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Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike

by Troler

Free Software fundamentally misses the point. It fails on a practical, ideological, economic, and political level. Let’s examine precisely how (in a slightly different order for the purposes of presentation).

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Most franchise films keep it close to first iterations of films. They divert and change as tastes change and viewers demand a more varied story, unless corporate greed does not extinguish innovation. In part James Bond represents the American equivalent of a long lasting franchise kept in the hands of a single film studio. In Toho's monster films Rodan operated as an experiment to see whether a monster movie could be successful, even when the monster is not omnipresent. It also established the possibility for a layered approach to storytelling, where monster attacks come in waves of increased consequence.

Mothra uses the experiments and goes a million miles. The moral compass of the story shifts. It starts of like it were from the original Gojira. The crew are rocked by waves, feeling as if the ship would overturn at any moment. The only retreat being an island littered with radio-active waste. This resemblance is likely due to the film being once again directed by Ishiro Honda. Let not the appearance deceive, the radiation is merely there to tie in with other Toho's monster films. Moreover, the island plays as the pivotal point around which everything revolves. The expedition to the said Infant island uncovers strange carnivorous plants, mold mushroom-like plants and inch-size women, which is more of an echo of the film to start the large monster frenzy — King Kong

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Such a pivot is nothing more than remarkable. Following suit of Rodan, the focus of the monster is lessened. The course attraction is the mystery and exploration of an uncharted domain, very much like the King Kong film. The mischievous leader of the expedition Clark Nelson (Jerry Ito), not to be confused with Clark Kent A.K.A. Superman, acts as the villain of the movie. No, I was not misheard, the big evil is not Mothra, it is a greedy foreigner.

The the jolly and dedicated-to-work journalist Zenichiro Fukuda (Frankie Sakai) and her less-so-jolly coworker Michi Hanamura (Kyoko Kagawa) work to investigate the kidnapping of the inch-sized women, played by the singer duo Yumi Ito & Emi Ito. Who are to no-ones surprise at the custody of the Nelson All this unfolds before Mothra is seen on the screen. Rodan hinted the existence of worms meganulon in the first 10 or so minutes. Here the viewers have to wait an hour! Well... such a change was going to happen. Even though the monster craze was high and mighty in the 60s, making the same type of movie was no longer going to entertain the crowd.

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Rash decisions were made how to deal with the monster. The outcome made Mothra the second most popular Toho monster, after Gojira, due to being provided it with an goal. It is to be a biological machine whose only purpose is to bring back the inch-tall women back to their home-island. Naturally, such context turns the attention away from the monster, towards the greedy man causing the racket — Nelson. This Rosia+Amelica+Rosi+American (Rolisican) acts as the symbol of the new Japanese problem. There is no ravish and suffering caused by the atomic bomb, no need to chant the Oh Peace, Oh Light, Return prayer, no need to sacrifice anyone. Japan has healed and the problems it faces are different in the now industrial and booming country. Since it is no longer the same place, it cannot have the same problems – monsters.

That is reflected in the fact Mothra, is in a sense, a fusion of meganulon and Rodan. Starting out in the larva state, it swims furiously towards the location of the fairy women. Once content in location, it crawls until it forms a cocoon and, as humans burn it, rises from it like the phoenix from the ashes. Water, earth, fire, sky — all domains besides ether mastered. Mothra comes of as a symbol of hope... This, in context to the church cross being light up by the Sun, has a far different meaning. In early Christian symbolism, the phoenix was a sort of euphemism of the rebirth and eternity of Jesus. For the Jews out there, it can be interpreted as coming of a new Moses. It may be my erratic brain, I see connections that may likely not exist. American involvement in creation of this film was higher, due to the presence of American actors & Rolisica looking a lot like America. That might as well be just a coincidence and have nothing to do with the plot.




Even so, the hope and fear is felt from the great Mothra, due to it being a force that has a single goal. Were the little women replaced with Malli and Mothra with Komaram Bheem and you'd have a fine S. S. Rajamouli RRR movie as result. More so than anything, this shows how in kaiju films the monsters do not exactly have to be the focal point. In Mothra's case it's the Infant island. The same way mecha films are not about suits, rather the people who are inside of them.

Most of the expectations of what is a monster film are wrong. Such provisions are due to not taking into account the fact the monster films were never really about them, rather than the concepts they represented. Rash, as my claims are, I believe they are true for the truly great kaiju films such as モスラ.

Fin.

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