GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA
(GOJIRA VS. MOSURA)
A film review by David Milner
Copyright 1993 David Milner
I almost didn't make it. The worst storm to hit the area in over a decade had arrived the night before, there was only a fifty-fifty chance that my flight would actually take off, and my cab was half an hour late in picking me up to go to the airport. Nevertheless, with more than just a little luck, my flight to Tokyo did leave only about forty minutes behind schedule, and I was on it.
Flying to Japan was perhaps one of the most masochistic things that I have ever done. After the tenth or eleventh hour in the air, I decided that only people who possess a certain inner peace that even Ghandi would have envied should do this sort of thing.
After counting the number of seats in the coach section of the aircraft about a hundred times, I finally got to meet a Japanese customs inspector who very politely asked if I, by any chance, happened to be carrying any illegal drugs that he should know about. I felt almost sorry to disappoint him, especially after what I'd just been through.
Next was the shuttle bus from Narita Airport to Shinjuku Station. This two-hour ride was the last thing on Earth I wanted to do after having just spent close to fourteen hours doing the 'gee, I hope we don't hit a windshear' shuffle, but, unfortunately, it was just about the only way to get from here to there. I could have taken the bus directly to my hotel, but I knew that if I didn't bother to check in first, I just might be able to catch the last showing of the evening.
Right after the bus pulled into Shinjuku Station, I quickly stashed my bag in a locker, and made a mad dash to the theatre in which I knew GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA would be playing. When I reached the theatre, I found that I had a whole twenty minutes to spare.
I plunked down my Y1,800 ($15) for a ticket and headed for the concession stand inside the theatre. I purchased a program, two books on the film, a can of soda, and some Godzilla gummies.
The film started right on time, or should I say, the commercials and previews did. Advertisements for beer, toys, cars and upcoming films ran for almost twenty minutes, but then, finally, the film began.
The prologue featured some great special effects. The scenes showing a meteor crashing into the ocean and a violent storm washing away the soil covering Mothra's egg were just spectacular. I remember thinking at the time that Toho's special effects department had finally shown that it could give Hollywood a run for its money.
The prologue also included a scene with a few Americans portraying NASA officials in it. To my great surprise, unlike the Americans in GODZILLA VS. GHIDRAH, the previous Godzilla film, these people weren't bad! Yes, their appearance was brief, but they almost made me believe that they really were who they were pretending to be.
Next I noticed that the music ended very abruptly in one or two spots. I later found out that this was because some last-minute editing had left composer Akira Ifukube virtually no time to change his score.
In the following few scenes, Takuya Fujita (Tetsuya Bessho), who just happened to wear a Fedora, got caught while trying to steal a priceless artifact from a religious shrine, and ran into a small problem while trying to cross a wooden footbridge. I'd heard that there was going to be a film featuring Godzilla produced in Hollywood, but I never imagined that he would get to meet Indiana Jones. Seeing this immediately convinced me that the Toho Company Ltd. definitely was not taking GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA as seriously as it had films such as GODZILLA 1985 or GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE. It also convinced me that screenwriter Kazuki Omori, whose much more subtle references to films produced in Hollywood in both GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE and GODZILLA VS. GHIDRAH were bad enough, should never again be allowed to work on a Godzilla film.
I was a little disappointed by some of the effects work seen during this part of the film. When the walls collapsed in on Fujita as he tried to escape from the shrine, for example, it seemed like there were a few people standing behind the walls simply pushing them over.
Environmental Planning Board head Joji Minamino made his first appearance in the film while Fujita was still in jail. It was nice to again see the very familiar face of Akira Takarada, who starred in numerous genre films such as GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER, GODZILLA VS. MONSTER ZERO, KING KONG ESCAPES, GODZILLA VS. THE THING and GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS.
When the cosmos (Keiko Imamura and Sayaka Osawa) appeared, I could tell that Toho's matting techniques had really improved. Gone were the obvious seams that made some of the shots featuring the tiny twins in films such as GHIDRAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER and GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER so unconvincing.
I found the idea that the cosmos belonged to a race of beings from outer space disagreeable, to say the least, simply because it reminded me so much of the inferior Godzilla films of the 1970s, such as GODZILLA VS. GIGAN and GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA, featuring invading aliens from outer space trying to take over the Earth.
The idea that Battra appeared and attacked the civilization of the cosmos when it became harmful to the Earth, on the other hand, I thought was a really good one. This, to me, seemed to be the whole point of the film.
I was reminded of a scene in GODZILLA VS. GHIDRAH featuring Ghidrah battling some F-15s when I saw Battra being attacked by a number of the planes while he was swimming toward Japan. Yes, it was again obvious that model aircraft were being used, but these at least were somewhat convincing, simply because they were larger, and more detailed. Seeing Battra doing what appeared to be his own unique version of the breaststroke, too, was more convincing than seeing Ghidrah flying through the air while hardly moving his wings.
For some strange reason, Battra's cry reminded me very much of a giant pteranodon that I remembered seeing in films such as GODZILLA VS. MONSTER ZERO, DESTROY ALL MONSTERS and GHIDRAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER.
At about this point in the film, there was a closeup shot of Shoji Kobayashi, who was reprising his GODZILLA VS. GHIDRAH role as Security Chief Ruzo Dobashi, making an exaggerated face which was intended to both express worry and be funny. I suppose that to Japanese audiences who had seen Kobayashi do this very same thing in both the ULTRAMAN and KAMEN RIDER television series, this may actually have been funny. To me, however, it just seemed ridiculous.
I was very pleasantly surprised when I heard Battra's theme. Unlike much of the rest of the score, it was an entirely new piece of music, instead of a simple rearrangement of themes first written for films such as GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS and GODZILLA VS. THE THING. I also thought that the theme was good because it expressed the character of the monster so well.
When Battra appeared in Nagoya, and his entire body was finally shown, I was frankly a little disappointed simply because he seemed more like a monster that you would expect to see in an ULTRAMAN episode than in a Godzilla film. I was also a little disappointed by the fact that it was so apparent in a few shots of the monster moving forward that he was actually just a person in a suit simply walking along.
I was not at all disappointed, however, with the optical work seen during Battra's attack on the city. The animation used to show the monster emitting electrical rays from his horn and eyes was just fantastic.
The matte work, too, was very good. Never before had Toho so convincingly joined together footage of a monster with actual shots of a city.
Godzilla made his first appearance in the film while Mothra's egg was being transported to Japan. He looked pretty much the same as he had in GODZILLA VS. GHIDRAH, except he was now a little thinner, and his eyes were yellow and red instead of brown. The slimmer features did make Godzilla seem a little less powerful than before, but they also made him a bit more believable simply because his musculature no longer seemed quite as exaggerated.
I was surprised to hear the Godzilla roars created for films such as KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER being used instead of the lower ones heard in the more recent Godzilla films. This, too, showed me that Toho definitely was not taking GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA as seriously as it had the three previous Godzilla films.
I was also surprised to hear that a better job had not been done with the sound mixing of Godzilla's roars. Some of them just were too quiet.
When Godzilla showed a distinct interest in Mothra's egg, Fujita attempted to separate the ship he and his companions were on from the floating platform on which the egg was resting by releasing the tow cables connecting the two vessels. Mr. Ando (Takehiro Murata), the Marutomo Corp. executive who was interested only in protecting the investment of the company for which he worked, tried to prevent Fujita from doing this. The extended struggle between the two seemed contrived to me simply because I thought Mr. Ando's devotion to his job was a bit extreme, to say the least.
The battle between Godzilla and Mothra, which took place immediately afterward, also seemed contrived to me, although not as much so.
A new, higher-pitched sound was heard whenever Godzilla used his breath. This frankly was much too artificial sounding to be believable.
The noises made by Mothra, on the other hand, were all exactly the same as before.
Some of the most unconvincing special effects in the film were shown during Godzilla's clash with Battra at the bottom of the ocean. For example, there were what were supposed to be lots of tiny air bubbles superimposed over the shots of the two monsters fighting, but these did little to help create the illusion that the battle really was taking place underwater. Instead, they simply made it difficult to see what the monsters were doing. The fact that both Godzilla's breath and Battra's rays did not seem to be at all affected by the water through which they were supposedly traveling also made some of the underwater footage unconvincing.
The sound effects heard during this part of the film, on the other hand, actually were pretty good. The roars of both monsters, in particular, really did sound like they were being produced underwater.
When Fujita discreetly avoided having to face his daughter at Narita Airport, which for some strange reason looked very familiar to me, he finally began to develop a distinct identity, and I finally began to feel that I was looking at a Japanese treasure hunter, instead of an Indiana Jones clone.
Soon afterward, Mothra was shown swimming toward Japan with the sun in the background and sunlight being reflected on the water. This very atmospheric shot was just fantastic.
Hearing the cosmos perform THE SONG OF MOTHRA, as well as a few of the other songs from films such as MOTHRA and GODZILLA VS. THE THING, really brought back some memories for me. Akira Ifukube's new arrangements were all good, and served to keep the songs from sounding dated, but, unfortunately, the singing was a little flat in a few spots.
Mothra's attack on Tokyo featured some great shots of buildings being destroyed, but was still a little unconvincing simply because Mothra looked too much like a model, and not enough like a living creature. Also, it was obvious in some shots that Mothra was just being rolled along on wheels.
Seeing the cosmos talk to Mothra through an open window, to me, was yet another sign that Toho was not taking GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA as seriously as it had the last few Godzilla films. It frankly seemed like Mothra was being portrayed simply as the cosmos' pet.
There were some not quite convincing, but interesting, front-screen projection shots included in the footage of the military's bombardment of Mothra. Never before had Toho been quite as successful in filming live actors performing in front of projected footage of some miniatures.
There was Shoji Kobayashi making that face again!
Up to the point in the film in which Mothra began to construct his cocoon, Makoto Otake had been doing a fine job portraying Marutomo CEO Takeshi Tomokane as the sort of unscrupulous businessman that you just love to hate. However, seeing the character get down on his hands and knees in guilt and frustration while Mothra was constructing his cocoon made me feel that perhaps Otake was beginning to get a little too carried away with his role.
The psychic Miki Saegusa, also seen in both GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE and GODZILLA VS. GHIDRAH, finally was given an opportunity to use her abilities when Godzilla emerged from Mt. Fujiyama. I frankly have never much liked the idea of having a psychic in a Godzilla film, but I must admit that Megumi Odaka does always give a surprisingly credible performance.
After Godzilla emerged from the mountain, there appeared on the screen absolutely the best computer graphics ever seen in a genre film. Toho definitely should use the same type of animation again if it decides to again show how the Japanese military tracks giant monsters in the upcoming GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA.
Mothra's emergence from his cocoon could have been a little more convincing, but the singing of the cosmos heard during the scene actually was pretty good.
The adult Mothra looked a little stiff in some shots, but I was really surprised by just how animated he seemed in a few others.
Battra's transformation from larva to adult was just incredible. The optical work seen during the sequence really showed what special effects director Koichi Kawakita could do.
The adult Battra was a little disappointing because he was much too small in comparison with the larval stage of the monster, and because he was at times just so obviously a model.
Like the shot of Mothra swimming toward Japan, the footage showing the military's attack on Godzilla was very atmospheric. It frankly was nice to see this touch added to a very familiar scene.
The final battle between the monsters I thought was very well choreographed. Having Battra save Mothra's life by preventing a Ferris wheel from falling on him, however, was just a bit too much for me to take. Yes, it had already been clearly established that GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA was not meant to be taken very seriously, but this was just too much.
For the most part, the special effects seen during the battle were excellent. The matte work showing the monsters in Yokohama was impressive, and the opticals, too, were very good, although when I saw Mothra emitting rays from his antennae, I did begin to feel that perhaps Koichi Kawakita had gotten a little too carried away. About the only shots that could have been improved upon were a few of the ones showing Battra and Mothra flying, but even these were much better than most of the shots in GODZILLA VS. GHIDRAH of Ghidrah flying.
Seeing Mothra flying in outer space at the end of the film stretched credibility, which had already taken quite a beating, a bit beyond even the liberal limits that most genre fans would allow. However, it did make for a nice shot, and provided for a smooth segue into the closing credits.
When the film ended, and I got up to leave the theatre, it occurred to me that Takao Okawara, who directed only one other film, REIKO, must have been given a considerable amount of autonomy simply because GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA was so much more lighthearted than any of the three previous Godzilla films.
Next it occurred to me that perhaps the best acting performance in the film had been given by Satomi Kobayashi, who played Fujita's ex-wife Masako Tezuka. I felt this way simply because Masako came across as being the most credible of all of the characters in the film.
Finally, it occurred to me that I was feeling utterly exhausted not only because I hadn't slept in over thirty hours, although that probably was the main reason, but also because I'd just spent the past one hundred and three minutes trying to keep up with what was unquestionably the fastest paced of all of the Godzilla films.
A few days later, I went to see GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA once again, this time in a theatre located inside the Yurakucho Mullion building, the circular glass building located only a few blocks away from the Ginza which genre fans may remember as the one that Godzilla crashed into in GODZILLA 1985.
After noticing how much more coherent the film seemed, I vowed to never again go see a film in a foreign language immediately after having spent almost an entire day traveling.
Aside from that, the only thing I noticed which I hadn't before was that in seeing Godzilla appear not only in a film featuring a revamped version of a famous American movie character, but also in one with such good special effects, I was perhaps seeing a little preview of things to come. If so, I just hope that TriStar Pictures doesn't make the model for the revamped character in its Godzilla film quite as obvious.
David Milner Columbia University inet: dave@blackbox.cc.columbia.edu Usenet: ...rutgers!columbia!blackbox!dave ...rutgers!columbia!blackbox.cc.columbia.edu!dave
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