A huge meteorite lands in the Ogasawara trench and wakes up Godzilla. The impact of the meteorite creates earthquakes and typhoons. A research team is needed to investigate the disasters. Takuya Fujita is an ex-archeologist who is currently in jail for stealing artifacts. Ruzo Dobashi from the Japanese government wants Takuya to be part of the research team, much to the chagrin of Takuya’s ex-wife Masako Tezuka, who is also on the team. A third member of the team is Kenji Andoh who is employed by the Marutomo Company.
The three arrive at Infant Island and begin their investigation. They find a cave behind a waterfall that has cave drawings of two insects fighting each other. At the end of the cave is another opening where they find a giant egg. The Shobijin or “Cosmos” as they call themselves explain who Mothra is and tell them about an ancient civilization that created a devise to try to control Earth’s climate. The Earth was offended and created Battra the black Mothra. Battra destroyed the devise and declared war on humanity. Mothra battled Battra defeating him. The Cosmos believe that the recent meteorite woke Battra and now a new war is to begin.
The egg is taken to Japan. The Cosmos agree, believing the egg will be better protected there. Takeshi Tomokane owns the Marutomo Company. He intends to use the egg as a money making gimmick. While still at sea, Godzilla shows up and the egg hatches. The Mothra larva escapes into the ocean before Godzilla can fry it. Battra, having wreaked a little havoc on Japan shows up and gets into the fight. While Godzilla and Battra are battling it out Mothra slips away. An earthquake in the floor of the ocean swallows Godzilla and Battra.
The Cosmos get kidnapped, twice, and Mothra comes to the rescue. Mothra gets wounded by the JSDF and makes a cocoon around herself and begins her metamorphosis. Somewhere off screen Battra goes through his own metamorphosis. Mount Fuji erupts and Godzilla appears from the volcano. Mothra and Battra finish their metamorphosis and attain their imago forms. The battle begins and Japan is the battleground.
“Godzilla vs. Mothra” AKA “Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth” was released in 1992 and was directed by Takao Okawara. It is the 19th film in the Godzilla franchise, and is the fourth film in the franchise's Heisei period.
There is no back story for Mothra in this film. Even though the story doesn't include any history to Mothra the characters in the movie don't react with much in the way of surprise to the appearance of either Mothra, her Shobijin or Battra. When asked why this is, director Takao Okawara just said "It's a monster movie, so of course it has monsters in it."
Despite the fact that it’s not most people’s favorite Godzilla movie “Godzilla vs Mothra” was the highest grossing Japanese Godzilla movie of all time. Probably partially due to inflated ticket prices.
Mothra is front and center in this film, basically to cater to female movie goers. Polls showed that women preferred the Mothra Kaiju and women were high among movie going audiences. Mothra for the wife and kids and Battra and Godzilla for the guys.
Although the film is more subdued than most of the Godzilla movies it’s still a decent addition to the franchise. Mothra is more of a mellow Kaiju so Battra is there to fill in the lulls during the battles. There’s only so much a Kaiju can do with glitter and fairy dust.
Japanese subtitled