Mosura tai GojiraAKA: Godzilla Fights the Giant Moth (1964), Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964), Godzilla vs. the Giant Moth (1964), Godzilla vs. The Thing (1964) (USA), Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), Mothra vs. Gojira (1964)
Directed By: Ishiro Honda
Cast:
Akira Takarada as Ichiro Sakai
Yuriko Hoshi as Junko Nakashini
Hiroshi Koizumi as Professor Miura
Yu Fujiki as Reporter Jiro Nakamura
Emi Ito as Shobijin
Yumi Ito as Shobijin
Yoshifumi Tajima as Kumayama
Released: April 29, 1964
Runtime: 89 Minutes
Language: Japanese
Color: Color
Sound: Mono
The fourth installment in the Godzilla movie series would feature the first clash between two of the studios most famous properties, Godzilla and Mothra. Once again the creative team of Shinichi Sekizawa (screenplay), Ishirô Honda (director), and Eiji Tsuburaya (special effects) would combine their efforts to create one of the better films in the series.
The films producers hoped to capitalize on the success of both 'King Kong vs Godzilla' and 'Mothra' and the storyline followed in line with events from both films. Mothra vs Godzilla proved to be very popular movie, both in its native Japan, and in the United States where it was released under the title 'Godzilla vs The Thing'. At the time of the films release, in September of 1964, American International Pictures had decided tha a giant moth just wasn't scary enough, so they changed the title and removed all images of Mothra from their promotional material. The distributer even went as far as to leak information the 'The Thing' was a giant tenticaled creature. This of course is not too surprising when you take into account all the publicity stunts that studios had gained a reputation for in the past.
The film opens with scenes of a monster typhoon destroying a a brand new ocean front resort. A news reporter named Sakai and his photographer Junko are sent out to retrive information about the disaster for a local newspaper. While trying to get the proper exposure for her photographs, Junko discovers a strange metalic looking object floating in the water. Sakai insists that she stop fooling around and get the photos he needs to go with his story.
The sites developer soon arrives on the scene and assures everyone that dispite the destruction his project will be finished on time. When he notices Sakai and Junko taking pictures of the damage he tries to persuade them to write a favorable story about him and his project. Sakai will have none of it.
Soon a huge egg is discovered floating just off the coast. A group of locol villagers manage to retrive it and bring it ashore so that they can claim it as their property. It is their hope that the egg will somehow bring them prosperity.
Once again Sakai and Junko are dispatched to cover the story. While Sakai and Junko try to ask Professor Miura, who is busy trying to take samples of the giant egg, questions about its origin, an entrepreneur of Happy Enterprises named Kumayama scurries the scientists off and explains that he bought the egg from the local villagers. The price of the sale was determined by taking the wholesale price of a chicken egg and multiplying it by the giant eggs mass. Instead of letting scientists study the egg, Kumayama wants to make it into a large tourist attraction. Sakai, Junko, and Professor Miura are disgusted and believe that Kumayama has no right to keep the egg.
While the three are discussing the egg at a hotel, they discover Kumayama checking in. Sakai wonders aloud if somebody else may be working with Kumayama and investigates the matter. Kumayama walks into Mr. Torahata's room, the head of Happy Enterprises. As the two are discussing the billion-dollar tourist attraction, two tiny twin girls, known as the Shojobin, interrupt them. The Shojobin explain that they are from "Mothra Island" (known in later Godzilla movies as "Infant Island") and that the egg belongs to a monster named Mothra who lives there. Torahata and Kumayama ignore the girls' pleads and try to capture them. The two entrepreneurs feel that the two miniature girls would be a perfect attraction to feature alongside the giant egg. The Shobijin, however, manage to magically disapear, leaving the two men with nothing, but an empty blanket for their troubles.
The Shobijin escape the room and meet with Sakai, Junko, and Professor Miura outside the hotel. The girls begthe trio to help them in their cause. The three promise to try as hard as they can to bring the egg back to Mothra Island, but they admit they don't know quite how to do it. The girls explain that if the egg is not returned, a larva will hatch and will cause great destruction to its surroundings. The Shobijin also explain that the larva would not wish to harm any humans, but that in their quest for food they would undoubtedly cause unwanted destruction. Sakai sets out to write several editorials that sway peoplesopinions about their cause but "...public opinion is powerless against the law."
The girls soon leave and even though they could not get the egg back, they thanked Sakai, Junko, and Miura for their kindness. While the three are testing for radioactivity in an industrial area, Godzilla suddenly pops out of a beach (supposedly where he has been resting since his deafeat at the hands of King Kong) and begins to attack the surrounding cities. Godzilla appears to still be 'hung over' from his bought with Kong and stumbles about the area, falling down on several occasions. Godzilla also manages to get his tail stuck in the base of a radio tower and pulls it over on himself while trying to get free. At this point it is easy to see why 'Clumzilla' would become easy prey for both Mothra and her offsping later in the movie.
The editor of Sakai's newspaper believes that the military cannot do anything against Godzilla and discusses it with Sakai and Junko. Jiro, another reporter who loves to eat eggs, walks in and suggests that Mothra might be able to defeat Godzilla. Sakai and Junko are skeptical that the island would agree because atomic testing had destroyed most of their island, and they had failed to return the egg to them.
The two reporters go to Mothra Island anyway with Professor Miura. They are captured by the local villagers and are brought to the tribe’s chief. The three ask for assistance but, as expected, are turned down because of the atomic testing that destroyed their island, and Japan's failure to return the egg.
The Shojobin are heard singing and everyone walks towards them. Sakai, Junko, and Miura ask the Shojobin for Mothra's assistance but they are also turned town. Junko then pleads to all the villagers that not everyone from Japan should be blamed for what happened to their island. Godzilla is killing everyone and refusing their country assistance Sakai then adds that "we're all human" and that everyone is connected and must help each other. Mothra's screech is soon heard and the Shojobin ask everyone to follow them. They convince Mothra to help Japan but the monster is weak. After the monster will fight Godzilla it will have no power to return to the island.
The next day, Kumayama barges into Torahata's room and demands Torahata to give him his money back that Torahata had recently swindled from Kumayama. The two get into a fistfight and Kumayama knocks Torahata down. Kumayama crawls into Torahata's money cabinet and begins to steal the money from it. Torahata wakes up and sees Godzilla approaching the hotel. He then grabs a gun and kills Kumayama. Torahata tries to escape with his money but Godzilla destroys the hotel, crushing the greedy head of Happy Enterprises to death.
Godzilla walks towards the egg and tries to destroy it until Mothra shows up. The two fight a tough battle where Mothra seems to have the upper hand. While on the ground, Godzilla fires his atomic ray into Mothra's face and kills her. Mothra dies with her wing resting on top of the egg. Godzilla walks away. The Shojobin then explain to Sakai, Junko, and Miura that the egg can be hatched today. The tiny twins soon begin to sing.
Meanwhile, the military tries to fight Godzilla by electrocuting him with "artificial lighting" but fail. The Shojobin continue singing and the monster egg finally hatches with not one, but two Mothra larvae. The Mothra larvae follow Godzilla to Iwa Island and use cocoon spray on Godzilla to wrap the giant monster up in a cocoon. Godzilla struggles as he becomes fully wrapped up and plunges into the ocean. The Mothra larvae celebrate and return to their island.
Trivia:1. In this film the name of Mothra's island home was changed from "Beiru" to "Infant Island"
2. The sequence where Godzilla is shot at with American "Frontier Missiles" does not appear in the original Japanese print of the film. It was filmed at AIP's request and added to the American and European cuts of the film.
3. Mothra is referred to as "The Thing" in AIP's dub of the film. It is never called that in any Japanese film.
4. At the end of the film a long cat and mouse sequence between Godzilla and the two Mothra Larva was edited down to only a few seconds. The scene had one Larva hide while the other attacked Godzilla. Then it would pop out from behind a rock and shoot silk at Godzilla while the other would hide and so on and so on.
A message about Classic Media's DVD Release of Mothra Vs Godzilla
Fans are really going to love these latest releases from Classic Media. Godzilla Raids Again & Godzilla vs Mothra are both great DVDs in line with last years release of Gojira / Godzilla King of the Monsters. The Japanese print of Godzilla vs Mothra is beautiful. There is also a great letter boxed print of Godzilla vs the Thing. Godzilla Raids Again turned out to be a better film than I thought it would be. Gigantis....well. It is what it is. The two documentaries are also very well done. I know everyone will love these!
Written By: Ken Hulsey
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