When Dr. Yano (Akira Yamanouchi) investigates a strange tadpole like creature found near the coast, he and his son are soon attacked by a larger version of it that comes to be known as Hedorah. Hedorah is an alien monster who has fed off the various pollutants of the air and sea and is growing at an exponential rate with Godzilla soon appearing to fight against the creature.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (aka Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster) is a 1971 kaiju film and the eleventh installment in the Godzilla franchise. Inspired by growing concerns of Japan's issues with pollution at the time, the film marked the feature debut of Yoshimitsu Banno who opted to make the film with an environmental bent. Working with Treuyoshi Nakano on the special effects, the two attempted to make a film as ambitious as the reduced budget and tight filming schedule would allow as Godzilla movies continually saw themselves moving to lower tiers among Toho's production schedule. While Banno sought to make a children's film with environmental messaging, Nakano sought to make something with the impact of the 1954 Godzilla with the two often compromising where needed. Critical reception at the time was very mixed with some offering praise to the film for adding some weight back to the series after All Monsters Attack/Godzilla's Revenge, while others responded negatively with some claiming it one of the worst films in the series and even series producer Tomoyuki Tanaka would accuse Banno of having killed the series. At its core Godzilla vs. Hedorah is very experimental in its approach to the Godzilla formula and like any experiment there's some success and there's some failure.
Despite the movie prominently featuring a child character, in this case Ken Yano played by Hiroyuki Kawase, the movie mostly avoids the pitfalls that befall this character type such as those seen in the Gamera movies. The characters aren't given the greatest amount of depth but for what their place in the story is, they do it well enough. Conceptually speaking Hedorah has a good design being a shapeshifting mound of sludge who feeds on pollution and excretes poison and the movie offers some pretty horrific imagery (at least by the standards of this kind of movie) that even if you don't like this movie you at least have to give it credit for "going there". This is however where the problems arise because it feels like the movie's going in two directions trying to be a serious cautionary tale about the effects of environmental pollution but also trying to cater to that lighthearted sense of "fun" from entries like Destroy All Monsters. The Kaiju battles feel a lot slower this time around and often play towards emphasizing the collateral damage of Hedorah's sludge than the impact or choreography of the monsters, and the Kaiju battles often go on way longer than you want them to with numerous false stops only for the battle to keep going. The movie also takes a very "arm's length" approach to pollution with the primary focus being on the evil of the pollution itself rather than discussing the sources or human indifference that lead to it being there in the first place so it feels like it's only addressing half the issue.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah is the kind of movie I wish I liked more than I actually did. Despite working with the ever decreasing budgets that dogged this era of the franchise you can tell there was some desire for ambition and experimentation with the film even if it doesn't quite pay off. Definitely worth a viewing if only for curiosity's sake in some bold moves for this entry, but no guarantee they'll work for you.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (aka Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster) is a 1971 kaiju film and the eleventh installment in the Godzilla franchise. Inspired by growing concerns of Japan's issues with pollution at the time, the film marked the feature debut of Yoshimitsu Banno who opted to make the film with an environmental bent. Working with Treuyoshi Nakano on the special effects, the two attempted to make a film as ambitious as the reduced budget and tight filming schedule would allow as Godzilla movies continually saw themselves moving to lower tiers among Toho's production schedule. While Banno sought to make a children's film with environmental messaging, Nakano sought to make something with the impact of the 1954 Godzilla with the two often compromising where needed. Critical reception at the time was very mixed with some offering praise to the film for adding some weight back to the series after All Monsters Attack/Godzilla's Revenge, while others responded negatively with some claiming it one of the worst films in the series and even series producer Tomoyuki Tanaka would accuse Banno of having killed the series. At its core Godzilla vs. Hedorah is very experimental in its approach to the Godzilla formula and like any experiment there's some success and there's some failure.
Despite the movie prominently featuring a child character, in this case Ken Yano played by Hiroyuki Kawase, the movie mostly avoids the pitfalls that befall this character type such as those seen in the Gamera movies. The characters aren't given the greatest amount of depth but for what their place in the story is, they do it well enough. Conceptually speaking Hedorah has a good design being a shapeshifting mound of sludge who feeds on pollution and excretes poison and the movie offers some pretty horrific imagery (at least by the standards of this kind of movie) that even if you don't like this movie you at least have to give it credit for "going there". This is however where the problems arise because it feels like the movie's going in two directions trying to be a serious cautionary tale about the effects of environmental pollution but also trying to cater to that lighthearted sense of "fun" from entries like Destroy All Monsters. The Kaiju battles feel a lot slower this time around and often play towards emphasizing the collateral damage of Hedorah's sludge than the impact or choreography of the monsters, and the Kaiju battles often go on way longer than you want them to with numerous false stops only for the battle to keep going. The movie also takes a very "arm's length" approach to pollution with the primary focus being on the evil of the pollution itself rather than discussing the sources or human indifference that lead to it being there in the first place so it feels like it's only addressing half the issue.
Godzilla vs. Hedorah is the kind of movie I wish I liked more than I actually did. Despite working with the ever decreasing budgets that dogged this era of the franchise you can tell there was some desire for ambition and experimentation with the film even if it doesn't quite pay off. Definitely worth a viewing if only for curiosity's sake in some bold moves for this entry, but no guarantee they'll work for you.