Mothra (1961)

directed by Ishirō Honda

Japan

101 minutes

4 stars out of 5

----

This must have been absolutely wild to see in 1961, because it's still pretty wild even now, 60 years later. I can easily tell that they use miniature vehicles and buildings for almost all of the action scenes, and you can see the roughness of the cuts between when they use human actors for the Shobijin and when they use dolls, but there's still something that feels so genuinely new and revolutionary about the way it's all blended together that has made this movie age like a fine wine. Maybe it doesn't matter if you can see the edges to the green screen or make out the driverless front seat of the little cars as they get crushed, maybe it only matters how confidently this film blazes ahead despite its limitations.

One tagline of this movie makes some claims that would be hard for anyone to live up to: "A GRUESOME MARVEL! FROM GIANT EGG TO GIANT MOTH, ATTACKING THE WHOLE WORLD WITH FURY!" Well, we'll just see about that. I'm not sure if that was from the American re-release of the film or if it was translated directly from the Japanese, and I won't pretend we're the only country that operates such a massive hype machine when it comes to movies, but that reeks to me of the Western art of overselling. Mothra as an entity is much like Godzilla in that the motivation behind the destruction she causes is more inscrutable than anything so simple as "fury". Mothra is summoned after her priestesses get kidnapped, operating on an ancient instinct and a deep, inexplicable connection to the two tiny women referred to in English dubs as "fairies". Rage or personal vendetta has nothing to do with it- Mothra is a goddess, and if her worshippers are under threat, there'll be hell to pay. Having an aspect of worship and holiness instantly makes her a fascinating new spin on a kaiju, and I'm surprised more kaiju films don't do this. I don't know why Mothra isn't regarded in pop culture as an iconic savior of women, because she has such potential to be symbolic like that and yet I've never seen her specifically associated with feminism.

The event that spurs on Mothra's awakening actually surprised me a little with how disgusting it feels. I had a more visceral, personal reaction to the kidnapping of the Shobijin than I feel like I was supposed to. There's just something so deeply upsetting about seeing men grab and carry the two miniature women, jeering, cackling, their minds instantly on profit from the minute they lay eyes on them. They don't see the Shobijin as anything but pretty little trinkets to be paraded around, and their small size makes it impossible for them to fight back, which the men see as a free pass to do whatever they want with them. Mothra is the hand of justice meted out towards these men. Mothra is the rescuer of trapped women, of exploited women. If you hurt women, if you take advantage of them or treat them as objects you can control, Mothra will come for you and destroy your entire country without looking back. The Shobijin know this and express their regret to the nice humans who try to rescue them that their country will be destroyed, but again, it's an inevitability. Mothra is coming.

Unfortunately, something stinks about this movie. It stinks like a whoooole lot of people in blackface. Yeah, yeah, it was a different time, nothing about this would fly today and that's a really good thing, but even for its time it's uncomfortable to watch a bunch of people who look like they got dirt rubbed all over them play pretend at being "natives". Mothra's whole backstory depends on this, too, and later films do seem to have found ways to deal with it, if not respectfully, then at least without using blackface. There's no excusing it and it just sits there lingering in the middle of this movie as a reminder of how colonial society thinks about indigenous people and always has.

I also can't lie and say it's not a tiny bit disappointing to me, in a weirdly childish way like my parents took me to Wendy's and they were out of Frostys, that we only see Mothra in her larval stage for like 80% of the movie. It makes it more epic when she does finally emerge from her cocoon, and actually the practical effects on her larval form are absolutely beautiful and a treat to watch, but still! We want to see the huge moth! It was impressive to see her trundle through fictional countries leaving a snail-trail of death in her wake, but when she takes to the sky, a beacon of the divine feminine dealing out retribution to those who harm women, it's the best look she has. This is my first time watching this movie, and I'm looking forward to watching the rest of Mothra's filmography.