Mothra (Masters of Cinema)

Mothra is a 1961 monster movie straight from Japan. The film is directed by Ishiro Honda, the legendary director that helmed Godzilla 1954 and another fan favourite, Rodan. Tomoyuki Tanaka handled production and the film stars Frankie Sakai, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyoko Kagawa and the vocal group The Peanuts, the duo who played Mothra's twin Fairies.The first film outing for Mothra is a genre classic. After a ship crew find themselves rescued from infant island, a land known for the atomic tests performed on it. A group of scientists go to study the land after one of the survivors (who should be dead from radiation poisoning) talks of natives on the island. Events turn interesting after the expedition find the natives and two small fairies. As it turns out, the head of the expedition has other motives and returns to the island specifically to kidnap the fairies. This results in the little duo calling for their saviour Mothra to help them. Mothra makes her way to civilisation and as expected, all hell breaks loose.Of all the 1960s Japanese monster movies, this is one of the best ones. Without any doubts. The protagonists are rather likeable and their attempts to rescue the fairies from the bad guy is highly entertaining. Talking of the bad guy, Jerry Ito plays it up perfectly. He definitely meets the "love to hate" standard that movies should aim for. The special effects are all pretty good for their time. The blue screen effects aren't very convincing but the model work and Mothra herself look really good. I particularly enjoyed the first rampage from the Mothra larvae. The lighting of the crumbling models look fantastic.The new Eureka/Masters of Cinema release of Mothra is a pretty nice package. The film is held in an extremely colourful hardcover sleeve. Inside is the bluray case with a changeable front cover, an interesting booklet and a pretty cool poster. The actual film quality isn't the best but far better than any previous copy I've ever seen. It's about as good looking as the recent Criterion Godzilla release and the '60s Gamera films from Arrow. There's a little print damage here and there but nothing major. It also gives the films a very distinct look and some form of consistency with other monster movie releases.I honestly think that Mothra is a great film. It's great fun and this bluray release has plenty of extras to keep you going after the film has finished. The front cover looks amazing, it at least makes for a fantastic display piece. If you're into the Japanese Kaiju films, this is a must buy and one I would recommend purchasing soon. It is very limited after all.

I rented this hoping for more cheesy monsters destroying cardboard cities. Instead, i mostly got Japans chunkier version of Norman Wisdom. And i think that the style of comedy where someone (often an overweight person) just acts stupid / clumsy / nervous / awkward, while walking around with their mouth hanging open.... that style of ''comedy'' should have died out with the dinosaurs. Or at very least with silent movies. I didn't find it funny last century, and it certainly hasn't grown on me since. Far from it..In a film about something as weird and wonderful as a giant moth and six inch high telepathic, singing twins, it's amazing how many truly painful cliches they can fit in to this film. There's irritating pudgy kids. There's babies left behind in life threatening situations so that someone has to risk their life to go and save them. There's that buffoon, who also works with other untrustworthy and sneaky journalists. He's usually paired up with a really bossy and nagging female partner. There's a massively O.T.T. evil businessman (who reminds me of Chief Inspector Dreyfus at the peak of his insanity in The Pink Panther films) with a bunch of dumb but loyal henchmen who just call him ''boss'' all the time. They even do a group evil laughing scene that goes on longer than the Dr Evil one in the Austin Powers films. And the scientists under 70 have spiv mustaches and greased back hair, because under 70 is young in science circles, and nothing says ''young'' in the 1960's quite like the 1940's look..And the islands native tribe? O.M.G. White actors painted black!!! And painted badly at that. More like smeared with marker pen at times. You can tell this was filmed in the bad old days..There is also the stupidest fight scene ever, where the idiot somehow beats six mobsters in roughly ten seconds. All without much actual fighting, and not even helped by any comedy accidents. They just line up and take turns to be completely rubbish, then lay on the floor wincing as if he actually hit them, which he didn't..Add to all that, the twins speaking in unison gets old REAL quick..And why the **** does a giant moth SWIM to Tokyo before hatching?.If i can say anything positive about this film, then while i personally would have preferred subtitles, the English dubbing is clear and on point throughout. And about two thirds of the way in it did start to turn into the kind of silliness that i was looking for. Cardboard cities, toy tanks and cars, all getting destroyed by a ridiculous monster (Mothras cocoon looks for all the world like a giant peanut). And the very obviously toy soldiers make this look even more like the old British kids program ''Trumpton''. That, or an even worse version of ''Thunderbirds''. Which is hilarious!.But apart from all that, we know that this film was made in the 1960's. More specifically 1961 according to Wikipedia. So why is Amazon trying to tell me that this is from 2013? What is going on with that?

As others have stated, the case inside is a bit tricky - they're stacked on top of each other, and I found them quite difficult to remove the first time.Other than that, they're great! One movie per disc, and both language versions for all three films. Bit disappointed that the commentaries aren't on the Japanese language versions, as I rarely watch the English language ones. But for the price, great value

The other reviewers are right about the packaging. Although the cover is pretty nice the dvd's themselves are stacked one on top of the other. You'll need to be careful taking them out or they are going to get scratched pretty quickly...Thankfully the content more than makes up. The picture quality is excellent on each movie. The films come in English and Japanese cuts so you can play the traditional "they cut what?' game. The commentaries provided by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski match the ones they have previously provided for the Classic Media Toho releases. It's a pity their commentaries are only on the English versions but they have included clips from interviews they've done with some of the cast members. There is no commentary on H-Man but......but look, these are movies where giant moths save tiny singing twins, where astronauts fight aliens by having huge laser fights in the distant future of 1965, and where blobs of slime eat people. What more do you want?

A remarkably good film. Discpacked with extras.

Really fun film, full of colour and camp and saturday morning action..The packaging and presentation from Arrow is lovely.. includes a neat poster

What can I say if you like Godzilla then this is a must for your collection

vintage Toho classics !!