Rating: 3.5/5
Asian Cinema Challenge 2023 | 19/52 | Kaiju
The part that makes us unhappy is that you could be… and there isn't anything you can do to stop her.
A typhoon approaches the Japanese mainland. A ship is caught in the middle, pushed into a reef, and runs aground on Biru, an uninhabited island used for atomic tests. When the storm clears, a rescue party comes and finds four sailors on the beach, alive. At the National Synthesis Nucleus Center, scientists perform studies on the men and determine that they suffered no radiation damage from the highly radioactive island. One sailor suggests that the juice the natives served the sailors protected them.
The country of Rolisica co-sponsors a joint expedition to Biru. There, they discover a previously unseen jungle, caves filled with giant mold mutations, and two women, each only 1 foot tall, whose songs deter vampire plants. The women, called Shobijin, give a message to the expedition team: that they no longer wish for the military to test atomic bombs on their island. The expedition hides this information on their return. And one of the expedition members abducts the Shobijin.
So, the island natives call upon the goddess Mothra to save them.
The film follows the rubric set out by King Kong (exotic island, evil moron abducting native residents) and Godzilla (nuclear waste is harmful, everyday people facing consequences of evil moron’s choices). The result is a film that smartly balances human conflict and wide-scale destruction. This film also marks Honda’s transition to more family-oriented Kaiju films, attempting to follow a more Disney-like approach. Eventually, the Toho approach would veer too far in this direction, creating obnoxious kids as our leads.
With the Shobijin, the film, intentionally or otherwise, touches on some sexist politics that make this quite progressive for its time. These women perform against their will, obviously dispondent, but the people who control them convince themselves that the women like what they’re doing, mistaking submission for interest. How often have women in performance spaces dealt with these dichotomies, selling an image of pleasure and leisure while having little of either in their personal lives? And of course, the most common of sex pest refrains, “She seemed to be enjoying it.”
Rolisica is a stand-in for the United States, a capitalist superpower more concerned with exploitation than the consequences of its actions. Biru could easily be a stand-in for Bikini Atoll, also a target of US nuclear testing. And, as you know, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are always in the background whenever nuclear destruction is in the conversation.
The real star of the show, however, is the production design. The use of color and investment in creative fauna on the island contrasts beautifully with the dreary nature of Kaiju up to this point. Even Mothra herself has a more colorful appearance once she changes form. Reading about the production, it’s a wonder the filmmakers managed to achieve as much as they did, given the budget constraints they faced. But perhaps that constraint is part of what makes this film work.
I wish I had found a non-English dub. The offensive accents are a lot to deal with. Also, I hate the island native blackface.
I’m always happy to see Takashi Shimura.