Mosura
Tags: fantasy

Plot synopsis:
An expedition to an irradiated island brings civilization in contact with a primitive native culture. When one sensationalist entrepreneur tries to exploit the islanders, their ancient deity arises in retaliation.
In waters off Infant Island, a presumed uninhabited site for Rolisican atomic tests, the Daini-Gen'you-Maru is caught and run aground in the turbulence of a typhoon. A rescue party following the storm finds four sailors alive and strangely unafflicted with radiation sickness, which they attribute to the juice provided them by island natives. The story is broken by tenacious reporter Zenichiro (also known as "Bulldog" or "Zen-chan") Fukuda (Sakai) and photographer Michi Hanamura (Kagawa), who infiltrate the hospital examining the survivors.
The Rolisican Embassy responds by co-sponsoring a joint Japanese–Rolisican scientific expediction to Infant Island, led by capitalist Clark Nelson (Ito). Also on the expedition are radiation specialist Dr. Harada (Ken Uehara), linguist/anthropologist Shin'ichi Chūjō (Koizumi), and stowaway reporter Fukuda. Chūjō has studied the cultures of islands in the area and ascertained that one of the key hieroglyphs in their written language, a radiant cross-shaped star, translates as Mothra. There the team discover a vast jungle of mutated flora, a fleeting native tribe, and two young women only twelve inches tall (Emi and Yumi Itō), who save Chujo from being eaten by a vampire plant. The "Shobijin" (small beauties), as Fukuda dubs them, wish their island to be spared further atomic testing. Acknowledging this message, the team returns and conceals these events from the public.
Nelson, however, returns to the island with a crew of henchmen and abducts the girls, gunning down several natives who try to save them. While Nelson profits off a "Secret Fairies Show" in Tokyo featuring the girls singing, both they and the island natives beseech their god Mothra, a giant egg, for help. Fukuda, Hanamura, and Chūjō communicate with the young women via telepathy; they express conviction that Mothra will come to their aid and warn that "good people are sure to be hurt". Meanwhile, Fukuda's newspaper has accused Nelson of holding the girls against their will; Nelson denies the charge and files a libel suit against the paper. Meanwhile, the island egg hatches to reveal a gigantic caterpillar, which begins swimming the Pacific Ocean toward Japan. The caterpillar destroys a cruise ship and survives a napalm attack on a beeline path for Tokyo. The Rolisican Embassy, however, defends Nelson's property rights over the girls, ignoring any connection to the monster.
Mothra finally arrives on the Japanese mainland, impervious to the barrage of weaponry directed at it, ultimately building a cocoon in the ruins of Tokyo Tower. Public feeling turns against Nelson, and he is ordered to release the girls. He flees incognito to Rolisica, where Mothra, newly hatched in an imago form, immediately resumes her search. Police scour New Kirk City for Nelson as Mothra lays waste to the metropolis. Ultimately, Nelson is killed in a shootout with police, and the girls are assigned to Chūjō's care. Church bells begin to ring, and sunlight illuminates the cross atop the steeple with radiant beams, reminding Chūjō and Hanamura of Mothra's unique symbol and of the girls' voices. Chūjō hits upon a novel way to attract Mothra to an airport runway. The girls are returned amid salutations of "sayōnara", and Mothra flies back to Infant Island.

Review: This is the first Mothra movie, a story where a corrupted businessman kidnaps tiny twin priestesses on radiated Infant Island to exploit them for profit gain.
This angers the island's guardian goddess named Mothra, who awakens and goes in search for the kidnapped twins, threatening to leave a wake of destruction along the way.
For this movie, there is a great screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa, imaginable effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, good directing by Ishiro Honda and a beautiful music score (though not by Akira Ifukube, Yuji Koseki composed an equally superb music score).
This movie has the usual elements in any "kaiju" movie: military, city destruction, tropical islands, scientists, reporters, natives and villains.We get to see the very first appearance of Mothra's tiny twin priestesses, played here by the "Peanuts," a popular Japanese singing-duo.
The male lead, played by Frankie Sakai, was hilarious and provided most of the comic relief in this action-packed monster flick.The natives' rituals and chants to awaken Mothra are spellbinding and enchanting, some of the greatest piece of cinema work I've seen.
Overall, this film is a great introduction to Mothra, who would go on to appear in many other monster movies, most notably alongside Godzilla in his many sequels, produced by Toho.
MOSURA (1961, released in the USA as MOTHRA) is like no other monster movie.
The chase goes from Tokyo to Newkirk City (I guess this is suppose to be a little real life hamlet just south of Yonkers!) What I really love about MOTHRA is that it has many things most other monster movies don't.
Mothra is what I call part of the holy trio of the Toho monsters (the other two being, of course, Godzilla and Rodan).
The Japanese people represented by some scientists and a chubby newspaper reporter and his sidekick photographer try to rescue the girls and return them to their home before Mothra, a giant caterpillar then moth, comes to Tokyo to retrieve them, leaving devastation in its wake.
The film has many beautiful color backgrounds, some great music(love the song the Ito sisters sing), solid acting from all, and some pretty nice miniature sets.
The "monster" itself really is good, despite its destruction of the Japanese countryside, part of Tokyo, and New Kirk City in Roscilica(Beats me where the names here came from).
Though not a great fan of the Godzilla universe movies I cannot deny their quality, their charm and how much they accomplished with creating the universe in general.Here we see the debut of Mothra getting her own film, a character who would go onto be one of the most commonly seen creatures.It tells the story of a rich businessman who kidnaps two tiny ladies from their native land to use in show business.
In doing so Mothra was summoned to retrieve them using any means necessary even if it means the entire destruction of Tokyo in the process.Mothra actually looks good for it's day, there is no man in a goofy suit as usual and Mothra in both infant and adult forms look far better than you'd expect.The cast are less generic than usual, the lead is fairly comedic and the whole thing feels above average within this original kaiju film.Certainly one of the better films of the series that I've seen thus far, but still highly niche.The Good:Some of the sfx are quite good for their dayCharacter development is better than usualThe Bad:Still highly cheesyA few weak points in the plotThings I Learnt From This Movie:Stowaways are not only not punished but they are given gunsA gigantic monster worm in a coccoon isn't newsworthyThe transitional phase for giant moths is a peanut.
It is a good story and gets to the heart of the Mothra myth with the singing fairies that summon him.While maybe not as iconic as Godzilla, Mothra is a kaiju worthy of his own film series (which he has), and those interested in Toho's work really ought to check it out..
In the beginning, though, the lepidopteran made its debut in this old-fashioned monster flick.1961's Mothra runs pretty evenly, allowing the story to breathe adequately before dishing out some modest mass destruction.
As the original feature, however, the only formula this film adheres to is that of the classic monster picture, with a bit of adventure thrown in, and it's neat that way.The story's pretty much outlined above; it is a well-structured plot with a cast of alright (and sometimes goofy) characters.
With all the fairies and monsters on display, I always felt that Mothra was a grade more unbelievable than most other monster movies, but thanks to the film's earnest tone, it works as a fine and dandy fantasy (and it's pretty neat to see such fantasy being opposed by modern and ultramodern weaponry).
Music is not bad either.No matter how silly or fantastic it gets, I have a soft spot for Mothra, especially in seeing her future clashes with Godzilla and other monsters.
The first and most original Mothra film presents the basics of Mothra-lore, which in turn echoes parts of the original King Kong, and would stand proudly next to classic monster flicks like Godzilla.
The two "peanuts" call to their protector Mothra for aid, and the title monster travels to Japan to save the little ladies, while leaving unintended harm and destruction in its path.Mothra is a sympathetic character which became popular and went on to co-star in many more Toho adventures.
The female creature starts out as a gigantic crawling caterpillar, but late in the movie emerges out of its self-spun cocoon, as a huge and colorful flying moth that causes intense catastrophic winds when flapping its wings.
I have always been a big fan of the charming little song that the twin fairies sing in honor of their savior, Mothra.
I first seen mothra back in the 70's on chiller theater channel 11 in new jersey,its not a chiller nor a scary movie.its a very well made sci fi fantasy about two twin women who are like 12 inches high that are kidnapped by a Japanese gangster while on an expedition on an island.well the twin girls have a guardian on the island,the god of their people,she is called mothra.now this is the debut of mothra and it begins as a giant caterpillar that eventually turns into a very pretty colorful moth that gracefully destroys Tokyo,not like Godzilla rodan and others.but mothra means well,the bad guy is the gangster(jerry Ito)who played a cop in the manster(59)and his thugs.so japan suffers because the twin girls are captive.the special effects are very good,not cheesy like most of the Japanese monster films.i believe mothra was made earlier then 1961,it was released by Columbia pictures in 1961 and dubbed for the American audiences.mothra was always my favorite of all the Japanese monster movies,sorry Godzilla.but mothra rocks.a very good movie for children and adults.10 out of 10.a must see for all Japanese monster fans.kudos to toho for producing a great gem like mothra..
Investigating the mysterious survival of a shipwrecked crew who had been exposed to radiation, an expedition (including the usual 'resourceful reporter' characters) lands on an ostensibly uninhabited tropical Island only to find a native culture who worship a deity called 'Mothra'.
"Mothra" (and her sequel 1964's "Godzilla vs the Thing") are among the best of Toho's daikaiju films.
The movie is very well done with a strong story and good human characters (admittedly somewhat stereotypical) supporting the titular monster who, in both her forms, is imaginative, engaging, and very well executed.
The two fairies, who in some form or another accompany Mothra in most of her movie outings, are played by the singing twins "The Peanuts" (Emi and Yumi Ito) who also star in "Godzilla vs the Thing" and "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster" (1964), and (IMO) are the best of the various singers who have played the roles over the years.
The benevolent giant moth is one of Toho's most popular and enduring kaiju characters and appears in twelve more films (as of this writing), generally as a friend, ally, or guardian (except, or course, when her brain is taken over by malevolent space aliens).
As a fairly old film, this movie is interesting in setting up its own Universe with Godzilla and Rodan.
The original "Godzilla" film depicted the title character as just this monster that wanted to destroy.
The plot of this movie is that some tiny singing people (probably fairies) are taken from an island to perform.
I mean, Mothra first appears as a larvae, so it's pretty obvious by its name that it's going to turn into a moth later.
It's a curious thing - I KNOW I've seen at least some if not all of Mothra in my life (probably in that one week where I watched a bunch of monster movies in a marathon that was made possible by, ironically, Emmerich's Godzilla), but it didn't stick out the way that Godzilla: King of the Monsters or some of the others did (even the bad ones like Godzilla's Revenge).
Mothra *her*self is not even really seen in her full winged glory until around the last ten minutes of the movie, and before that when she hatches from an egg (long story...
No, probably not, but that's part of why I had a good time with this movie - he and the writers seem to embrace the dumb clichés of the characters like the (at first) bumbling comic relief in the fat reporter, or the villain who looks like he was born with a scowl and evil eyebrows, or his accomplice who seems to be missing an Edward G.
There's also the sorta bland hero and heroine, and, almost as a good luck charm, the great Takashi Shimura appears as the newspaper editor (and even in a seemingly thankless role where he's largely at a table or on the phone he gives as much dramatic tension and listening skills as an actor like him should do - yes, listening, watch him damn it!) So in a sense this does and doesn't have the issues that something like the 2014 Godzilla movie had; that had weak human characters and, while impressive, not as much Godzilla as one might've liked.
Here, the characters and the actors playing them (one of them in this English dub is "Nelson!"!) commit fully and bring some real emotion and reaction to what is essentially more of a quasi Skull Island movie than something we'd usually see with Godzilla.
And yet again when thinking about it, it's almost a challenge of a monster movie for the filmmakers after several films (and more to come) that are just guys in rubber suits, it's ambitious that they attempted to have a flying puppet (albeit one that's more cute than an outright threat), and there's even an odd delight that a giant larvae-slug-what-have-you is causing destruction for several scenes.
All I knew was sitting there watching this (in a Rifftrax style presentation by the way, one of those times where it's a riffing on a movie that's not really all that bad) Honda and his team were out to do a riff on the 'Kong' formula of monster being taken out of its environment (plus those enigmatic, delightfully gleeful women) and the havoc is immense.
Ishiro Honda directed this wild but imaginative film that sees Japanese scientists investigating reports of unusual activity on a mysterious remote island that had been exposed to atomic testing.
They find a primitive people and good-hearted "Twin Fairies", two women a foot-high who are kidnapped by a greedy foreign industrialist to be exploited for their unique size and singing ability, which is really a cry for help to their legendary protector: a giant prehistoric moth that attacks Japan, trying to rescue them after being taken to Tokyo.
Having an honored place in Japanese monster film lore is Mothra a giant caterpillar/butterfly who's a Deity on the island of Beiru.
And while the special effects of Mothra destroying Tokyo with the flapping of his giant wings, those paper mache, baling wire models that are a trademark of these film, still it's good fun.
And of course Mothra came back several times, often in conjunction with other Japanese monster creations.Almost fifty years later Mothra's still a lot of fun..
strange classic Japanese monster movie.
The giant moth creature Mothra is hatched by the natives.The colors are bright.
This is a classic Japanese monster movie..
The characters are very good, the effects are better than most of Toho/Daiei's films, and the monster is NEAT!
Mothra (1961) **American version**** 1/2 (out of 4)A jerk businessman finds a couple twin fairies on an island and kidnaps then, which lets loose Mothra, a giant caterpillar who eventually takes flight to wreck Japan.
This monster movie from Toho is probably one of their most loved and it's also one of their best.
This film is all Mothra and of course the twins who are always getting kidnapped by some greedy person or persons because little tiny twins are bound to make you a lot of money.
The usual, people try to get twins back if they can not then Mothra comes marching slowly into the city and takes forever to do anything and then spins a cocoon and then still does very little compared to other monsters, gets said twins then she is off.
In this movie, you will experience things like two stupid twin girls about 30 centimetres tall, really irritating music and natives, and some kind of a bad guy.
It's in fact the first time I've seen a bad guy in a monster movie.
Mothra is a different type of monster movie.
SPOILER WARNINGS(like you haven't already seen this, and if not, shame upon your house)!!!Ah, MOTHRA...We die-hard giant monster fans usually have widely divergent opinions on what the finest films in the genre are, and by that I don't mean regarding such merits as camp value.
The identical twin fairy priestesses who speak in unison, the song for help that the twin fairies sing endlessly to summon Mothra that people misinterpret as merely a quaint native folk song (HOO BOY, are they ever wrong!!!), Frankie Sakai as the pugnacious reporter "Bulldog," Bulldog's edge-of-your-seat rescue of an infant, Mothra blithely cocooning herself and the subsequent (pointless) use of an atomic heat-ray to try and burn her alive, the truly beautiful and majestic image of the winged Mothra taking flight and demolishing everything in her path with hurricane-level winds...it all adds up to a perfect, entertaining family film.
Complications ensue when the girls' giant moth guardian Mothra arrives and begins leveling Japan while searching for the fairies.
Directed with real skill and intelligence by Inoshiro Honda, with a thoughtful script by Shinichi Sekizawa, a steady pace, exquisite widescreen cinematography by Hajime Koizuma, exciting sequences of mass destruction, a sweeping, majestic score by Yuji Koseki, a strong central message about the severe consequences of human greed and selfishness, a strangely beautiful and poetic creature, a potent and affecting conclusion, and fine and convincing special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, this film achieves a certain poignancy and resonance because of its unusually graceful and sympathetic monster who's essentially benign, yet still dangerous because of her immense size.
Mothra does level (some of) Tokyo, but trying to rescue her twin miniature priestesses kidnapped on their native island.
This movie's meaning is clear-cut and -for once- the monster has good reason to level Tokyo.
Wow, it's taken me a long time to get around to the original "Mothra" and I was surprised to see that it was actually filmed in color, unlike the 1956 film "Godzilla, King of the Monsters".
Mothra's a 'she', having the power of telepathic communication with a pair of twin fairy island girls who have been kidnapped by an unscrupulous Japanese businessman in order to cash in on the discovery.
The caterpillar form of Mothra wreaked it's own brand of destruction on the city of Tokyo, while the colorful moth version headed over to the Rolisican island city of New Kirk in search of the twins.Not too much scientific mumbo-jumbo is offered regarding the existence of Mothra, but I did get a kick out of the introduction of the atomic heat gun used to attack the cocoon on the Japanese tower.
Of all the Japanese kaiju, or giant monster movies that I've seen, MOTHRA has to have one of the most ridiculous menaces: a giant caterpillar that ends up cocooned before turning into a giant furry moth.
Elsewhere, it's business as usual for a monster flick, with the human side divided into two forces: the good guys – here, virtually all of them are reporters, which makes for a nice change – and the bad guys, who, as usual, plan to exploit the situation for themselves.The acting is what you'd expect for the film.
Film theorists postulating that giant movie monsters serve as figurative representations of the destructive force of female emancipation post-WWII will assuredly have a good chuckle with Ishiro Honda's Mothra, one of the most sturdy, well-crafted, and enjoyable of the Godzilla brethren.
I got this movie from the mill creek entertainment Sci-fi Creature Classics and Mothra was one of them.
A bit later when the Peanut sisters sing it awaking's Mothra which appears about halfway though the movie.
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.
Eventually, we had 'good' monsters (Mothra, and even Godzilla) squaring off against 'bad' ones (robots and aliens).
Not much in the way of acting, though; I'd say there's four characters: the Japanese guys, the Rolisican guys, the miniature girls, and Mothra.