like Chujo, uses the alarm on his suit to attact the Shobijin. It takes a little bit but, when the girls do appear, Nelson laughs evilly, telling them he's happy to see them again. He quickly grabs one of them and shoves her into a bag being held by one of his men. The other tries to run for it but he manages to run her down, grab her, and put her in the bag as well. The men laugh snidely, when one of them spots the natives approaching them again. This time, with no one to tell him differently, Nelson has his men open fire on them, killing a good number of them. He himself joins in the shooting, mowing down more of them, and he and his men then retreat through a marsh. The last remaining of them are gunned down by the last of Nelson's men before he joins his comrades in escaping. As lightning flashes, one of the mortally wounded natives crawls to a temple, repeatedly saying, "Mothra," and holding his arm up in worship, before finally succumbing to his injuries. Up in the cliff-side overlooking the temple, the rock crumbles and falls away, revealing a giant egg in a hidden chamber.
In Tokyo, Nelson opens his "Secret Fairies Show." At the beginning of the show, he gives a speech on the stage about how, despite their living in the atomic age, life is still not without its mysteries and wonder, and as he's about to unveil the Shobijin, whom he describes as a "discovery" he made in the South Pacific, Chujo and Shinji arrive, the latter eagerly making his way to the front row. Nelson then has the spotlight illuminate a tiny, curtained balcony up near the ceiling, from which emerges a little carriage that travels through the air, above the audience, much to their amazement. Down in the audience, Shinji runs into Fukuda and tells him that Chujo is there as well. He heads back to talk with the professor, as the carriage comes to Nelson, who places it on an artificial rock in the middle of the stage, the spotlights revealing it to be decorated by a cardboard background and shrubbery, as well as people dressed up as natives. The audience become very excited by this, as Nelson opens up the carriage's door and the Shobijin climb out. The tiny girls begin singing, while holding hands and gesturing with their free ones, and they walk to the center of the rock, the fake natives beginning to dance around them. Chujo and Fukuda talk about how the former found that Nelson was the one who financed the expedition, while the Shobijin continue singing their song as the natives' dancing becomes more elaborate (this whole scene is very reminiscent of the presentation of Kong in the original King Kong, with Nelson acting as a much slimier version of Carl Denham). Their song really gets Chujo's attention, especially since they keep repeating "Mothra" throughout it, and little does he know that a similar scene is taking place on Infant Island. The natives are performing a ritualistic ceremony consisting of dancing and singing Mothra's name in front of the temple from before, with a male and female native being the center of it, as they dance together. The other natives sitting around them are clanging their primitive instruments, swaying back and forth, and drinking the berry juice, as flashing lights and a thunder-like sound occur around the giant egg up above them.
After the show, the Shobijin continue singing while being kept in a room in the back of Nelson's office at the theater. Following some arguing with Michi, Fukuda, and Chujo about how he's using them as slaves, he allows them to speak to the girls for a few minutes. Initially seeming leary of them when they walk in, the Shobijin perk up when they recognize Chujo. Fukuda then tells them not to lose hope and the Shobijin, for the first time, actually speak, telling him they won't, basically explaining that they understand them through a type of telepathy. Michi uses her cigarette lighter that doubles as a small camera to snap a picture of them and they say that, as much as they want to return home, they're full of great sadness because of what they know will happen when Mothra comes for them. Meanwhile, back on Infant Island, the natives continue the ceremony to awaken Mothra for that very purpose. A big, booming voice tells her to awaken, as her people need her, and more flashing lights and the sound of thunder happen up where her egg is and a light appears to glow within the shell. The dancing, singing, and drumming become more and more intense, the flashing light illuminating her symbol in the writing on the stones, and her egg begins to rustle. Cracks appear across the top of it and then, Mothra bursts through its side as a gigantic caterpillar. The natives bow up and down to her, as she lets out a squeal and begins to free herself of the shell.
While Nelson and one of his associates are giving the Nitto Press editor the business over the story Fukuda wrote about their treating of the Shobijin, Fukuda comes in and shows his boss something that came over the ticker-tape machine. It concerns a large object "floating" in the South Pacific and Fukuda is sure that it's Mothra. He doesn't quite know how to describe Mothra but insists that she's coming to rescue the Shobijin, a story that Michi backs up, although Nelson dismisses it as a bunch of junk made up to sell newspapers. That night, the Shobijin are performing another show, this time singing a different song, one much softer and more dream-like; as they sing, Mothra is shown to be indeed heading for Japan. Their song is broadcast over the radio and the listeners include the crew of an ocean liner, who are unaware that they're on a collision course with Mothra. The Shobijin, dressed in tiny kimonos and sporting large fans, sing their song while walking to the front of their little carriage, where they turn in place and slowly twirl their fans. At that moment, Mothra reaches the ocean liner and the crew try to avoid her but they can't turn the ship fast enough. Mothra rises up out of the water and comes down on the center of the ship, turning it over and shoving it beneath the surface with her weight.
Unable to get anywhere with Nelson, who insists that he has nothing to do with the actions of a monster, and whose associate threatens to have them indicted by the Rolisican embassy, Chujo and Fukuda decide that the only way they can stem Mothra's destruction is to talk to the Shobijin again. They head to the upstairs area of the theater where they're kept, only to find a person standing guard outside the room who says that no one can see them without Nelson's approval. Chujo tries to push by him but the guard grabs his arm and pushes him against the wall. He's just about to punch Chujo, when Fukuda slaps him on the back of the head with a rolled up newspaper and then grabs his arm when he's distracted. He tells him to stop and forces his arm down. The guard manages to break free of his grip and swings at Fukuda, only to get tripped. Another crony of Nelson's joins in the fight, as do two more who rush up from downstairs. Fukuda tells Chujo to go talk to the Shobijin while he keeps them at bay. Once they're alone, Fukuda makes them jump back with a sudden yell and then runs for the door when they charge at him. He elbows one in the gut, shoving him into the two behind him, and when another tries to climb over the rail in front of the door, he smacks him on the head with his newspaper swatter. One of the goons grabs Fukuda's right leg and tries to pull him down but he grabs onto the railing and, despite his pulling, is ultimately kicked off. Another goon grapples with Fukuda and throws him up against a wall. He manages to dodge three swings in a row and actually flip the guy over. He's then grabbed from behind but manages to flip him over his shoulder, sending them all tumbling in a heap down the stairs, as he again proclaims himself to be the "snapping turtle." (This whole scene is akin to the fights you see in the classic Three Stooges shorts, only with more at stake.) That done, he joins Chujo, who's asking the Shobijin if they can possibly stop Mothra from coming. However, they insist that there's nothing they can do and their carriage is then pulled along for another performance. Chujo then hits on the notion that it's due to telepathy and believes that may be the key to stopping Mothra's advance.
The two of them talk with Dr. Harada about it and he demonstrates the ability of a piece of a new type of material to block radio waves. They decide that putting the Shobijin in a box of the material may be sufficient to hide them from Mothra. Meanwhile, the air force has its own solution for Mothra's advance. A fight jet pilot comes across her and reports her current position, saying that she's heading for Tokyo while traveling at 11 knots (even in the Japanese version, his lips continue flapping even after he finishes saying that last line). The jet then flies directly over Mothra as it leaves and she appears to thrust herself out of the water in order to get a closer look at. At an air base, a squadron is scrambled and, after loading up with napalm, heads out to the spot in the ocean. The Nitto Press is covering the developments, while at the same time, Fukuda is frustrated upon hearing that the Rolisican government is backing Nelson up. The editor instead tells him to head to the defense office in order to learn of their plans. At that moment, the air squadron reaches Mothra and drop their payload of napalm barrels in the water, creating lines leading up to her. Another squadron, this one of fighter jets, comes in and blasts the barrels with their missiles when Mothra swims in the midst of them. Instantly, Mothra is surrounded by fire in the ocean but her approach doesn't seem to be stalling, until we reach the next scene, where she's believed to be dead from the attack.
At least, that's what Nelson believes, but Dr. Harada convinces him to keep the box to block the Shobijin's telepathy, just in case. As they talk, the girls begin singing again. Elsewhere, at the Okumura Dam, two men show up for work, and one of them starts to eat a rice-ball, when the place starts to shake, as if from an earthquake. One of the men looks out the window and sees a violent churning in the water behind the dam. He drops what he's holding in fear and slumps down into a chair. His co-worker turns around, the rice-ball in his mouth, and ends up swallowing it whole at the sight of what's happening (this guy, by the way, is played by Shoichi Hirose, a stuntman and suit actor who went on to play King Kong in King Kong vs. Godzilla and would also play King Ghidorah in the first two movies featuring that monster). His partner scrambles for the nearby phone and begins dialing. Back at the theater, as he's seeing Chujo, Fukuda, and Harada out, Nelson gets a phone call and the shock of his life when he's told that his show's been cancelled. He slams down the phone in anger after arguing with the person on the other line, when Michi pulls up and tells Fukuda about what's happening at the dam. They instantly know that it may be Mothra and pile into the car. At the dam, workers are recoiling as they watch the continuous churning in the water and they run for it when a huge crack appears in the dam, water spewing through it. Meanwhile, at the theater, Nelson angrily yells at the Shobijin, who are again calling for Mothra through song, telling them that they're not going back to their island. When they continue singing, despite his threats, one of his men puts the box on their cage and grabs a suitcase to stuff them in.
Chujo, Harada, Michi, and Fukuda reach the dam, where some civilians are being evacuated and they're stopped just as they reach the end of a bridge. The violent water behind the dam is now cascading over it, creating waves down below that are taking out structures on the side of the river. Michi tries to photograph what's happening but she and the others are forced away from the bridge by a policeman. Their suspicions about it being Mothra are confirmed when she rises up out of the water behind the dam and then slams back down into it. Now, the crack from before has become a full-on hole and the huge rapids are heading for the bridge. Civilians are still using it to evacuate, with one woman pulling a large cart of supplies across it. On top of the supplies is her baby, who's sleeping in his basket, which ends up slipping off and landing on the bridge. The dam has basically crumbled by this point and the onslaught of huge, violent rapids are closing in, the head of them already rushing underneath the bridge. Chujo and Fukuda help the woman get her supplies across, when she then sees that she's lost her baby and screams in panic upon seeing him on the bridge. Fukuda makes a dash for the baby, Michi having to be restrained from chasing after him, and he manages to scoop the basket up and rush back, right before that section of the bridge crumbles. He gives the basket over to the mother and they all watch as the bridge is destroyed completely.
Following this, and the problems that Nelson ends up facing as a result, Chujo finds a note at his house that was left by Shinji, telling him that he intends to take the Shobijin away from Nelson. At the theater, where everyone is packing up, two of Nelson's men saw Shinji sneaking in but now, they can't find him. Little do they know that he's hiding right under their nose, under a small chicken prop in the hallway. When they've gone, he takes the prop off and sneaks into the room where the girls are being held. He removes the special box from their cage and tells them that he's going to set them free. They thank him but they reiterate that Mothra is coming for them and that he should get away while he can. Outside, Nelson has returned and when he walks inside, he's not happy to find his men standing around. He's told about Shinji sneaking in and one of his men spots him as he about to come down the stairs with the Shobijin. They run after him and he's forced to run and hide. Initially, he gives them the slip, but they then find him in a locker room. He tries to fight them off but they easily overpower him, shove him down into a chair, one of them taking his cap off and smacking him on the head with it. Another tries to gag him but Shinji bites him and he recoils in pain. Annoyed at this bit of incompetence, Nelson does the gagging himself. At the offices of the Nitto Press, Fukuda is excited upon learning that Rolisica, afraid of losing their ties with Japan, are backing down and ordering Nelson to release the Shobijin. Fukuda runs out to the theater, wanting to see Nelson's reaction to the news, and passes by Michi, who tries to tell him something but he doesn't listen. The authorities arrive at the theater, as do Fukuda and some photographers, and they meet up with Chujo there. Chujo tells him about Shinji and they join the policemen in searching the theater, only to find it deserted. In the locker room, Chujo finds Shinji's hat on the floor and they then find Shinji himself under a stack of chairs, unconscious, gagged, and tied up, but unharmed. Chujo removes the gag and brings him to. He tells his brother that he failed but, as they untie him, Fukuda assures him that Nelson is going to get what he deserves. Michi then arrives and gives them some worse news than the fact that Nelson escaped: Mothra is heading for Tokyo.
Crawling through the rural countryside on her way to Tokyo, Mothra sends the civilians into evacuation, as the armed forces prepare to do battle with her. A squadron of fighter jets and a platoon of tanks fire on her as she crawls past the treeline behind some farmhouses, plowing through various structures like a gas station. Various districts of Tokyo are now being evacuated, as army units move in and wait for instructions. The fighter jets continue to fire upon Mothra as she keeps heading for the city but their missiles do nothing to slow her down, as she heads through a ball-field. Residents of the Shibuya ward of Tokyo are evacuated to shelters and the streets become clogged with civilians trying to reach safety, as well as authorities trying to help them get to the shelters. All lights in the district go out as the military heads in, tanks firing on Mothra while she crawls down a street. She plows through more buildings and topples power-lines, prompting missile launchers and more jets to take over from the tanks. She makes her way through a railroad station as the missiles fire on her, causing just as much destruction as she is, when she rises up and smashes through the main building, sending it crumbling as she passes through the rubble. Some more tanks round a corner, only to find Mothra heading for them as she goes through one building after another. One of the men inside a tank orders them to fall back and they try to escape, but said man is hit by falling rubble while he's still sticking his head out of the tank's top and then, the entire vehicle ends up being completely buried. The other tanks and some jeeps run for it, while Mothra continues her private demolition derby on the buildings, and by this point, a fire is spreading among the skyline. In the midst of the chaos, Nelson and his men find themselves stuck in the congested streets. Nelson comes up with an idea and tells the driver to turn around. While the defense office tries to coordinate a suitable spot to try to stop Mothra, the tanks fire on her as she heads for Tokyo Tower. They keep moving in, amongst the civilians who are still being evacuated, while those at the defense office hear of Mothra's advance on the tower. Despite being fired upon again and again by tank shells and missiles, she starts to climb up the side of the tower and manages to get the entire length of her body up against it. The top half breaks and topples over with her, as she falls to the ground.
One unit loads up with shells and waits for the word from headquarters before they can begin firing. Lying on the ground, Mothra now seems totally helpless, and Fukuda and Michi reach the spot where a bunch of people are standing by, watching. That's when Mothra begins spitting webbing out of her mouth, with an unlucky helicopter getting caught up in it and crashing when its rotor is snagged. Fire engines rush to put out the blaze that the crash started, while a soldier inside of a tank radios headquarters about Mothra building her cocoon. With no word on Nelson, the authorities are unaware that he's at the Hanada airport, having taken on the new identity of George Walker as he waits to catch a plane to Rolisica. In the line to get on the plane, he gives a Japanese officer his passport; meanwhile, Mothra is continuing to spin her cocoon. The editor shows up in the crowd and admonishes Fukuda for not trying to find Nelson rather than waste time watching Mothra. At the airport, Nelson is questioned about his case and answers, "This bag is the property of the Rolisica embassy. Do you want to open it?" Just as Fukuda and the others realize that Nelson is likely going to fly back to Rolisica, he and his men are allowed to board the plane without any other issues. Meanwhile, the Rolisican ambassador informs the authorities that their military will loan them their atomic heat ray cannons, which should arrive in ten hours, just before Mothra will likely hatch from her cocoon.
By the next day, Mothra's cocoon has turned a solid white. The atomic heat ray cannons arrive and are moved into position, as newscasters from various countries report on the military's plan to destroy her before she awakens. The hour of the attack, which is 10:00 A.M., nears, with only twenty minutes left. A warning goes to all the spectators that it's advised they wear special goggles once the cannons begin firing. Once only one minute is left, the cannons are trained on the cocoon and everyone puts on their goggles, Fukuda fumbling with his, which he has to be reminded to wear by Michi. Soon, the final countdown comes and the cannons open fire on the cocoon from both sides. After a number of direct hits, the front of the cocoon bursts into flames, and another blast does the same to the rear. The entire thing has soon become a giant fireball and when the fire clear, the cocoon is revealed to be completely charred. The newscasters report on Mothra's apparent defeat. Elsewhere, in Rolisica, Nelson and his men arrive at his ranch, miles away from the reach of the Japanese authorities. Turning on the radio, they hear that Mothra has been destroyed and they all rejoice, getting out the booze and unzipping the case containing the Shobijin. The girls begin singing and the men cruelly mock them, telling them that they can sing all they want but Mothra isn't coming. However, in Tokyo, Mothra's head bursts through the front of the cocoon and she climbs out, now a full-blown moth. Most of the people run for it as she spreads her wings and lifts up into the air, creating a windstorm comparable to a typhoon, as it sends vehicles flying into buildings and other structures (one hits a water mane, while another crashes into a telephone pole), causes the tanks to lose traction and crash, blows the shingles off of roofs, and kicks up huge clouds of dust. Once everything has settled down and Mothra heads off into the sky, they see that she's heading in the direction of Rolisica. Fukuda comments that Nelson has nowhere to hide now. Later, at his ranch, Nelson's men hear a news report of Mothra's approach and that the police are to arrest him on sight. Enraged at hearing this, Nelson grabs the radio and throws it, asking his men if everything is ready for them to leave. His Japanese cohort tries to tell him that they're through but Nelson slaps him and screams at him to get in the car. He and the other henchman meekly do as their boss says, one of them carrying the case containing the Shobijin while Nelson loads a gun before joining them.
While traveling to Rolisica on a Pan American airline, Chujo, Fukuda, and Michi discuss how they could possibly help the situation with Mothra, when an announcement comes over the intercom, telling them that she's spotted near New Kirk City. Cutting to the city, a siren blares through it and the civilians run for shelter when they see Mothra approaching, while the military begins firing on her. (There's a lot of crappy blue screen work here, with extras being placed in front of scratchy footage of Los Angeles. Ishiro Honda wanted to really shoot some second unit material in America but the budget wouldn't allow it.) Nelson is driving towards the city, ignoring his henchman trying to tell him that he's going the wrong way, and they end up stuck in a residential area where people are evacuating. A woman spots him and recognizes him, telling everyone else that it's Nelson. An angry mob begins flanking the car, the police trying to hold them, and his crony tells him he should give up. Nelson is having none of it and, seeing the frenzied mob as the Infant Islanders in his deranged mind, he pulls his gun and gets out of the car, keeping them at bay with his weapon. The police warn him to drop his weapon but he instead shoots an officer on the other side of the car and backs away crazily. For whatever reason, he wrenches an old man's cane(!) away from him and throws it to the ground, right before the police open fire on him. He collapses to the ground and the officers walk up and remove his gun before turning his body over and taking the keys to the suitcase from his coat. His men are forced out of the car and taken into custody, as the civilians retrieve the case containing the Shobijin and gather on the front steps of a church.
Unfazed by the military's assault, Mothra begins hitting New Kirk with her powerful winds, turning the streets into veritable wind tunnels and sending cars and other objects flying down them. The mass of civilians wait for Chujo, Fukuda, and Michi to arrive, worried about what will happen if they don't return the Shobijin to Mothra. Speaking of which, she manages to cause a building to collapse and her winds send a vehicle flying through a store-front window. The authorities are trying to keep the clamoring crowd under control, when a police car carrying the three people they've been waiting for pulls up. Once they've disembarked, they're given the keys and they unlock the case, removing the box containing the Shobijin. However, they're unsure if they should remove the box blocking their telepathy, worried about what Mothra would do in such an agitated state. As Mothra causes more destruction, her winds causing a vehicle to skirt right along the outside of another store front and she destroys another building, sending the debris raining down in front of a motors department, the authorities are given a report that tells them of the damage the city is suffering. Things seeming hopeless, two priests begin praying, asking God to have mercy on them. The church bells begin ringing, and when the group looks up at the tower, Chujo notes that the cross on top of it, with the halo of sunlight around it, resembles Mothra's symbol from the writing. Moreover, Michi comments that the bells are ringing in a manner similar to the Shobijin's song and Fukuda asks if there's any way they could use the bells and the symbol in a way that could appease Mothra. Coming up with an idea, Chujo asks the authorities to have the symbol drawn in an enormous manner on the airport runway, as well as that of the church bells in the area ring at 3:00. Telling the people to just wait a little longer, they get to work, while Michi and Fukuda literally pray that it's a success before getting down to their part of it.
While paint trucks are used to create the symbol at the airport runway, Mothra crumbles more buildings, blowing over ships in the harbor, causing violent waves, and ultimately topples the bay bridge, reducing it to a heap of rubble and creating more waves that swamp the shoreline and anything on it. The group and the authorities arrive at the runway and, seeing Mothra continuing her attack in the distance, find that the symbol is finished. 3:00 rolls around and the bells begin ringing all throughout the city and neighboring towns. Hearing this, Mothra stops her assault and starts flying in the direction of the airstrip. Spotting the symbol, she sets down in the middle of it, now completely calm and placid. It's now safe and they release the Shobijin from their cage. Mothra squeals, seemingly because she can now see the girls, who tell everyone thank you and say that they hope their lands can coexist peacefully in the future; Chujo, in turn, tells them that they won't disturb Infant Island again. The Shobijin run to Mothra, who lowers her head and allows them to climb up on her using one of the fuzzy mandibles around her mouth. The people of New Kirk thank the group for their help, as Mothra lifts up into the sky and heads for home, everyone actually waving goodbye to her (sympathetic monster or not, that's a bit awkward, considering she was attempting to level the city a few moments ago). Fukuda is eager to call the editor, as this is definitely a top story, but then, Michi tells him that she didn't take one picture. As they share a laugh over this, Mothra returns to Infant Island with the Shobijin, and the natives celebrate in worship to her. The Shobijin vocalize, while the booming voice from before proclaims, as a stone tablet rises up to reveal another section of writing on it, "The path to peace is yours to discover for eternity," and the movie ends with the islanders continuing their worship at the temple.
Despite being a very talented composer, Akira Ifukube didn't consider himself to be much of a lyricist and so, he opted not to score Mothra; instead, Yuji Koseki, who'd worked with Emi and Yumi Ito when they sang as "the Peanuts," did the music. It was surprising for me to learn that, given how Ifukube is so closely associated with Toho-produced tokasatsu films from this period, especially those directed by Ishiro Honda, and also how the music and songs he would later come up with for Mothra vs. Godzilla have since become her most significant motifs, more so than much of the music here. But, when you listen to the film's score, you know instantly that Ifukube wasn't behind it, as it doesn't have the scope, grandeur, and power that his music has. That's not to say that the score to Mothra is bad; on the contrary, it's quite lovely and really plays up the movie's fantasy elements. It's made up of a number of whimsical flourishes, light and airy, and sometimes with vocalizing voices, making it feel even more like a fairy tale. It also fits with Mothra's feminity and makes her come off as somewhat delicate (especially when she's being napalmed, as the music there has a sad touch to it), while still being a force to be reckoned with, regardless. In addition, whenever the Shobijin are onscreen, Koseki creates an unusual, otherworldly sound that's akin to their own speech before they began speaking with the other characters. The downside to the score is that it doesn't have a lot of range. There are some instances where it gets a little more tense, like the sound of the threatening, rhythmic clanging the natives make when they're angered and the big, dramatic piece when Nelson loses his mind right before he's killed, but for the most part, it stays in that whimsical, fairy tale aesthetic and it's sometimes a bit repetitive. For instance, when Mothra is heading towards Tokyo and is then rampaging through it, you hear the same piece repeated again and again and it gets a bit monotonous, despite how lovely it is. And that's another thing: while it may fit with Mothra's character, it doesn't have the exciting power of Ifukube's city attack themes.
Koseki fared better in creating the songs that are featured in the film. The Shobijin's main song for Mothra, which they first sing during Nelson's show, sounds really awesome here, backed up by a big, grand, and bouncy orchestra, and it sounds better here than it ever would in the rest of the Showa period. When this scene transitions to Infant Island, where the natives are also praying to Mothra, they're singing and dancing to a more primal-sounding version, although their only lyrics are to say "Mothra" repeatedly. Much more effective in that regard is when the natives manage to awaken Mothra, as that song and ritual has a more intense feel to it, the pounding drums and singing building and building until she finally bursts out of her egg, which is accompanied by a great flourish. The Shobijin have a few other, small songs that they sing to themselves, which are mainly just made of them vocalizing and repeating Mothra's name. However, the song they sing during their second performance at the theater, which takes place at the same time Mothra is heading for Japan, is the most beautiful piece in the whole movie. It has a dream-like vibe that fits with the sequence it plays in, as well as a solemn sound to it, accentuating how they're continued to be held captive and wish Mothra would come and bring them home.
The dubbing is also of a high quality, as many of the actors give nice performances and manage to come off with Japanese accents without sounding too much like caricatures. The voices for Fukuda (provided by the same person who went on to dub Akira Takarada's character of Sakai in Godzilla vs. The Thing, the American version of Mothra vs. Godzilla), Michi, the editor, Dr. Harada, and Nelson all deserve recognition, especially the latter, who's given a voice akin to that of Bela Lugosi without the Hungarian accent, which fits well with Jerry Ito's performance. The voice given to Chujo is a tad bit wooden but not terrible, and the English-speaking characters from the Japanese version are given much better performances through the miracle of dubbing (Harold Conway may have appeared in a number of these movies but he honestly couldn't act to save his life). The one snag is the dubbing of the Shobijin, as it's a little too cheesy and over-the-top, a problem that often happened when they were dubbed throughout the Showa era. They cut out much of the bizarre language that they have, instead dubbing in sounds of them gasping and going "ohh" and "ooh" when they first attempt to speak to the humans. For the most part, though, the dialogue is virtually the same through the dubbing, with only a few changes: Infant Island is renamed Beiru Island, Fukuda's nickname is changed to Bulldog (but with the same significance as "Snapping Turtle"), and the booming voice on Infant Island is changed to that of a native praying to Mothra, with the message at the end being removed completely, though the shot of the writing on the stone is left in. All in all, it's one of the better dubs of a Japanese sci-fi flick.
Mothra is a good movie at the end of the day and has a lot of things going for it: it's very well-made and photographed, you can tell it was quite a lavish production for Toho at the time, the characters are all memorable and likable, the take on Japan's relationship with other countries and the religious aspects of the story are interesting, the way Mothra, the Shobijin, and the people of Infant Island are depicted in their introductory film makes for quite a contrast to their appearances in later films, the miniatures and optical effects are some of the greatest ever to be seen in a kaiju film like this, and the music score and songs are very nice, with the latter coming off as especially lovely. If I have any qualms, they mainly come down to Mothra not being one of my favorite monsters, as well as that I don't find the destruction sequences with her, as well-done as they are, to be as exciting as those in other films. That said, the effects do come off as archaic in some shots, the music score, although lovely enough, feels a bit limited in its variety, and there are some instances where the movie drags a bit, especially in the middle. The American version is a bit better in the latter regard, as the editing tightens up the pace a smidge, and it helps that the dubbing is quite good and respectable to the Japanese script. While not one of my absolute favorites, it is a good example of the kaiju genre and a film would recommend to those few lovers of the genre who haven't seen it.
One of the best kaiju movies ever made considering that it was the first appearance of Mothra! Add to the fact that it was directed by Ishiro Honda makes it even more iconic and unforgettable!
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt one of the best kaiju movies ever made considering that it was the first movie appearance of Mothra! Add to the fact that it was directed by Ishiro Honda makes this movie even more iconic and unforgettable! No other Mothra movie can top this one! Not even Godzilla vs Mothra or Rebirth of Mothra!
ReplyDelete