Alternate Titles: Godzilla × Mothra × Mechagodzilla: Tokyo SOS
Year: 2003
Director: Masaaki Tezuka
Special Effects Director: Eiichi Asada
In The Suit: Tsutomu Kitagawa (Godzilla), Motokuni Nakagawa (Mechagodzilla)

This movie is unique for the Millennium period in that it's a direct sequel to the prior movie, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla.

This movie begins by showing Mechagodzilla (or Kiryu; the original Japanese dialogue seems to call him Kiryu throughout but on our DVD it's always subtitled as Mechagodzilla) under repair after its battle with Godzilla last movie...

...and then showing Godzilla's very realistic looking eyeball opening up.

And there's a third player in this movie as well: Mothra, who is detected by jet pilots (after some Americans Navy officers, speaking in terrible English, wonder if he is a cruise miss-ile).

Have they started making missiles out of glitter now?

The special effects in this movie are very advanced (which is almost blasphemous for a Godzilla film!). Godzilla's opening eyeball looked great, Mothra being chased by the jets looks really good, and in general it's a good looking movie. An extra on our DVD shows how a combination of animatronics and guys in (great looking) rubber suits fighting around model cities are combined with CGI to make the final picture, and it all works very well. I guess it's not surprising that the second to last Godzilla movie that we're covering for this project looks great, but there were periods in Toho's history where the special effects quality seemingly declined, so it wasn't a sure thing.

Our human cast includes Hiroshi Koizumi, reprising his role as Dr. Shinichi Chujo from the original Mothra movie. With him is his grandson Shun (played by Itsuki Oomori).

The main character in this movie is actually Shinichi's nephew Yoshito Chujo (played by Noboru Kaneko). Yoshito is a mechanic on the Mechagodzilla crew. But for right now, Mothra was on his way to bring the Shobijin Fairies (Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka) to Shinichi.

Why are they never twins?

The Fairies are shown to have telekinesis in this movie. But more importantly, they are here to ask Shinichi to get his government to return the bones of the original Godzilla that was used to build Mechagodzilla.

These aren't actually the same Shobijin that met Shinichi in the first Mothra. They say that Shinichi "met two fairies from our family". We're shown footage from the original Mothra.

The Shobijin say that Mothra will protect Japan from Godzilla if they return Kiryu's bones to sea. But if they refuse to do that, then Mothra will declare war on the human race. They then disappear, and the Chujo family runs outside to see where they went. As usual, it takes a few minutes of carefully looking around before they spot the 150 meter moth sitting a few feet away.

The Shobijin leave behind a little stone with Mothra's symbol on it.

We then go back to the Mechagodzilla crew. It's said that Mechagodzilla lost an arm and the use of the Absolute Zero freeze ray canon during the last fight. It's been repaired but the freeze ray hasn't been fixed and reinstalled, and no testing has been done yet. We're reminded that Godzilla isn't the only potential threat, either; as the previous movie noted, there have been other monster attacks in this continuity (Mothra and Gaira were named last movie, and we'll have another example in this one).

The pilots from last movie, Yashiro and the guy who blamed his brother's death on Yashiro, are being sent to the United States for training.

There she is, looking sad again. She's like the modern version of Takashi Shimura, but less awesome. Did she break up with the old guy? OMG, is the kid going to be walking around with a pot of grass again?

We now have a new class of pilots, including Yoshito's semi-romantic interest Azusa Kisaragi (played by Miho Yoshioka)...

...and Yoshito's cocky rival, Kyosuke Akiba (played by Mitsuki Koga).

Who decided it was a good idea to send their seasoned Mechagodzilla operators and pilots off when Godzilla's still on the loose?

In case you can't tell from his douchey face, Akiba's a jerk.

Yoshito contention with Akiba is how he treats machines.

Yoshito winds up alone with Yashiro for a bit. She says that Mechagodzilla doesn't want to fight any more. But Yoshito doesn't really get what she's saying and says that he's anticipating fully repairing the giant robot so that it can fight Godzilla. Yashiro sadly walks away, asking Yoshito to take care of Mechagodzilla.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister (Akira Nakao again) thinks that Shinichi's story is ridiculous and won't halt the Mechagodzilla program.

It's really irresponsible for the Prime Minister to say that Shinichi's claim is ridiculous. This movie confirmed that the events of Mothra happened, and in that movie Mothra went on a rampage to take back the Shobijin. Again, it's confirmed in this movie that this happened. So why wouldn't the PM believe that Mothra would rampage again? It seems that the Prime Minister doesn't even believe that Mothra visited Shinichi. And even if the idea of Mothra coming for a visit sounds implausible in and of itself, what about the fact that the bones of Kiryu went on a rampage last movie? Don't all these pieces of evidence make a case for something? Apparently not.

Anyway, next thing we know, Kamoebas is washing up on shore with giant gash wounds in his neck.

Azusa asks if it's "a" Kamoebas. The response, which is a little jarbled in our subtitles, seems to confirm that it is the case (Dr. Miya, from Space Amoeba, is name-checked), but it's also said that it's Megalo Matama, a giant sea turtle. This is the "first one of these we found in 17 years". So it does sound like more of these have surfaced since Space Amoeba.

In any event, it's said that the wounds "can only be" due to Godzilla.

You guys ALWAYS lay the blame on Godzilla!

It does seem a little unfair, since the emergence of this Kamoebas is just more proof that there are multiple monsters in this continuity.

Speaking of proof, Yoshito is summoned to talk with some government officials to confirm his uncle's story about Mothra and the Fairies. But Yoshito is enthusiastic about seeing Mechagodzilla repaired, so he has a vested interest in pretending that no one told him to get rid of the bones that were used to build it. We don't actually see his response to the officials, but from the guilt on his face when he meets his uncle after the hearing, we can guess what he said.

That is so wrong.

Soon enough we've got an American nuclear submarine off the coast of Guam blowing up.

A nuclear sub? You're like a big can of spam to me.

...and then Godzilla surfacing.

The funny thing is that the battleships start firing at Godzilla and he doesn't even bother to attack back. Like, "Eh, do i feel something? Is someone attacking me? Not sure.".

The JSDF then break out the maser FAHPS...

...but nothing deters the big G's rampage.

It is confirmed that this is the same Godzilla that was in the last movie, due to the chest injury.

The JSDF deploys a shit ton of missiles against Godzilla. I thought with modern targeting (and CGI) we weren't going to see missiles randomly landing around Godzilla anymore, but i guess that's not the case.

I'm not even moving, you guys!

The army does know to target Godzilla's chest injury with their masers.

But of course Godzilla returns the favor with his breath, and they don't hold up as well as he does.

I don't ever want to be a maser operator.

Mechagodzilla still isn't completed or tested. They give up on the Absolute Zero freeze ray and instead install a Hyper Maser in the chest area. But there's still the fact that he hasn't been tested.

Considering the last time they ran a test, they pitted Mechagodzilla against a skyscraper, i think they might as well skip that step.

Oddly, during the heated debate about this, the head mechanic asks Yoshito why there are only two Mothra fairies left. Interesting question. As far as i know, there have always only been two fairies, unless we're counting the Mothra Reborn movies. We never do get an answer to this question, either.

And how do they reproduce? These new fairies said the Peanuts were from their family, right? We've never seen boy fairies. Do they asexually reproduce pairs? Do they hatch out of eggs like Mothra? Do they grow out of cabbages?

While Mechagodzilla is still being prepared, Shun disappears with the stone that the Mothra fairies left behind, and next thing you know he's making a version of the Mothra symbol out of school desks.

So the city is being evacuated, and Shun's mother goes to her father, Shinichi, and tells him that Shun has run off. So Shinichi tells her to go to the shelter while he goes to look for Shun. And she does! You don't send the old man to run through the city looking for your child by himself!

I'm actually surprised that Mothra shows up. The agreement was that Mothra would defend Japan if Kiryu's bones were returned to the sea. That didn't happen. But maybe Mothra figures that a show of good faith will convince Japan to return the bones.

Anyway, here she is.

I hope you have your lasers, Mothra. Or else i don't know how you're going to fight Godzilla on your own.

Mothra goes to find Godzilla, and at first it almost looks like she's talking with him.

But Godzilla has the crazy eyes; there's no reasoning with him.

So Mothra starts off with her wing wind attack.

She then swoops around (slowly) and comes at him from behind.

Doo-de-doo-de-doo...hey, do you feel a breeze?

And tosses Godzilla under a bridge.

That is totally awesome. Well done, Mothra. But, uh...you might want to get the hell out of dodge now.

The scene cuts away to some human nonsense, and then returns to the fight, which has apparently been going on for so long it's now nighttime. Godzilla bites off one of Mothra's legs.

Mothra then winds up getting tossed into a building. She then returns and starts using what we call her "glitter" attack, but is described as her using her "scales".

Your "scales"? You know that's kind of gross, right? I liked it better when i thought it was glitter.

Now, in the first Mothra vs. Godzilla movie, it was said that this was Mothra's final attack, only to be used when she was dying. But since then it's been used pretty much at will, and frankly became a very minor part of Mothra's arsenal during the laser happy Heisei period. So when we saw the move here, Min joked that she was using her final attack. Except, that really is the case again.

Before dying, Mothra makes sure to position herself so that Tokyo Tower is destroyed.

That's something, at least.

Then, she gets knocked down. The Fairies start singing the Mothra song. And the Prime Minister decides that he's not going to stand by and let Mothra get killed, so he activates Mechagodzilla (which is exactly what Mothra didn't want to happen, right?).

Before Mechagodzilla is launched, Yoshito tries to warn Akiba that it still isn't fully tested. Akiba responds, "With my skill i can overcome any mechanical problems." Ass. He needs help overcoming the problem of his personality. Then Mechagodzilla is flown into the city (the army is trying to keep the battle in the area that was left in ruins by the last movie's battle), and then lowered to the ground by the White Heron planes.

I still say that Godzilla cannot respect an enemy that has to be brought to the battle with three little airplanes.

Godzilla shows his contempt by blasting right through a building to hit MechaG.

There's a couple of new effects when Godzilla breaths. First, there's a kind of popping noise as his dorsal fins light up. And then there's a kind of blue bubble that builds up in his mouth before the energy is released.

Mechagodzilla falls, and Mothra uses the last of her strength to take a blow meant for it. Mothra slams into Godzilla, knocking him down, but Godzilla does the classic move where he keeps breathing fire as he's falling (i love that!), blasting Mothra down. But don't worry, because two new Mothra larvae are hatching.

Mechagodzilla then tries a repeat of the move from last movie where he shot his jetpack harness at Godzilla. This time, the blasters are in two pieces. So he fires one as a feint, and Godzilla blasts it with his breath. Then he fires a second, and it hits.

But in a twist, he then remotely triggers a detonation in the jetpack, so that it explodes on Godzilla's chest. Mechagodzilla then runs up and gives Godzilla a tail toss.

But as Yoshito warned, Mechagodzilla is too slow in turning around, and Godzilla is laying in wait when Mechagodzilla gets to him. He uses his tail to trip Mechagodzilla and then, still laying on the ground, breaths at MechaG while it's falling. Godzilla's a tactician. Mechagodzilla is disabled from this attack.

Luckily, at this point the larvae show up and start their silk spinning.

You know how sad it makes Mechagodzilla that he has to be saved by just-born larvae?

The larvae are trying to be sneaky, ducking in and out from behind buildings. But Godzilla is too crafty for them.

So then the two kids head over to mom for a conversation.

I desperately wish i understood what they were saying.

Godzilla is also jealous of the conversation, and he blasts them. Mom again takes the hit.

This time mom dies, derezzing (shoulda used your Heisei lasers.). And the larvae's eyes turn red.

Meanwhile, Yoshito had been out looking for his uncle and cousin, using the Mothra stone like a compass. After locating them, he volunteers to go and repair Mechagodzilla.

The larvae continue their attack. They always do the 'bite the tail' move. It never works out for them.

Just let go!

Spraying with silk seems to be the best move.

Yoshito, with some telekinetic help from the fairies, makes it to Mechagodzilla and repairs it. The White Herons were supposed to be keeping Godzilla away from Mechagodzilla, but they do a terrible job of that. So Mechagodzilla winds up getting blasted while Yoshito is in it, and the blast damages the door, trapping Yoshito inside. But he doesn't want to hold up the battle, so he lies and tells everyone (over the radio) that he's out. And Mechagodzilla gets back into the battle.

We now get to see some of Mechagodzilla's new weapons, including a new drill hand.

And then the Hyper Maser (which is obviously no Absolute Zero freeze ray).

But as Godzilla roars, we get a black and white flashback showing scenes from (or replicating) the 1954 Godzilla film. And with that Yoshito understands what Yashiro had been trying to tell him earlier. Everyone starts hearing the Mothra song over their radios. But at this point Godzilla is (seemingly) helpless, wrapped up in Mothra silk.

But the Prime Minister apparently doesn't want to risk relinquishing the Kiru bones until they kill Godzilla. But when he gives the order, nothing happens.

The Fairies say "Remember, no human being may touch the souls of the dead.".

And Kiryu suddenly grows a red line on his face.

Kiryu then picks up Godzilla and starts flying him out to sea.

At this point it's noticed that Yoshito is still trapped inside, but Kiryu opens his door, rotates upside down so that Yoshito will fall out, while writing "Sayonara Yoshito" on his internal computer screen.

Of course that leaves Yoshito falling out of the sky...

...but he's caught by the cocky-but-now-friendly Akiba in a White Heron.

I still don't care for him. And since when did 1954 Godzilla become a sentimental good guy? He was a total ass back in 1954. He ate that lady and her baby on the street. Now he's making friends with technicians?

Kiryu is last seen bringing Godzilla under the sea.

The Prime Minister says that this was a "hollow victory. We made many mistakes in the past. It's up to us to correct those mistakes. Perhaps we learned one thing: humility." Hrmmm. Not sure you really learned anything.

It's also said that "life has to be lived within the time that nature allows". And the fairies say that the "souls of the dead can now rest in peace within the cradle of eternity".

But after we're all done talking about how humble we are and all the lessons we've learned, and after the credits role, we find that humanity clearly hasn't learned anything. Because it turns out that someone is still holding Godzilla DNA.

Not another Biollante!!!!

According to Wikipedia , this end scene actually shows "the DNA of numerous Toho kaiju". I actually didn't see that. But i'm curious if there was an intention to actually do something with this stinger ending. Besides this movie, the Millennium films have all been standalone, and that is true of the next movie, Final Wars, as well. But maybe before the plans for Final Wars were settled on, the idea was to continue movies in the continuity of this one and Against Mechagodzilla. I love Final Wars, but i also love continuity, and the two movies in this mini-continuity show that the Millenium films can be extra fun when there's a continuing story.

Godzilla Drinking Game
	Someone thinks it's a good idea to drag a giant monster across the ocean on a raft (giant eggs count).
	Attacking planes fly directly at a monster, with no possibility of avoiding a crash even if the monster didn't swat them down.
	People refuse to believe in the existence of a giant monster even though they've already acknowledged that Godzilla exists.	Mothra visited you to say that we have to return the bones of Godzilla and went on an independent rampage last movie, but you're just totally going to dismiss Dr. Chujo's warning?
	A submarine explodes.	Bingo!
	Teens have a dance party on a boat. Two drinks/head smacks if they get attacked by a monster during the party.
	The government is completely ineffective when faced with a corporation doing something illegal.
	A humongous lumbering monster manages to sneak up on someone. Two drinks/head smacks if it's the army and they're supposedly using radar.	Godzilla remains a sneaky guy, even when the army is specifically trying to track him. There's also Mothra's surprise visit.
	A scientist suddenly figures everything out with little-to-no information and explains it all to everyone.
	A monster suddenly grows in size just because.
	People expose themselves to major amounts of radiation with no concern.	They've actually even improved from the last movie. The decontamination that occurs when someone enters Mechagodzilla happens automatically now. Like, we know that this thing is going to get irradiated.
	Everyone suddenly knows a monster's name. Two drinks/head smacks if everyone else nods appreciatively and repeats it.
	Army missiles can't seem to hit a 150+ foot monster and instead explode harmlessly around it.	The missing continues. I guess we are judging by a different standard nowadays. It used to be that NONE of the missiles would hit the monster. Now we complain when there are any misses.
	A woman falls down for no reason.
	Bad dinosaur science. You have to give a little leeway for the time period, but pretending a children's picture book is a scientific journal is always worth two drinks/smacks.

Monsters Appearing: Godzilla, Kamoebas, Kiryu, Mechagodzilla, Mothra