Back to the Reviews

Back to Asian Movies

Rebirth of Mothra II

Cast: Megumi Kobayashi (as Moll), Sayaka Yamaguchi (as Lora), Aki Hano (as Belvera)

Well, here we are again, trying to find words to express what exactly this movie is all about. Unfortunately, that is hard to say. I guess you'd call it Japan's version of "Fern Gully" and if you thought that was a bad movie, you ain't seen nothing yet!

Mothra is back and that's cool. What's un-cool is that Belvera is back too. Arrr! As if she wasn't bad enough flying around a room, now she's zipping about a forest. But we'll come back to that in a minute.

To start off with, we have a few children playing in the forest. A young girl who seems to be lonely and picked on by bullies, finds a white ball with eyes. It's obviously where "Furbies" came from and it could give those furry things ugly lessons. The girl has little taste and thus, quickly becomes attached to the dumb fur-ball. Some brats see her and chase her about and then they discover the creature too.

Now is where the stupid fairies come in. The bad fairy wants the "Gorgo" (which is what the furby-look-a-like is called) bad! So she goes after it astride her mechanical dragon. Then the twin good fairies come to the rescue. Unfortunately, we first have to watch them flit about the forest. This wouldn't be bad except that the bluescreening technique in this 90s film is inexcusable. The fairies looks pathetic! They're just as bad as the Rancor effects of "Return of the Jedi." What is wrong with these people!?

Somewhere in here, we discover the curative powers of urine. No, I am NOT kidding. I wish I was! But I'm not. One of the brats gets a skinned knee and Gorgo promptly lets loose on it. And, low and behold, it heals! WOW! (Personally, I don't recommend this kind of behavior. But if you think it'll help you, far be it from me to discourage this disgusting practice!)

Soon, she's enlisted some bumbling adults (which is what Japan seems to be filled with...which makes one wonder how the children manage to become so "intelligent.") to chase the kids down and take the Gorgo.

Suffice it to say, the silly creature can bounce or jump and it somehow gets out in the sea and dives into an underwater palace. This immediately causes the palace to rise, ala a reversed Atlantis. At the same time, the evil fairy has managed to release an evil fish creature known as Dagharla:

"Yes, it looks like a job for the Power Rangers!"

Now Dagharla doesn't like floating cities. They are a blight to the ocean, so it must attack!!! Too bad for Dagharla though. This city can defend itself and it quickly blasts him off. The twins think it necessary to call in Mothra as well.

Now Mothra, being a bug, doesn't take to water too well. But she does put up quite a fight. However, Dagharla has created a bunch of nasty sea creatures that end up clinging to her and she gets beaten quite badly. She rests on top of the palace while the monster tries to reach her.

In the meantime, we've learned that there's some kind of major power/force/treasure in this palace/temple and everyone wants it. The kids follow Gorgo around because it knows the place and the bad adults try to capture it and the kids.

The fairies are flying about inside and out of the palace at the same time. Eventually, the people all find themselves in an inner room looking at a hot Asian chick. But they soon find that it's a hologram of some sort. Anyway, it tells them that Gorgo is the treasure. Soon after this revelation, the palace starts to fall apart and everyone tries to escape.

We end up seeing that even evil witches can be good and we also get to see Gorgo relieve himself on a half-dead adult. (He got hurt from some falling rocks, I think.) Of course, this wakes the adult right up and everyone gets out just fine.

Then Gorgo zips into the sky and disintegrates. Then his powdered being alights on Mothra and makes her all better. (This also upsets the poor plain looking little girl who'd found Gorgo to begin with.) Now Mothra is peppy and can "morph" into a "water-moth". It quickly vanquishes the evil monster and sends it packing.

On to the end. We are reminded that Gorgo will always be with us...and that we need to be nicer to mother earth. Yada yada yada...

It's pretty clean, but it's dumb. If you like Toho and Mothra and just can't live without seeing them all, then this is for you. Otherwise, you have been warned!

  (It might be better than Godzilla's Revenge, but I'm not giving it a better rating)