Mothra [Mosura] *** (1961, Furankî Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyôko Kagawa) – Classic Movie Review 9953

Director Ishirō Honda’s 1961 Japanese fantasy, sci-fi thriller kaiju film Mothra [Mosura] is the first film in the popular Mothra franchise.

Produced and distributed by Toho Studios, it stars Furankî Sakai [Frankie Sakai], Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyōko Kagawa, Jerry Ito, and The Peanuts, and is written by Shin’ichi Sekizawa (screenplay), based on Shin’ichirô Nakamura’s novel, with a score composed by Yūji Koseki and special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya.

Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka hired Shin’ichirō Nakamura to write an original story for a kaiju film in summer 1960. Writing with Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta, Nakamura came up with The Glowing Fairies and Mothra, which was serialised in Weekly Asahi Extra magazine in January 1961. Each writer provided one part of the story. Nakamura chose a giant moth because he wanted a creature that underwent a transformation.

Producer Tanaka said the female perspective for the film was suggested by one of Toho’s producer in the early planning stages. This inspired Tanaka with the idea for the Shobijin and their roles as guardian spirits of a South Seas island.

Director Honda wanted a Disney-style approach: ‘We wanted to do something that was new, for the whole family, like a Disney or Hollywood type of picture.’

Sekizawa picked only his favourite aspects of the original story and ignored everything else. He thought too much detail would confuse audiences and that it was more important to keep folk entertained: ‘My philosophy is to just add enough to tell the story and keep it moving along.’ The fantasy elements were Sekizawa’s ideas while Honda was interested in the anti-nuclear themes.

In the film’s King Kong-style plot, a gigantic moth worshiped as a deity by the people of Beiru Island sets off to rescue its two, foot-tall worshipers, abducted by shipwreck survivors, and heads for Tokyo, wreaking havoc and destruction, Godzilla-style.

Mothra was released in Japanese cinemas on 30 July 1961, running 101 minutes. An edited, English dubbed version was released in cinemas in the United States on 10 May 1962 by Columbia Pictures, running 90 minutes.

It is shot in Eastmancolor and Tohoscope by Hajime Koizumi.

Mothra became Toho’s second most popular kaiju character after Godzilla, appearing in 11 Godzilla films and her own trilogy in the Nineties.

The cast are Frankie Sakai as Zen’ichirō Fukuda (Zen-Chan in the English version}, Kyōko Kagawa as Michi Hanamura, Hiroshi Koizumi as Dr Shinichi Chujo, Ken Uehara as Dr Harada, Jerry Ito as Clark Nelson, Yumi Ito and Emi Ito as the Shobijin (Small Beauties), Takashi Shimura as Sadakatsu Amano, Nitto Editor, Masamitsu Tayama as Shinji Chujo, Kenji Sahara as Helicopter Pilot, Akihiko Hirata as Doctor, Robert Dunham as a Rolisican, Haruo Nakajima and Katsumi Tezuka as Mothra (caterpillar).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9953

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