Reminding myself of the time that a former employer told me he tried to get his teenaged sons to watch Godzilla and their response that the monster was nothing more than a man in a rubber suit, I went into "Mothra" expecting mediocre special effects, bad dubbing with stereotypical Japanese accents while speaking English (indeed, all the "l's are pronounced as "r's" and vice versa), and too much exposition and not enough science fiction. Yes, enough of those elements are there, but like the first "Godzilla" in retrospect, the film is actually quite enjoyable.
When some stranded Japanese are picked off the mountain range of a remote Pacific island, their rescue reveals that there's something going on the island which requires further research. Upon their return, they discover a beautiful jungle past the rocky mountain range where two foot high princesses are worshiped by jungle natives. The princesses are abducted and begin their song which is actually a call to their rescue to a mysterious creature named Mothra that the natives who survive do an exotic musical number to in order for the creature in the giant egg to break through and rescue the two beauties.
These lovely ladies are put on display in a freak show, coming out in a floating Cinderella coach like vehicle wearing obvious doll clothes. In fact, when the life-sized Japanese men pick the girls up, they are obviously dark-haired dolls the size of barbies, and when the military attack the invading monster (a giant caterpillar), the tanks are obviously kid's toys as well. Mothra is seen hatching, swimming across the ocean, destroying a navy vessel and finally slithering across Japan like a slug. Finally, she spins a cocoon which is scorched by the navy and is let loose with her giant wing span creating winds that threaten to destroy the country.
Cheesy fun, "Mothra" is a film that can be looked at both nostalgically for the type of fun cinema that us baby boomers had growing up before computer effects took over and how more was made out of less. You don't leave a film like this feeling like you need a bottle of aspirin to get over the headache that the loud noises leave you with, and there's also a lot left to the imagination as well. The two Japanese princesses are extremely sweet, sort of a stereotype of Japanese women as totally subservient, while the villains are extremely one dimensional, like the Japanese soldiers of those 1940's World War II propaganda films. At one point, they are all laughing maniacally, but like the old saying goes, "He who laughs first ends up laughing last."
When some stranded Japanese are picked off the mountain range of a remote Pacific island, their rescue reveals that there's something going on the island which requires further research. Upon their return, they discover a beautiful jungle past the rocky mountain range where two foot high princesses are worshiped by jungle natives. The princesses are abducted and begin their song which is actually a call to their rescue to a mysterious creature named Mothra that the natives who survive do an exotic musical number to in order for the creature in the giant egg to break through and rescue the two beauties.
These lovely ladies are put on display in a freak show, coming out in a floating Cinderella coach like vehicle wearing obvious doll clothes. In fact, when the life-sized Japanese men pick the girls up, they are obviously dark-haired dolls the size of barbies, and when the military attack the invading monster (a giant caterpillar), the tanks are obviously kid's toys as well. Mothra is seen hatching, swimming across the ocean, destroying a navy vessel and finally slithering across Japan like a slug. Finally, she spins a cocoon which is scorched by the navy and is let loose with her giant wing span creating winds that threaten to destroy the country.
Cheesy fun, "Mothra" is a film that can be looked at both nostalgically for the type of fun cinema that us baby boomers had growing up before computer effects took over and how more was made out of less. You don't leave a film like this feeling like you need a bottle of aspirin to get over the headache that the loud noises leave you with, and there's also a lot left to the imagination as well. The two Japanese princesses are extremely sweet, sort of a stereotype of Japanese women as totally subservient, while the villains are extremely one dimensional, like the Japanese soldiers of those 1940's World War II propaganda films. At one point, they are all laughing maniacally, but like the old saying goes, "He who laughs first ends up laughing last."