Great Women in Film: Mothra.

[Captain Hilts]

Here's a great summary of her career and her bouts with Godzilla:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/dayintech_0429

It had everything you could ask for: wonderfully cheesy special effects (acute halitosis never looked so good), great dubbing (in the English-language release, the talking went on after the Japanese actors had stopped moving their lips), a couple of hot Japanese twins (albeit a pair of faeries scarcely a foot tall), wanton, widespread destruction (Nagoya, rather than Tokyo, took the hit this time), and a monster to root for (the big moth).

The Godzilla-Mothra imbroglio wasn't the first time these two had courted trouble.

Godzilla had already been around for a decade, rising from the sea in the 1954 film, Godzilla, to ravage the Japanese mainland following a hydrogen-bomb test gone awry. Godzilla evolved over the years, his dinosaur-like appearance always changing, although he never lost the atomic breath that, along with his sheer bulk, served as his main weapon of destruction.

As for Mothra, she (yes, Mothra was all woman) made her original cinematic bow in the 1961 flick bearing her name. Maybe because Mothra, a fictional lepidopteran, originated in a novel before coming to the screen, she was more nuanced than her troglodytic antagonist. Unlike Godzilla, Mothra possessed an intellect, which she put to use in a series of films.

[JCMach1]

1. "Mothra comes out of the sky and she stands there"

That's what I always heard in that one song by, YES

[Onceuponalife]

2. I liked the fairy twins

talking in unison. That was awesome.

[Captain Hilts]

3. And their little cage thingie. World's smallest cage dancers. nt

[Forkboy]

6. They were real life singing sensations in Japan at the time.

Twin sisters Emi and Yumi Ito, aka The Peanuts. They were on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Danny Kaye Show at one time even.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_s_30zQFJp4g/SKzp3IZ4AjI/AAAAAAAAGWM/UkhzFMnGkhs/s320/Godzilla+vs+Mothra+Peanuts+001.jpg

[Captain Hilts]

9. Well, who couldn't like foot tall singing twins? What's not to like?

Hey! This profile suggests they're not really a foot tall!

http://nippop.com/artist/artist_id-192/artist_name-the_peanuts/

[tigereye]

17. The Mothra Sisters! - friends of mine used to have a band by that name..

really cool scene - I remember seeing that in grade school (Catholic grade school, no less? when it came out.

[kentauros]

18. And from WFMU: Matching Japanese Doll Women

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/06/mp3s_from_the_p.html

[kentauros]

19. In case y'all didn't look at my link,

you wouldn't have found out that you can download their two albums

http://www.astroboy.tv/music/

[dembotoz]

4. always prefered gamera myself

[Onceuponalife]

20. Me too!

[Forkboy]

5. A thread after my own heart.

When the movie was released over here they hid Mothra and called the movie Godzilla vs The Thing because they didn't think a moth would appeal to the target age group.



And actually, while we pick on the dubbing in Godzilla movies (often times rightfully so), it's actually really good in this one. At the time Toho was making international prints on their own so there would be no changes between the English and Japanese versions (instead of hiring outside companies to do it, as was the norm before). The dubbing on this one is actually pretty good, and the voice acting itself is well done.

The trouble with dubbed Japanese movies, and why they look so out of sync, is because the mouth movements of Japanese people aren't even close to ours here in America. Unlike Spanish or French, for instance, matching the mouth movements between English and Japanese is especially difficult. You can watch the very best of Japanese cinema and the dubbing will still look wrong. It's not just Godzilla movies. :)

And what the hell is this?

"troglodytic antagonist" and "Unlike Godzilla, Mothra possessed an intellect"

Yeah, fuck you, too, Mothra. I don't see "King of the Monsters" before your name, you wimpy flying bug that always has to depend on her little babies and a couple of fairies to win the day.

:P

[Captain Hilts]

10. Look, you can't handle it that Mothra can fly and Godzilla can't. You read only anti-Mothra websites

Well. Learn to suck on it and like it - Mothra can think AND fly - at the same time too!

[Lost in CT]

12. Godzilla can fly.... and he is jet powered baby.

http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=14017

[Captain Hilts]

13. What's Godzilla doing with the money from the Dr. Pepper gig? Or was it 7up?

Any other endorsements?

[Lost in CT]

7. I'm a Rodan man myself...

[Captain Hilts]

11. Didn't Rodan attack Scandinavia? Why do I think he stomped Copenhagen flat? nt

[Forkboy]

14. That was Reptilicus.

A classically bad movie.



Rodan did have some fun in NYC recently though. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u3OUdGeBFI&feature=related

[Lost in CT]

15. I noticed that building Rodan landed on fell on it's own footprint...

just saying... (Great clip BTW)

[Captain Hilts]

16. Good one!

[Deja Q]

8. *gasps* Just wait until she's 80, her boobs will hang so low she won't be able to fly

:yoiks: