Do mysteries of wonder still exist or are they obsolete?

Near an atomic test area a Japanese ship is run aground during a typhoon. After the storm a rescue party finds four sailors alive and strangely unaffected by radiation sickness. Their health is attributed to a juice given to them by island natives.

A scientific expedition is sent to the island led by capitalist Clark Nelson (Jerry Ito). Also on the expedition are radiation specialist Dr. Harada (Ken Uehara), linguist and anthropologist Shin'ichi Chujo (Hiroshi Koizumi), and stowaway reporter Fukuda (Frankie Sakai). Chujo is saved from a man-eating plant by two girls that are only twelve inches tall (Emi and Yumi Ito). Chujo studies some hieroglyphics from the island. He translates one as Mothra.

Nelson returns to the island and kidnaps the girls. He puts them on display. The girls and the natives back on the island call to their deity Mothra. Back on the island a giant egg hatches. Inside is a giant caterpillar. It swims the Pacific Ocean toward Japan and the girls. On the way it destroys a cruise ship. It is attacked with napalm but it keeps coming. When Mothra arrives it is attacked by the Japanese forces. Mothra appears to be impervious. It builds a cocoon. When the cocoon hatches the adult Mothra begins destroying Japan.

“Mothra” is a TOHO production. It was released in 1961 and was directed by Ishiro Honda. The English dubbed version was released in 1962. Mothra is the third TOHO monster after Godzilla and Rodan. She is the first female monster by TOHO. Although she is most referred to as a Moth, many note that her appearance is more like a Peacock Butterfly. And she has mandibles instead of a proboscis. Although most moths have proboscis there are a few that have mandibles. Since Mothra is an ancient god, I suppose she can look any way she wants to. Besides her real name is Mosura, which means “Giver of Life”. Mothra's adult form is a wire-operated mechanical puppet. The larva Mothra was a puppet suit operated by six stuntmen crawling in single file. There are lots of wonderful miniatures destroyed which is a TOHO trademark.

Mothra is supposedly a benevolent monster. If so, I would hate to see her pissed off. Her aim is to get her Shobijin back to the island where they belong. In doing so she has devastated most of Japan. This results in billions of dollars in damages. On top of that thousand of people were killed. All except the bad guy that stole them in the beginning. He gets shot by police.

Originally there were suppose to be four “fairies” or Shobijin (little beauties) however it was reduced to two and twins were used as twins are relatively rare in Japan. Thus the use of twins added more of a mystique to the Mothra story. The twins used in the movie, Yumi and Emi Ito, were a singing group known as “The Peanuts”. They appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1966 singing “Lover Come Back To Me”. They were in three Mothra movies, Mothra, Mothra vs. Godzilla, and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.

Mothra Song: Mothra oh Mothra, if we were to call for help, over time, over sea, like a wave. You’d come, our guardian angel.

When I first saw Mothra I was a kid, and it was a black and white TV. I never knew that she was as colorful as she really is. She seemed a lot more sinister in black and white. Even so “Mothra” is not a horror movie. It’s a fantasy/science fiction movie. Mothra may be listed as the monster, but it’s people that are really the bad guys.

English dubbed

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