The Japanese monster movie makes its UK home video debut in November.
2020 is quite the year for fans of Toho Studio's monsters. First Criterion delivered a Godzilla boxset. Then Arrow Video did likewise with the films of Gamera. Now Eureka Entertainment is bringing 1961's Mothra, directed by Toho giant Ishirō Honda, to UK blu-ray on November 16th.
Bonus features include both Japanese and English versions of the film (101 mins & 90 mins respectively); a new audio commentary with film historian and writer David Kalat; an archive commentary with authors and Japanese sci-fi historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski; an interview with film critic and author Kim Newman on the history and legacy of Mothra; Mothra: 1974 Champion Festival Version [61 mins] – a special version of the film edited by Honda for the 1974 Toho Champion Festival (inclusion TBC); and stills galleries featuring rare archival stills and ephemera.
The movie comes packaged in a hardbound slipcase with a reversible poster featuring the film’s original US and Japanese poster artwork, and a 60-page collector's booklet featuring essays by Christopher Stewardson and Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp (Midnight Eye); a new interview with Scott Chambliss (production designer on 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters); an extract from Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski’s Ishirō Honda biography; and archival reviews and stills.
Check out Eureka's new trailer and artwork below.
The official synopsis reads:
Following reports of human life on Infant Island, the supposedly deserted site of atomic bomb tests, an international expedition to the heavily-radiated island discovers a native tribe and tiny twin female fairies called “Shobijin” who guard a sacred egg. The overzealous expedition leader kidnaps the Shobijin to exhibit in a Tokyo stage show but soon they summon their protector, hatching the egg and releasing a giant caterpillar. When Mothra arrives in Japan and transforms into her final form, the nation and its people face their destruction.
