Post #716687 by SoCal Savage on Sun, May 11, 2014 8:42 PM

I just got home from a double feature of Mothra and King Kong vs Godzilla that my buddy put on today at the New Beverly in LA. I hadn't seen either since I was a kid. To say they don't hold up would be a mistatement since I'm pretty sure these were cheesy in the 70s/80s, but there were some almost surreal and very enjoyable moments in both films. What stood out for me the most though was the presence of Tiki elements in both films. King Kong vs Godzilla is mentioned earlier in this thread in a post by Creativenative, as is a Mothra sequel, but I didn't see any mention of the first Mothra.

Mothra is the superior of the 2 films both in production value and in Tiki. Many of the plot elements are the same in both films (Mothra was actually produced a year earlier than King Kong vs Godzilla) . In both films there is a visit to a mysterious island and in both films the islands are inhabited by natives who are played by Japanese actors in black face. It seems like they're supposed to be Polynesian natives, since the scientist is brought on because of his knowledge of Polynesian languages. On the island a pair of tiny singing sisters are discovered and ultimately stolen, but before this happens the hero scientist stumbles into a mysterious cave where he takes an imprint of some glyphs on the walls all in front of a silent stone Moai that looks a lot like the one on the Forbidden Island Album cover. I can't find a picture of this guy right now. Later on after the sisters are stolen and a bunch of the natives gunned down trying to stop their captors, the natives hold a ritual to bring Mothra to life. Mothras egg sits over a giant chamber that is inhabited by three large stone Moais.

In King Kong vs Godzilla - On the island they discover Kong on, there are carved wooden idols at the center of the village with Ape faces that are part of the ritual to summon Kong. They are Tiki-esque though I wouldn't call them Tikis. The natives (once again Japanese in black face) also have shields that are knock offs of PNG designs. The ritual itself could have been a floor show and the whole scene felt like an exotica inspired fever dream.

These were both produced by Toho studios, so 100% Japanese productions, which I thought was pretty cool.

[ Edited by: SoCal Savage 2014-05-11 20:53 ]