Beast Man/Snow Man (1955)/Half Human (1958) |
* 6.1/10 |
Half Human (Jūjin Yuki Otoko (獣人雪男)) is a tokusatsu film directed by Ishirō Honda in 1955. The film was re-edited and dubbed in English in a 1958 U.S. release version called Half Human.
Plot The Japanese version is told in flashbacks framed by scenes of a reporter questioning the expedition after they have returned from their harrowing ordeal in the mountains. Five young friends, university students, have come to the Japanese Alps in Nagano during New Year's for a skiing vacation. Among them are Takashi Iijima (Akira Takarada) his girlfriend Machiko Takeno (Momoko Kochi), her elder brother Kiyoshi Takeno (Tadashi Okabe) and their friends Nakada (Sachio Saki) and Kaji. Rather than the five of them skiing together, Kiyoshi announces that he will follow Kaji to the cabin of a mutual friend named Gen, and then meet the other three at the inn. Takashi, Michiko, and Nakada arrive at the inn, welcomed by the manager Matsui (Akira Sera), who informs them that a blizzard is approaching. The caretaker tries to telephone the remote cabin, but nobody answers. He tries to hide his concern, but nobody's fooled. While Takashi takes over trying to ring the cabin, Machiko stares out the window into the deepening storm. She catches sight of a shadowy figure shambling toward the lodge. A fur-clad young woman named Chika (Akemi Negishi), who lives in a remote village somewhere deep in the mountains. |
Radon (1956)/Rodan (1957) |
* 6.4/10 |
Rodan, released in Japan as Sora no Daikaijū Radon (空の大怪獣 ラドン, lit. "Radon, Giant Monster of the Sky"), is a 1956 science fiction kaiju film produced by Toho Studios. It was the studio's first Kaiju movie filmed in color (though Toho's first color tokusatsu film, Madame White Snake, was released earlier that year). It is one of a series of "giant monster" movies that found an audience outside Japan, especially in the United States, where it was originally released in 1957 as Rodan! The Flying Monster!. (It was re-released later in some drive-ins in the U.S. in 1959 on a double bill with Gigantis the Fire Monster.)
Plot In the small mining village of Kitamatsu, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, two miners have gone missing. The two men, Goro and Yoshi, had brawled earlier that day, and after they entered the mine to start their shift, the shaft had quickly flooded. Shigeru Kawamura (Kenji Sahara), a tunneling and safety engineer at the mine, heads below to investigate and makes a gruesome discovery: Yoshi's lacerated corpse. Above ground, a doctor examines Yoshi, and discovers the cause of death to be a series of deep gashes caused by an abnormally sharp object. Some of the miners and their families begin to discuss the possibility of the involvement of Goro, who is still unaccounted for, in the death. Shigeru is personally affected by this incident, since his fiancée Kiyo (Yumi Shirakawa) is also Goro's sister. Two local miners and a policeman are stationed inside the mine, just before the waterline of the flooded shaft. Suddenly, they hear a splash in the flooded mine, and venture into the water to investigate. All three, however, are then attacked and slain by an unseen assailant. Soon after, the bodies of the three men are recovered and examined. |
Earth Defense Force/The Mysterians (1957)/The Mysterians (1959) |
* 6.3/10 |
The Mysterians (地球防衛軍 Chikyū Bōeigun, lit. Earth Defense Force) is a 1957 Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda.
Plot Astrophysicist Ryoichi Shiraishi, his fiancee Hiroko, his sister Etsuko, and his friend Joji Atsumi attend a festival at a local village near Mount Fuji. Shiraishi then tells Atsumi that he has broken off his engagement with Hiroko but gives no reason other than an undisclosed obligation to remain in the village. Then, a mysterious forest fire flares up, burning more rapidly than normal and emanating from the ground, and Shiraishi rushes out to investigate and disappears during the confusion. The next day, Atsumi is at the local observatory, where he meets with his mentor, head astronomer, Tanjiro Adachi. He hands the doctor a report written by Shiraishi which concerns a newly discovered asteroid that Shiraishi theorized was once a planet between Mars and Jupiter. He has named it Mysteroid. However, Adachi does not believe in his radical theory and also points out that the report is not complete. Meanwhile, the village in which the festival was held is completely wiped out by a massive earthquake. While investigating the area, Atsumi and a group of police officers stumble upon a giant robot, Moguera, which bursts from the side of a hill. It emits rays which decimate the investigation team; only Atsumi and the lead policeman survive. The robot then advances to a town near Koyama Bridge that night, and is met by heavy resistance from Japan's self-defense force. |
Varan The Unbelievable (1958)/(1962) |
* 5.0/10 |
Varan the Unbelievable (大怪獣バラン Daikaijū Baran) is a 1958 Japanese black-and-white science fiction-kaijū film, produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, directed by Ishirō Honda, that stars Kôzô Nomura, Ayumi Sonoda, Fumito Matsuo, and Haruo Nakajima as Varan.
In 1962, for the American market, Crown International Pictures released a heavily re-edited adaptation of Varan the Unbelievable on a double bill with the re-edited, shortened, and retitled version of the East German/Polish science fiction film First Spaceship on Venus. United States Navy Commander Jim Bradley is sent to Japan to test a new chemical that will desalinate water. The indigenous population, unfortunately, are against the experiments in their salt lake. They fear that the chemical will re-awaken their ancient god, Obaki. Despite their objections, the villagers are evacuated and the experiment goes on as scheduled. As they feared, the chemical reawakens their god, a giant prehistoric monster. The creature destroys the local village and then heads to the city of Oneida. Plot A rare species of butterfly, native only to Japan's Kitakami River area, is discovered by two Japanese students while vacationing. In response, an expedition is dispatched to the Northwest Region (The Japanese Tibet) to study the butterflies in their native habitat. While driving to the location, two researchers come across a village. They ask the lake's location but receive no answer. The two eventually come upon the lake and find the butterflies, but are mysteriously crushed by something that police describe as "powerful". Nearby villagers of the Kitakami River insist that both deaths were a result of the wrath of their god Baradagi-sanjin (Mountain God Baradagi). |
Birth Of Japan (1959)/The Three Treasures (1960) |
* 6.9/10 |
The Three Treasures (日本誕生 Nippon Tanjō, lit. Birth of Japan) is a 1959 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki. The film is based on the legends Kojiki and Nihon Shoki and the origins of Shinto. The film was highest grossing film of 1959 for Toho that year and the second highest grossing domestic production in Japan of the year.
Plot The Three Treasures retells the story of the Yamata no Orochi legend, and features the great adventure of Susanoo as he fights the legendary serpent Orochi, in order to save the maidens of a village in the newly-formed Japanese country. The legend of the birth of Shintoism. In Fourth Century Japan, the Emperor Keikoh's son Ouso expects to succeed his father on the throne, but Otomo, the Emperor's vassal, prefers Ouso's stepbrother Waka, and conspires to have Ouso die on a dangerous mission he has contrived. But Ouso prevails in the mission and returns to his father's castle under a new name, Prince Yamato Takeru. Otomo plots to have the Prince sent into even greater danger, but Otomo is unaware that the gods have favored the Prince and the outcome is far from what any of them expected. |
Mothra (1961)/(1962) |
* 6.6/10 |
Mothra (モスラ Mosura) is a 1961 science fiction kaiju tokusatsu film from Toho Studios, directed by genre regular Ishirō Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the genre film debut of screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa, whose approach to Toho's monster and fantasy films grew to prominence during the 1960s. The film stars Frankie Sakai, a popular comedian in Japan at the time, and Hiroshi Koizumi, in the first of many academic roles he would adopt in tokusatsu. Jerry Ito (transliterated as "Jelly Ito" in the credits of the U.S. release) stars in the film, his only appearance in a Toho monster film. Ito did however appear in 1958's Japanese-American co-production The Manster, and in Toho's 1961 end-of-the-world feature The Last War.
Its basic plot was recycled in King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla (1962 and 1964, both also written by Sekizawa), and Mothra would become Toho's second most popular kaiju character after Godzilla, appearing in seven Godzilla sequels and her own trilogy in the 1990s. Plot An expedition to an irradiated island brings civilization in contact with a primitive native culture. When one sensationalist entrepreneur tries to exploit the islanders, their ancient deity arises in retaliation. In waters off Infant Island, a presumed uninhabited site for Rolisican atomic tests, the Daini-Gen'you-Maru is caught and run aground in the turbulence of a typhoon. A rescue party following the storm finds four sailors alive and strangely unafflicted with radiation sickness, which they attribute to the juice provided them by island natives. |
Ominous Star Gorath (1962)/Gorath (1964) |
* 6.0/10 |
Gorath (妖星ゴラス Yōsei Gorasu, Ominous Star Gorath) is a Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishiro Honda. Based on an idea by Jojiro Okami, the film is a story of mankind's efforts to move Earth out of its orbit to avoid it from colliding with a runaway star. The film was extensively edited for its American release.
Plot Early in the year of 1979, Japan's most famed rocketship, the JX-1 Hawk, with its crew of 30 men, was launched from the Interstellar Exploration Agency’s rocket launch site at Mt Fuji into space on a 9-month journey to investigate the planet Saturn. After a 9 months journey to Saturn, the crew are given a new directive for the mission from Earth. It was discovered that a small, runaway "planet," which some scientists believed to be the solid mega-dense core of a collapsed star that had somehow run amok. It is subsequently given the name "Gorath" by the international scientific community, had entered Earth's solar system. Upon encountering Gorath and attempting to investigate its rapid movement in the solar system, they discover that Gorath is smaller than Earth but with 6000 times Earth's gravity. The JX-1 is caught in its gravity well and its entire crew of the spacecraft lose their lives as the enormous gravity well of the approaching celestial body destroyed the ship. Back on Earth during the Christmas season, the transmitted data made its way back to Earth. A month later in 1980, astronomers and astrophysicists throughout the international community announce that the enormous celestial body would collide with the Earth in two years time. |
Matango (1963)/Matango: Attack Of The Mushroom People (1965) |
*6.6/10 |
Matango (マタンゴ) is a 1963 Japanese horror film directed by Ishirō Honda. The film stars Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno and Kenji Sahara. The film was partially based on William H. Hodgson's short story "The Voice in the Night" and is about a group of castaways on an island who are unwittingly altered by a local species of mutagenic mushrooms.
Matango was different from Honda's other films of the period, exploring darker themes and featuring a starker look. It was nearly banned in Japan because its depictions of altered humans bore a resemblance to victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom and directly to television in the United States in shortened forms. The film is relatively obscure, with little critical analysis. In Monsters and Monstrosity from the Fin de Siecle to the Millennium: New Essays, Anthony Camara noted that the film was mostly familiar to "aficionados of Asian cult cinema, fans of weird literature, and sleepless consumers of late-night television programming". Retrospective reviews generally commented on how the film varied from Honda's other work, with its darker tone. Plot In Tokyo, a man travels to visit a university professor named Kenji (Akira Kubo) who is being held in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. The professor tells the man that although what happened to him sounds crazy, it is the truth. He begins his story. A Japanese yacht on a day trip is nearly capsized by a sudden storm. The storm badly damages their ship, destroying the rudder and sails, which causes the vessel to drift uncontrollably. |
Flying Supersub Atoragon (1963)/Atragon (1965) |
* 6.1/10 |
Atragon, originally released in Japan as Kaitei Gunkan (海底軍艦), is a 1963 Japanese science fiction film produced and distributed by Toho. It is based on The Undersea Warship by Shunrō Oshikawa and The Undersea Kingdom by Shigeru Komatsuzaki. The film is directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya and stars Jun Tazaki, Tadao Takashima, Yōko Fujiyama, Yū Fujiki, and Ken Uehara.
The film was released in Japan on December 22, 1963 and in the United States in 1965 via American International Pictures. A two episode OVA titled Super Atragon, based on the same novels, was produced by Phoenix Entertainment in 1995. Plot The legendary empire of the lost continent of Mu reappears to threaten the world with domination. While countries unite to resist, an isolated World War II Captain has created the greatest warship ever seen, and possibly the surface world's only defense. While on a magazine photo shoot one night, photographers Susumu and Yoshito witness a car drive into the ocean. While speaking with a detective the next day they spot Makoto Jinguji, daughter of deceased Imperial Captain Jinguji, who is also being followed by a suspicious character. Her father's former superior, retired Rear Admiral Kusumi is confronted by a peculiar reporter, who claims contrarily that Captain Jinguji is alive and at work on a new submarine project. The threads meet when a mysterious taxi driver, who almost abducts Makoto and the Admiral, claiming to be an agent of the drowned Mu Empire. Foiled by the ensuing photographers, he flees into the ocean. |
Giant Space Monster Dogora (1964)/Dogora The Space Monster (1966) |
* 5.9/10 |
Dogora the Space Monster, released in Japan as Uchū Daikaijū Dogora (宇宙大怪獣ドゴラ, lit. "Giant Space Monster Dogora"), is a 1964 Japanese tokusatsu science fiction film produced and released by Toho Studios. Directed by Ishirō Honda and featuring special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, the film starred Nobuo Nakamura, Akiko Wakabayashi, and Hollywood actor Robert Dunham. The film tells the story of a huge jellyfish-like creature from space that attacks Japan.
The film was released straight to television in the United States, in the winter of 1966 by American International Television as Dagora, the Space Monster. Plot When several TV satellites launched by the Electric Wave Laboratory go missing above Japan in Earth's orbit, it is found out that they have inadvertently collided with unidentified protoplasmic "space cells" of unknown origin. A similar creature suddenly thwarted the efforts of a local branch of the International Diamond Robbery Ring. The diamonds they sought vanished, and similar unexplained events continued to occur across the globe. Meanwhile, Inspector Komai's (Yosuke Natsuki) investigation of these strange events led him to the crystallographer Dr. Munakata (Nobuo Nakamura). In the process of tracking down the self-proclaimed diamond broker Mark Jackson (Robert Dunham). He finds him in Dr. Munakata's home but knocks him out and escapes from Komai. He is then picked up by the gangsters for questioning. Komai wakes up and is greeted by Dr. Munakata and his lab assistant Masayo Kirino (Yoko Fujiyama). He tells them about the case he is working on and shows them pictures of the melted safe the gangsters were at that night. |
Frankenstein Vs. Baragon (1965)/Frankenstein Conquers The World (1966) |
* 4.9/10 |
Frankenstein Conquers the World (フランケンシュタイン対地底怪獣バラゴン Furankenshutain Tai Chitei Kaijū Baragon, also known as Frankenstein vs. Baragon) is a Japanese-American 1965 science fiction kaiju film co-produced by Toho and Henry G. Saperstein Enterprises. The film is directed by Ishirō Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya and stars Nick Adams, Kumi Mizuno, Tadao Takashima, with Koji Furuhata as Frankenstein and Haruo Nakajima as Baragon.
The following year, Toho/UPA produced a sequel to the film titled The War of the Gargantuas. The film was released theatrically in the United States in the summer of 1966 by American International Pictures. Plot The prologue is set in Nazi Germany during the final days of World War II. A Kriegsmarine Officer, flanked by three Commandos, barges into the laboratory of a Dr. Riesendorf with orders to seize the immortal heart of the Frankenstein Monster, on which Riesendorf is busy experimenting. The heart is summarily transported by U-Boat to be passed off to their Japanese allies via the Atlantic. In the Indian Ocean, off the Maldives, the U-Boat meets up with a Japanese Imperial Navy submarine to make the exchange. They are sighted by an Allied Forces scout plane and bombed, but not before the Kriegsmarine pass the heart (contained in a locked chest) to the Japanese, who take it back to Hiroshima for further experimentation. But just as the experiments are about to begin, Hiroshima is bombed with a nuclear weapon by the Allied Forces, and the heart and the experiments vanish in the atomic fireball. |
Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda Vs. Gaira (1966)/War Of The Gargantuas (1970) |
* 6.5/10 |
The War of the Gargantuas (フランケンシュタインの怪獣 サンダ対ガイラ Furankenshutain no Kaijū: Sanda tai Gaira, lit. Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira) is a 1966 Japanese-American kaiju film co-produced by Toho and UPA. The film is directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya and stars Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno, Kenji Sahara, Jun Tazaki, with Yû Sekida as Sanda and Haruo Nakajima as Gaira.
The film is a sequel to the 1965 film Frankenstein Conquers the World and tells the story of two giant, hairy humanoid monsters that were spawned from the discarded cells of Frankenstein's monster from the previous film. A green one raised in the sea named Gaira (ガイラ, from kai, "sea") is violent and savage, while a brown one who resides in the Japanese Alps, named Sanda (サンダ, from san, "mountain") is friendly and docile. The film follows the investigation and military engagements of these creatures until their climactic confrontation in Tokyo. The film was released in Japan on July 31, 1966 and released theatrically in the United States in 1970 by Maron Films where it played nationwide on a double bill with Monster Zero. Plot As the film opens, a small boat is seen chugging through stormy seas. A giant octopus appears from the ocean and seems bent on killing the sole crew member on deck. Suddenly, the octopus releases the man and retracts its tentacles from the boat. Relieved, the sailor peers out the porthole, only to see Gaira, a large green man-like creature, fighting the octopus. After easily defeating it, Gaira turns his attention to the boat and sinks it. |
Counterattack Of King Kong (1967)/King Kong Escapes (1968) |
* 5.6/10 |
King Kong Escapes (released in Japan as Counterattack of King Kong (キングコングの逆襲 Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū), is a 1967 Japanese-American science-fiction kaiju film featuring King Kong, co-produced by Toho and Rankin/Bass. The film is directed by Ishiro Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya and stars Rhodes Reason, Linda Jo Miller, Akira Takarada, Mie Hama, Eisei Amamoto, with Haruo Nakajima as King Kong and Yū Sekida as Mechani-Kong and Gorosaurus. The film was a loose adaptation of the Rankin/Bass Saturday morning cartoon series The King Kong Show and was the second and final Japanese-produced film featuring King Kong. King Kong Escapes was released in Japan on July 22, 1967 and released in the United States on June 19, 1968.
Plot An evil genius named Dr. Who creates Mechani-Kong, a robot version of King Kong, to dig for the highly radioactive Element X, found only at the North Pole. Mechani-Kong enters an ice cave and begins to dig into a glacier, but the radiation destroys its brain circuits and the robot shuts down. Who then sets his sights on getting the real Kong to finish the job. Who is taken to task by a beautiful female overseer, Madame Piranha. Her country's government is financing the doctor's schemes, and she frequently berates him for his failure to get results. Meanwhile, a submarine commanded by Carl Nelson arrives at Mondo Island where the legendary King Kong lives. Much like the original 1933 film, the giant ape gets into an intense fight with Gorosaurus and a sea serpent. He falls in love with a female human. In this case, it is Lt. Susan Watson (played by Linda Jo Miller) following in the footsteps of Fay Wray. Dr. Who subsequently goes to Mondo Island, abducts Kong and brings him back to his base at the North Pole. |
Gezora, Ganimes, & Kamoebas: Decisive Battle! (1970)/Yog Monster From Space/Space Amoeba (1971) |
* 5.4/10 |
Space Amoeba (Gezora, Ganime, Kamēba: Kessen! Nankai no Daikaijū (ゲゾラ・ガニメ・カメーバ 決戦! 南海の大怪獣, lit. "Gezora, Ganimes, and Kamoebas: Decisive Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas"), is a 1970 Japanese science fiction kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, and featuring special effects by Sadamasa Arikawa. The film tells the story of extraterrestrial amoeba-like aliens that hijack a probe and, after crash landing on a small South Pacific atoll, create gigantic monsters from native lifeforms (a kisslip cuttlefish, stone crab and mata mata) with plans of conquering the Earth.
The film was released theatrically in the USA in the Summer of 1971 by American International Pictures as Yog-Monster From Space. Plot The Helios 7 space probe is sent on a mission to study the planet Jupiter. While on its outward journey to the gas giant, the probe is overtaken by the Space Amoeba, an amorphous parasitic extraterrestrial. The probe returns to Earth and crashes into the South Pacific, where the Amoeba leaves the device and inhabits the body of a cuttlefish, causing it to mutate into what is called "Gezora". The tentacled kaiju begins attacking ships and islands in the area. A photographer named Kudo and his entourage land on Selgio Island for a photoshoot, but their camp is attacked by Gezora. Because of its mutation the creature can create extremely cold temperatures with its body. When the survivors discover that Gezora is vulnerable to high temperatures, Kudo and his friends use a leftover Japanese World War II munitions bunker to set fire to the monster. Severely burned, the creature retreats to the water, where it dies. |
Great Desperate Monster Battle: Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972)/Daigoro vs. Goliath |
* 5.4/10 |
Daigoro vs. Goliath (怪獣大奮戦 ダイゴロウ対ゴリアス Kaijû daifunsen: Daigorou tai Goriasu, lit. Great Desperate Monster Battle: Daigoro Against Goliath) is a 1972 tokusatsu kaiju film. The film was produced as a collaboration between Tsuburaya Productions and Toho Company Ltd. and was released to Japanese theaters on December 17, 1972.
Plot Daigoro is a monster who became orphaned after the military used Intercontinental missiles to kill his mother, who did what she could to protect him. Only one man stood up to that call. He pitied the child, and took the infant as his own to Japan and raised him there. Soon Daigoro grew too big for a man to take care of, since he needed feeding too often. This caused the man to make Daigoro an icon for a business so he could be fed. Elsewhere, a monster named Goliath crashed to Earth. The two monsters engaged in battle. Daigoro did his best to stand his ground, but Goliath defeated him by striking him with lightning from his horn. Goliath then left to test his power against the world, leaving Daigoro to die. However, Daigoro recovered and practiced daily for his next battle against Goliath. After an intense fight Daigoro breathed his fire ray and managed to defeat Goliath. The humans then grabbed Goliath while he was weak, and strapped him to a rocket to blast into space. |
Yamato Takeru (1994)/Orochi, The Eight-Headed Dragon (2003) |
* 6.3/10 |
Yamato Takeru (ヤマトタケル; released as Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon in the US by ADV Films and Section 23 Films) is a 1994 Japanese film. The film was produced by the Japanese film company Toho, and released in Japan on July 9, 1994.
Plot The movie starts out with the birth of twin princes. Their father, the emperor of Yamato, feels a great loathing for his one child Ousu. Being convinced that this feeling is a premonition, the emperor orders the shaman Tsukinowa to kill the boy, yet his efforts are spoiled by Amano Shiratori, the White Bird of the Heavens. The emperor’s sister, seeing this as a clear sign of divine intervention, takes it upon herself to raise the child. Years later, when the boy has matured into a man, he is given pardon by his father and allowed to return to the castle. However, not long after, his mother falls ill and dies mysteriously. This sends his brother into a rage and causing him to attack Ousu, who defends himself and kills his sibling in the process. His father, furious at these events, orders his son to leave the castle and not return until the barbarians living in the Kumaso domain are dealt with. The prince makes haste to complete this task, stopping off at a shrine on his way where, after a quick battle, he befriends Oto who joins him on his journey. They, along with companies Genbu and Seriyu, raid the castle, killing Kumaso Takeru and their god Kumasogami. |
Mothra (1996)/Rebirth Of Mothra (1999) |
* 5.9/10 |
Rebirth of Mothra (モスラ Mosura, released in Japan simply as Mothra) is a 1996 Japanese tokusatsu kaiju film featuring Mothra, produced and distributed by Toho. The film is directed by Okihiro Yoneda and serves as a reboot of the Mothra film series and is the first installment in the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy. It is also the last kaiju film produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, who produced various kaiju films featuring Mothra, Godzilla, and others. The film was released in Japan on December 14, 1996.
Plot Millions of years ago, a giant three-headed dragon called Desghidorah arrives on Earth and wars with a species of enormous and highly advanced moths. The moths were the protectors of the "Elias", a race of tiny, humanoid beings who inhabited the planet. After the ensuing battle, Desghidorah was defeated and sealed under the Earth - at the cost of almost all life on Earth. Only three Elias - Moll, Laura and Belvera - and one last moth - Mothra - remained. To preserve her species, Mothra created an egg in 1996; however, she became physically exhausted from the ordeal. Shortly thereafter, a logging company uncovered the subterranean prison of the demonic space beast that had ravaged the Earth so long ago. When the seal that had bound the creature was removed from the area, one of the workers of the company took it home and gave it to his young daughter, Wakaba, as a souvenir. Seizing the advantage, Belvera controls Wakaba and uses her to torment her brother Taiki, reminding Belvera of her hatred towards her sisters. Moll and Lora, riding a smaller Mothra named Fairy, then fought Belvera for control of the artifact. |
Mothra 2: The Battle Under The Deep Sea (1997)/Rebirth Of Mothra II (2000) |
* 5.5/10 |
Rebirth of Mothra II (モスラ2 海底の大決戦 Mosura Tsū Kaitei no Daikessen, released in Japan as Mothra 2: The Battle Under the Deep Sea) is a 1997 Japanese tokusatsu kaiju film featuring Mothra, produced and distributed by Toho. The film is directed by Kunio Miyoshi and is the second film in the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy. It was the last tokusatsu film in which Koichi Kawakita served as director of special effects. The film was released in Japan on December 13, 1997.
Plot Off the coast of Japan, the environment has been ravaged with poisonous starfish-like creatures called Barem. Meanwhile, the Elias sisters, Moll and Lora, survey the destruction and enlist the help of three children, who had just discovered and befriended a strange little creature dubbed "Ghogo" to help find the mysterious treasure of Ninai Kanai, an ancient lost civilization, to save the Earth from the declining environment. The Elias then tell the children that the people of Ninai Kanai created a monster called Dagahra as a method of pollution management gone wrong and only Mothra Leo can stop it; however, he will need the help of the lost castle of Ninai Kanai itself and the mysterious treasure within. Belvera, the evil Elias sister, manipulates two fishermen and wants the treasure of her own. They all journey to the lost castle, hidden beneath the ocean waters and it magically rises out of the water after the travelers discover it. Dagahra, awakened after a sudden increase in pollution levels, then releases a swarm of Barem into the sea, killing many types of sea life. |
Mothra 3: Invasion Of King Ghidorah (1998)/Rebirth Of Mothra III (2000) |
* 6.0/10 |
Rebirth of Mothra 3 (モスラ 3 キングギドラ来襲 Mosura Surī Kingu Gidora Raishū, released in Japan as Mothra 3: Invasion of King Ghidorah) is a 1998 Japanese tokusatsu kaiju film featuring Mothra, produced and distributed by Toho. The film is directed by Okihiro Yoneda and is the third and final film in the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy. The film was released in Japan on December 12, 1998.
Plot Moll, Lora, and Belvera, the Elias sisters, are at odds again. Belvera seeks the secret power of their ancestors, tiny triangular power units that transform the sisters' small daggers into powerful swords. She steals the three units from Infant Island but is thwarted by Fairy Mothra, Moll and Lora's pet, and fails to retrieve the proper triangle for her sword (each power unit will only work for a specific sword). Moll and Lora end up with a unit that transforms Moll's sword. Shortly after the Elias sisters face-off, a meteor shower brings to Earth a huge meteor that disrupts gravity near it at night, as a family watches. The next day, the oldest of the children, a teenage boy called Shota, plays hookey from school, and goes to investigate the object. Meanwhile, school children on playgrounds and around the nearby city begin to mysteriously vanish as a huge shadow passes overhead. Moll and Lora examine the remains of the crashed meteor, discovering the essence of dinosaurs, and realizes that a great evil has been released. King Ghidorah, a three-headed space monster who visited Earth in its past and thought to be responsible for the destruction of the dinosaurs, returns with the captured children to a secluded spot near where the meteor crashed, trapping them in a huge, pulsating organic dome. |
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