Godzilla contre Hedora

Ah yes! Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster. Thank God for AMC, The SciFi Channel, and cable in general.

I was 9 years old when this movie came out in the theaters back in my home town, a suburb of Cleveland, OH. 9 year olds didn't go to the movies often because there were none of the multiplexes we have today. To my surprise, my mom offered to take us kids in the neighborhood to see Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster at the Lake Theater matinée. I was so excited. I was going to see Godzilla (loved all his movies as a kid), have popcorn, and be inside a huge movie theater!

This experience was 32 years ago! Until last Saturday, I could only remember 4 things: 1) Waiting in my seat seaming like forever for the movie to start, 2) The Smog Monster sucking on a smoke stack, 3) The Smog Monster sliming down a flight of steps, withdrawing, and a cat being stuck in the slime residue, and 4) A psychedelic discothèque.

Fast forward 32 years to 2004. Last Saturday night I was surfing cable and stumbled upon Godzilla vs. Hedora. I said to myself "Hmmmmm…I don't remember this movie and thought I saw them all. What the heck…it's Godzilla and I am up for some cheese."

To my utter surprise, fascination, and joy I quickly saw the monster suck on a smoke stack and I said "Oh my gosh!!!! It's the Smog Monster!!!!"

I had sudden flashbacks of my childhood. All of my memories returned!

OK, it's a bad movie. But so what? It served its purpose. It was designed for a 9 year old child and gave him memories of a lifetime. As bad as it is, it must have entertained more children than just me because it has stood the test of time returning to AMC and The SciFi channel.

I say, "Thanks for the memories."

"Godzilla vs. Hedorah" is probably my favorite Godzilla from the 1970s (the others being the one with Gigan in them, he RULES TOO!). There sure is alot going on in this crazy movie.

There are:

ACID TRIPS! Strange anime sequences! Really upbeat soundtrack and theme song (KAAAAAAAAISEN!)! Kids in hot pants! Ecology made fun! Haiku! Nightclubs! Hippies galore! Godzilla flying! Hedorah, the strange looking beast of Smog!

This film has everything a B-movie enthuaist wants!

Even though a lot of people hated Hedorah, but I don't. He is one of the most interesting looking and powerful foes in Godzilla's old days. He pretty much hacks up on Godzilla a lot, changes shape at will, plus, it FARTS out acid!

Anyways, watch "Godzilla vs. Hedorah"! You'll have a B-movie blast!

Highly controversial Godzilla movie which is loved or hated by fans.

In the late 60s/early 70s Japan had a very serious pollution problem that was killing people all over the place. I had no knowledge of this event until first viewing the flick (in 2022) so this Godzilla film was also a history lesson.

Some old Godzilla films are too talky but this one is more concerned with the creatures and less concerned with the humans - GOOD.

Enter Smog Monster! He might be my favourite Godzilla enemy? Enter young Japanese people taking drugs and perhaps reliving 60s "Woodstock". Enter Godzilla flying in the air for the first time. Enter the strangest Godzilla film score ever! Where do I stop?

This is a wonderful movie on so many levels and, as stated above, a great history lesson about Japan. Not for all tastes but I love it.

This psychedelic Goji entry features a very formidable opponent in Hedorah and some very memorable trippy imagery. It has an environmental message and is truly unlike any Goji film.

Hedorah has a certain special aura about it, very memorable moments and a great soundtrack that makes this one of the Showa era's finest.

8 Smog Clouds out of 10!

This film has a really post modern feel to it. It begins with a song in Japanese called Save the Earth that (like The Lost Continent song) you won't stop singing (Kaishan! Kaishan! Kaishan!). The opening credits mix in shots of a girl singing the song with shots of a sludge clogged Tokyo harbor. Things get stranger from here. It opens with an annoying kid and his dad going swimming. The kid's father's face is disfigured and the kid gets his hand burned off by a smog monster named Hedorah who spits acid balls and inhales the fumes off smokestalks. Things get even stranger from there. Theres a Save the Earth concert or something with this girl in spandex with stuff painting on singing, this lava lamp like thing on the wall (definitely hippies) and this teenager who gets drunk and starts halucinating and sees everyone with fish masks on (when I saw this the first time when I was six, couldn't get why everyone started wearing fish masks and why the teen seemed so disturbed about it) until Hedorah suddenly attacks after sucking up fumes. Well Godzilla comes and saves everybody and they start fighting really bizarrely (similar to the Saturday night wrestling scenes from King Kong vs. Godzilla. They wrestle and wrestle some more. Though released in 1971, this is very sixties. Director Yoshimitsu Banno blends mind twisting images, real scenes of Tokyo bay covered with sludge, the scenes with the hippies, disturbing scenes with dying babies on mutiple screens, gory scenes of Hedorah's victems being reduced to skeletons, scenes with the kid and his scientist father trying to figure out how to stop the monster, and scenes with a newscaster. This is very poetic, bizarre, beautiful, and sometimes extremely disturbing and has about the strongest anti pollution messages I've ever seen (Japan was polluted the most back then). This is one colorful film. P.S. I don't know how this film got a G rating with all the disturbing images in it.