| Godzilla’s finest hour,
it is. This film had some of the best effects
and one of the best musical scores of the time.
I still have my 2002 Classic Media DVD, and I
highly enjoy it. This undoubtedly my favorite
Godzilla film of all.
A gigantic egg washes up on the
shore of Japan. The anomaly is claimed by Happy
Enterprises (run by Jira Torahata), who want to
use the mysterious object to attract tourists.
The greedy businessman and co- founder of Happy
enterprises, Kumayama is visited by the tiny six-inch
fairies: the Shobijin, who are the psychic links
to egg's monstrous mother: Mothra. The Shobijin
attempt to convince Kumayama to return the egg,
to no avail. The next day, radiation tests are
performed in the area near the egg's landing...
an enormous sedimentary basin created by a ravaging
storm. Godzilla emerges from the soft ground and
begins to rampage throughout Japan. The Shobijin
are visited by their friends Yoka and Ichiro Sakai
on Infant Island, for they want Mothra to fight
against Godzilla and save humanity. The islanders
disagree, recalling the atomic horrors that befell
the island due to humankind's ignorant recklessness.
Nevertheless, the benevolent Mothra reluctantly
agrees, despite her close proximity to death.
Yoka and Ichiro return to Osaka as Godzilla continues
his malicious march. When all seems lost, Mothra
and the Shobijin finally arrive. The Imago Mothra
fights Godzilla valiantly until her death. The
Shobijin try desperately to get the egg to hatch,
and succeed. The two larvae drive away Godzilla,
and the day is saved.
The acting in this film is performed
fairly well. Yuriko Hoshi puts in a good performance
as Yoka. Especially touching is her speech about
how not all people in the world are evil, and
that good as well as bad are being killed. Kenji
Sahara puts in an excellent performance as Torahata,
his slickness giving him a "slimey"
impression. Equally wonderful is Yoshibumi Tajima’s
performance as Kumayama. The development, on the
other hand, is very slow, and by the end, no changes
have taken place in anybody’s character
and personality.
Now, onto the monsters. Godzilla
certainly looks good here, and his entrance into
the film is still convincing and chilling today.
He pops out of the ground, shaking himself off
from the dust and dirt. His atomic ray is detailed,
not like the next film, where all the money was
spent on King Ghidorah’s gravity beams (reverting
Godzilla’s breath weapon into the "aerosol
spray can" effect). The spines shimmer a
deep blue when his trademark weapon is fired.
As for Mothra, she looks like an actual insect
here, not like her "plush toy" Leo form
we see about 32 years later. The larvae have a
fluid, organic effect to their walk, slinking
along as they move about. The webs the larvae
shoot have never looked better than this, aesthetically
silkish. Eiji
Tsuburaya’s special effects are their
best here.
Akira
Ifukube’s score is excellent. He perfects
most of the famous pieces from the original Godzilla
(1954) here, with an ultra dark and menacing
sound for Godzilla’s theme, a beautifully
redone Mothra chant (improved from the original).
The orchestral theme for Mothra is also quite
beautiful and haunting, most effectively utilized
when the Imago Mothra dies, decrementing and fading
slowly into Godzilla’s theme.
Overall, I
could sum it up in these three words: Godzilla’s
Finest Hour. I would recommend this film to any
monster movie lover, especially G-fans.
|
(4.5/5)