Subtitle Mothra 1961 UPDATED
Mothra (モスラ, Mosura) is a 1961 tokusatsu kaiju film directed by Ishiro Honda and written by Shinichi Sekizawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced by Toho, it is an adaptation of the serial novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra, published in Weekly Asahi earlier in 1961. It stars Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyoko Kagawa, Ken Uehara, Jerry Ito, and Takashi Shimura, with The Peanuts singing duo of Emi and Yumi Ito as the Shobijin. The film was released to Japanese theaters by Toho on July 30, 1961. Columbia Pictures released an edited English-dubbed version of the film to American theaters on May 10, 1962.
subtitle mothra 1961
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According to producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, the first draft of what became Mothra was written by Iwao Mori about half a year before production began. The reasoning behind the draft was to create a giant monster movie women would want to see. Tanaka was introduced to writer Shinichiro Nakamura by literary artist Hideyuki Shino, and asked him along with Takehiro Fukanaga and Yoshie Hotta to expand the idea into a novel. The novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra was serialized in Weekly Asahi beginning in January 1961, and became the basis for the film.
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Mothra (1961)Today I will be reviewing the original Mothra from 1961, a classic monster movie that introduces us to one of the most unique creatures seen on film. I've always had a love-hate thing going with the giant mutant moth Mothra, and I can't quite decide if I like her, or want her to get stomped and mangled by Godzilla. I'm in the minority if I dislike her, as Mothra has become one of the most popular monsters in Toho's zoo, especially in the last two decades and especially in Japan where they think a moth makes a good monster. Personally, I like my monsters with claws and teeth and covered with lots of sharp pointy things all over. A cute fuzzy moth just doesn't do it for me, but that's just my own taste. Mothra was released in Japan on July 30, 1961, and was first shown in America the following year by Columbia Pictures, who cut a few bits out and added a few bits in but didn't really change it that much. For this review, I will be using a 1988 Goodtimes Home Video VHS tape of the 91-minute Americanized print. The film quality is absolutely terrible, with badly washed-out color, looking 1930s vintage throughout most of the early scenes, and overly dark and murky throughout. I'm sure the DVD version is much better, but I don't have access to that. There are no subtitles, but the literature for this movie is extensive so that wasn't a problem. All the regular production staff from Toho were on this one: director Ishiro Honda, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, FX wizard Eiji Tsuburaya and writer Shinichi Sekizawa. As such, the production values are on par with other Toho films of the era, which is to say generally top-notch for the genre. An important note to begin with: In this movie, the bad guys are from the fictional country of "Rolisica". Despite this funky name, every single internal reference points to Rolisica being the big bad United States of America. Therefore, for the purposes of this review, I will refer to it as the United States. Purists be damned! And now on to our film...A quick word on the dubbing. Unlike most Toho films, which were dubbed with Australian or British voice actors, Mothra was dubbed with mostly Japanese actors speaking heavily accented English. The result is an authentic sound about the voices of the Japanese, who actually sound Japanese. Many a monster movie has been ruined by characters speaking in obvious Australian-accented English. The exceptions in this movie are the American characters, whose voices are dubbed by clearly American actors.I should also say here that Mothra exists in the same timeline as Godzilla. I think. While any other monsters are not explicitly mentioned in this movie, the appearance of Mothra does not elicit as much shock and awe as one would expect if Mothra was the first monster Japan (or the world) had seen. Of course, Mothra officially entered the Godzilla timeline in 1964's Godzilla versus Mothra I, and in that movie people definitely knew about Mothra and her island. Therefore, we can assume that in Mothra's timeline, Godzilla was around, but not recently. Indeed, Godzilla last appeared six years ago in 1955's Godzilla Raids Again, so I'm going to assume that people in this timeline knew about other monsters, but just failed to mention them. [Editor Pam: The human spirit is very resilient, and I suppose that next to a giant radioactive fire-breathing whatever-Godzilla-is, a big moth doesn't look so bad.] Ok, the opening credits are in English, with some blaring horn set playing over them. Of note is that Columbia Pictures gets top billing but Toho Films does not appear anywhere in the opening credits. The Toho logo does appear in the closing credits, but that seems insulting to the Japanese company that did 99% of the film. We open in the teeth of a South Seas typhoon, placed explicitly in the Caroline Islands. A container ship named the Kinu Maru is deep in the storm, being tossed around by the ferocious winds and raging waves. The crew sees that they have been pushed near "Beiru Island", which they know is an atomic bomb test site. I should note that in all future Mothra movies, Beiru Island is called "Infant Island". The change in names is a mystery, but there's nothing to suggest that they are two separate islands. For this review, because they use it in this movie, I will go with "Beiru Island". Beiru Island.Back to the film. The atomic testing site is the least of the Kinu Maru's worries as suddenly she's driven aground on a reef. Taking water, the ship begins to settle, the captain orders abandon ship, and the men take to lifeboats. In the miserable weather, it will be a miracle if any of them survive. And indeed, we later see that only four men will come back alive. Some time, perhaps days after the storm passes through the area, a search team is sent out to look for survivors from the ship. We see a helicopter flying around Beiru Island, looking for survivors while keeping high enough to avoid the lingering radiation. The chopper is an American-built Bell 47, tail coded JA7426 and it came from a Japanese Navy ship named the Satsuma. The ship appears to be a former US Navy destroyer escort, one of many loaned to Japan following the war, though I've not been able to track it down any further. The helicopter pilot, by the way, is played by none other than Kenji Sahara, the veteran Toho actor making a cameo appearance here. Pilot Sahara.Suddenly, they spy four men on the rocky shore, waving frantically to them. These are the four ship survivors. A launch from the Satsuma is sent for them and they are brought back to safety. Now, logic would say that men exposed to that much radiation would be heavily contaminated and terminally ill, but these men are physically healthy. Back in Japan, they are taken to the "National Sythesis Nucleus Center" (really, that's what it says on the sign outside the building). There they are examined by a bunch of scientists who are at a loss to explain their survival. The sailors provide the answer themselves: the islanders that rescued them from the sea gave them a special juice to drink. This juice must have somehow kept them safe from the radiation. This admission sets the scientists abuzz. The amazing anti-radiation juice is forgotten in the excitement about the possibility of people living on an island that has been A-bombed by the Americans. The Japanese press leaps on the story and runs with it. The scientists talk with the survivors.As the media circus develops, we meet our two reporter heroes, a newspaper reporter and his photographer. The reporter is named Senichiro Fukuda, played by 32-year old Frankie Sakai, a popular comedic actor known for funny roles in much lighter movies than Mothra. He reminds me of a Chris Farley-type, but from a different era of comedy. In this movie, his nickname is "Bulldog", because "once he gets a hold of a story he never lets go". BTW, in the Japanese version, his nickname was "Snapping Turtle". I'm not sure why the American editors changed it to "Bulldog". Bulldog.Bulldog's photographer is a young woman named Michi Hanamura, played by 30-year old Kyoko Kagawa, who was just seen as Princess Miyazu in 1959's epic The Birth of Japan. She would go on to have a stellar movie career, most notably with famed director Akira Kurosawa. I noticed her in 1957's The Lower Depths, playing Toshiro Mafune's love interest, where she looked simply delightful. She will be this film's Designated Hottie, a strong, self-confident woman, fully capable of doing her job as well as any man and still look smashing doing it. She once says that she doesn't believe anything that she "can't see through her lens", a mantra that will be challenged early and often. The horrid film quality and her very conservative fashion style don't allow me to give a good picture of her beauty, but she has a full, expressive face and a curvy figure. Michi!We also meet our requisite scientist hero. He's an ethnologist and linguist (really!) named Professor Shinichi Chujo, I will just call him "Professor Smartyhead" for this review. Together with the reporters, Professor Smartyhead will be the voice of reason and intelligence as the monster mayhem starts up. Professor Smartyhead.Ok, the scientific community organizes an expedition to go and investigate the island and the mysterious natives. The Americans claim that they checked before they started bombing it and there was no one living there, so they are just as surprised as anyone. The American businessman Clark Nelson is named the head of the team, over the objections of the ranking Japanese scientists. Nelson is played by Jerry Ito, an American actor living in Japan. Curiously, Ito could not speak Japanese, and his lines were dubbed in the Japanese version as well as the American version. Physically, he resembles a young Harry Connick, Jr., but the voice talent that dubs his voice is channeling a creepy Bela Lugosi here. You will learn to hate Nelson as soon as he shows up on the screen, he's an oily, slimy, smarmy business mogul who has no concern for anything but money and feeding his own ego. If this is really what Japanese thought of Americans in 1961, then it's a sad indictment. In truth, there were probably a lot of greedy, selfish American capitalists in Japan at the time, still taking advantage of America's one-sided postwar relationship with Japan. Nelson.Almost immediately, Nelson begins to assert his presumed authority. He first bans all reporters from the trip, ostensibly because they would just get in the way. He then orders that all scientific observations and experiments conducted on the island must be cleared with him before being written up. The scientists are understandably upset and the press begins to wonder what Nelson might be trying to hide. But the mission goes on. The team is to be transported to the island by a Japanese Navy ship. I think this is a different one than the Satsuma, as this one has "PC-104" on the hull in English and looks much smaller. At the docks, the crowd seeing the ship off is festive and ecstatic (are scientific missions usually the cause of such public spectacles?). As the ship leaves the quays, we see that Bulldog has slipped aboard, though how he did it is a mystery. Michi looks for him in the crowd but he's gone. The PC-104.We cut to Nelson in his cabin a while later. He hears a noise and pulls a snub-nosed automatic pistol from a drawer. He's surprised to find Bulldog sniffing around, posing as a cabin steward. Nelson finds his press credentials on him, however, and the jig is up. Nelson doesn't toss him off the ship, however, maybe because he doesn't want any bad publicity. So he makes Bulldog a member of the expedition once he promises not to do any "reportering". Bulldog is assigned as a guard. During the long trip, the Japanese begin to bristle at Nelson's heavy-handed orders and seemingly endless megalomania. Professor Smartyhead is the most vocal, even confronting Nelson face-to-face once and admirably not backing down. However, Nelson holds all the cards and the Japanese are forced to accede to most of his demands. Arriving at the island, the men put on radiation suits with large clear faceplates. They carry a number of scientific machines and several of them (including Bulldog) carry M-14 carbines. In general, the Japanese scientists keep to themselves, and Nelson and his American henchmen operate independently. The suited team.Most improbably, they find that the center of the island is covered with a lush thick tropical jungle! Clearly, something is counteracting the effects of the hard-dose radiation, which should have made the island sterile. Professor Smartyhead wanders off a bit, looking for something in a cave. Soon he's entangled in a man-eating vine with dangling tentacles that comes to life and starts to choke him! Some freaky vampire plant, maybe mutated by the radiation? In the struggle, his safety alarm is triggered, sending out a high-pitched siren. The siren attracts two tiny girls, natives to the island and only a foot tall. The editing here is a little murky, but it seems that the girls get the killer plant to lay off Professor Smartyhead. He then passes out. The rest of the men also hear the siren and come running, finding Professor Smartyhead unconscious but mostly unhurt. Professor Smartyhead is taken back aboard the ship and treated in the sick bay. When he wakes, he tells them all of the killer plant and the two tiny girls. At first they think he's delusional, but he manages to convince them of his sanity enough to get them to go back to the island to look for the girls.The Professor in the sickbay.And so the expedition returns, this time sounding their sirens on purpose to attract the girls. It works and they discover that Professor Smartyhead was telling the truth. These 12-inch tall girls will prove to be the "Shobijin", the Priestesses of Mothra, and little smoking' hotties. The twin girls are played by the sisters Emi and Yumi Ito, both just 20-years old. These girls formed the insanely popular singing duo "The Peanuts", who traveled the world singing Japanese pop tunes and covering such American standards as "Proud Mary" and several Paul Anka tunes. In 1959, they had hit number one on the Japanese pop charts with their debut album, so they would have been instantly recognizable to audiences in 1961. They would reprise their role as the Mothra Fairies in two more movies after this one. In keeping with a tradition I established years ago, I will refer to them as "Mary-Kate and Ashley" for the remainder of this review. Mary-Kate and Ashley.The Japanese scientists are duly impressed with the girls, and chatter amongst themselves about what to do now. Nelson and the Americans, being Americans, of course just grab them and pick them up. This effect is realized by the use of dolls and fast editing cuts and is surprisingly well done. Nelson even pulls a gun on Bulldog when he attempts to intervene. As the girls are being rough-handled, suddenly the trees part and the group is surrounded by a multitude of half-naked, full-sized native islanders. These are your typical South Seas natives, with loincloths and well-tanned bodies, and they beat threateningly on rocks as they approach (screenwriter Sekizawa spent much of WWII starving on isolated atolls in the South Pacific, and his wartime experiences with natives seem to show up in all his movies). The Americans, being Americans, want to shoot their way out, but the Japanese override that and order them to lower their guns. Perhaps feeling a bit unsure for the moment, Nelson relents and orders his men to stand down. He releases Mary-Kate and Ashley, who run off into the jungle. The natives.The natives were clearly here just to protect the girls, and as soon as they are released the situation settles down. The expedition retreats to the shore without further incident. I guess this was the last trip to the island, as the ship now leaves for Japan. Hmmm...they didn't do what they intended to do, did they? They were here to check on the natives and figure out why and how they were here. So two questions will remain unanswered here. One, who are these islanders and where did they come from? From the looks of their society and infrastructure, they have clearly been on this island for some time, so we have to assume that the Americans lied when they said they checked before they bombed it. We're never given any deeper background to this society, where they came from, how long they have been here, anything. And two, we never get any more dialogue about the magical properties of the anti-radiation juice. Certainly this juice would be worth a fortune, and we wonder why Nelson never seeks to exploit it, as he logically should. [Editor Pam: "Worth a fortune" is putting it mildly, and "magical" is the correct adjective. There is unquestionably no such juice in our timeline. This really makes me wonder why Nelson is there, because I assumed that the reason he connived his way into the expedition was to find out if the natives had something to protect themselves against radiation, and if so, could he make money from it.] So the expedition returns to Japan amongst much fanfare. The Japanese and the Americans then go their separate ways. Apparently, all parties made an oral agreement not to talk about the two little girls, all agree that they are best left on the island and unknown to a world that would probably mess with them. In an interlude, Bulldog and Professor Smartyhead discuss Nelson and his motivations. Bulldog is certain that the American is an "art thief", and might sneak back and try and raid Beiru Island's native villages. Professor Smartyhead admits that when he was in the cave before the vampire plant attacked him, he found some inscriptions. He has a copy of them and he shows his research to Bulldog. Professor Smartyhead is certain that the language is related to Polynesian and he can read some of it. Of note is a repeated word: "Mothra"!Back at his newspaper, Bulldog is confronted by his editor, who wants to know why Bulldog won't file a story on the natives or the girls. Bulldog is conflicted by his reporter instincts and his deep feelings for the safety of the natives. The editor is not so sympathetic, asking, "Are you a reporter or a social worker?" To which Bulldog sighs and replies, "In this case, I don't know." The editor is played by 56-year old Takashi Shimura, one of the greatest actors of the century, of any nation. By 1961, he was already a recognizable face, having played the noble Doctor Yamane in the original Godzilla from 1954 and numerous prime roles in Kurosawa Sam