Godzilla VS Hedorah (1971)
Produced and Released by: Toho Co. Ltd.
Director: Yoshimitsu Banno
By Dr Kain

Introduction

After the success of Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla’s career seemed to be heading downward. The first movie to come after it was Godzilla’s Revenge, which was basically a clip movie, and a very bad one at that. Now came a new story, one about pollution, and it introduced us an interesting new monster named Hedorah.

The Story

A strange tad pole-like monster has been attacking ships for the past few days. Pollution has filled the waters of Japan, and fish are being found dead in Suruga Bay. Scientist Dr. Yano (Akira Yamauchi) finds out about this and decides to go diving in the bay to see if he can find anything when he suddenly is attacked by a black monster. Half of his face is scarred as if it was burnt by acid; his son Ken (Hiroyuki Kawase) has named the creature Hedorah.

During the night Hedorah crawls onto the land and begins to suck out the smoke coming out of a factory’s pipe. While he is doing it Godzilla emerges from the sea and battles this monster. It appears as if the monster is no match for Godzilla as he uses his breath attack on it, and Hedorah begins to dry out and sparks fly everywhere. Hedorah manages to escape back into the ocean, and Godzilla goes in after him.

The next day, Dr. Yano is taken to the battle scene where he finds and picks up remains of Hedorah so he can study them. He discovers that the monster thrives on pollution, and has the ability to grow by merging with other Hedorahs. Due to this, Dr. Yano theorizes that the monster must have come from another planet and landed on Earth a short time ago, as it just happened to have what it needed to grow. He even says that Godzilla may not be powerful enough to stop it.

Hedorah appears again, this time he has the ability to fly like a UFO. His body produces fumes that get so powerful they melt people’s skin so that nothing remains but bones and some clothing. Fires break out from Hedorah’s mist, which draws Godzilla to him, but Godzilla is no longer a match for this monster as he cannot withstand Hedorah’s fumes.

Dr. Yano figures out a way to destroy Hedorah thanks to Ken’s idea of “drying him.” He creates are small replica of two reflectors, one gives off energy waves, and the other reflects them back, and it turns the sample he has into dust. With the experiment a success, Dr. Yano has his wife call the military so they can start an operation to build giant reflectors to defeat Hedorah with.

Hedorah makes his way to Mt. Fuji and turns into a land creature, when Godzilla reappears to fight him. The two monsters fight, but Hedorah still comes out the victor. After burying Godzilla in his filth, Hedorah is drawn to the location where the army has built their giant reflectors to dry him out. The plan does not go well because during the battle with Godzilla, the two monsters destroyed the power lines. All seems hopeless with Hedorah in between the two reflectors until Godzilla’s fire hits one of the reflectors and energy surges out of it and the other one frying Hedorah. Hedorah falls to the ground unconscious and Godzilla rips out two balls and fries them.

It appears as if the battle is over when Hedorah flies off, but Godzilla uses his breath to fly after him. Godzilla catches up with Hedorah, knocks him to the ground, and flies him back to the reflectors and finishes off frying him. After Hedorah is dried up, Godzilla removes his insides, throwing them all around the area and cooks those as well to ensure the monster is no more.

In the end, Godzilla makes his way back to the ocean, and turns around when Ken shouts bye.

Review

Godzilla vs Hedorah is one of the most controversial movies when it comes to fans. Many fans like it because of its different and artistic nature, while others hate it for several reasons. I am in the group that hates it. This has never been one of my favorites, and was always on my list of most hated Godzilla movies. I just recently watched the DVD Sony had released here in Japanese, and I must say, watching it in its original language does make the movie more tolerable.

The costume designs are a mixed bag in this movie. Godzilla’s costume is not that great of a design, fortunately not as bad as the big eyed mustache look from Son of Godzilla. This is not the worst version, but it is not the best. Hedorah’s designs are just as interesting as the monster itself. He is mostly black with a nice shade of red eyes that really add depth into the design. His final form looks the coolest, and has lots of parts hanging off it, giving it a gooey look. The character designs themselves are bad, but it was in the seventies, so it is understandable.

The music is what really kills the movie for me. Riichiro Manabe was not a wise choice for this movie's soundtrack, what little there is, is dreadful. First you have this horrible theme for Godzilla, which sounds too goofy and ridiculous, and as DVDTalk put it, it sounds like Godzilla is drunk. Another annoyance is hearing some boing-like sound when they show off the pollution. The music does not match up with the scenes, and the final battle lacks music, and when there is music, it is just that drunken theme. This takes away a lot from the enjoyability of the movie.

The special effects appear to be pretty good for a movie made in the seventies, especially on Hedorah. The melting buildings look accurate, and seeing people turn to skeletons was kind of interesting. Most of the battles happen at night, which is probably one of the reasons the battles do not look that bad like some other movies.

The story itself is about pollution, which can be a bad thing, or a good thing. It shows us what the horrors of pollution can cause to the world, but in a ridiculous sort of way. I have to give Toho credit for trying though.

Conclusion

Whether or not you love or hate this movie is up to you, I think it is more enjoyable in its original language, but it does mean it is one of my favorites. Recommended for Godzilla fans, but don’t expect much out of it.

I give it a 2.5/5 stars,

Dr Kain