Mothra (aka Mosura) (1961)

Cheesy Japanese creature feature isn’t as memorable as my adolescent memories of it but there’s still a kitschy nostalgic charm to it. It’s really a variation on King Kong. Whereas King Kong was kidnapped from Skull Island and brought to New York and forced into show business before going on a killing rampage, in this case, two “fairies” are kidnapped from an island in the Pacific called Infant island and brought to Tokyo and forced into show biz. A giant caterpillar follows after them to bring them home but not before it causes a lot of death and destruction. The paste and paper monster (called Mothra) is hardly frightening but as a kid, I found those tiny girls really creepy especially when they sing their Mothra song and still found them kind of creepy as an adult. Ishiro Honda (GODZILLA) directs, Yuji Koseki gets the blame for the score and the acting is pretty hideous even for a Japanese monster movie (Jerry Ito is particularly heinous) and what is Kyoko Kagawa who worked with Ozu and Kurosawa doing in this?