Earth vs Soup Ep 175 - Godzilla vs Motha (1964) - ThisWeekInGeek

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
An intellectual tear at the mind barbles. You see, you see your stupid
mimes, stupid stupid Santa Claus.Long enough, we will bring him to
Mars. I've been afraid a lotof times in my life, but I
didn't know the real meaning of fearuntil until I kissed back me. One
thing, I'll be clear, it'snot for man to interfere in the ways
of God. Were needing, everybody, and Welcome to Earth Versus Soup episode.

(00:47):
I'm Aaron Polier, I'm Darlene.We have a guest host with us
tonight. Hey, I'm Chuck anduh, if you recognize my voice,
then I'm sure you realize we're watchinga God's all a movie tonight. Yes,
yes, we we are, andI'm excited to talk about it because
I liked this one we're watching.We have watched mathra versus Godzilla nineteen sixty
four. I grew up watching allthe Godzilla films. We've talked about this

(01:11):
multiple times, Chuck, you grewup watching all the Godzilla films. But
I think both of us grew up, well all of us here, right,
Darling grew up watching the American versionsof them. Yes, we did,
and I was looking through like imagesonline of mathra versus Godzilla before we
started watching this, and I hadrealized, Yeah, there's like whole scenes

(01:33):
with like US Navy personnel that werein the American version that just aren't in
the original. And I remember allof those weird scenes, and I'm one
of the conclusions I've come to,at least watching what we have watched so
far, is that the American versionsare much more goofy and weird and stupid.
There's there's a lot of stupidity inthem, but the original Japanese ones

(01:59):
actually have a lot more I don'tknow, I don't want to say gravitas,
but more there's more meaningful stuff init, if that makes sense.
Do you agree with me, Chuck, or do you have like a different
perspective? No, I think aswe're at the The Donald the Kaiju era
here, I think American producers justdidn't know what to do with these.

(02:23):
So was it a kid's film?Was it an adult film? You know,
how do they bill it? Youknow, how do they you know,
make it accessible to an American audience. So it seems like, you
know, these first couple of films, with the exception of Godzilla of course,
that they were just trying to findtheir way and trying to figure it
out. Yeah does that? Yeahthat makes sense. That doesn't make sense.

(02:45):
But like I said, it wasstupid, which my definition of stupid
is knowing better and still doing it. Yeah. Yeah, knowing better and
still doing it. That's the Americanversions of these Gyzilla movies. But this
is also a little strange, atleast to us who have watched many many

(03:06):
Godzilla films after this, that Mathaand Godzilla are fighting in this Mommy and
Daddy are fighting and this is notright. Am I cracked on that,
chuck you. I heard your laughpretty much. It's weird because they're friends
throughout the rest of the series.I mean, the next movie Godora,

(03:27):
it's not exactly that way. Theybecome friends in that, so to speak.
But yeah, it just feels weirdthat Matha and Godzilla are just wrecking
each other in this, But itmakes the understanding of how they came across
to the how they became friends.The next next one shows how they became
friends. But one thing I dowant to say about this movie is I

(03:49):
realized, after I'd watched it andthought about it that your point of view
character happens to be the female.Yeah, yeah, the photographer was this
was really a female jeer geared Kaijufilm. Yes. And you know,

(04:11):
here's the thing, like when it'sbuild like the build characters, it's still
the top build. Is Akira Takarata, who plays Ichiro in this, which
is her brother, the cop,but he doesn't have very much No,
I'm sorry, he's not the cop. He's the other reporter. I'm sorry,
yes, but he's not the viewpointcharacter. No, No, it's

(04:33):
it's it's yum Koh. I thinkthat's how you pronounce her name, right,
Yuko. I am not not sure. It could be are you Dunko
or are U Kiyo? Or Ukois the actress's name Uiko Hoshi, but

(04:54):
yeah, it's Yunko or something likethat, Nakanashi. Anyway, we see
lots of repeat actors in this fromearlier Godzilla films. And this is where
I start getting confused because I seecharacters that sometimes are playing characters that are
similar to ones they have been playedthat they played before, and I yeah,

(05:20):
and I and I start getting confusedabout it because they're playing very similar
characters. Regardless, we should probablygo into the plot and we can start
kind of geeking out about some ofthese scenes. Do you have any any
like other opening kind of comments,Chuck before we before we get into this,
well, just something theres you know, some little consistency between the the

(05:42):
the the three films, you know, Mathra, Matha Versus Godzilla. And
then our next review Gidor the ThreeHeaded Monster, is that when they were
casting these they brought back uh Uhand Eto to play the two fairy girls
in all three movies. Yes,and I love them. I think they're
fantastic. I think there's actual growthin their characters between well in these three

(06:08):
films, like the first three Mathrafilms. So in Mathra they're kind of
damsels in distress, who are whopretty much have no agency at all.
In this film, they're still indistress, let's say, but they're a
little more in control of their destiny. And we go into Guidora later on,

(06:30):
and they are fully characters on theirown. They they are they are
there of their own free will.They're more autonomous. They're not not really
props like they were in the uhexcuse me, in the first couple of
films. Yes, absolutely, so, Yeah, I'm glad that they came
came back. There were They werea part of a group called the Peanuts,

(06:51):
if I remember correctly. So theywere singers, and I think that
there was another piece of music thatwas written for at least Gedora that that
they had to learn how to sing. Regardless, we should talk about matha
versus Godzilla here and then we'll talkabout Gdora later on for another review.

(07:12):
Starts with a typhoon. It startswith a typhoon, and my immediate thought
was Rodan's here, because there's allthis wind, But it turns out it's
not. There's just it's a reallystormy ocean and it's on the coast of
Japan. As the storm comes ashoreand buildings are just being blown away by
the wind and surge, and wesee some really good model work. Again.

(07:34):
I should also say that I alwayspraise the model work in these Toho
films. I absolutely love the modelwork, but there's sometimes where the model
work is exquisite. This almost approachesthat exquisite part. It was just very
well done. The water spray andall that. There's a scene that we

(07:57):
now can talk about later. There'spumps that are spraying water and to the
ocean. You were convinced that wasa real shot, Yes, And I
had to point out the fact thatthat was not real because you can see
that the water is acting like itis slowed down at a little you know,
there's there's they filmed it fast andthen slowed it down, but it's

(08:18):
it's right after the credits end.Are those pumps pumping water into the ocean?
Do you remember that one? Chuck? Oh, yeah, that's a
model, Like those are miniatures,and that is exquisite model work. Oh,
it's as much like the the constructionsets, you know where when they're
they're like yo, doing all thedigging, you know, building traps and
stuff for for Godzilla and and andthe like. I mean it in a

(08:41):
lot of those it's it's so hard. I mean you can tell just for
the practiced eye which ones may haveactually been actual like stock footage of construction
vehicles, but the majority of theman they just look so so superb.
Yeah, in this these pumps reallywere top notch. And we have two
reporters who are Ichiro and Yunko.They are there to interview people that are

(09:07):
part of the recovery effort and takephotographs. Okay, And there's a local
councilman. I don't know what hisactual position is, but I called him
a councilman. He's there, andhe's promising that the typhoon won't slow down
recovery efforts. I will build asmany pumps as necessary to pump out all

(09:28):
of this water back into the ocean. So I guess this is kind of
a below sea level area that hasbeen reclaimed from the ocean at some point,
Higa Coast Okay, Okay, Andthe camera girl finds something floating in
some water. Yeah, she findssomething that kind of looks like a blob

(09:48):
of bismuth without any crystals in.It has that kind of weird iridescent shine
to it that bismuth has. See. I was wondering, was that like
a scale or or see. Idon't don't know. I don't know what
the hell that is. You thinkit was a scale because it was radioactive?
Yeah. They it turns out thatit's incredibly radioactive and they've been just

(10:09):
carrying it around for a while.Remember how crazy the Geiger counter goes,
and they're like, holy crap.Yeah, we've been carrying this around for
a few days. Oh, youpoor bastards. Yeah, I was kind
of wondering. I mean, whenyou hear the Geiger counter go off,
it's like you start to wonder,shouldn't they be melting by now? Yeah?
I mean, so it has tobe like a scale from Godzilla.

(10:31):
That's basically what it has to be. That's what I think it was,
because it's not anything from Matham becauseMatha is not technically radioactive. I think
that math might have like residual radiationfrom the nuking of Infant Island, but
that's it, Like, it's it'sreal residual. It's not like Mather can

(10:52):
lay down atomic breath or anything likethat. So we then get introduced to
our first Kaiju of the movie,the Monster Egg, And this is where
I'm baffled by these I don't know, the background characters that are like,
oh, we're poor fishermen, we'rehungry, we haven't had enough, we

(11:15):
haven't had enough fish to eat,so we're going to go and capture this
giant floating egg that is like thirtyfeet long and a couple stories tall at
least. Its size kind of changesdepending on the scene that it's in.
Yes, but it's huge they're goingto go out in their boats, grab
it, take it ashore and eatit or sell it. Right, Well

(11:37):
they did they sold it, Yeah, they sold it, but they didn't
even like contact the government that there'sa giant, clearly monster egg that has
floated to shore. Okay, sothey get it on shore and there's Professor
Mura who which was in the otherone. He was in the godill he

(12:01):
was in Godzilla Raids again. Hewas one of the pilots in Godzilla Raids
again. The actor the professor there, he's studying it, and then a
guy from Happy Enterprises arrives to buythe egg. He's just gonna buy the
egg off these poor villagers. There'sno security concerns that the Japanese government has.
Obviously no one really cares. We'rejust gonna let private, private corporations

(12:26):
deal with this, I guess,yeah, but that'd be what I get
from this. I kind of thoughtit was kind of stupid. Is eventually
where the Twins come in and they'relike, yeah, we have been considered
an international problem because even if saya boat that was the US washed up

(12:52):
on a Japanese coast, they couldn'tclaim that, not if there was still
personnel aboard. See that's the thing. Like the egg is clearly alive,
right it and you can't argue thatit's the being inside is not intelligent.
Okay, it'd be like us stealingup. It's it's weird. It's it's
white rhino from Africa. Now here'sthe thing. This is. This is

(13:16):
brought up later in the film andchuck stop me again, if if,
if, if you have something tolike, chime in on we the guy
from Happy Enterprises full on wants tobuy the show Beijen by them, yes
to like he understands that they areintelligent people, just like he understands that

(13:39):
that is their god Mathra, whoin the previous Mathra film has shown to
be quite intelligent and self aware.Okay, And if I was the government
at the at the point of thatconversation with with the young of the or
the the show, I would havebeen like, well, whatever that egg

(14:03):
does is your problem, then wellit is their problem. That's the thing,
the Happy Enterprises problem. He endsup buying it for like one point
eight million yen, which I guessis a steal. It's a real steal
when you think about it. LikeI always try to think that like maybe
one thousand yen to the dollar,So like he bought it for like eighteen

(14:26):
grand back in the nineteen sixties.I don't know, that's like that's still
nothing. He buys this giant magicalgod egg for eighteen grand. Oh where
were we? Okay, So they'regoing to, uh, they not only
buy the egg, they're going tocharge people to watch it hatch with the

(14:48):
knowledge that even with that knowledge thatit's Mathra and Matha is just going to
wreck everything around when it hatches.Right, Say, I'm surprised I didn't
hold out for a bigger, youknow, a bigger payout, because I'm
sure the pharmaceutical companies would just begoing nuts over that. Sure, But
I mean, in the end,it's this is a this is a disaster

(15:09):
waiting to happen, Like it's there'sno way that anyone can't think that this
is all going to go to hellat some point. Yes, but I
believe what what what Chuck said,the pharmaceuticals should have taken over that.
Yeah, I know absolutely. Butso they're gonna they're gonna charge people to
watch it hatch and they're going toopen an amusement park around it. Yes,

(15:33):
geniuses, because nothing says fun andgames for the whole family like a
kaiju hatching and rampaging around for yourchildren to be squished and turned into radioactive
sees. Well, that's right upthere with Jurassic parts. Yeah, well
I know I understand that too.But so in the in the in the

(15:54):
office of this Happy Enterprises guy,the Shobijen show up and they're like,
Hi, hello, we're here,and they're asking for their egg back because
it's their god. And you know, it turns out that like Mathra laid
her egg on Infant Island somewhat nearthe ocean, somewhat near the ocean,

(16:18):
and that like the a this thestorm came through and eroded the cliff that
it was on. It was in. Yeah, like she buried it.
She buried it in soil or somethinglike that, and the egg got washed
out. To see and this isthe egg that they found. Okay,
So the these these people, thesefreaking I don't know, Happy Enterprises people

(16:45):
are awful. They try to capturethe girls, but the girls are like,
uh, screw this noise, We'reout. These people are clearly just
as evil as the sobs from Mathrathat were from the country that was not
America whatever whatever that country was called. Chuck will remember you've said it before.

(17:07):
It's New Kirk City is the citythat they go to. I remember
that. So anyway, they tryto capture them, they get away,
and then one of the reporters madeit inside Happy Enterprises and kind of heard
this whole thing, and the fairiesthat the show begion come out and ask
these this reporter and photographer for theirhelp. Okay, and this is where

(17:30):
the Showvijien explained that Mathra was basicallybeing a bad parent and buried the egg
right next to the sea and itjust got washed away. And I guess
Matha. I can understand Matha notbeing able to fly around like in this
storm because she's a moth. Herwings can get damaged. I get that.

(17:51):
So as reporters that already know thatthese guys are up to no good,
the reporters go in and ask theHappy Enterprises guys just just to return
the egg, just just give theshow bevision back their egg. Yeah,
yeah, they this is a livingbeing. It's Mathra's child, Mathras a
god being. What are you thinking, you idiots? And they're like,

(18:15):
no, we're not going to giveit back because we spent money on it.
It's ours legally, And then thereporters bring out the show bevision and
this is where the Happy Enterprises guysays, how much for your little girls?
I want to buy your children?They're like, yeah, how much

(18:36):
for your women? Yeah, Sothe the twins decide the hell with this,
We're gonna go back to Infant Island. Humanity is a piece of crap.
You're all just here for the thethe quick buck, and the reporters
are like, I guess there's justnothing we can do. They give up

(18:56):
really easily. They don't go tolike the Japanese government and say you need
to just claim this egg with thejd UP like the Self Defense Force and
bring it back to Infin Island becausethis is only going to cause tears.
But Mathra is on the heel sidethat that's something that kind of you know,
it's like, what is this likelike stealth moth? I mean,
how did how did they like notknow that uh or Mathro was uh was

(19:18):
showing up. I mean they justlike looked up and then there he was.
Yeah. I guess, well,I guess Mathra has a very very
slim radar profile. Why didn't Mathrajust pick up the egg? See,
I don't I don't understand that,Like, yeah, why you can pick
up Godzilla with the tail? Yeahshe can. She can actually pick up

(19:41):
Godzilla, which she does later on. Why can't she pick up this egg?
She could have just gone in andjust wrecked the greenhouse that they built
around the egg and taken her eggback yep. End of story. Well
no, because that and then thatcould have been like an interesting movie from
that point on, because now youhave like this weird battle between this Happy

(20:04):
Enterprises people like trying to claim thatthey've been robbed right and sending like mercenaries
out to go get the egg backfrom Infant Island and these reporters and like
the self Defense force going out totry to like actually defend Mathra or something
like that. And then like theHappy Enterprises guys get a hold of Godzilla

(20:25):
to like let him loose on theisland. So that would have been an
interesting matha versus Godzilla thing, likeGodzilla is hired as like a mercenary for
it somehow, like they just drawhim out there. I don't know,
it's weird, but I guess theyneed to have a movie so Mathra is
too weak to pick up the eggbecause Mathra is dying. We do learn
that. We do learn that Mathrais dying, and then we go to

(20:48):
the laboratory that yeah, they're clearedfor the radiation. Yeah, because they've
been irradiated from carrying around this Godzillascale for a long time into a lot
into a lab ahead a piece ofRealistically speaking, I mean, A,
it was really nice for those scientiststo uh, you know, to to

(21:10):
steam clean their suits for them,But b it is that much radioactivity really
gonna bother lizard people? I mean, I mean, how do we know
that these reporters are you know,who they say they are, especially when
we start getting into some of thelater films in the in the late exties,
early seventies. That is true.They could be coming from like Venus,

(21:30):
they could be coming from one ofthose planet x's. They could be
space cockroaches, they could be theycould be It's it's possible, and I'm
sure that we will repeatedly point outin later films like Shoot What Destroy All
Monsters? We've already talked about there'sweird, weird ass aliens in that that
are like, what what did theyturn into? Well? I know that

(21:52):
there's like in Mecha god Sola,I seem to recall them turning into like
like half human half half epe planetof the Ape type of or aliens.
But there was another one. Maybeit was not God's or a terriff God
of Mecha Godzilla, I forget which. But they actually do turn into bugs

(22:15):
like oh cock broches when they die. When they die. Well, I
know that the creatures in Destroy AllMonsters they like when when they get too
hot, it's too hot, right, that they get too hot, they
like melt right out of their clothesinto something and like screwy away, like
their little crystals or something like that. I don't know, it's weird.
It's weird. So these people mightbe like the crystal people from Destroyal Monsters.

(22:40):
We don't know. They could beVenusians for all we know. Hint
for the next movie, right,Yeah, they could be little foreshadowing here,
a little foreshadowing. But anyway,Yeah, they were very radioactive because
they've been carrying around this Godzella scalefor a while and the scientists are like,
my God, you need to tellus where you found this because we

(23:03):
need to go see make sure thatthere isn't any contamination of the countryside because
if Godzilla like shed out here atsome point, that's that's an environmental catastrophe
that's waiting to happen. It's justit is happening. We just need to
clean it up. So they goout with a Geiger counter in suits with
a stick that has radiation. Ohyeah, they have the little radiation sign

(23:26):
on a stick. There's just likethat. But the Geiger counter is great,
and it just starts. They don'tfind anything. They find nothing.
They find the construction site that's beendrained. Yeah, that's been drained from
the pumps from earlier. Okay,the construction site has been leveling it out.

(23:49):
Ye. Then exciting. Then theGeiger counter goes insane and they're like
mud moves. Then the mud movesand I'm what happens with is it the
female reporter, the camera girl thatlooks up and goes, yeah, it
was because it was through her camera. She goes, you might want to
see this, Yeah, it's Ithink the ground's moving, and like,

(24:11):
I think that's the council The councilman'sout there like thinking he's going to have
like a positive news story about himon how wonderfully he's He's recovered all this
land so quickly after the like that, not the tsunami, the storm,
the typhoon. Yeah, this typhoonthat came through. He's like, I've
kept my promises. And then Godzillaerupts from the sand and basically wrecks everything.

(24:33):
The typhoon, a hurricane, whateveryou want to call it. Ubris
hubris, Godzilla is your answer.But so Godzilla immediately starts attacking heavy industry
and oil refinery, yeah, becauseyou know, as one does. And
fire trucks are dispatched, and heends up wrecking some landmarks. What are
the things that he wrecks? TheTV tower and tears down the castle again,

(24:56):
there's another castle. He is thesame castle though, I think that
is Nicolia Castle. Okay, seethat's the same castle I told you.
Okay, Okay. So the reporters, and this is where I think the
movie actually does actually do something good. The reporters come up with this idea
that they're just gonna go ask Mathafor help because Godzilla is rampaging around Japan,

(25:21):
no one can really do a damnthing to him. And the only
the only other creatures that ever seemto harm godzillare other Kaiju. So we
got to go out to Infant Islandand ask our friends, the Infant Islanders
for help. So they fly outin an amphibious plane and they land on

(25:41):
Infant Island where they see skeletons.They see like yeah, because Infant Island
is just a wasteland for nuclear testing. And we get to see we get
to see the most the most importantkaiju of all, Darlene the most the
skeleton skeleturtleket skeleton chucked Skelly turtles inthat scene. It's the one time we

(26:03):
see Skelly turtle in the movies.Did you notice Skelly turtle? I noticed
the or the bones he waves atyou. Yeah, believe it or not.
And I had to look this up. Skelly turtle is a thing.
You can even find like fun couh pop like figurines of this thing.
It is literally a skeletal turtle,but its head moves when they come ashore

(26:30):
and his and his eyes blank,his eyes blink, and the the like
his hoot, like his foot comesup and kind of waves yep. And
it turns out that this was notlike a weird mistake with a prop.
It was a conscious choice to showthat this nuclear testing has devastated the animals

(26:52):
on Infant Island and that that isa strange monster that has that is still
alive. It looks like a skeleton, but there's a turtle that is a
skeleton that is still alive on InfantIsland. A conscious choice that that was
still alive. So, like youcan go on the Godzilla wiki and look
up Skelly Turtle. Oh, I'mlook at it right now. I went

(27:14):
down a rabbit hole with Skelly Turtlebecause I thought it was a mistake too,
Like, oh, that that turtle'smoving, it's bones. What the
hell did it? Just blank?What the hell's going on here? Chuck,
you're looking at up. I'm surprisedyou didn't know about that. That's
weird. That is weird. Sothey're brought into a cave by juice.

(27:36):
Yeah, they're given red juice.So I I I first thought when I
saw that they were given red juice, I thought they're going to pass out
because this is the red juice fromKing Kong versus Godzilla. But it's not.
It's actually the red some of thenatives actually have are entirely painted in
red, and those are the peoplethat went out and got them from the

(27:56):
shore. And it's because this isthe stuff that protects the Infant Islander from
radioactivity that we saw in Mathra okay, the first Mathra film. And I'm
like, okay, great, theyneed to paint Godzilla with this red.
Yeah, it would protect everybody becausethey would probably stop it. But anyway,
they're made to drink this liquid andthen they ask the chief of Infant

(28:18):
Island for Matha's help, but hesays no, and they hear the fairies
singing, and even the fairies arelike, we don't want to help you.
You are all dicks. You won'tgive us back Mathra's child. What
the hell's wrong with you? Youdeserve everything. That kind of cuts what's
coming to you and you Canko,the female photographer, makes this really passionate

(28:42):
speech about how the world isn't perfectand yeah, there's groups of people out
there that are out to harm people, but not everyone on earth is like
that. Not all human society islike that. There's a lot of people
out there that are innocent and beinghurt by this stuff and being hurt by

(29:02):
Godzilla, and the only way thatwe can make the world a better place
is all working together. Yeah,we screwed up, but we're here as
like people that truly did want tohelp asking for your help. And I
guess Mathra kind of hears this,and according to the Shaibijen Showbijen, Mathra
says that she'll help even though she'sdying. Even though she's dying, and

(29:26):
she's wanted to spend her last dayson Infant Island because this is like her
seed of power, so to speak. At the very least she might be
able to go and see her eggfor like one last time. She's dying,
she's weak, she won't be ableto do much, but she'll do
whatever she can, which is great. I think that's a really good scene

(29:47):
that's on Infant Island. So backin Japan, the military is luring Godzilla
into another electric trap because they haven'tlearned from like the two other times they've
tried it. It doesn't work,and the voltage just dumping the voltage.
That's true. And we have theHappy Enterprises guy and like the mobster dude

(30:07):
that was funding him, fighting overmoney. Well, the Happy Ender was
a monster too, and Godzilla isjust outside the window. Well, no,
he's miles away, because Godzilla iskind of tall. Let's be honest,
he's kind of on the horizon.But he's he's coming this way,
right. But they really get intoa fight and beat the hell out of
each other, it really and shootsthe other. Yeah, and then like

(30:30):
they have like a bag full ofmoney and the one like mobster kind of
guy puts it all into a bagand then Godzilla actually just ends up wrecking
the entire hotel and burying this guyunderneath rubble and the other one gets out.
He's fine though, right, likehe ends up Okay, yeah kind
of. I mean the uh Ithink that's kind of surprised me is that

(30:52):
you look at like all that moneythat they had, all that yend and
it was like just in this flimsycabinet. Yeah, like that you get
jimmy a lock open or with aor with a letter opener. Oh you
could take a fire actset thing andjust peel it open like a tin can.
Like yeah, that was kind ofcrazy, right, that was a

(31:14):
weird choice. Yeah, and itwas the happy enterprise guy opens it up
with a pick. No, hejust walks up and opens it up.
Oh, I didn't think there wasa pick involved at all in that.
Yeah, I don't think so.But then like, yeah, the Happy

(31:37):
Enterprises guy gets shot in the headlike he's he's just shot in the head
and killed, and I thought,boy, that's that's pretty intense. That's
pretty intense. So Godzilla heads towardsthe Matha egg because Godzilla is being challenged
in his dominance of Japan by anegg. I guess I don't know really
why he's going towards the egg.But now Mathra shows up just as his

(32:00):
Godzilla is about to stomp the egg. And the fighting scenes, the monster
fighting scenes in this are fantastic,are fantastic, Like the sets are great.
But here's the thing. Mathra comesin and she creates this like windstorm
with her rings and her wings,not rings with her wings. She's making

(32:22):
this windstorm, and Godzilla's kind ofreally dazzled by it, and then she
grabs his tail and starts dragging himaway to like a depression am I correct,
like a little dip in the ground, and that's where she like starts
buffeting him with her wings and likelaying down the yellow pollen dust off her
wings and it's like choking Godzilla,I guess, and they describe it as

(32:46):
some sort of poison. It's actinglike some sort of poison. Okay,
fine, whatever, And in anothermovie that's it's been like you know,
her scales or something like that,and yeah, herc off the wings and
and this is this is where ithurts, because mommy and Daddy are fighting.
Godzilla nails nails Mathra's wing with atomicbreath and she's really badly wounded,

(33:08):
and she kind of flutters over tothe to her egg, drapes herself over
it and dies like she's protecting heregg. And it's actually for a big
silly monster suit, right, like, well, it's not really a suit.
Matha isn't really a suit. Mathais just like a large prop for
a big silly prop. It's actuallykind of moving. Here's a mother trying,

(33:30):
like her last moments is to goto her child that's not yet born,
to protect it in some way,shape or form. I thought it
was, yeah, hover over it, and then then she just kind of
dies there and like her life justgoes out of her. And I thought
that was actually really well done witha prop, very good prop use I

(33:52):
don't know. That's about the bestway I can say it. So the
military starts attacking again. Drive Godzillainto these electrical wires. And this is
one of the most amazing special effectshots in this movie that was unintentional and
you'll maybe chuck, you'll know whatI'm talking about here. It's when there's

(34:15):
these giant fiery explosions right around Godzillaon fire. Yeah, the whole suit
catches on fire, but specifically hishead, and that was unplanned. They
kept it in the movie because itlooked amazing, but it damaged the suit
badly enough that they had to rebuildit again for the next movie because I

(34:37):
guess it melted parts and singed parts. The gills on Godzilla's neck it's where
the suit actor actually can look outof if you notice that they're way wider
than they should be later in thisfilm, and it's because of this giant
fire effect. I think actually madethe gills peel open a little bit because

(34:59):
you can actual see the suit actorthrough them. Okay, that's I'm not
gonna ding the movie for that,because that's like a wicked, bad accident.
I'm surprised that the suit actor wasn'tharmed because the suit just catches fire.
It was amazing. Godzilla knocks downthe electrical pylons and just continues because

(35:21):
this is like try three with electricalpylons with increased Uh does he melt one?
Well? No, I think theyturn it up to like maximum,
the voltage up to maximum. Yeah, they turned it up to am I
correct, Yeah, because the wiresmelt. And they actually use nichrome wires
from a toaster oven to show likethese wires melting. And I actually thought

(35:43):
that was a really good effect.Hey, it's a real it's a practical
effect. It looks good. Militaryends up going to Plan B and they
drop as many nets on him aspossible and then fire off Tesla coils on
these electrical pilons like continuely shock him. He breaks free and melts the pylons

(36:04):
and tanks with atomic breath. Sowe now have another stretch of countryside ruined
by radioactivity. But Mathra's egg startsglowing as you hear like the prayers and
singing from both the show Bevision andfrom the Infant Island natives. They're kind
of singing and chanting on back onInfant Island and the egg glows and then

(36:30):
it cracks, and not one,but two larval mathras come out, and
I'll be fair, I was kindof caught up in the movie at this
point. I've seen this movie before, but I was caught up in it,
and I, for whatever reason,it slipped my mind that there were
twin mathra larva that would come out, and I was so excited to see

(36:51):
that. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember this now,
but I thought that was really cool. It makes sense to me. There's
always these like twin show beision.Why can't there be twin mathras. I
don't know. I liked it,darn it. They take off towards Godzilla,
and one larva bites Godzilla's tail ashe whips f out of it.

(37:14):
That larva gets beaten, beaten badly. Yeah, it looked like the puppet
was going to be destroyed. Ohyeah, no, it's segments looked like
it was actually coming coming apart.Yeah. There's one sections like right up
where the shoulders right behind the head, where you can see the seam just
opening right up. Yeah, itwas. It was violent what they were

(37:36):
doing with these props and the othersstart spitting silk and Finally they both start
spitting silk all over Godzilla, andhe's trying to escape with his atomic breath
and he is just melting rock withit. He's like slagging giant piles of
rock, just turning it into moltenrock. Meanwhile, he's being attacked by
silly string. Yeah, he's beingattacked by silly string. And he finally

(37:59):
tumbled into the water and disappears.Of course, we know, what what
what what happens you know in KingKong versus Godzilla, it's the same thing.
Godzilla falls to the water and disappears. And now he's like, you
know, hiding under a beach.He has gills, he can, he's
fine, he's fine, right,And then the reporters see the math through

(38:20):
Larval Larva swimming out to see andyou hear the show vision saying we're going
back to Infant Island, Thank youbye byey Cionara Sionara, you know,
and the end, yeah, creditsroll, and then the pharmaceutical companies,
uh, they you know, theyshow up and make a bid for Mathrus
carcass, thinking about what everything thatthey can make out of that cargo and

(38:43):
the eggs and the eggshell and thel like fluids that are inside all that
silly string that got shot everywhere thatmissed Godzilla. You know that has some
he has some. I'm sure ithas military applications. Hey, that's probably
where that's probably what how we gotthose strings for. No, no,
no, we already that's already happened. The steel string that held King Kong

(39:07):
underneath helium balloons. Yeah no,no, see that's already. Hold on.
I gotta check, I gotta check. Mathra Versus Godzilla was in nineteen
sixty four. Yeah, and KingKong versus Godzilla was nineteen sixty three,
all right, and then and thenMathro was in nineteen sixty one. Of

(39:30):
course, they didn't have like aMathra larva or larva in that movie that
I recall. What in the originalMatha Yeah they did, did it?
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah. He climbs
up on out of the tower andcocoons himself and then yeah, the silly
string yeah, okay, sot Darlingsery could hold up. It's possible.
It's possible. They they've developed thesteel silly string from Mathra silk, Mathra

(39:53):
silk. Okay, it's it's possible. It's possible. I gotta say that.
Yeah, that actually would have beena really cool if they had actually
err if that had actually happened andthey actually put that into the film.
Yeah, So where did this comefrom? Oh, we developed remember moth
had that giant moth, that weirdass moth that cocoued itself on Tokyo Tower

(40:14):
that we had to hit with DavyCrocketts. Yeah. Anyway, I loved
this movie. It had a lotlike the miniature stuff in it is really
good, like better than a lotof these Guyzilla films. There's there's miniature
stuff in here that really made mesmile that I had to go back and

(40:34):
watch again, Like the pumps,because the pumps were miniatures, but you
could barely tell they were. Youhad to look at the water to see
that they were pumps. The waterthat's spilling out, ye, not the
water that because they like put thepumps on top of something that was a
damn you know what, I betyou they built it on I bet you

(40:57):
they built it on the side ofToho's water tank. I bet you that's
what it was. It was justbuilt on the side of Tohose water tank
with all the fish they needed todrain it. They're gonna build miniature pumps
and actually make them work. Imean, because it was like a it
was a cement. Yeah damn likeyeah, yeah, absolutely. But all

(41:21):
the miniature stuff in this is great. And we get some great shots of
of Godzilla melting tanks again, whichis fantastic. I don't think we get
to see him melt tanks in thenew Legendary movies. I don't think we
ever see him melt a tank.There's no Sherman's left after what he's done,
but there's there's at least in thefirst one when he's in San Francisco

(41:42):
there's military person all around. You'dthink that, like he'd get to melt
one tank. Is this the onethat had the funny gun on top of
the tank? The turret? Yeahyeah, yeah, yeah yeah. The
tanks actually had like dual turrets,And this movie they're clearly it's this one,
it's this one. But what areyour thoughts overall? Chuck? Well,

(42:07):
the the the Superia book, youknow, ag Suberiya Master of Monsters.
I mean they praise uh this thisfilm, as you know, easily
or Superia's best work. Interestingly enough, I didn't I didn't realize until I
looked looked up in the book,was like, I'll give you a quote
here. They also came up witha magnificent wire operated marionette Mathra nearly ten

(42:30):
feet long with a thirty foot whitewingspan, whose intricate movements were operated via
radio control, and they used itwith two along with two scale mechanicals from
the original film. So for thetwin larvae, that's pretty cool. Yeah,
they had like yeah, it sayshere that there there the crew created

(42:50):
two swimming mechanicals and two crawling mechanicals, and the the crawlings were ones where
operated via a radio control. That'spretty cool. I can only think of
one movie, one Godzilla movie whereMathra looks better, and I'm not counting
the legendary films, and it's it'sone of the later nineteen nineties movies where

(43:13):
it's the millennial Godzilla, but it'sit's because the Mathra that they have in
there. They actually have this.I'm sure that we're going to review those
as well at some point. Buthow they made Mathra's wings move Final Wars.
It might be in Final Wars,but it's they had pulleys on mathras

(43:34):
wings that pulled it down as wellas up, so the wings really moved
quickly and gave a really strong motionto them. Is that the one that
they actually put feathers. Yeah,that there's like feathers that they wove into
it to make it even like alittle iridescent, naturally iridescent like it's it's
it's really would. But this isnext to that. This is the best.

(44:00):
This is a really good Mathra,very good Mathra. Yeah. I
gotta say, I wish that theyhad a making of or of this film
with the with interviews and everything,because uh like or at least like like
a behind the scenes because in thesuperyot book it talks about then in a
couple of the or the battles atleast at least one of them between Godillin
Godzillin Mathra, they're talking about usinglike high speed lenses along with the strobing

(44:23):
camera effects. So it gives you, like to give you that that that
that effect where where Mathra is justyou know, flapping his wing is just
furiously despite the fact that you know, when you when you think about the
size and the scale of these models, how it would be very difficult for
them to actually get them to movethat fast, so they were they were

(44:43):
using like your camera tricks or atthis point they're in order to to to
get that that full effect, andit's just yeah, it's just sort of
I mean, I would just justloved. Yeah. They they say it's
it's described as a it might bedescribed as a form of stop motion photography,
and it's like, god, justyou just from a from a historical

(45:04):
standpoint, from an animator standpoint,you just you just wish you could sit
down with it with them for anhour, and it's like, Okay,
how did you do this? Yeah? No, it looks good. There
there are many shots in this thatlook very good with it. But to
do a nineteen sixty four you'd haveto do all the films of nineteen sixty

(45:24):
four that way, though, Whatdo you mean, because they were done
all in a short period of time. Oh yeah, yeah, No,
I mean there are three four filmsthat Toho put out from nineteen sixty four
alone. Oh yeah, Can GetDoor or Door? A Monster and Math
Versus Godzilla were both released in sixtyfour, And there's one non Godzilla one

(45:46):
that got released in nineteen sixty four, and but it's still a Kaiju film.
I forget which one, boy,and it's it's I read this and
now I can't pull it out ofmy head. Well, it wasn't After
Gone that was released in sixty five. But as we're taping, I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna go hold on, guys, let me type. But

(46:08):
yeah, I remember reading that therewas like four four movies released by Toho
in nineteen sixty four that were allbeing worked on at the same time.
But the reason, the reason wasthat they could not use Mathra later on
in the next movie was because therewere too many flying creatures as it was,

(46:30):
and they didn't want all the linestangle. So that's why they didn't
use a flying Mathra at least inthe next movie. Otherwise they could have.
So what what do you have here, darling? And you have in
my big Criterion collection book that shejust went and writ and got. Sixty
three was King con versus Godzilla,sixty four was Mathra versus Godzilla, and

(46:53):
then Gidora was in nineteen sixty four. Are you thinking of like a Dogra
space monster? It could be itcould be de Gora because it's a non
Godzilla Kaiju film. And then therewas like a standard like non sci fi
movie that Toho was doing. Yeah, well de Gora was in Japan,

(47:15):
that was in sixty four, butthey released it in sixty sixty five year
in the States. Yeah. Ijust remember also reading in this thing that
I read that each one of thesemovies by itself took four months to complete,
So there was overlapping production for allof these. So there might have

(47:36):
been some of these same techniques thatthey used with Mathra used in the next
film, but just not with Mathra, with King Gadora or Rodan. So
what I was saying is that you'dhave to get the information about all those
films, all those films and putit together, put it together, because
they were using the same cruise andevery the same actors in many many regards.

(48:00):
So I don't think there's a lotthat doesn't work. In fact,
I think this is one of thefew Godzilla films that I can say has
a worthwhile human plot. Yes itdoes. Yeh. Like I actually cared
about the characters, the reporter andthe photographer. Yeah, Kiro and Yunko.
I actually cared. I actually cared, and that that's something to be

(48:22):
said. I even I even thoughtthat it was nice putting in that like
local councilman who was talking about likerecovering after the after this typhoon. You
mean the mayor, Yeah, mayorcouncilman. Whatever. I thought. I
thought it was good. But Ican't really think of anything that does not
work in this movie. No,the whole thing was was really solid.

(48:46):
It's a solid film. Yeah,any more thoughts that you have? Chuck
Now? Most of the time,the the I don't know. For when
I'm watching these films as an adult, A lot of times I'll default back
to when I was a kid,where I just kind of like phased in
and out during the human interest stuffbecause all I really want to see is
this the Kaiju battles. But thisone helping there did a really good job

(49:08):
holding my or my interest. Yeah, I think see, I'm approaching this
as I'm really interested in the humanstuff because I know I'm going to enjoy
the monster fights. So I lookat my notes and I generally don't have
a lot written down for the monsterfights, even though there's lots of really
cool things that happened in them,because I'm just living in the moment of

(49:29):
the monster fights. But I'm writinga lot of information down about the human
plot because I'm interested in that andI'm getting something out of it. Like
there's some of these movies, Iguarantee that my human plot is just going
to be so and so has aproblem. I think that's like what it
was in Godzilla Raids Again when wewatched that. The human plot was confusing

(49:51):
and kind of pointless, unless itwas like at the end with the one
guy sacrificing his life by slamming intothe mountain, like that was the only
kind interesting bit of the human stuff, and he realized, oh, he
was in love with the secretary andthat he had the daughter. Yeah,
he left that, he left thatpicture behind and his in his journal or

(50:13):
something like that, and she criedand I was like, Okay, I
guess that's nice, but that shouldhave been built up a little better throughout
the film. With this, it'sI care about the Shoubijen. I care
about the reporters. They're actually interesting, and the villain humans are kind of
so over the top that they're fun. And it's not like they get out

(50:35):
of this stuff scott free either.There is like consequences to their actions.
One guy gets shot in the head, another guy gets crushed right by Godzilla
in the end. So the mobsterlike, okay, fine, people,
people pay, people pay the price. Wasn't there something else that somebody was
gonna was almost running through the crowdthat people were running up the mountain and

(50:59):
then he ends up getting the landslideon him or something? Was that this
one or the next one? Idon't get that. That's the next one.
That's the next one, see Darling, it's the next scene. It's
the next movie. You always bringit up. It's always every I just
it's it's kind of neat that yousee them not getting away with Yeah,
yeah, I like I like seeingthat. But I think this is another

(51:20):
one of those movies of that Tohodoes that shows kind of the evils of
over over capitalist capitalism, like overlike evil. There's a lot of like
bad corporations. Like there's good people, but there's bad corporations, and then
there's bad people. There's bad Thisone shows bad people and then good people.

(51:45):
Yeah, And even though am Ioff base on that? Chuck,
Oh no, it's the god whichone was it? Was it King Kong
versus Godzilla? I mean it waslike, you know, the subtext there
was about the the the dangers ofyou know, hyper materialism. So I
can see that that they're the kindof holding through here in this film.

(52:07):
They're they're working there, working throughthat theme. At least they aren't cargo
culting people in this one. AndI didn't. I did not see anybody
in blackface. Let's go to MatoInfant Island, then, will bring some
some packeupe cigarette. See, we'llsee what the what mother will do for
us? Like, yeah, theinfant Island people are interesting, like they're

(52:27):
they're they're not looking down on Iwas curious as to why they called the
infant Island. I don't know,I don't know. Yeah, I didn't.
It was like wondering if this islike like kind of a play on
on the two little the two littlefairy twins, or it could be like
the size or that that's a goodidea. Yeah, it could be innocence.

(52:49):
But yeah, screen time wise,you know, and I'm going back
to to you know, they're theresearch done by Mistress Michael. This one
is listed as uh out of thethe Kaiju films that they've done thus far,
you know, ten minutes, thirtyseconds out of eighty eight minutes,
so almost twelve percent of the filmthere is uh Kaiju battles, but it

(53:12):
feels like there's like a lot morescreen time dedicated to them because of how
they spaced out the appearances of Godzillaand Mathra. Yeah, it does feel
like they're on screen most of thefilm, which is what it didn't feel
like all Monsters, where it wasall at one point. Yeah, yeah,
it is. It's it's really spreadout. You have the human and

(53:35):
the taking place at the same timehand in hand. Yeah, you have
them going to Infant Island and seeingMathra and Mathra's there and okay, great,
but Mathra is not really involved inanything yet. But we get to
see Mathra and then you come backand now there's Godzilla, and you know,
once it really takes off, it'sspread out and paced very well.

(53:57):
I can't honestly think of anything thatdoes not work in this movie. I
don't think it's a perfect movie byany means, but this is a really
good Godzilla film. From an animatorfilm, yeah, yeah, from an
from an animator's perspective. There aresome some some other tricks that I kind
of wonder, you know, orhow they did. Obviously, the you
know, how how they could haveliked painted direct on film for the you

(54:21):
know, and then composing that withGodzilla's his dorsal fins every time he you
know, fires his atomic breath.But there's a scene where they, uh,
the egg just sort of cracks.Yeah, and yeah, it's it's
sort of like, okay, noware we talking you know, another instance
of direct on film or did theytake like did they go frame by frame

(54:44):
with either painting directly on on thethe original footage that they that they filmed
for the sequence of that egg ordid they just like lay or another sheet
of cellulose over it, like filmstock over it. Because when it gets
to the end and it actually cracksapart, uh, you could see that

(55:06):
the cracks in that final frame matchedthe pieces the fragments that were being were
being being flung from the from theegg. So yeah, it's just trying
to just thinking back on how Iwould have done it. It seems like,
you know, it would be agood situation where they could just film
the entire sequence and then you know, explode the egg out you know,

(55:27):
mathras, you know, larva comeout and so on, and then go
back afterwards and almost do it inreverse, so where the you so you
can see where the fragments of themodel are going to be bursting out,
and just like starting with with likeyou know, okay, one frame before
that before they're the the the remotecontrolled explosion happens, Let's go ahead and

(55:52):
start detailing cracks and and and goall the way up the all the the
up the egg and just go andjust you know, each success successive frame
as you go backwards in time onthe footage, you just you know,
you've got like you know, youryour your framework already done, you know
what the end product is, andso just going backwards frame by frame,

(56:17):
it's possible that they did that.It is possible. It looked very good.
Yeah, oh you know, itwas really really well done. It's
just like you know, logically,it's like, what's what would be the
most logical way that they could thatthey could you know, approach this with
the amount of time that they hadin order to produce this particular scene and
do the special effect. Hmmmf you'relooking at like several things coming together from

(56:39):
both the live action footage and leadthe animated section leading up to it.
So they also made a really goodwhere you see the humans underneath the egg,
and I think the coloring was prettygood. I think they built like
a prop that was a full scaleprop that they built like the lower half

(57:00):
of it so they could stand nextto it, because I mean, if
there was one complaint I had aboutthe movie is that there was some really
kind of dicey chroma key. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think that's
that's the sequence of seeing that dotDarling was talking about. You know that
there's like one scene where they're they'rethey're right there and you can you can
tell that they're they're there in frontof a screen. Yeah, but I

(57:21):
mean that's so minor. It's sucha minor part of the film, and
it's not really an important special effectshot. So it's fine. You can
just kind of pass over it,no big deal. Any final thoughts about
this movie. I would definitely recommendit. Like I said, the Superya
book says that that's universally, youknow a lot of it is one of

(57:42):
uh you know, one of thebest Godzilla films, and uh so I
would definitely recommend people watch it.Yeah, I I recommend this movie,
DARLINGE you recommend it this This isdefinitely one of the best Godzilla movies.
It also sets the stage for Godzillaand mathralater on being friends, which I

(58:02):
mean it really takes off in thenext movie. But this kind of shows
that god Zella and Mathra at leasthave this equality about them that they they
even though Mathras kind of this gentlegentle giant, she's not a pushover,
and I guess there's a respect betweenthem. Anyway, One question I do

(58:23):
have. I know we talked alittle bit about this before we started recording.
I watched this on HBO Max fromthe Criterion Collection UH version that they
had there, and we were lockedinto the Japanese audio with the with the
with the English subtitles, and Ihave to have to wonder. I mean,
it was released in the in herein the States. I believe it

(58:45):
was like Godzilla versus versus the thing. And I'm wondering, like on the
Criterion Collection DVD set, did theyhave that version as well, or was
it just the Japanese version. Ican I can look at it because I
have the Show Era of Films sethere next to me. As far as
I can tell, there is noAmerican version for it. Yeah, it's

(59:09):
only the Japanese version. I'm makingsure. Yes, yes, so it's
only the Japanese version in this theshow era Films box set that I have.

(59:30):
While box set it's like a book, actually has international English language dub
tracks for Invasion of the Astromonster,Son of Godzilla, Destroyal Monsters, Godzilla
Versus Megalon Godzilla Versus Mecha Godzilla,and Terror of Mecha Godzilla, so that
those have English dub tracks. Everythingelse is in Japanese. Fair enough,

(59:54):
Okay, well, all right,so we'll leave it there. Folks,
we all recommend this movie. Weenjoyed, enjoyed watching it. Seeing Mathra
is always a joy for me.I don't know, I love Mathra.
You love Mathra. Everyone loves Mathra. Like happy, beautiful, great creature.
That's huge tho, yes now,I mean and one last thought,

(01:00:17):
like when we were watching like thelast Legendary film where Mathra comes in after
you know, trying to like saveGodzilla from from King Gidora, and she
just gets blasted and she's like smokingand all that, and she like lay
down, lays down her life forGodzilla. Like watch this film and then
think of that, like that thisthere's an actual story arc that happens even

(01:00:40):
with the original Japanese movies, wherethis this friendship becomes like they are inseparable,
that they're both kind of this thispairing that defends Earth and humanity like
Godzilla's Earth's champion, Mathra is likeHumanity's champion. It's it's an interesting play,
but well it there. I hopeyou enjoyed, uh, and hope

(01:01:02):
you enjoyed listening. So I'm Erin, I'm Darlene, and we have our
special guest, and I'm Chuck,and thanks again as always for the invitation,
yep, and so good evening,and keep watching the skies. At
no point in your rambling incoherent responsewere you even close to anything that could
be considered a rational thought. Thanksfor listening to this episode of This Week

(01:01:27):
in Geek. Hungry for more,check out our website at this Week in
Geek dot Net. You can subscribeto the podcast, browse our Twitter and
Instagram, and leave your thoughts ontoday's topics. If you'd like to give
us some feedback, send us anemail at Feedback at this Week in Geek
dot Net. Tune in next time, and remember, lower your shields and
surrender your listenership. We would beon a if you would join us.

(01:01:49):
Thank you for your cooperation. GoodNight,

All Episodes

Earth vs Soup Ep 175 - Godzilla vs Motha (1964)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Earth vs Soup Ep 175 - Godzilla vs Motha (1964)