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Synopsis

Goddamn metal detector lied to me again!

This movie starts out with scenes of a typhoon ravaging a coastline. Afterwards, two reporters, Sakai (Akira Takarada) and his lovely assistant/ photographer Junko (Yuriko Hoshi; note that her character’s name comes from the background material, and is not mentioned in the movie) cover the damage at Kurata Beach and find a strange, flat, blue-gray object. Meanwhile, a huge, blue and yellow egg floats ashore at Shizonoura, and is claimed by a fishing village. Cut to a crowd gathering around the egg. Our reporters are there; they talk to Dr. Miura (Hiroshi Koizumi), who tells them nothing, really. Then Kumayama (Yoshibumi Tajima), of “Happy Enterprises,” who is an overweight man with a bad moustache, shows up. He says he’s bought the egg (for 1,224,560 yen – the price of its weight in chicken eggs), and, despite protestations, is going to put it on display for a small admission fee.

Our three heroes trail Kumayama to the hotel room of his financier, the arrogant and obviously Evil Jiro Torahata (Kenji Sahara). The two evil persons discuss their evil amusement-park-building plans, and then hear a duo of high-pitched voices, begging them to give the egg back. The voices are revealed to come from two tastefully-dressed women who are less than a foot tall (Emi and Yumi Ito); the villains try to catch them, but they escape.

Later, our heroes meet the two small women – the Shobijin, though they are never called such – in the woods, and hear their story; they are from Infant Island, the site of the first H-bomb tests, and they have come to retrieve the egg, which is that of Mothra, their patron (or matron, technically – Mothra is female). So, a bit later, our heroes meet with the villains, and ask them to give the egg back. They do, and the movie’s over. No, wait! They refuse. They even try to purchase the Shobijin from their larger friends. So the two small women are spirited back to Infant Island by Mothra.

Do you think they don’t know we’re here, or are they just ignoring us?

The next day, some villagers yell at Kumayama, demanding the money he owes them for the egg, which is now in a cage-like incubator. He calls Torahata, and finds his backer unhelpful, even downright unsympathetic. Our heroes return to Kurata Beach, as Miura has discovered that the gray lump the reporters found there is radioactive. Junko sees movement in the beach-sand, and suddenly, Godzilla rises out of it. (Apparently, he came in with the typhoon and got buried. Apparently.) He – perhaps predictably – attacks some stuff, specifically an industrial complex, and then Nagoya. He seems, well, clumsy here; he gets his tail stuck in an electrical tower, bringing the tower down onto himself in his effort to get it free, and later he trips and falls into a castle, which he then tears down in frustration.

Our heroes head for Infant Island; it has been suggested to them by Sakai’s colleague Jiro Nakamura (Yu Fujiki) that Mothra might be somehow able to beat Godzilla. Everyone seems to know of Mothra, presumably from the events of the 1961 movie. They find the island to be a blasted wasteland, and the natives – who are low-tech, but, unlike the Pharoh Islanders, have a unique and peculiar aesthetic – extremely (and understandably) hostile to outsiders. Junko and Sakai speak movingly about how everyone has a right to live, and Mothra’s godawful screeching sound is heard. The Shobijin lead everyone to Mothra, who is perched on a sacred rock, waiting to die. They sing Mothra the Mothra Song, and Mothra agrees to fight Godzilla, with the last of her strength.

Elsewhere, Godzilla destroys some tanks as army guys plan to kill him with 30 million volts of ‘artificial lightning.’ Our heroes arrive at Shizonoura, and begin showing off their finely-honed waiting skills. Kumayama goes to Torahata’s suite, screaming about the loss of his life savings, and – for want of a better term – beats Torahata up. Lying on the floor as Kumayama loots his room, Torahata sees Godzilla approaching, so he drags himself up, shoots Kumayama, and sets out. But it is too late for evil – Godzilla knocks the hotel down.

A colossal…moth! That’ll save…um…us?

He then presses on to the beach, and Mothra’s egg. Mothra appears in the nick of time, and a rather strange combat begins. Mothra kicks up a terrible wind with her wings, knocking Godzilla over; she drags him by the tail at one point. She also does a good deal of just sort of hovering by Godzilla’s head, harassing him. This seems to work, provided that its goal was to irritate the crap out of Godzilla. Later, Mothra rains down a poisonous golden powder, which again knocks Godzilla flat. But eventually, Godzilla’s ray hits Mothra, and she lands by her egg, covers it with her wing, and dies.

Our heroes watch the Shobijin sing to the egg, as Godzilla continues his rampage. The army shoots ‘artificial lightning’ at him from an electrical tower; this accomplishes nothing. Then they drop some metal nets on him, and conduct the lightning through them; this incapacitates Godzilla, until the army turns up the juice, which blows out the system. And so ends the first-ever coordinated military assault on Godzilla. Godzilla heads out to the nearby Iwa Island, where – we learn to our horror (the filmmakers fervently hope) – a group of schoolchildren is stranded.

Mothra’s egg hatches, and not one, but two caterpillars emerge. They give chase to Godzilla. As our heroes rescue the lil’ uns, the colossal larvae flank Godzilla, hide behind rocks, and spew from their mouths a white, sticky, weblike silk, which sticks to Godzilla. Eventually, he is almost entirely cocooned, so the larvae push him into the sea, and, with the two small women, head off to Infant Island. And that is all.