Japanese Name: Gojira tai Hedora
Alt US Name: Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster
Director: Yoshimitsu Banno
Studio: Toho
Year: 1971
Length: 1h26m
Godzilla's Story:
What the &#$% that ugly thing? It sucking on human filth pipes. Gross. It not from around here. Godzilla try communicating with ugly thing, but ugly thing don't seem to speak the language. So Godzilla must fight.
Ach. Fighting burns. Ugly thing fly and poison air, make Godzilla throat hurt. Godzilla do everything Godzilla can: body slam, suplex, stomp, blast and nothing work. Ugly thing keep moving and growing.
Oooh, Godzilla going to get ugly thing if last thing Godzilla do.
Oh, humans set up clever trap. Godzilla get it. Microwave dish dry out creature. Creature stand in dead zone, why humans no blast it. ^#$% it, Godzilla got do everything round here. Godzilla step in and blast trap with atomic breath, kickstart microwave process, 'cause that how it work. Don't google it. Trust Godzilla. That how it work.
After few tries, ugly thing finally cooked. Godzilla reach into muck and grab ugly thing's big, bulging eyes, and Godzilla cook them too. WHAT? NO! Smaller ugly thing fly out. Ugly thing escape? Not on Godzilla watch.
Godzilla try something...Godzilla been working on something new, use atomic breath as engine like stupid human metal birds, and Godzilla fly now. GODZILLA FLY NOW!!! Godzilla catch smaller ugly thing and take back to trap. Godzilla cook ugly thing again and again. This time, Godzilla scatter ugly thing around make sure every last bit of ugly thing all dry and cooked.
Ok, all done, Godzilla go home now. Bye bye.
The Human Story:
A small slug-like tadpole is found in the oceanside, near a scientist's home. The scientist goes into the ocean to research and returns horribly scarred. Meanwhile tanker ships on the ocean are being split apart, spilling waste into the seas.
All of these are connected, they are all a part of the same creature, Hedorah, with a body made of minerals and sludge. It can transform between its tadpole, water-based shape, an upright form with extremities, and a flying saucer shaped form it takes when it propels itself through the air. It consumes airborne and seaborn pollutants, but this isn't as good a thing as it sound. When he consumes such pollution the reaction causes an evacuation of sulphuric mists, burning flesh, corroding metal. The force of these evacuations is enough to propel the ever-expanding creature through the sky.
Godzilla knows instinctively this creature is bad news and tries to fight Hedorah, but how can he fight something that barely has physical form and gets stronger the more waste it consumes. The scientist and his family figure out a way to dry out the Hedorah creatures, so they ring up the Defence Forces and let them in on the plan.
Then his brother, his brother's girlfriend and his son go to a psychedelia party on top of mount Fuji while ghosts(?) watch on.
Stuff happens (Fell asleep)
Then trying to lure Hedorah into the trap (two reflective walls in an open expanse, basically a big microwave oven) to dry Hedorah out is tension filled, as the power hasn't been set up yet. But Godzilla arrives just in time to blasts the walls and zaps the sludge beast. It takes a number of hits before Godzilla sinks his mitts into its desiccated form and plucks out its eyeballs, then charges the contraption for another hit.
It's seemingly down for the count when a smaller Hedorah busts out of the husk and tries to fly away. Godzilla turns around, uses his atomic breath and sends himself soaring right after it. He grabs the creature and carries it back to the dehydration machine, where Hedorah gets zapped over and over again. He scatters the remains then hits it with another blast until nothing is left but dust.
Favourite exchange:
"look it's godzilla"
"let's get closer..."
Godzilla, Friend or Foe:
Definite friend in this one.
The Sounds:
Hippy psychedelic music. A swingin' but preachy environmental theme song. There's some great music, some ok, music and some downright godawful music, a real mixed bag coming from composer Riichiro Manabe.
The Message:
Give a hoot, don't pollute. And maybe get your shit together, Japan of 1970. But there's also a bit of "don't be a hippie, do something useful instead."
Rating:
ZZZ - This, compared to pretty much every film that's come since the original Gojira, looks like it was shot like a real film and not brightly lit Saturday morning suits-and-puppets kiddie fare. There's effective use of lighting, some real artistry to the camera angles and framing, and some real thought put into the whole production, and not just a "cranked out" feel. Hedorah is a weird-ass monster, taking many forms and having a space-borne lore about it, and so it gets a weird ass film around it. The psychedelia, the brief, animated interstitials, and *finally* some fight sequences that have their own logic as well as silliness to them all meld in a bit of a sludgy cesspool of ideas that don't necessarily coagulate. At least it's not the same repeat of futile militaristic bombardment that we've seen dozens of times over and over and over again. It's not entirely successful at everything it set out to do (and *moof* that soundtrack at times is ruff stuff). Still, it's a real standout in the Showa Era of Godzilla for sure.
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