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Godzilla Vs Mothra (1964)


Godzilla Vs the Thing
Mosura Tai Gojira
(Mothra Vs Godzilla)


Cast:

Yuriko Hoshi is Yoka
Akira Takaranda is Ichiro Sakai
Emi & Yuni Ito are the SHOBIJIN


What the box says:

A GIANT EGG WASHES ASHORE IN JAPAN AND BECOMES AN INSTANT TOURIST ATTRACTION, THE ONLY PROBLEM IT BELONGS TO A GIANT BUTTERFLY-LIKE CREATURE FROM MONSTER ISLAND NAMED MOTHRA - AND SHE WANTS IT BACK!

When the island's tiny twin Mothra priestess seek its return from greedy businessmen profiting on the egg. Godzilla suddenly appears and threatens to take out Japan and the egg. Now, the people of Japan need Mothra to help them get rid of Godzilla and beg the girls for help. Will Mothra's people help after years of nuclear testing destroyed their beautiful island? Can Mothra destroy Godzilla? What's in the mysterious egg that's ready to hatch? All this and more awaits you from this 1964 classic, considered one of the most exciting Godzilla films ever made!


Plot:

It is a dark and stormy night as the credits roll. A hurricane, I didn’t think they had hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean, or tropical storm, etc… strikes a Japanese city. We see power lines collapse and, tidal waves strike.

The next day, a crowd gathers. Sakai, the reporter and Yoka, the photographer chick, are reporting on the damage. People are searching through the wreckage. Industrial guy is complaining that Sakai will ruin their chances for a major industrial project. Sea water is being pumped back into the ocean. Yoka is an artist and determined to get the perfect shot. She finds some strange goop in the water.

In the newsroom, the editor sends a reporter to cover the discovery of a monster egg. It is called a monster egg from the very beginning. City folk stare at the egg floating in the harbor. Kumayama, greedy guy, wants the egg really bad. He sends several boats to salvage the egg. Slowly, the boats approach the egg and retrieve it.

The egg is taken ashore. No one knows what it is. Professor Miura starts studying the egg. Sakai tries interviewing the Professor. Kumayama arrives and claims he bought the egg. The fishermen sold the egg to Kumayama at the cost of how many chicken eggs is the approximate weight of the monster egg. Kumayama is going to charge admission to watch the egg hatch.

Yoka is talking with Sakai when Kumayama insults her. Sakai will try to help Professor Miura get the egg from Kumayama.

Kumayama meets with his boss Torihata who invested a lot in this scheme. They plan to build an incubator to hatch the egg. They hear a tiny pixie like voices demanding the egg be returned. They eventually spot the Tiny Twin Mothra Priestesses, TTMP. Kumayama tries catching them to no avail. TTMP escape the hotel room. Sakai hears a ruckus and enters the room and promptly thrown out.

Sakai, Yoka, and the Professor ponder what to do. TTMP ask for their help. We learn the TTMP are from Mothra Island which has been used to test various nuclear weapons. The egg belongs to Mothra. A hurricane washed the egg to sea. The island natives want the egg back. When the egg hatches it could inadvertently cause a lot of damage. Yoka asks Sakai to help them.

The incubator is being built rapidly. Kumayama and Torihata ignore Sakai and the Professor. Kumayama throws them out. Sakai and Yoka open the case that has the TTMP in it. They once again ask for the egg. Kumayama offers to buy the TTMP. Sakai, Yoka, and the Professor leave. Kumayama keeps trying to buy the TTMP.

Sakai will write a story that will sway public opinion to their side. There is no legal way to retrieve the egg. TTMP leave. Sakai, Yoka, and the Professor search for them. TTMP have decided to head back to their island. They fly away on Mothra.

The incubator is being built. We get some superior miniature effects…Kumayama hasn’t paid anyone for the egg or anything yet…If this deal falls through, Kumayama will lose his shirt and that isn’t something anyone wants to see.

Sakai is depressed he wasn’t able to help the TTMP get the egg back. All of his stories are giving Kumayama free publicity.

Kumayama fires up the incubator, to heat the egg.

Newspaper men wonder how long it will take the egg to hatch. Sakai and Yoka head to the Professor’s lab and have to be decontaminated. He is studying the goop, Yoka found at the beginning of the movie. It is radioactive goop. They all take a field trip to where the goop was found.

Sakai is searching for any levels of radioactivity in the surrounding area. The Industrialist stops them. Suddenly, something emerges from the ground and, it is radioactive. People scatter. IT’S GOJIRA!!!!


About time I showed up in this movie.

The people are warned about Godzilla. The G-Mon trashes a factory. Some very sweet model destruction ensues…The atomic breath is released. Fire trucks spring into action. The typical scenes of people abandoning their homes assail us, too. Godzilla keeps up destroying thing as the city folk panic. It looks that Godzilla destroys a temple, too.

A news briefing begins. Please don’t use the same number of news reports as King Kong Versus Godzilla. The UN military force will use the extremely powerful Frontier missile against G-Mon. The Americans send in their fleet. The ships spot Godzilla and open fire to no effect. More rockets are launched. It is very smoky. Godzilla just seems to be madder now…

At the newspaper, they wonder what to do. One of the reporters thinks to ask the TTMP for their help. Maybe the “Thing” Mothra could help them.

The egg is still in the incubator.

The editor wants Sakai and Yoka to convince TTMP to help Japan. They go to Mothra Island with the Professor. They are wearing yellow radiation suits as they reach the island. Mothra Island is scarred and irradiated. The natives capture them.

As Sakai, Yoka, and the Professor are brought in their street clothes to a cave where the chief is. They want to know why they came to the island. When the Chief learns that Godzilla is rampaging, he doesn’t have much sympathy for them, thinking they got what they deserved. If the egg had been returned, it might have been different.


This was a good acting opportunity.

TTMP are singing. Sakai, Yoka, and the Professor find them. The natives surround the trespassers. TTMP have telepathy. They refuse to help. Yoka tries convincing them that the good and evil are dying. Yoka starts bawling at this point. Sakai tries taking over that we all are brothers and must trust and help each other.

TTMP escort them to Mothra. They start singing to Mothra. Mothra will help them although it will die soon. It won’t be able to return to the island if it leaves. But, the egg will hatch…

The military have another briefing. The new plan is trap Godzilla in an enclosed area with artificial lightning. They want to trick Godzilla into an area with an electric fence to contain him. The construction begins immediately.

Tanks fire at Godzilla who just takes the punishment.

Sakai and Yoka are waiting at the egg.

Kumayama stops at Torihata’s hotel room. Some lapel-grabbing ensues…Kumayama wants his money back, he’s ruined. Torihata is smacked around. Kumayama grabs his money from the wall safe. Torihata spots Godzilla approaching. This is a bit confusing. Torihata gets a gun points it towards Godzilla and somehow shoots Kumayama who isn’t in the line of fire. Torihata grabs the money Kumayama has ready. HE grabs the money and tries getting out of the hotel as Godzilla tears the place apart. Falling wreckage kills Torihata. Exit greedy businessmen.

The egg must be protected. Godzilla approaches the egg and tears apart the incubator. He must be having visions of a might fine omelet. He is just about to crack the egg when Mothra flies in for the rescue.

Mothra drops the TTMP off by Sakai and Yoka. Godzilla tears apart some more of the incubator. Mothra generates at powerful windstorm and the egg rolls away. Godzilla really wants to destroy the egg. However, Mothra is trying to stop him. Mothra drags Godzilla by his tail away from the egg.

Mothra is simply enfuego. Godzilla isn’t on the same level. The might wings of Mothra are flapping yellow dust at Godzilla who is on the ground. Mothra flies to check on the egg.

TTMP tell Sakai and Yoka that Mothra is about to die. Mothra dies beside the egg. TTMP knows the egg can hatch. Police and military plan a last ditch attack on Godzilla.

Planes and tanks open fire on Godzilla again. More models assault the G-Mon. Godzilla walks into the artificial lightning generator. He is in pain eventually destroys it. The military begins to retreat.

TTMP begin singing to the egg. The natives on the island are doing it, too.

Godzilla is approaching the military base camp. Tanks surround Godzilla. Bombers attack him. Helicopters drop a net on Godzilla. They use the artificial lightning on him again. Another net is dropped on him. Godzilla rolls on the ground in agony. They run out of power. Godzilla melts the generator to slag.


Simply Electrifying Performance...

More people are running around aimlessly. Godzilla approaches the docks.

TTMP keep singing to the egg. The egg begins glowing and it hatches. 2 larvae emerge.

Godzilla is heading for a nearby island that has a group of school children on it. Their teacher has them hide as the big G-Mon approaches. Larvae swim to the island. Sakai has a plan to rescue the kids. The boat they are on has the TTMP still singing.

Godzilla reaches the island as the larvae arrive, too. Kids make it to cave as Godzilla sets some houses on fire. Why? Giant monsters with fire breath are cool…. Sakai’s boat approaches the island.

The 2 Larva follow Godzilla. One of them bites Godzilla’s tail. Godzilla starts beating the Larva with his might green tail. The other Larva in a strategic location spits in Godzilla’s face. Each of the Larvae shoots silly string at Godzilla. They are tag-teaming Godzilla. Have you ever wanted to see Godzilla covered in a creamy white substance? This is your only chance to see it, you perverts.

Sakai finds the teacher and the kids.

Godzilla is encased in silly string, trips and falls into the ocean. The boat gets away. The larvae of Mothra are triumphant.

On the boat, Sakai and Yoka see the larvae swim away…


What I say:

Godzilla Versus Mothra the movie after King Kong Versus Godzilla . So, this is the second color Godzilla movie. This movie was also known as Godzilla Versus the Thing. In America, when this movie was released, very few people would have seen the 1962 Mothra. It was thought to call Mothra “Thing.” But, when dubbing the movie, Mothra was replaced at every time it was mentioned. So, Mothra and “Thing” are used interchangeably.

This is probably one of the better Godzilla movies from the 60s. The effects and fights were…The miniatures may not have been realistic but at least entertaining. It seems the bigger the computer generated effects are the more I appreciate the Ed Wood type of pie plate flying saucer. We may have been awed by the alien attack in Independence Day. But, Earth Versus the Flying Saucers did it better and did it first. How can you not get a kick out of Godzilla covered in silly string?

I do have a couple of complaints with this movie. It seems to be awfully slow paced. I could have done without the entire plot concerning Kumayama and Torihata. We have the evil businessmen. Granted the plot needed the egg not to be returned. That way we could have Yoka and Sakai plead for the Mothra Island natives to help them to no avail. We have a big Godzilla Mothra fight until Mothra dies. Then Godzilla wanders off and has to fight the military again, while the egg hatches. It just seems the timing could have been tightened better.

The Shobijin. I tried looking up in my Japanese English dictionary for a definition of “Shobijin.” I think it means various beautiful women. Well. That would mean twins I guess. With as little experience as I have with Japanese cinema, I can’t say if there is some significance to pixie twins in Japanese mythology. But, Japanese twins demanding that the egg be returned are pretty fun to hear. Would it be a big shock to hear that Emi and Yumi Ito were a Japanese singing act?

I believe Chris Rock put it like this. “No one goes to Hooter’s for wings.” You don’t watch 60s Godzilla movies for the acting and epic drama. Godzilla is for sweet Kaiju fighting: a guy in a lizard suit fighting something and trashing a really cool model of a city.

Mothra, what else will Toho come up with Godzilla to fight? The late 50s and most of the 60s gave us so many Toho Studio monsters. And if they were impressive enough they got a shot with the Godzilla. I’ve been using several wrestling analogies but they work so well with a guy wearing a green lizard suit.

Well, this is back in the day when the Big G-Mon was still in his evil like a natural disaster stage. Well, after this movie, he became more of the giant monster hero. You can’t count Godzilla’s Revenge with his son Minya as heroic Godzilla. It's like he was taking a vacation on Monster Island. Why don't we have cooler Pacific island names like Monster Island, Mothra Island, and Skull Island?

I have heard that this is considered one of the better Godzilla movies. Let’s put it another way the only bad Godzilla movie is one made in 1998, if you know which one I mean, a certain big budget Hollywood release. No matter how goofy or off the wall Godzilla was in the 60s, it was entertaining.



3 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"Enjoying an egg."
"It's a gigantic monster egg."
"A newspaper has a limited capacity to reach people."
"I'm not afraid of Godzilla as I am of the editor. He's meaner."
"Commence Plan C."


Morals of the Story

Japanese can instinctively approximate the value of chicken eggs to fill a large volume of space.
Public opinion is useless in returning giant eggs in Japan.
Japanese instinctively want to incubate giant eggs.
Giant lizards especially dinosaurs are natural enemies of giant moths especially in their larval form.
Does Godzilla have an innate compulsion to place schoolchildren in his movies?