Godzilla VS Mothra (1964)
Produced and Released by: Toho Co. Ltd.
Director: Ishiro Honda
By Dr Kain

Introduction

Toho released two Godzilla movies in 1964, the first being Mothra vs. Godzilla. Mothra was introduced back in 1960 when he/she/it (this review will relate Adult Mothra as a female) stared in her own movie. Instead of rehashing a sequel, Toho decided to use the monster again, only facing up against another of its favorites, Godzilla.

The Story

A powerful typhoon ravages Japan, and a reporter named Ichiro Sakai (Akira Takarada) and his photographer Junko 'Yoka' Nakanishi (Yuriko Hoshi) are covering the story. During their efforts they find a weird looking metal object and touch it before they decide it would be best to let the experts handle it.

In the meantime, a giant egg appeares in the ocean by a village which sells it to the head of the Happy Enterprise company, Kumayama (Yoshifumi Tajima). He plans to use the egg as an attraction to make money off of.

While Kumayama is meeting his partner Banzo Torahata (Kenji Sahara), two little twin girls appear in front of them and beg them to return the egg. They refuse and try to capture the girls so they can make even more money by showing them off. The girls escape and soon run into Sakai, Yoka, and a scientist named Professor Miura (Hiroshi Koizumi). The girls tell the trio that the egg belongs to Mothra and it was washed away during the storm. If the egg is not returned and it hatches, the Mothra inside may destroy Japan. They take the girls to see Kumayama and Torahata to explain the situation, but they still refuse to give up the egg, and find it even more interesting now that it is known to be Mothra’s. The girls leave in disappointment, but thank Sakai, Yoka, and Miura for trying to help.

An incubator is built around the egg, and Kumayama and Torahata believes they could make even more money using the Mothra that will hatch as a side show. In the meantime, Sakai and Yoka were cleaned for any radiation they may have contracted from the piece of metal they found, and they take Miura to the location they found it in. After they go to the location, there is no trace of radiation until Godzilla emerges from the ground. He begins to wreck havok over Japan.

One of Sakai and Yoka’s co-workers makes a comment about having Mothra help save Japan and their boss thinks it is a great idea, so he sends them to Infant Island to see if Mothra would help Japan. Professor Miura joins them on their journey. On their arrival, they are taken to the leader of the natives living there, and he refuses to help them since they did not return the egg. They hear the girls singing, and shortly after they tell everyone that Mothra has said she will help fight Godzilla, even though she will not live through the battle.

The army has come up with plans to stop Godzilla, but their attacks are useless as they have no effect on him in the long run. While Godzilla is by the Happy Enterprise building, Kumayama gets into an argument with Torahata and they fight each other. Torahata kills Kumayama, but he is shortly killed as Godzilla destroys the building. Godzilla approaches the egg and destroys the incubator as Mothra arrives to save the egg and Japan.

The two monsters battle each other, but in the end Mothra is no match for Godzilla. She dies over the egg, and Godzilla leaves the area. Throughout the night, the military continues to use various tactics on Godzilla, hoping to defeat him, however they are unsuccessful.

As morning comes up, the twins begin to sing to wake up the Mothra inside the egg. Godzilla heads for an island that has some children and their teacher isolated on because all the boats left, and no one wants to rescue them. The egg finally hatches and two larvaes emerge from it and head for the island to fight Godzilla.

Once they get to the island, they spray their silk over Godzilla until he is trapped in a cocoon and falls into the ocean. The kids are saved, and the twins leave with Mothra to go back to Infant Island.

Review

Mothra vs. Godzilla was always one of my personal favorites from the Showa era and it still is. The movie’s plot was not that strong, but it did have nice sub-plots to it with the Happy Enterprise characters and while it was a little cheap on how they were wrapped up, they got what they deserved, especially Torahata. Unfortunately, this also seems to be the plot Toho decides to reuse multiple times in a couple of the later Mothra movies.

The monster designs are a mixed bag. Godzilla’s suit is definitely different from the one used in “King Kong vs. Godzilla,” but it does look better. Unfortunately, Godzilla’s snout just seems to want to fly off every time he shakes his head because it wobbles a lot. There are also some scenes during the Mothra fight where his neck turns abnormally as if it was a sock puppet. Adult Mothra on the other looked similar to the way she looked in her own movie, but more yellowish and hairy. She also seems to be a little too big in some shots while fighting Godzilla. The larvaes look the same as they do in every movie, and there really is not much to comment on them since they are just brown with ridges. The only problem with Mothra fighting Godzilla is there is not much she can do to attack him. She does not have feet, arms, or a tail to get really good hits on him. All she can do is scratch him with her legs, and spray him with some powder, but nothing that would really take on some powerful creature like Godzilla. Same goes for the larvae.

Most of the characters do look like they are from the year this movie was made in, but thankfully not as much as the movies from the seventies. Torahata and Kumayama do look like the bastards they are.

Like the designs, the special effects are also a mixed bag. Some scenes look really good, while others look bad. When Godzilla first appears, the shots in the background of him look really faded, and sometimes it looks like he was wearing the suit that was covered with Mothra’s silk. As I already mentioned, his neck makes some abnormal movements when he turns his head to fire at Mothra, and it just looks bad. Same thing with the shots of Mothra using her legs on Godzilla because you can tell they were fake.

The soundtrack itself is wonderful and is one of Akira Ifukube’s best. The music fits perfectly well with the flow of the movie and really helps to bring this one out. It is too bad he only did one soundtrack during the movies in the seventies, because if he did more of them the way he did this one, they would probably have ended up being a lot more enjoyable.

Conclusion

Well, there is really nothing else to be mentioned about this movie. It is one of the best movies from the Showa era, and if there is a Godzilla fan out there who has not seen they must have been living on another planet. Highly recommended, and one of Mothra’s best movies despite the negatives.

I give it 4/5 stars.

Dr Kain