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Modern Mothra fans aren't used
to this. A highly destructive Mothra stars in
the 1961 classic: Mothra. As compared with
its remakes, this movie is done quite differently.
Mothra is not as benevolent as she would become
in future movies. Her usage in the movie is also
relatively minimal; and concentration is placed
foremost on the human aspect. Differences like
these don't hinder the movie. They instead come
together to form a unique film for Mothra fans
to enjoy in a different way.
The plot, unlike those in future
Mothra remakes, isn't recycled. It is quite original.
The survivors of a shipwreck are found on the
mysterious Infant Island. The island is desolate
around the exterior due to nuclear testing; however,
it is lush and green on the interior. An expedition
is launched from Japan to check out the island.
The expedition includes Senichiro Fukuda, a stow-away
reporter; a scientist by the name of Shin'ichi
Chujo; Clark Nelson, a devious entrepeneur; and
a number of other crewmembers. Upon arriving,
two 1 ft. tall twin fairies are discovered. The
greedy Clark Nelson attempts to abduct them for
profit, but the look of the ominous natives convinces
him that it is not the best idea. Clark Nelson
does return on a following expedition, bent on
capturing the fairies. This time around, he shows
no mercy in ruthlessly killing several natives
as he steals the Shobijin. One native caught in
the attack survives long enough to call to Mothra
for help... an insect of epic proportions that
has a psychic connection with the twin fairies.
The enormous moth larva reaches Japan and starts
to rampage as Nelson parades his captured fairies
for profit. Senichiro Fukuda, Michi Hanamura (a
photographer who works with Fukuda), Shin'ichi
Chujo and his son Shinji Chujo try to rescue the
fairies. When Mothra's presence becomes too close
for comfort and the government starts to realize
the connection between Nelson's fairies and the
destructive creature, Nelson flees for his homeland,
Rolisica. Mothra metamorphosizes into her imago
form and flies for New Kirk City, a major Rolisican
metropolis! The people of Rolisica, knowing of
Nelson's treachery, mob his auto. Paranoid, Nelson
shoots a policeman in the mob. Another policeman
manages to shoot Nelson, killing him. The fairies
are recovered, but Mothra is still wreaking havoc.
In order to attract Mothra, a significant symbol
from Infant Island is drawn on an airport runway.
Mothra lands on the runway, reunites with the
fairies, and returns to her island in peace.
Mothra is commonly known as the
positive, kind monster that Toho uses whenever
it needs to foil a deplorable enemy kaiju. However,
when the line, "thousands dead!" appears in a
movie that only contains Mothra, quickly erased
is any idea that Mothra is once again out for
peace. Mothra is benevolent, but only to the Infant
Islanders. When their fairies are stolen, all
is lain to waste in Mothra's quest to rescue them!
She shows no regard for any semblance of humanity
while she is on her rampage.
Despite the fact that Mothra was
made a menace in this film, she was used far too
minimally and far less effectively than in any
Mothra movie since. Overlooking how short the
Mothra scenes were, these stale scenes with ground-based
artillery versus either the crawling or flapping
monster did manage to become so old so soon that
the audience actually hopes for some human drama.
The pace of the human action is quite smooth,
but there is only so far a film can go with a
monster whose greatest weapon is locomotion.
The human aspect at least becomes
more interesting than it has in previous kaiju
movies of the time. The bland romance and anguish
in Rodan
(1956) and the drawn-out drama of Godzilla
Raids Again (1955) are overshadowed by
a much more upbeat and likeable acting style in
this movie. Frankie Sakai plays the most interesting
human of the film. His character: the bumbling,
slapstick, and always clever Senichiro Fukuda;
is one of only two characters who are really developed.
The evil Clark Nelson: the covetous, murderous,
paranoid, arrogant... well, he's an all-around
bad guy; becomes the only other character of which
a fair deal is known. Obviously, all of the effort
in character development was really put into the
main protagonist and the main antagonist; leaving
the rest of the characters to dot the plot and
add whatever necessary whenever necessary. As
far as the acting is concerned, it seems at times
as though it's laid on a little too thick. The
acting does come across as fun to watch, which
is one of the things that truly makes this movie
more enjoyable than some of its kaiju predecessors.
Frankie Sakai's acting style seems to pull a bit
from 1950s stand-up comedy, whereas Jerry Ito's
acting reminds one of a Saturday morning cartoon
villian. Ito's speckling of light, maniacal laughter
and his use of twisted grins help to quickly point
out that this character is up to no good. Kyoko
Kagawa's performance was also well done, despite
the fact that she wasn't used enough. The formula
for the photographer would be used again in the
1964 remake with much greater frequency, leading
to greater success from the roll of the photographer.
Ken Uehara's deadpan-scientist performance, quite
a common character amongst almost ALL monster
movies, works well to bring down the silliness
of Sakai's character, at times. Akihiro Tayama
seems to come across as yet another child actor
in a kaiju film, at face value at least. He beats
the stereotype, however, and does a great job
portraying the determined, kind child out to save
the day. Emi and Yumi Ito have the oddest rolls
in the movie... two twin fairies who mostly speak
simultaneously. For such an odd, unprecedented
roll; they manage to pull it off with such success
that the same formula for the twin fairies' acting
was recycled even beyond Emi and Yumi's career
as the Shobijin.
The Shobijin really do steal the
show, even from the title monster! Emi Ito and
Yumi Ito do a very good job at playing the innocent
and lovely Shobijin. The twin fairies, who show
sympathy and remorse for what their loyal monster
will do to Japan, come across as the most likeable
characters in the entire movie. In fact, Toho
must have thought so too. They reprised their
role in Mothra
vs. Godzilla (1964) and Ghidorah,
the Three-Headed Monster (1964). One more
thing to note is that Emi and Yumi Ito were a
popular musical duo known as the "Peanuts" around
the time they appeared in Mothra movies (source).
Their talent served them well, as they sang often
in their movies.
The special effects were a mixed
bag in this film. The shots of Mothra in all of
her forms were quite nice. The optical effects
used for the Rolisican heat ray were superbly
well done for the time too, especially when considering
Moguera's flat eye-beams from The
Mysterians (1957), only a few years earlier.
The heat ray appears to have become the inspiration
for the maser cannons of future movies, including
the recent Godzilla
Against Mechagodzilla (2002) and Godzilla:
Tokyo S.O.S. (2003). The biggest blemish
in the movie was the miniatures. The miniatures
went from bad to worse throughout the movie. The
tanks would have been so much more believable
if they had removed the lookout dolls. New Kirk
City had perhaps the worst problems of all the
miniatures. It was meant to look like a vast metropolis;
but instead it looked like what it truly was:
a small model city. The backdrop screens were
of poor quality too, and were done with no more
sophistication than in Rodan,
five years earlier. A final special effect problem
was the animated Mothra silhouette. Used mainly
near the end of the film, it looked more like
a gangly bird than a giant moth. Its usage is
understandable, as it was obvious througout the
film that Mothra's interaction with scenery was
limited.
The score for the film was quite
interesting. It had an almost Arabian quality
to it... increasing the romantic mystery of Mothra.
The use of the mysterious Shobijin songs was an
intriguing touch, as well. It would be an aspect
of this first movie that would be repeated in
future Mothra movies with great success.
There is one more thing worth mentioning
about this film. The addition of a non-existant
country: Rolisica, was an interesting plot device
that worked to create an allegorical subplot.
Despite the fact that it cannot be found on real
maps, this country can be seen as a definite symbol
of America and Russia. The greed of its native,
Nelson, can be seen as the perceived greed of
the American and Russian superpowers. The country's
devotion to Nelson can be seen as the blind arrogance
of the superpowers. America and Russia's lust
for the most superb nuclear energies can be seen
through the Rolisican atomic heat ray. Finally,
not to ignore the age old pattern of hiding allegorical
evidence in names; Rolisica and New Kirk City
both have a phonic similarity to Russia and New
York City respectively. While some may become
offended at these obvious connections, the symbolic
castigation is relatively mild and should only
be perceived as a well-thought out warning against
greed and arrogance.
Despite the
film's significance to the kaiju genre, it is
often dwarfed by its remake, Mothra
vs. Godzilla (1964). This is understandable,
because there is a lot to be desired from this
first movie. Aside from this, Mothra is
the movie that started the famous kaiju's long
and successful career. It's for this reason that
Mothra will go down in history as a classic.
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(3/5)