Mothra (1961)

Welcome to the long hot doldrums of summer—-that nowhere space between July and August, when we realize that the sweet relief of Fall weather, and an earlier setting sun isn’t as close as we wish. It’s a space where we humans just try to create a life tempo we can manage under the beating sun, and maybe find a little lost island in the seas of our mind, that is always lush and cool, and restores our soul.

In this episode we revisit a favorite film of ours from childhood. The Godzilla universe has its own Wiki, it is a universe that has been elaborated and reimagined for several generations now. It has its own lexicon and resident experts. It has scads and scads of impressive dissertations and responses on Reddit.

We won’t pretend to know everything about Kaiju, we will leave that to the pros. What we can share is that in revisiting one of our favorite entries of the realm of great beasts, Mothra, and her significance in the Godzilla saga takes on a deeper meaning than could we could comprehend with our little 10 year old brains watching Creature Feature on a summer Saturday night. It is in the most humble, caring, and selfless way — a masterpiece. Mothra is the queen of monsters, and we love her.

P.S. We love The Peanuts too. Listen to them. They are great.

Episode links:

‘Godzilla’ was a metaphor for Hiroshima and Hollywood Source: NBC News https://share.google/bn1DknrcbL2Q6sD9k

Godzilla and the Bravo shot Source: Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus https://share.google/xGQ7DTKAZTM7pmdh6

Imperial Monsters … https://www.popmatters.com/godzilla-mothra-king-ghidorah-html