Hello!
Today is a good day for a Book Review …
… for an interesting little book called The Luminous Fairies and Mothra, from The University of Minnesota Press. It will become available in about 50 days, on January 13th, 2026. About two years ago, the UMP published the first English-language translation of the original 1955 ‘young adult novelizations’ of Toho’s first two Kaiju films, Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again.
Although the projects share a translator in Jeffrey Angles, the new book is not a novelization. It is the original story that served as the basis for Toho’s 1961 kaiju Mothra, a classic Japanese fantasy. The giant moth known as Mosura is one of Toho’s most popular monsters.
We had always assumed that Mothra is a screen original, but its screenplay was reportedly adapted from a three-part magazine serial. It has three authors, each of whom penned a chapter: Takehiko Fukunaga, Yoshie Hotta and Shin’ichiro Nakamura. The story was commissioned by Toho Films to be the basis of a large-scale movie, and the serialized magazine story served as early advertising for the movie.
The finished movie was in theaters only seven months after publication. The primary screenwriter was Shin’ichi Sekizawa, who has screenplay credits on several other Toho giant monster movies and futuristic fantasies.
Mothra fans will jump to read ‘the official story’ on the huge insect from Infant island. The three installments of the novella are quite short, almost like a film treatment. One author hands off the story to the next, who continues in a different style altogether. The text leaves out most details and barely describes the spectacular action — with the idea that Toho’s technicians will fill all that in later. The final chapter reads as sketchy, almost an outline. As in the movie, Mothra does begin as a giant egg, and its ‘handmaidens’ are miniature princesses called the shôbijin. The first chapter goes deeper into the Island’s gods, with an explanation for the symbolic ‘sunrise cross’ on the stones of the Infant Islanders.
Translator Jeffrey Angles doubles as a film historian in an Afterword called Hatching Mothra, which comprises the larger second half of the book. The discussion of All Things Mothra begins with information on the three authors. As in the original Godzilla, with its pacifist & humanitarian theme, they gave their monster fairy tale a political edge.
As in the movie, the little novella comments on international relations between Japan and a fictional superpower responsible for Infant Island’s toxic level of radiation. In the original story the offending nation is called Rosilica … in the movie, it is Rolisica. The Rosilican entrepreneur-gangster Nelson kidnaps the shôbijin and exploits them for a theatrical gala in Tokyo.
We assume that most audiences take the fictional nation as a stand-in for the United States. In the movie, Rolisica’s ‘New Kirk City’ features The Golden Gate Bridge. But we also see Roliscan generals wearing uniforms that look very Russian. The idea is for Rosilica/Rolisica to be an amalgam of the Soviet Union and America. It’s a clever way of not taking sides.
The analysis in Hatching Mothra ranges from discussions of the origin of Godzilla, to the nature of exoticism in Japanese storytelling, to thoughts about Mothra’s gender. A close reading of the text ponders some Japanese grammatical details that might infer an attitude not communicated in the English translation. We are assured that the authors (and the screenwriter) were keen to push an ecological agenda, and to suggest that Japan play a stronger role in defending the Third World from superpower exploitation.
Author Angles is nothing if not thorough — his overview investigates the idea that Mothra may have been influenced by Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Doolittle book series, which were very popular in Japan. In two of the books, the Doctor travels to and from the Moon on the back of a giant lunar moth with the name ‘Jamaro Bumblelily.’
Devoted fans of Japanese fantasy will definitely be interested in The Luminous Fairies & Mothra. Jeffrey Angles has gone to the trouble of carefully translating the original (with footnotes) and compiling a thorough guide to the meanings and relevancies of this Kaiju fairy tale.
Perhaps the next logical target for translation would be Toho’s Sci-fi spectacle about a futuristic submarine, Atragon. It is said to be from multiple Japanese sources that include an adventure novel from 1900. Unlike Mothra, the movie of Atragon is politically pro-militarist!
New Book: The Luminous Fairies & Mothra
And after the Book Review, a Slide Show.
About 6 years ago, before COVID, I posted some photos of the The Hollywood Forever Day of the Dead Celebration very close to home here in Los Angeles. Just up Gower Street and over the fence from Paramount Pictures, the Hollywood Forever cemetery is a reasonably short walk from CineSavant Central. ↑
It’s a very pretty cemetery, and a good place for food, music and lots of people running around with skulls painted on their faces. All of these shots get bigger; on the upper left of this picture can be seen part of the Hollywood Sign peeking out from behind a tree. ↑
The basic idea for the festival was to allow participants to build traditional Día de los Muertos altars to loved ones that have passed on. Back in 2019 there were dozens of those, arrayed in the formal manner. The celebration this year was smaller and seemingly aligned toward the musical performers scheduled for later in the evening. They may have screened a movie outdoors, as well.
There were some beautiful costumes to look at; here’s just one. I thought this would make for a semi-relevant CineSavant slide show because of several interesting celebrity-aligned not-really-altars that stood out on the cemetery walkways.
Guessing this one ↑ shouldn’t be difficult …
And this one makes sure we don’t get confused. ↑ Pay no attention to the troublemaker crashing the photo.
This elaborate setup appears to be very serious and committed to its honoree. ↑
A great many Hollywood personalities have been laid to rest in Hollywood Forever, starting back in the earlier part of the 20th century. Whenever we strolled through the place, we’ve always come across names that meant something personal to us. This photo I actually took long ago. ↑
When the time came to go home we decided not to walk down Gower. Finding the Van Ness exit took us through a newer section of mausoleum crypts. We didn’t poke through them looking for celebs, yet couldn’t miss three more noted personalities that stood out, this one and two more just below.
I did meet Mr. Rooney once, in 1972. Is meet the correct word? I was working as an usher at the long-gone National Theater in Westwood on a Saturday afternoon when he showed up to see his movie Pulp with Michael Caine, and I almost bumped into him on the stairs. Rooney grabbed my hand before I could speak and talked loud and fast for about 4 seconds:
“heyakidnicetameetyahaveagreatdayyoulookterrific!”
He then performed a swift walk-away that said ‘don’t dare talk to me, kid.’ A couple of minutes later I saw Rooney being held captive by a family on a bench in the National’s glass-enclosed 2nd floor lobby, and being very nice about it.
The handshake was certainly better than a rough snub, and I always considered it a gift. Mickey Rooney would be instantly recognized by millions, so had to have some defense mechanism at the ready. In Los Angeles one soon learns to read ‘celebs’ to know how to behave. Everybody except me.
CineSavant correspondents say they like these pix, so here are a couple more. On the walk back home we passed Lemon Grove Avenue, an ordinary residential street that threads its way across Hollywood and comes to a stop on Van Ness where the cemetery begins. Could the ghost of Ray Dennis Steckler be far away? He later relocated to Las Vegas, but this neck of the woods is where he lived and produced his triple-Z movies, including his brain-numbing homage to the Bowery Boys, The Lemon Grove Kids Meet the Monsters.
What a scoop. They don’t print that kind of Hollywood history on the tourist brochures. I left the graffiti intact. Tourists flock to Hollywood — how many are dismayed to see so much (cough) street art?
On Melrose across from Paramount just a couple of blocks from CineSavant Central, we saw that somebody was sprucing up a famed Hollywood institution, the old ‘Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe.’ It’s been closed down for quite a few years, and the good news just this week is that they say it’s reopening. This local Larchmont article by Patricia Lombard spreads the good word.
We would welcome a Mexican restaurant in easy walking distance, and a lot of film history is associated with the cafe. Right outside on the sidewalk is (reportedly) where writer Billy Wilder learned from director Mitchell Leisen, that Wilder’s now-legendary Cockroach Scene had been dropped from the script and was not going to be filmed. Wilder blew a fuse.
And just think, I might be able to sit at the same table where, long ago, RKO editor Robert Wise was told that he had been promoted to directing, to finish Val Lewton’s The Curse of the Cat People. Yes, yes, I know, that’s your secret ambition as well.
See you on Saturday with some reviews!
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
