Mothra vs. Godzilla

I've been working my way through the Criterion Godzilla Box Set. I bought it last year for half off because there is always a sale on B&N or Criterion.com. Before the purchase I had only seen the original as well as some of the more recent ones (Minus One is incredible)... and also the incredibly bad one in the '90s with Matthew Broderick. Other than that, any images in my head of Godzilla and his enemies were a mashup of random tv moments, early internet pictures, probably MST3K, and whatever else 80s and 90s culture thought to bubble up from the Japanese classic(s). I fear that much of what was out there was in jest or mean spirited but luckily I always took Godzilla seriously. Watch the first one if you haven't seen it and tell me its not a great film in its own right, full of social and political commentary. Go ahead and try to tell me that. 

The movie starts, as many films do, with a Giant Blue Egg. It washes ashore after a typhoon. A young photographer takes pictures of it and later the CEO of Happy Enterprises buys the egg! for exploitation and profit! This is the main driver of the plot, such as it is, and the best thing to say about the pair of regular folks pushing the plot forward is that... its all pretty brief.

Godzilla always has a way of making an entrance. In this one, the fourth in the series, we find him just sort of coming out of the dirt... and shaking it off, like he had been drunk at the beach and some kids decided to bury him. Its really great. Then there is a wild scene with some miniature women (apparently called Shobijin) who come pleading for the blue egg, which of course turns out to be Mothra's egg. The CEO tries to catch them but they evade him with ease. They sing a bunch too. I'm going to take a moment to mention how much I absolutely love forced perspective in film. If there is a giant or a miniature alien/creature/person/etc. you can believe I'm watching it. So with the introduction of the Shobijin... this one shot up the list to my favorite Godzilla film. Its just something that gives me unreasonable joy... I love giant and little things in film so much that I have no desire to analyze it further. 

The folks who are trying to get Mothra's egg back to Mothra seek out the help of the Shobijin on Infant Island, a site of old nuclear tests... The Shobijin were played by a singing duo called The Peanuts. Anyhow they agree to plead for the regular folks to Mothra and after a short song and tbh very little convincing.... Mothra agrees to help them against Godzilla. The egg hatches and THE LARVAE fight Godzilla!

All of it is very very good.