MOTHRA (1961)
Label: Mill Creek Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 101 Minutes
Audio: English & Japanese DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Ishirō Honda
Cast: Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyōko Kagawa, Emi Itō, Yumi Itō
During a severe tropical storm a tanker ship sinks off the coast of Beiru Island off of mainland Japan, which had previously been the site of atomic weapons testing. Rescuers are surprised to find the sailors alive a few days later, appearing to have suffered no ill effects from their radiation exposure, which they later attribute to the natives living on the island, who gave them an elixir with restorative properties.
The island is supposed to have been uninhabited so the Japanese government sends an expedition to the island to explore these claims, and sure enough they find a heretofore unknown indigenous people, as well as strange vegetation, including a man-eating plant. The strangest find however is a pair of otherworldly twins (Emi and Yumi Itō) who thought adults are doll-sized, who implore the scientist to leave the island and to please stop their atomic testing. The scientist agree and leave the island, agreeing to keep the secret of the pint-sized twins to themselves.
However, an unscrupulous businessman named Nelson (Jerry Ito) returns to the island and kidnaps the twins, making them the star attraction in his "Secret Fairies Show" in Tokyo, featuring the diminutive beauties singing ethereal songs to large crowds,which sort of brought to mind King Kong on exhibition in the '33 film.
The kidnapping of the twins angers the natives of the island who hold a ceremony, awakening their ancient god, a giant caterpillar called Mothra who emerges from an enormous egg they worship. The deity-creature immediately begins swimming across the Pacific towards Tokyo to recover the twins, which it seems he is linked to telepathically. Along the way the creature destroys a cruise ship that crosses it's path, and manages to survive an attack from military jets dropping bombs and napalm.
Arriving in Tokyo the crawling menace lays waste to the city, bringing down a damn and causing catastrophic damage, before building a cocoon at Tokyo Tower, emerging as the the now winged kaiju Mothra we all know and love.
The best parts of Mothra, as with most kaiju movies, are the scenes of miniature cities and vehicles being destroyed by the giant-creatures of legend, and we get plenty of that here with some nifty looking miniatures, though some of the effect are a little ropey looking in HD.
The worst parts of it have to do with an ongoing legal battle to determine if the unscrupulous businessman should relinquish his claim to the twins, all that stuff was a bit of a bore. The twins themselves are absolutely a highlight of the film, delivering charismatic performances and regaling us with mesmerizing songs, but overall the film feels a bit slower than I remembered as a kid, but it has loads of charm and plenty of destructive kaiju-action and vintage Toho miniature work.
Audio/Video: Kaiji classic Mothra (1961) arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment framed in 2.35:1 widescreen and presented in 1080p HD. The source looks slightly flawed by way of vertical lines, speckling and some minor imperfections, including some optical shots marred by dirt and debris inherent to the source, but on the whole the presentation looks quite good. There's some inherent softness, and the grain is not as finely resolved as a new scan would have offered, but colors generally look good, there's a fair amount of fine detail and texturing throughout. I watched the shorter U.S.version of the film but did take in a few minutes of the longer Japanese cut, and they look identical to my eyes with one not really surpassing the other.
Audio comes by way of English and Japanese DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English subtitles. I chose to watch the English-dubbed version, like my Italian giallo films I prefer my Kaiju with some English-dub, the way I remember watching them as a kid on TV. It's not the most subtle or fidelic audio option but it serviceable and does the job just fine.
Extras are of the archival variety, we get an entertaining and well-informed audio commentary from Japanese sci-fi historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski, a pair of trailers and an extensive image gallery of poster artwork, promotional stills and lobby cards.
The single-disc release comes housed in a handsome looking Steelbook with a striking illustration on the front and a montage of Mothra in it's various forms as seen in the film on the backside. Inside there's an illustration representing a scene from the film spread across both halves of the interior, with the disc itself featuring another scene from the film. This Steelbook also includes a transparent plastic slipcover that adds to the overall shelf appeal, with white lettering declaring "Mightiest Monster In All Creation", also superimposing images of the twins at the bottom right and jets attacking from the top! The backside of the slip features a synopsis, cast credits, and technical specs for the film plus a few images from the film. This is a very attractive package, easily the best I've seen from Mill Creek Entertainment, I hope they keep up the Steelbooks with transparent slips, which they've also done for western Lonesome Dove, anime Metropolis and the 90's supernatural thriller Flatliners.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Authors and Japanese sci-fi historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski
- Teaser (1 min)
- Trailer (2 min)
- Photo Gallery (50 images)
Mothra (1961) gets a solid Blu-ray from Mill Cree Entertainment, it's coming from an older HD master and the extras are archival, but it still packs a punch, and that gorgeous Steelbook packaging is first-rate.
