Rebirth of Mothra
Rebirth of Mothra is a 1996 Japanese kaiju film directed by Okihiro Yoneda. It’s a reboot of the Mothra story and the first film in the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy. It was the last Toho kaiju movie produced under Tomoyuki Tanaka, who died a few months after the film’s release. The movie stars Sayaka Yamaguchi, Megumi Kobayashi, Aki Hano, and Kazuki Futami. It cost about 1 billion yen to make and earned around 1.96 billion yen in Japan. It was released in Japan on December 14, 1996.
Thousands of years earlier, a space dragon named Desghidorah was defeated by Mothra and the Elias, a tiny humanoid race protected by three moths: Moll, Lora, and a smaller Mothra. In the present, a logging company frees Desghidorah from its underground prison. Belvera, one of the Belvera sisters, influences Wakaba to take the seal and unleashes Desghidorah in an effort to destroy humanity and save her race. Moll and Lora travel to Japan with Taiki, Wakaba, and their mother to stop Belvera.
Mothra is called to fight Desghidorah, but she is worn from aging and battle. Her larva hatches early to help, but the dragon drains the larva’s energy. Mothra carries her larva to safety and lures Desghidorah toward a dam, but she collapses from exhaustion and sinks. Moll and Lora retrieve the seal from Belvera and give it to Taiki and Wakaba while they search for the larva. The larva cocoons and becomes a new Mothra, who then battles Desghidorah and renews the seal, defeating the dragon and saving Earth. Belvera escapes, vowing revenge.
After the battle, Mothra returns to her ancestral home with Moll, Lora, and Fairy. Taiki and Wakaba are thanked for helping, and a tribute to Ishirō Honda appears in the story. The film was released in Japan on December 14, 1996, and later came to the United States direct-to-video in 1999. It has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray as part of the trilogy.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:24 (CET).