Giant Motra butterfly Another Kaiju solo artist interrupts the series of annual release of films about Toho monsters. Godzilla was released in 1954, Godzilla Attacks Again in 1955, Radon in 1956, Mysterians in 1957, Varan in 1958 and The Birth of Japan in 1959. Unfortunately, in 1960, nothing came out, but after “Motra” will be released two pictures – “Horas” and “King Kong vs. Godzilla”.
Having felt the soil of humor and irony in “Varana”, Honda as if specifically called in “Motra” for the main role of the popular comedian of those years – Frankie Sakai for the role of a sneaky and cheerful journalist. This largely predetermined the tone of the film - it turned into something very easy, family, but with serious notes and some morals. However, the comedic antics of the main character, of course, completely knock down the seriousness of the narrative.
Despite the mention of hydrogen bomb tests on Infant Island, the picture does not raise this topic in the future. Motra may be the result of a military test, but it does not represent a natural anger against humanity, does not look like a punishment for his actions, but just tries to bring back his friends.
In the center of the plot here are fairies-lililiputkas found by an expedition on this seemingly uninhabited island. By the way, it was inhabited by quite prosperous tribes of savages, despite the abundance of radiation. They say that local fruits give a special juice that saves the locals from destructive effects - so were rescued and thrown to the shore of the sailors, which, in fact, led to the expedition.
The picture has a pronounced main villain - wildly caricature sponsor of the expedition and its head - greedy to all sorts of rare wonders Mr. Nelson. He seems to be an American, but the name of the country has been changed for the purpose of political correctness, and New York, on which Mothra falls his wrath to the final, became New Kirk. Well, but this is a film where the monster simultaneously attacks the abode of Godzilla - Tokyo, and the town where King Kong walked, and not only him.
Having kidnapped fairies to sing and dance in theaters to the delight of the public, Nelson brings on himself an ancient monster - on the island, Motra's larva hatches from an egg. And the appearance of the monster on the screen we have to wait as much as 45 minutes! Which is incomparable to the early appearances of the other giant Toho monsters (well, with the exception of Orochi in Three Treasures).
Like Varan, Motra is a kind of deity. Researchers find a characteristic symbol that becomes the emblem of Motra throughout its existence in the cinema, find ancient inscriptions, and even manage to talk to the fairy tales themselves, who usually communicate with telepathy and wordless sound signals.
The larva of Motra combines the features of a terrible insect, and even some charm. The creation does not look so terrible as Meganula from Radon, but much larger in size and very well sows chaos, both on the water - on which it gets to the shores of Tokyo, and, in fact, on land, destroying small and large buildings, at the end generally demolishing the Tokyo Tower.
Nelson does not want to give up his find - outlandish twins, tries to escape the country, makes a forged passport, prevents all attempts of the main characters to free the captives. In the end, he kills people and is himself shot to death. And according to the original plan, the finale of the film was planned much more intense, with a bunch of additional action.
The transformation of the larva into a butterfly occurs near the end. Motra pupates, managing at the same time to blow up the helicopter (Kormen fans rejoice and applaud standing up!). Of course, all the military power and a lot of soldiers do not affect the huge insect that invaded the Japanese coast.
Honda perfectly alternates shots with models of military equipment and people actually sitting in tanks, so this time it is not as contrasted as in the "Varana", although, of course, it would be better to show models of tanks without people, as before - it would look more believable. But sometimes the film has shoals with editing, when the creature crawls several times in the same place, being sometimes as if further than has already advanced in its path.
However, the special effects of destruction here are still incredibly good! As in Radona, there are not just general visual models of the town, everything is thought out here to the smallest details - rags, shingles, mannequins inside windows, an abundance of transport, not just flying models from the flapping of the wings of a giant butterfly, but also crumbling into small details.
The destruction of the city is shown perfectly, but they are given much less attention this time than in previous Kaiju films. Motra in its final form rushes to find Nelson, and her seemingly thin wings do not penetrate any shells.
The Giant Moth is not the worst monster you can imagine. Besides, I have to admit, Motra is a pretty cute creature. This is probably the first Kaiju movie where the monster is not killed at the end. Motra flies home, getting back his miniature girlfriends. This scene will be repeated in the films with the participation of Godzilla.
Despite the fact that the music for the film was not written by Ifukube (he will still deal with the musical themes of Motra in the future), Yuji Koseki turned out to be quite pleasant and good compositions, and all fans of the genre still know Motra’s signature Song. By the way, the actresses who played twin fairies will repeat these roles several times in future films.
“Motra” is a big entertaining blockbuster about a giant monster, a family film with an abundance of humor, with a simple morality that it is not good to take someone else, with punished villains and funny heroes. Not so wild and childish kaiju, koi will be in the heyday of the 60s and 70s, but continuing this trodden path, has not yet lost the mask of seriousness good movie.
7 out of 10
Original