Mill Creek Entertainment; Amazon

Long before MOTHRA appeared in this year's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the giant moth made its debut in 1961's MOTHRA Japanese feature film. It was distributed by Toho Studios in Japan and was released the following year in United States by Columbia Pictures. Like most Toho films released in U.S., MOTHRA's running time was shorten to 90 minutes, which is 11-minutes shorter than the Japanese version. And, of course, the USA version featured an English dub.

Mill Creek Entertainment will be releasing MOTHRA on Blu-ray (Not Rated; $24.98) for the very first time in the United States. And it's not just a standard release either! It's a Steelbook release featuring both the original 101-minute Japanese classic and the 90-minute English version.

Directed by Ishirō Honda, the film centers around an expedition to Infant Island, a supposedly deserted atomic bomb test site. After a typhoon destroyed a ship, the four surviving sailors take refuge on Infant Island. Infected by radiation, the island natives saved them with a juice.

Upon returning home, the survivors tell their story to the media. The Rolisican Embassy quickly assembles an expedition to Infant Island, where they discover two tiny female fairies called "Shobijin" who guard a scared egg. The fairies (played by Emi and Yumi Itō) are kidnapped and sent to Tokyo to perform in the Secret Fairies Show.

The Infant Island natives performs a ceremony that hatches the egg and unleashes a huge caterpillar named MOTHRA. The caterpillar swims across the Pacific Ocean, builds a cocoon, and becomes a giant moth that is hellbent on destroying Tokyo.

Special Features include:

• U.S. Version
• Japanese Version (11-minutes longer)
• Trailer
• Audio Commentaries with Authors and Japanese Sci-Fi Historians Steve Ryfle & Ed Godziszewski (U.S. Version Only)
• Photo Gallery

Final Thoughts