MOTHRA Movie Review

Mosura
Daikaiju Masura

Most fans of Japanese monster movies have their favorites, though sometimes this is a tough fact to drag out of adults in public. All the monsters have their charms. Godzilla is the king—this of course is undeniable—and his little smoke-ring-blowing son, Minya, is heir apparent. Rodan has that great wing span, and can knock over buildings (the same three buildings, actually, over and over) just by doing a fly-by. Gamera has to apologize to no one—he's the world's only jet-propelled, prehistoric flying turtle. Yet there's something about Mothra, and we all know what it is. It's the little twin princesses—the Alilenas—who sing their hearts out, pining to be reunited with the big moth who really belongs with them. They're great, and they're played by Emi and Yumi Itoh, who deserve some sort of lifetime achievement award. Where is justice? Mothra was one of the films that started to turn the tide in these movies, shifting certain monsters from destructors to good guys so that kids could root for them. They eventually all moved to Monster Island, a kind of Sun City for Japanese monsters.

NEXT STOP … Godzilla vs. Mothra, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla on Monster Island

1962 101m/C JP Yumi lto, Frankie Sakai, Lee Kresel, Emi lto; D: Inoshiro Honda; W: Shinichi Sekizawa; C: Hajime Koizumi; M:Yuji Koseki. VHS GKK