Mothra

The first kaiju film from Honda that actually feels like it owes something to the original King Kong, Mothra was Toho’s efforts at appealing explicitly to the female part of the movie-going audience. You see, Mothra is a girl this time. And there’s singing. Other than that, it’s pretty typical of this era in terms of kaiju action. The character work is thinner than it needs to be. The action is big and brash and fun. There’s an effort at a different kind of movie for a while because Honda already seemed bored of kaiju movies when he started making them. It comes together in a decently entertaining package that doesn’t quite work totally but is a somewhat fun time while it lasts.

A ship wrecks in a storm off the coast of Infant Island, and a rescue operation finds four survivors on the coast. This is remarkable considering the levels of radiation there due to atomic bomb testing (yup, there it is). They attribute their survival to a juice that the locals gave them, initiating an effort by the Japanese government to try and organize an exploratory and scientific team to see what’s going on in the island’s interior. They invite the involvement of the Rolisican government. What is Rolisica? It’s a combination of how the Japanese say Russia and America, but mostly it’s just a thinly veiled America (the movie ends in New Kirk City, not Kirkcow). Anyway, the Japanese government wants Dr. Shinichi Chujo (Hiroshi Koizumi) to be part of the time since he was part of the Rolisican government’s previous expedition. There’s a bit where he’s shy about having his picture taken by two reporters, Fukuda (Frankie Sakai) and Michi (Kyoko Kagawa). It leads to nothing other than a reveal of stubble on his face, though.

The expedition is led by Clark Nelson (Jerry Ito), a Rolisican who’s obviously not trustworthy from the moment we see him. I think the film is perhaps most interesting during the actual expedition. It’s like a natural adventure where professionals go into a strange new place and discover strange new sites. There are strange plants, strange rock formations, strange words etched into rock. All of this is given a lighter tone by including Fukuda who sneaks on board the ship as a cabin boy and gets accepted as part of the expedition as long as he promises to not write about it (any excuse to keep these characters around, it seems). The central strange sight is a pair of diminutive princesses (Yumi and Emi Ito).

One of my biggest problems with the film is how a bunch of the elements never seem to come together into a cohesive whole, and Nelson becoming greedy at the prospect of becoming a stage producer with these little princesses is probably the biggest example. According to the dialogue, he’s actually a meteorologist. I mean, it’s a leap that the film never tries to bridge. He’s just evil and wants to put the princesses on stage (this is where the connection to the original King Kong is most apparent). There’s also a weirdness where there was obviously a late editing choice to get Nelson kidnapping the princesses at a different point, but not that different. It seems like, originally, he just went back at night while the ship was just off the coast and picked them up, but the film puts the scene after they get back to Japan. I suppose it’s supposed to paper over the idea that he’d have the princesses without anyone noticing on a closed ship for days or weeks (I’d imagine there are deleted scenes around it), but it’s still weird to see it play out.

The film then focuses on Nelson’s successful efforts to make money off the princesses singing, but they are telepathic and singing back to the other natives of Infant Island (all regular sized for some reason), a song they use to wake up the titular Mothra. We get lost in some business of Chujo, Fukuda, and Michi trying to convince Nelson to let the princesses go. There’s also a bit about coming up with a material that will block their telepathic powers that Nelson ends up using to hide the fact that he’s fleeing Japan for New Kirk City. All this time, Mothra steadily awakes.

Now, in terms of the monster action (Eiji Tsuburaya is always the star of these), this is interesting because it’s the first in Honda’s filmography where the monster has multiple forms. The first is the larval stage, erupting from the giant egg, swimming across the sea, and heading towards Tokyo, the last place she sensed the princesses. She causes destruction, the Japanese defense forces unable to make a dent in her thick skin, until she gets to the Tokyo Tower and forms a cocoon. Her life cycle for such a large monster is really fast, but monster movie. Let’s get on with it.

I would just say that monster action happens with Mothra developing her wings, flying across the world, and leveling a good part of New Kirk City, but there’s an extra bit in the resolution where Chujo recognizes a similarity between one of the prominent symbols found on the island and a cross on top of a church, haloed by the sun. Normally, if you do this sort of thing, especially with one of the most recognizable symbols on the planet, you’re doing it to draw some sort of comparison. I was reminded of the 1976 version of King Kong which had a visual comparison between the World Trade Center in NYC and some large rock formations on Skull Island. That felt like coincidence and a direction to look for Kong. This, though? It feels like there’s supposed to be some kind of intended meaning. If I were being generous, I’d say it’s an implication that Christianity is right in some way, but this is a Japanese film written by Shinichi Sekizawa who never seemed to put meaning into his films one way or the other. It just ends up feeling random, but the use is so prominent. It’s the second big thing in the film where stuff just doesn’t come together in ways that it feels like it should.

Anyway, the monster action is inventive and good (also adorable, I love miniatures). The character work is thin but functional except for Nelson who has some logical leaps in characterization. It looks good, moves quickly, and has some nice sights along the way. It’s decently entertaining as it plays out, but it really could have used a rewrite.

Rating: 2.5/4