Mosura tai Gojira [Mothra vs. Godzilla] (1964)

(On Cable TV, September 2021) I’m slowly dipping my toes into the Godzilla-Toho catalogue, and while Mothra vs. Godzilla does have the advantage of featuring the iconic moth, it’s very much an early-period Godzilla film: It’s still weird to see Godzilla portrayed as a pure antagonist (rather than the sympathetic but uncontrollable force for good of later films) and the entire menagerie of creatures and aliens isn’t quite there the enliven things up. Not that the result isn’t weird enough, what with Godzilla running amok over Japan, a mysterious egg, a nuclear-devastated island of fairy-like creatures, rapacious theme park developers and the scientists trying to find a solution. It’s thankfully in colour, features just enough rubber-suit rampaging (although I’ll never get over Godzilla’s ping-pong eyes) and the obvious miniature sequences add to the charm. Historically, this is the fourth-in-the-series film that marked the shift of the series to a kid-friendly style and, in doing so, cemented its style. It doesn’t quite stand alone, but that’s something true of the rest of the series as well. Still, Mothra vs. Godzilla remains reasonably fun as a kaiju film.