Mothra

Mothra (1961) is a Japanese fantasy-adventure you can watch online on iFILM, produced by Toho and directed by Ishiro Honda — the filmmaker behind the original Godzilla. This was Mothra's first standalone picture, the starting point for one of kaiju cinema's longest-running characters.

A scientific expedition reaches Infant Island and finds the Shobijin: a pair of tiny twin priestesses whose deity slumbers beneath the island. When entrepreneur Clark Nelson kidnaps them for exhibition, the sleeping creature wakes. The Shobijin were played by Emi and Yumi Ito — the singing duo known as The Peanuts — and composer Yūji Kōseki's score gives the film a distinctly mythological quality that sets it apart from straight monster fare. Stream Mothra (1961) online on iFILM.