Mothra (1961)

Awards
- 2 nominations

Videos2

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Godzilla Vs. the MonsterVerse

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Furankî Sakai

Senichiro 'Sen-chan' Fukuda (AKA Bulldog)

Hiroshi Koizumi

Dr. Shin'ichi Chûjô

Kyôko Kagawa

Photographer Michi Hanamura

Yumi Itô

Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
(as Yumi Ito)

Emi Itô

Shobijin (Twin Fairy)
(as Emi Ito)

Jerry Itô

Kurâruku Neruson
(as Jerî Itô)

Ken Uehara

Dr. Harada

Takashi Shimura

News Editor

Tetsu Nakamura

Nelson's Henchman

Seizaburô Kawazu

General

Yoshifumi Tajima

Military Advisor
(as Yoshibumi Tajima)

Akihiko Hirata

Doctor

Kenji Sahara

Helicopter Pilot

Yoshio Kosugi

Ship Captain

Kôji Iwamoto

Nelson's Henchman
(as Hiroshi Iwamoto)

Kô Mishima

Ship Survivor
(scenes deleted)

Toshio Miura

Nelson's Henchman

Akira Wakamatsu

Nelson's Henchman

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Trivia
The film was based on a short fantasy novel called "The Luminous Fairies and Mothra" (Hakko Yosei to Mosura). Toho commissioned the story, wanting to appeal to a female audiences since Toho president/producer Iwao Mori found that women made up a large portion of the movie-going public and would often bring people along with them. Writers Takehiko Fukunaga, Shin'ichirô Nakamura, and Yoshie Hotta each wrote part of the original story which was then adapted by screenwriter Shin'ichi Sekizawa into the final film. The film was a hit at the box office and became one of Toho's most successful fantasy films, with Mothra becoming a popular character who would star alongside Godzilla as well has her own film series decades later.

Goofs
When Dr. Shinichi is showing the symbols he discovered in the cave to Senchan, you can see someone in black pants and shoes walking down the stairs behind Senchan's head.

Quotes
[the protagonists confront Nelson to return Mothra's fairies back to Infant Island]
Dr. Shinichi Chujo: I want you to stop this inhumanity and return them to their island.
Nelson's Henchman: Inhumanity? Ridiculous. Strictly speaking they're just scientific data.
Clark Nelson: Those fairies aren't human. They're merchandise.

Crazy credits
In the credits for the U.S. version, including promo material released by Columbia Pictures, Eurasian model Jerry Ito (who plays the villianous Mr. Nelson) is billed as "Jelly Ito."

Alternate versions
The American Version also edited the birth of Mothra sequence, cutting out a good 40 seconds to make it more elaborate

Connections
Edited into Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

Soundtracks
Infanto no musume
Written by Kôji Kajita (as Susumu Ike)
Performed by Za Pînattsu

An anti-monster movie. Lots of fun.

MOSURA (1961, released in the USA as MOTHRA) is like no other monster movie. It's colorful. Most of it's settings are bathed in storybook like colors, has a pleasent, happy ending where the monster lives!

A greedy showman/explorer Clark Nelson (Jerry Ito) finds twin fairies on an island off Japan. He displays them on the Tokyo stage, where they sing what sounds like a lullaby. It is actually a telepathic distress call to their god and protector, Mothra, a giant caterpillar. Mothra comes to Tokyo, searching for the girls and Nelson, destroying most of the city in it's path. The chase goes from Tokyo to Newkirk City (I guess this is suppose to be a little real life hamlet just south of Yonkers!) What I really love about MOTHRA is that it has many things most other monster movies don't. The hero is a comical, older, tubby reporter, a sort of Japanese Lou Costello. The monster is actually pretty. In the Japanese version, there is some wonderful slapstick and odd humor. THese elements make this film so unique. Director Inoshiro Honda was best friends with more famous and more respected Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa loved Honda's monster movies and according to rumor, yearned to make one himself.