Director: Ishiro Honda

Aka - Mosura tai Gojira

Geez, how embarrassing for Godzilla. To be vanquished by two moth larva that just hatched. Hide your head in shame. With all the Godzilla buzz in the air I thought I would watch an old one. Almost picked at random except I had noticed two of the actors from The Big Boss (1959) were in this as well. I know nothing about the Godzilla or the whole Kaiju Eiga genre. This is as far as I can recollect only the second pre-2000 Godzilla film I have seen (I did see two of the Gamera films of the 1990s). The original which I saw a few years back at Film Forum which was wonderful - much more powerful than I had expected - and then some of the post-2000 Godzillas where I concluded that the Japanese ones were decent and the American ones were very clunky. They just don't get it. Which makes me hesitate to see this new one. Though I would love to see a film in a theater. The only one I have in the past year was Wonder Woman 1984 and afterwards I wondered why I bothered.



This was fun. I understand that there was a previous Mothra film so I may have to see that. To have important context of course. I hope the two twin fairies are in it, They stole the film right under Godzilla's big snout. By 1964 the Japanese populace had encountered Godzilla, King Kong, Mothra and two tiny fairies that sing. So when after a huge storm an egg the size of a house rolls ashore no one seems all that surprised or perturbed, It barely gets a mention in the media. The govt can't be bothered. The egg is put on display in an entertainment park. No one seems curious what might come out of that egg. It is a giant frigging egg. That probably came from a radioactive Island where they tested a nuke. Larry King would have tried to interview it but not in Japan.


The only people mildly curious are a newspaper man (Akira Takarada, the younger brother in The Big Boss), his cute photographer (Yuriko Hoshi, the witness in the Big Boss) and a scientist. The twin Shobijins looking like they just flew in from Siberia in their white fur vest and cap appear before them and ask them to save the egg and get it back to Infant Island. Which is where Mothra lives as well as a tribe of colorful dancing natives who look like they escaped from a Maria Montez movie. But they can't cut through the red tape. "It will take years in the court system". Sounds like us. Then Godzilla shows up and plods around like a drunk sailor. I wonder if they sell Godzilla Home Insurance? Only Mothra can save them.


I have never quite understood Godzilla's motivation. Isn't he the good guy sometimes? Aren't we suppose to cheer for him? Sure he destroys cities (think of it as urban re-development) but he has a good heart. Not so much here. He stomps on things because why not. The part I really enjoyed was mainly just watching how they do the special effects. It took real imagination back then. With special effects today, who cares. But these old ones have a real artistry to them - the miniaturizations, the back screen, the guy in a lizard costume, Mothra flying about is really bad but I loved it, the larva spraying moth juice. And it just looks wonderful in color and widescreen. Criminal that America took these films and edited and dubbed them. So nice that the Japanese versions are available and in perfect condition. Again, I know nothing about the Godzilla films. I know there are Eras which I am not and hopefully never will be geeky enough to understand or care. I know there are folks out there who ask questions like if Godzilla did that in this movie, why did he do such in this movie. Hopefully that won't be me. Hopefully. A friend let me rip that whole Kaiju box set so you never know.