Talkback Thread #4: Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

[GotengoXGodzilla]

Hands down, my favorite Godzilla film. The plot is pretty simple and easy to follow, the characters are incredibly relatable and simple to latch onto, the fight scenes are some of the best of the entire series (both monster and military), Godzilla seems to have returned to a character much like how he was in the first Godzilla film and the score is my favorite of the entire series. I love everything about this film.

[Goji]

What can I say. This is my absolute favorite Godzilla film of all time. To me personally, it's perfect in almost every way. Love, love love this film. With that said, I was never a huge fan of the dub personally. For whatever reason, none of the voices have ever been that memorable to me.

[Guardian7]

MOTHRA v GODZILLA (1964)
This is one of the exceptionally good films of the SHOWAera. No doubt about that.



We get not only strong human characters in it. Yet another very good female lead (photographer Junko 'Yoka' Nakanishi actress: Yuriko Hoshiand) and a character (Doctor Miura actor Hiroshi Koizumi) that will make a strong appearance in the next film GtTHM (Who will happen to be dating a reporter very similar to the one that appears in this film very soon).

BUT we also get some amazing Kaiju stuff going on.

Godzilla emerging out of being buried is really very cool! The crowds reaction to his buckling of the earth and when his tail bursts out is pretty awesome.

The Infant Island scenes are kick butt! From the skeletal remains of former creatures that lived on the island, to the Infant Islanders total refusal to help.
Frankly who can blame them... last time non-islanders came ashore, there was a MASSIVE shooting fest! (M) and more than just a FEW Infant Islanders perished. I am sure they are not happy about that. LET alone the radiation that devastated their island paradise. Just a very understandable (and if you have the knowledge of the previous films it is attached to... Understandable and moving).

I think the scenes with Adult Mothra are not nearly as good as the ones in her maiden film. I thought she jerked around a bit too much (not nearly as fluid as she would be in GvSM/EhotD). But there were some outstanding moments involving the Adult and dying Mothra. Primarily the dodging and rapid wing movement.
Of course Mothra's poison dust was a highlight of this film. Though I am not quite sure exactly what it did to Godzilla other then to seemingly incapacitate him for a VERY short time.
I felt that Mothra's downfall was fairly quick and I certainly wouldn't have minded if Mothra had instead flew/carried Godzilla away, as opposed to simply collapsing on her defenseless egg. Not that she wasn't successful in driving Godzilla off (Which may in part be due to her poison dust).
I am not a huge fan of the puppet scenes in this anymore than I was in KKvG. They actually looked small and... well... like puppets.

The arc-lighting towers (Artificial Lightning Generator) in this film were the total BOMB!
When in use they looked simply amazing and KUDOS on using metallic net after net to enhance and spread their effect. It really did look like they finally had Godzilla on the ropes for the first time.
I wish they had continued to use such technology and set up other such towers sporadically across Japan (Even if they had used stock footage of the Generators firing off).
Would have also had been cool if they had implemented a gun that essentially mirrored what the maser cannon transports did... only with lightning/electricity. No biggie!

The battle between the twins and Godzilla is quite good. They are sneaky and use the "Hit & Run" method of combat. The tail biting scene has never worked in ANY film with Mothra in it. Probably the worst bit of suitmation out there (I actually couldn't believe the used it in both the HEISEI and MELeras).

The overall story of this movie is pretty damn solid and it most certainly deserves its place in the upper favorites of most fans.

TOHO Collections of this film is a great DVD for this particular movie!

G7

[Mini-Godzilla]

Basically a sequel to Mothra with Godzilla thrown in for good measure. The continuity with the first three G-flicks is strained at best, but it's quite entertaining as Mothra II. The characters sell this movie far better than the monster fights, which are more strange than enthralling.

[Goji]

The characters sell this movie far better than the monster fights, which are more strange than enthralling

They are? Define "strange" (in comparison to say, the choreography of the 70's stuff)

[Mini-Godzilla]

The 70's stuff is usually your run-of-the-mill Ultraman-style brawls (with the notable exception of Hedorah). The MvG fights are comprised mostly of flapping and spraying, neither of which lend themselves well to the normal Godzilla formula of claw-to-claw combat. They're not bad, per se, but they do seem a little more awkward and unfocused than the standard head-on monster mashes. As such, I am more self-aware as an observer and less of a rooting spectator.

[HeiseiGodzilla117]

An excellent movie. One of my favs from the Showa era. Actually, out of all the showa era films (excluding the original Gojira) it can be taken more seriously than the rest. Godzilla looked fantastic, and his rivalry with mothra and her offspring was great. It also reestablishes how unstoppable Godzilla is.

[Goji]

The 70's stuff is usually your run-of-the-mill Ultraman-style brawls (with the notable exception of Hedorah). The MvG fights are comprised mostly of flapping and spraying, neither of which lend themselves well to the normal Godzilla formula of claw-to-claw combat. They're not bad, per se, but they do seem a little more awkward and unfocused than the standard head-on monster mashes. As such, I am more self-aware as an observer and less of a rooting spectator.

I think I'm getting your angle now.

It did always seem hard to film Godzilla battling a giant flying Mothra marionette....but think about how bad it looked in GODZILLA VS MOTHRA (92'). Tsuburaya and Honda's craft was much more well suited to filming such a battle, even if it did look a little "weird" (to some people). As for the Mothra larva, I'll admit that the final scene goes on for a minute or two too long..but I liked seeing them using their smarts to take down Godzilla, by utilizing the environment around them. I hate how often people bitch and moan about this scene because Godzilla loses to "two stupid moths". Is that a reason not to like the film? (Not directed at you Mini Godzilla )

[shinmattiathekaiju]

its a good movie but it got a lot of flaws:the fights have a bad coreography and the music score plays the Godzilla's theme over and over again making it annoying after awhile and the voices of the Shobijin makes me wanna commit suicide.
Theres a well made cast of human characters tough.

3/5

[Goji]

Bad choreography? Riiight. Try to find one other person that agrees with you, and we can continue this discussion. You make it very clear that you don't know wtf you're talking about.

If the Shobijin are annoying to you, you could, you know, watch the film in Japanese.

[Mini-Godzilla]

I wouldn't call the fights bad. They're just very, very strange compared to the typical fights.

[Mini-Godzilla]

The typical monster fights in the series (especially before they devolved into the 90's beam wars) involve two men in costumes engaging in Suit Fu. In Mothra vs. Godzilla, you have a man in a rubber suit fighting a flying puppet and two caterpillar puppets. It's a totally different dynamic, and it could be off-putting to someone expecting the norm. I suspect that this is why Shinmattiathekaiju said that the fights were bad.

[Tormentor]

The typical monster fights in the series (especially before they devolved into the 90's beam wars) involve two men in costumes engaging in Suit Fu. In Mothra vs. Godzilla, you have a man in a rubber suit fighting a flying puppet and two caterpillar puppets. It's a totally different dynamic, and it could be off-putting to someone expecting the norm. I suspect that this is why Shinmattiathekaiju said that the fights were bad.

I disagree, even for someone expecting the "norm", it doesn't take any brain cells to conclude that Mothra vs. Godzilla wasn't going to have the typical monster fight. The movie's summary pretty much gives it away. A Giant Moth going up against a Nuclear Monster.

A moth, a flying insect. A moth can not stand upward straight on its legs, Mothra's structure was based off of realistic moths and butterflies structures, and thus was made and crafted to be realistic to the extent of a normal moth. Same with the larvae, the only difference was the webbing to give the larvae a weapon to use in battle.

Seriously, anyone expecting a rubber suit Mothra that's crafted to be like any normal typical rubber suit like Godzilla's, especially when pictures of the film were on the back of VHS covers, or even on the internet etc....They really, really need to hit up some knowledge and logic.

[Mini-Godzilla]

You disagree with what, exactly? My assumption that Shinmattiathekaiju's problem with the fights derives from their relative peculiarity? Okay then, why do you think that he claimed that they had poor choreography?

[Starfishman]

Perhaps the best Godzilla sequel in the whole Godzilla series. I enjoyed the monster fights. They were much different from two guys in monster suits. The adult Mothra looked very lifelike in this film and I loved the Mothra larvas. The characters were well written and the english dubbing was pretty damn good (well for me at least) and Akira Ifukube is at his best here. Tsuburya is at the top of his game here. One of my favorite Godzilla flicks. Very enjoyable.

*Exits thread*

[Mini-Godzilla]

My only issue with the characters (and this is hardly a deal-breaker, since it is true in most of the films in the series and frankly doesn't even come to mind except in retrospect) is that they really only exist to advance the plot and convey the moral of the story. They're very entertaining as the movie plays out, but I can't exactly sit back and analyze them (or even really sympathize with them) like I can with some of my favorite characters in the series.

[Blackout286]

You disagree with what, exactly? My assumption that Shinmattiathekaiju's problem with the fights derives from their relative peculiarity? Okay then, why do you think that he claimed that they had poor choreography?

Tormentor is saying that he disagrees with the notion of that Mothra vs. Godzilla would be off putting to someone expecting the norm. That even if someone is expecting the norm, the film's fights aren't off putting. And that it doesn't take any real brains to realize and understand that Mothra vs. Godzilla wasn't going to have the typical monster fights.

[Mini-Godzilla]

That even if someone is expecting the norm, the film's fights aren't off putting.

If I've learned anything from the Internet, it's that people can be offput over even the most minor of issues.

[Arrow]

From the "Fan Confession" Thread:

As I've confessed before, monster scenes and fifty cents will buy you a cup of coffee, in my opinion.

So Astro Monster suits your tastes more because of the greater presence of human drama? That's fine and perfectly understandable. But the way Mothra vs. Godzilla blends monster action/destruction scenes and human drama well to make an entertaining action film simply impresses me more. That's not a knock against IoAM - it's a great film too and it's fine if people prefer it - but that's why I'll always like MvG more. I love human drama too, but I also love a few good battle scenes.

[Mini-Godzilla]

I also get irked that Godzilla seems to be stumbling around like he's drunk throughout MvG, which really takes the *umph* out of his indestructible force schtick for me. This is definitely more of the "misunderstood monster" approach that Honda talked about so much, where Godzilla is just as much a victim as anyone else.

That might also explain why GMK seems so odd to me. You have the Michael Myers Godzilla of the original film wandering around in what is otherwise a big, sloppy kiss to the mid-60's trilogy.