Monday, April 28, 2008

Moth-u-ra...yah! Moth-u-ra!

This is one the odder corners of the Toho Studios mythos: the two tiny twin girls (the Peanuts) who summon Mothra to rescue mankind from some monster or other.

It's weird and cool that so many Japanese monsters are harmless creatures like moths, turtles (Gamera), lobsters (Ebirah), cuttlefish (Gezora), birds (Rodan). That would never fly in Hollywood. Some of the Japanese baseball teams have similarly gentle names: swallows, carp, blue waves.



There are so many Japanese monster movie clips on Youtube. It's bottomless.

7 comments:

Jo said...

Harmless creatures? But they're HUUUUUGE.

I'm actually quite afraid of coming across a Colossal Squid.

I love Japanese monster flicks. We used to watch them with the sound off when were kids & improvise our own lines.

Lynnea said...

Hey they are like the Japanese Olson twins!

Unknown said...

Oh, I remember this one! But I think it was dubbed.

Do they EVER explain the twins?

meno said...

But who summoned Raymond Burr?

I love this movie. I must have seen it 50 times on old TV channels.

Anonymous said...

It speaks to a culture's development that for their dreadful monsters they choose giant amphibians and huge angry moths, and devote an entire sexual kink to skinny girls in huge, clunky shoes and knee socks.

Mmmmmm...knee socks.

No, I can't say it with a straight face.

Clowncar said...

Colossal squids are so cool, Jo. There's some old 50s sci-fi movie where a squid crawls all over the Golden Gate bridge. I now must go find it. That squid they found this wee has an eyeball 11 inches wide. Now THAT is cool.

Mag, the Olsen twins can only dream of being as cool as the Peanuts.

Nancy, so glad you asked. They are explained. If I remember right, the Peanuts lived on an island with Mothra's egg. Greedy Americans take the Peanuts to NYC to dazzle the crowds and make a quick buck. The Peanuts call Mothra, who flies across the water to save them!

Meno, thanks for stopping by! It is a wonderful movie - even kinda sweet. The worst thing Mothra does is blow stuff around with his wings. Ans the Peanuts don't have X-Ray eyes or superpowers - they just sing.

Irr, is there really an "entire sexual kink to skinny girls in huge, clunky shoes and knee socks?" Now Mothra vs. Gamera - THERE'S a sexual kink with octane! The only downside is that the costumes have to be dry-cleaned. Or so I've read. Never done it myself. Nope. Not me.

Anonymous said...

Wow. I can't WAIT for the interview show. *lol*