User reviews

This is a surreal experience and the strangest Godzilla film I've seen... I laughed so hard at this film out of pure enjoyment rather than mockery.

It serves as a warning to children (and, of course, everyone who watches it) of the dangers of long-term pollution. There are amazing scenes highlighting environmental problems that are served in a variety of creative ways.

Godzilla is hilarious in this film.

Do not make the same mistake I did and watch the film with the brightness on half, I actually watched it the first time thinking you weren't supposed to see anything in the night time scenes... turned the brightness up and realised!

Okay, so.... Godzilla vs Hedorah! It's been said that this is a Godzilla movie you either love or hate, so it's either a 10 or a 0. For me personally, this movie is a 5; right smack dab in the middle! It's not a shining gem or a smouldering turd, it's just kinda "eh" *gesture where you shake your hand with all the fingers flat out*

So, the premise; rampant water and air pollution has spawned Hedorah, a sentient monster made of pollution that is like a mix of the Blob and a garbage dump! Hedorah is able to melt people to bones! The only hope for humanity, as always, is GODZILLAAAAA~!!!!

Hedorah is a notable monster as he is the last monster of the Showa era that is acting on his own will, he isn't obeying anyone or under mind control, unlike Ghidorah, Gigan, Megalon, Mechagodzilla, and Titanosaurus of the succeeding Showa films.

This movie is different; there's bizarre animation, trippy montages, and drug innuendos a-plenty!!! Now, the animation shown isn't anime, it's just some bizarre animation straight out of Uncanny Valley. Hedorah is shown sucking on a smokestack from a factory and exhaling the smoke before showing his bloodshot eyes, a blatant reference to taking a bong hit.

As someone who has taken a few bong hits before, I found this to be a clever little thing. The drug innuendos can be excused because this movie was made in 1971; weed culture was still in it's very huge first run!

There are two or three POV shots from Hedorah's perspective.

Also, no review of Godzilla vs Hedorah would be complete without mentioning the bizarre scene where Godzilla FLIES. This was a total WTF moment.

All in all, if you watch this movie with a sober mind like I did, you'll either hate it or it'll just be "eh". If you watch it after smoking some weed or ingesting an edible, it'll be the best damn Godzilla movie you've ever seen!

"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!

When the Godzilla series entered the 1970s, a retro and hippie feeling could be seen in this movie. This film starts off with a singer, played by Keiko Mari, singing a song titled "Save the Earth." Like 1964's Godzilla vs. Mothra, this film delivers a message of environmental danger. The story's about heavy pollution problems occurring in Japan. When an alien spore from outer space enters Earth and lands on a pile of toxic waste in the sea, a towering monster of sludge, crap, smog, and goo attacks Japan. This is the first Godzilla (Gojira) film in many years that depicts numerous human casualties. Scenes of humans deforming are a gruesome sight and echo elements in the original Gojira film. Like a viewer said, the fish tank scene is a similar scene of the fish tank in the original Gojira film.

The central character in this movie is a boy, played by Hiroyuki Kawase, who idolizes Godzilla. Godzilla, by this time, is portrayed as a "defender of Earth," rather than a destructive force. Mostly, there are no hints of fears from the people upon Godzilla's appearances. The line "Get'em Godzilla!" is a real charmer, making the monster look more and more like a hero and defender of Japan.

Yoshimitsu Banno did a good job directing and assembling the cast out, staging them in places like nightclubs, hills and amusement parks. The retro feel could be seen in the nightclub scene, where the singer sings the title song as blobs of retro paint move in a movie screen behind her. Also, the scene of the teenagers "celebrating" on a hill like a woodstock is also a retro feel.

Takeshi Kimura gave us a dark and scientific story, but some lighthearted scenes can be seen, like the scene where Godzilla flies (I think this is the only time we see Godzilla fly). Teruyoshi Nakano's special effects were believable; plenty of monster battles, albeit slow in some parts. Some of the problems I have with the monster battles is the part where Godzilla and Hedorah virtually move towards each other, staring at each other for several minutes. The movie's cinematography lacks a little spirit and color, making this movie look a little dull, and the overall momentum of the film was a little slow. And, this film lacks an effective music score. The music is not really harmonic or melodic and lacks charm to it. Riichiro Manabe composed a theme for Godzilla-a theme played by overblown trumpets. Though somewhat wacky, this theme sounds heroic for Godzilla.

Overall, a somewhat slow but an interesting Godzilla movie, returning you to the darker and more serious themes of the series.

Grade C+

Godzilla vs Hedora (AKA The Smog Monster) is less slick than many of the later productions. It is also somewhat less serious, and features a Godzilla who is more mythic than consistent with his earlier and later portrayals. The Godzilla in this film is a force of nature in more than just a figurative sense. She is also highly intelligent and a defender of the earth and, to some extent, its people.

Even from the title, its easy enough to figure out what this film is about. Tadpoles mutate because of the mutagenic properties of pollution in Tokyo Bay (interestingly, this somewhat silly idea is far less absurd than most of the latter pseudoscience used in Godzilla scripts - almost as bad as Star Trek Voyager sometimes was). The mutant tadpoles fuse at the cellular level and grow into a giant tadpole which then mutates three or four times, spewing out its own toxic pollutants, first as terrestrial and eventually as air pollution. The visuals are good, but the special effects are admittedly below even Toho's usual standards.

Created in the early 1970s, this film is metaphorical and symbolic, although it is still, at heart, a Godzilla film. Hedora is an unsubtle metaphor for the ecological state of the world, and is, in that sense, a monster of our own making. Godzilla is an embodiment of nature, and is to be viewed as a positive force for all life on earth. These symbols are particularly apparent in the use of cartoons as transitional devices from one plot point to another.

Godzilla Vs Hedora walks a very thin line between giant-monster violence and a kid-oriented film. As somebody who has since his early teens, been interested in the environment and as somebody who always liked Japanese Monster films, I developed a sentimental attachment to this film very early on. In fact, this is my all-time favorite Godzilla film, and more than any other film, it is the reason why I consider myself a fan of the big green lizard. This is the film which establishes Godzilla as an environmentalist and a friend to young people - his two best roles.

I've loved Godzilla for as long as I can remember, but "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" (or "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster", the original U.S. release title) has always been my least favorite - until the last time I saw it.

The 70's produced the worst of the Godzilla flicks - a series of dark, hokey, and dull films which ultimately caused the end of the Godzilla film line (until the beginning of a new series in 1984). Executive producer Tomoyuki Tanaka was in the hospital for much of the time while the film was being made, so he didn't see the different direction which "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" took. For the first time since 1964, the film had a strong social message: stop the pollution! A series of grim, grungy images show the pollution which is seeping into the air and the sea. From it rises Hedorah, the smog monster, intent on gobbling down the world's smog and pollution whilst killing off Earth's people. Bullets go through it, knives do nothing to it. Who will stop this "demon of drudge"? Why, Godzilla, of course! Yoshimitsu Banno pointed the series in a different direction (which enraged producer Tanaka upon his release from the hospital), inserting funky tunes, a scene in a revolting dance club, and entirely unnecessary animations. Then there's the creepy-looking Hedorah, which actually becomes quite scary when you see it's glowing eyes in the dark gray night sky, while the eerie bass guitar plays quietly amongst the soundtrack's instruments. This is certainly the weirdest, creepiest Godzilla flick of 'em all.

A sequel to this film was planned, hence the "And yet another one?" title at the end of the film. In it, Godzilla would travel to Africa and battle another smog monster. But the project was shelved when Tomoyuki Tanaka banned director Banno from ever coming near a Godzilla film again, claiming that Banno had ruined the series. I can't really say that I'm sorry for that decision.

"Godzilla vs. Hedorah" is one of the most unique of the Godzilla films, and because of that, it's one of my favorites. It's a weird, creepy film, that becomes much more fun (and funny) when you watch it with the terrible English dubbing.

Anyone who says that Godzilla movies are nothing more than men in rubber monster suits, wrestling and destroying scale models of Tokyo... has not seen this film! When I first saw it, I was like 5 or 6 years old and it scared the beejeezus out of me! I agree with another reviewer, definitely not a "G" rating. What makes this a rare and exceptional Godzilla movie is the not-so subtext. Pollution was a big concern in the late sixties and early seventies, and this film has the most powerful images of anti-pollution propaganda that I have seen in any film! Add to this, a bizarre mix of dancing disco hippie chicks singing "Save the Earth", with real images of the horrendous pollution in Japan and things like spontaneous animated clips...and you have THE most unique of the Godzilla films ever made! But don't worry! There is plenty of all-monster-wrestling!! You either like Godzilla movies, or you don't. If you don't like the franchise, avoid this like the plague. If you are a huge fan of the big "G", like I am, this is the most interesting variation on the standard zilla plot. And a refreshing, bizarre and disturbing mix of imagery!! I gave it a 10 of 10 because it is my favorite of all the Godzilla movies.

Following the child-focused "All Monsters Attack" (1969), Godzilla returns as an ally of man in the battle against pollution, as personified (kaijufied?) by Hedorah (the Smog Monster)*. There are a number of stylistic changes from previous movies in the franchise, including James Bond-like opening credits, surreal psychedelic interludes (the fish-headed people at the 'go-go' club are memorable) and a number of odd animated inserts reminiscent of early 70's public service cartoons. The musical score, much of which sounds like background music for slapstick comedy or uplifting marches similar to the grating (but catchy) Gamera theme, is horrible. The franchise is still targeting younger audiences, so the central human character is a little kid (Ken Yano, played by Hiroyuki Kawase) who, among other things, comes up with the name for the new monster (Hedorah) as well as a method to destroy it. He also seems to have a psychic bond with Godzilla, and the last scenes of the film are straight out of "Shane" (1953, except that Shane is now a giant mutated dinosaur). Despite being a child-oriented film, "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" is much grimmer than any of the previous sequels, with human body counts after the monsters clash, on-camera 'deaths' of individuals (such as the gamblers or the driver of the truck crushed by Hedorah), and most jarringly, the 'melting' of people exposed to Hedorah's noxious exhalent (Ken encounters the gruesome partially-dissolved bodies of a number of these victims). Hedorah itself is so improbable looking that it might as well be accepted as a metaphor rather than a monster, but the titular fights are pretty good. The anthropomorphisation of Godzilla, who now constantly uses human-like gestures (almost rolling his eyes at mankind's ineffectual attempts to stop Hedorah), continues (although one delirious surprise in the film is the revelation that Godzilla can fly (!), a ridiculous-looking skill that would have come in handy in previous outings). All in all, "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" (the eleventh film in the franchise) while not a great kaiju film, is eccentric, imaginative and entertaining: a deviation from the downward slide that leads to the next two entries in the series (the woeful "G. vs Gigan" and "G. vs Megalon"). (*these comments pertain to an English subtitled version of the film).

As the 1970s began, Godzilla started to turn into a much more campier, hipper if you will, Japanese institution. There is no evidence of that more striking than Godzilla Vs. the Smog Monster(Hedorah) with its cartoonish sedge-ways and psychedelic dance numbers, etc... I loved this film as a child. I remembered some scenes very well: a young boy on a rock calling, "Papa, Papa" and the scene with an oil/sludge covered cat amidst garbage and waste. The environmental issues were lost on my young brain, but having had a chance to see the film somewhat recently I have seen the obvious nature/message inherent in the film. And having seen the film again, I find that I like the film a lot less than I did as a child. Its magic didn't hold up for me, and I started to ask myself why? What could make the difference? Well, the story really is quite transparent as a young boy and his family(father a scientist)discover a new creature in the ocean that when dried turns to a cakey dust that when introduced to water again - creates new life. The scientist also learns that this new organism that feeds on waste has the ability to grow rapidly. Soon it grows to monster proportion as a giant black thing with glowing red eyes, destroying much of Tokyo and Japan, waiting to fight with Godzilla. While this film does indeed have some nicely shot, effective scenes, the story and the pacing just seem a bit strained. Hedorah is a pretty neat looking creature, and some of his fights with the big lizard are very rewarding. The film; however, doesn't have the sense of seriousness(if you can believe this?) that the earlier Godzilla films had. While ostensibly teaching about the evils of pollution and misusing the environment, Godzilla Vs, the Smog Monster is really nothing more than a very campy film of the big old green guy and a big pile of sludge.

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!

What makes this movie so entertaining is how great of a villain that Hedorah is. He transformers multiple times throughout the movie and always seems to be constant threat against Godzilla until the very end.

The only bad thing I could possibly say about this movie is that the plot is a little cliche. Hedorah was created by Earth's pollution so we are beaten fairly heavily with the "Don't Pollute" message throughout the film. Other than that, It's incredibly entertaining and Hedorah is makes it a must see IMO.

Something spooky is happening on the Japanese coast; pollution is killing the fish in the ocean, but it also gives life to a monstrous mutated fish-monster. A professor and his genius kid watch it's destructions on TV, and the kid remarks: "- Oh, that was a tadpole-monster." Japan and the entire world is soon threatened by the unearthly Creature, who's named Hedorah by the Professors kid.

At the same time a funky teenage assistant of the professor gets drunk at an absurdly psychadellic disco and has visions of all the party-people being mutated fish. Hedorah inhales polluted smoke from factory- chimneys and seem to get high, the kid is psychic and has visions of Godzilla coming to save the world, and the Professor is attacked by the Hedorah underwater and his face gets malformed. Godzilla and the "Smog Monster" (as it is sometimes referred to as) start fighting only 25 minutes into the movie. The Hedorah mutates from ocean- dweller, to reptile to flying creature, and experts conclude that "He" is probably from a distant Nebula in outer space. Scenes of havoc and the Professor's family is intercut with cartoon- style sequences with strong enviromental messages.

One scene has the Hedorah flying over a group of people working out, and they turn blue-faced and ultimately into gushy skeletons. A man at a construction site screams out (extremely) loud, and then falls to his death. Hedorah has the ability to corrode metal, and people on TV quarrel intensely on the fate of the planet. The Professors assistant knows the end is near, and has a hippie-styled party on top of a mountain; "- Let's have fun as we die!!" The party is interrupted by the space/pollution freak, and most of the kids are melted by its poisonous vomit/droppings when they try to set it on fire.

The Professor's kid has found the solution to defeat the grotesque beast: "- Dry it - it's only sludge!", and with the aid of the friendly Godzilla it finally works. Some scenes, as well as the sounds the Hedorah makes are beyond description; like the scene were it's covering Godzilla with its tons of toxic puke, and at the same time "laughing" diabolically. There are weird crosscutting throughout, the kid yells "Papa" alot and the groovy rock score helps to its remarkably insane mood. The PG- rating should be reconsidered. This one is too dark and demented in so many ways, I don't think a ten year- old should watch it. It's mad nightmarish, art-cinematic style could cause damage.

A TV- reporter calls the Hedorah "a freak organizm" - much like this movie itself.

This was the attempt of the Godzilla franchise to do a movie with an environmentally friendly message. For the most part, these messages don't go over too well as many people find them too sappy and clichéd. This movie itself is okay, mostly because it has a lot of strengths and weaknesses. For example, I actually did kind of get the feel of the original 1954 film when it talked about all the dead people. This film was apparently rated G. Wow, cities being destroyed in a G-rated film. Nowadays, given the exact same content, this would undoubtedly be rated PG-13. Anyway, the effects are pretty good.

The main weakness of the film comes in the final battle. Godzilla actually uses his radioactive breath to float. They would later reuse this sort of thing in "Godzilla Vs. Megalon", a far sillier film with a far sillier way of doing it. The humans build a machine to weaken Hedorah and while I do like the idea of them helping to defeat the monster, it does seem off place. I think it's at this point we can safely say that Godzilla became a good guy. It was first really established in "Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster". **1/2

This film tends to be exceedingly rare on DVD and VHS, and I really wish it wasn't that way. This film was made more or less to prove a point, that pollution was beginning to become a major problem for much of Japan. With unique music and scenes, and a monster who obviously doesn't fit in with Godzilla's other enemies, it's a one of a kind film. It's a pretty awesome one, I've seen it again and again. It has a few scenes that seem a bit unnecessary though, groovy hippy like music and scenes of flashing colors don't really bring a lot to the plot or feel of the film. The monster though, is totally massive, nearly twice Godzilla's size when it's full grown. It's one of the best in my opinion, I really like it. I would say this is one of the must sees of the Godzilla franchise.

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster is the kind of movie that doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be. It must be a kid's movie, because the protagonist is an annoying kid who idolizes Godzilla. Yet some scenes would be more at home in a horror film; as when crowds of people are asphyxiated and skeletonized by the smog monster's noxious emissions. At other times there are signs that this movie wants to be a drug fueled exploitation flick. There are weird cartoon sequences that seem inspired by Yellow Submarine, and at one point a character in a dance club starts hallucinating, for no apparent reason, that his fellow party-goers have paper Mache fish for heads.

There's also a perfunctory astronomy lesson with no real connection to the rest of the film, plus a shot where Hedorah, the titular Smog Monster, flies through a construction site, and the structure collapses, but with no sound. Was the recording track for scene damaged at some point? If that were the case, you would think the filmmakers could re-record the sound effects, or substitute a clip from the studio's library.

But I'm forgetting what this movie is all about, which is Godzilla- and the need to protect the environment. In 1971, when the film was released, this message had not yet become a cliché in children's movies. It was also a very relevant at a time when there was little to no regulation of factory emissions and hazardous waste disposal, and when rivers in downtown Cleveland could suddenly burst into flames.

But Godzilla makes a very odd environmental spokesman, to say the very least. When he first appeared in 1954's Gojira, he was the embodiment of the death and destruction that nuclear weapons could, and had, unleashed on Japan and on the world. Now however, he is Tokyo's savior, a completely benign figure who doesn't knock over a single building, even by accident. Godzilla doesn't always have to play the villain, but he should at least be an anti-hero, dangerous to man even when he's protecting us from other monsters.

Godzilla also makes one of his least dramatic entrances in this film. Instead of slowly rising from the sea, or bursting out of an iceberg, he ambles out of the sunrise as annoying trumpet music blares. Regrettably, this score will be repeated in most scenes where the big guy appears.

As for Godzilla's opponent, Toho has come up with one of its cooler ideas here. Hedorah is not a single organism, but rather colony of billions of rapidly splitting microorganisms. This means that it can change form at will, and can repair almost any damage suffered by producing new cells. Unfortunately, the idea just didn't work. What we end up with, at least in the monster's final form, is a giant, misshapen blob of rubber under which the actor can barely move.

This brings us to the battles between the monsters, usually the high point of any Godzilla film. Some of the earlier fights aren't too badly staged, but once Hedorah learns to fly, Godzilla's main tactic seems to be standing around and failing his arms angrily. And as for the final battle near Mount Fuji, having the military build a pair of giant electrodes to dehydrate the Smog Monster is a fairly good idea, since by this point it's clear that Godzilla can't do it on his own.

But why oh why did this have to mean a protracted sequence in which our hero rips apart his now helpless opponent piece by piece (twice!), to make sure that every drop of moisture is evaporated? Wouldn't it have been more effective for Hedorah to instantly dry out and crumble to dust, like a vampire exposed to sunlight? This isn't Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, it's Godzilla vs. the giant mud pie.

There's also the question of how Godzilla knew the purpose and operation of the electrodes, and why his atomic breath provided power to them, rather than blasting them to bits like everything else it touches. But this isn't where our suspension of disbelief is really tested.

I mentioned earlier that Godzilla had to go through the process of drying out Hedorah twice. This is because the first time, there proves to some life still left in the blob of filth, and its prior flying form escapes into the sky. So how does Godzilla catch up to his rival and bring him back? Simple, he flies after him. That's right; Godzilla actually flies by using his atomic breath as a form of jet propulsion. This may be the single most ridiculous sequence in the history of Japanese cinema.

I'm not recommending that no one ever see this movie. It achieves a sort of campy grandeur, almost to the point of being so bad that it's good. I would suggest viewing this film just once, so you can gawk in amazement at its sheer awfulness. Or, if that's too much for you, just type in "Godzilla flies" on YouTube. You won't be disappointed by the result.

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.

Initially I didn't really have much of any particular expectations to this 1971 entry to the "Godzilla" franchise. But still, I've been on a "Godzilla" marathon recently, so of course I sat down to watch "Gojira tai Hedora" (aka "Godzilla vs Hedora") as well.

Turns out that this was actually a really enjoyable movie, even one of the better older "Godzilla" movies. Taking into consideration that this movie was from 1971, then they actually fared quite well with the special effects.

As for the storyline, well "Godzilla vs Hedora" actually deviates dramatically from the usual one-minded track that the "Godzilla" franchise is known for. They introduced an environmental aspect to this movie, and it actually worked out well enough, given the fact that it wasn't a preaching that was pulled down over the heads of the audience.

The Hedora creature concept was actually interesting. Even brought a smile to the lips when it morphed into a flying ray-like creature. I hadn't seen that coming.

Godzilla is acting like he is on crack in this 1971 movie, and it was just a blast to watch him duke it out with Hedora.

All in all, this is an enjoyable and entertaining movie, and definitely one that you should take the time to sit down and watch if you enjoy the older "Godzilla" movies. I am rating "Godzilla vs Hedora" a solid six out of ten stars.

This movie is so weird, it is almost comical. Better known as Godzilla vs The Smog Monster, this flick tries to take on a different format that resembles a poor man's James Bond movie. Seems to be put together kind of haphazardly, but really pretty interesting. Godzilla battles Hedrah or Hedora, a creature spawned from industrial pollution and rank waste material. Probably the strangest in the Godzilla series.

I first watched this film at 6 years old and it has become one of my most watched ever. I am now 26. It's a fantastically weird film for the era and to this day I still have nightmares. A film I will never forget. If you love Godzilla you will love this film. The drama and theatrics are outstanding, far superior to many films of today. I honestly don't know why people are so judgemental of it.

Consider this film was released in 1971 by a Japanese company, it isn't going to have incredible CGI. The Hedorah suit was so heavy it was suspended partially on wires as it weighed over 300lbs.

There is a scene the original director (who was in hospital at the time) specifically demanded was not to be implemented, and it was. You'll know it with a Google and just by watching the film. I personally thought it was funny and quite unique.

Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, or Godzilla vs. Hedorah, is a psychedelic acid trip that remains one of the strangest entries in the franchise. Much like 1977's House, the film has strange editing and camera-work, all backed up by a very un-Godzillaesque soundtrack by Richiro Manabe (Godzilla's leitmotif in this movie, for example, always makes it sound like he's about to sneeze). Occasionally, the cinematography can be surprisingly effective, seen in the shot before the final battle with Hedorah emerging from the darkness with his ominous, pseudo-baby mobile leitmotif accompanying him; but other times the cinematography can be… strange? There are a couple instances where a wide-angle lens is used and I'm not sure what Yoshimitsu Banno was going for other than making the film even weirder. There's a less-than-subtle environmental message present throughout the entire film too, but it's all drowned out by the film's strange, occasionally dark tone. It's honestly kinda hard to talk about this movie in a basic "this is positive, this is negative" template because the film is all over the place in terms of quality; but I can still safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Even after all these years of regularly viewing it, I still find the film completely baffling, and that combined with the always-entertaining monster battles make this film a blast from start to finish.

Six "things you don't see every day" out of ten.

There is hardly any plot, the music is a disaster, the Hedora monster looks ridiculous and the director must have been on LSD. So yes, it's very -very- bad, but chock-full of unintentionally hilarious moments. You simply -cannot- take this seriously for one minute. Gojira slugs onto the screen to the sounds of a terrible trumpet fanfare, surreal little cartoon scenes or other freaky images pop up from time to time, badly-dressed hippies get stoned and watch people turn into plastic fish, and the main villain is a giant kitchen mop with big eyes. It's ludicrous to the max and so clumsily done it can reduce a grown man to hysterical giggles every single time (I still roar with laughter at the bit where the flying Hedora melts a building structure made out of red elastics, killing a poor sod just for good measure). Note that Hedora, super-campy as though it may look is a tough enemy for Goji-kun, and puts up quite a big fight. Lots of cheesy fighting, surreal imagery a go-go and ridiculous music make this one hilariously bad movie.