Gojira tai Hedora (1971) Reviews

• My Favorite Godzilla movie

  gramdal2006-11-28

  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.

• This is a psychedelic Godzilla movie!

  Horror Fan1999-02-21

  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.

• Faaaaaaaaaaaaaar out!!!

  Mitora-san2002-03-02

  "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!

• Craziest movie ever!

  BrunoMatteisNumberOneFan2001-11-22

  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.

• Godzilla's Court-Ordered PSA

  stmichaeldet2006-02-04

  Godzilla vs. Hedora (or the Smog Monster, to the old-school Saturday afternoon horrorshow crowd) is, in some ways, one of the most ambitious films in the G canon. It's got a heavy environmental message, snazzy cinematic tricks including split-screens and animated transition sequences, and attempts at multi-generational appeal (though still heavy on the kid-friendly elements of its era). For the most part, all this baggage manages to mesh together well with the giant monster rampages that we really came looking for. (And if you weren't looking for that, why'd you come here?) And there's certainly more than enough rampage to go around. Hedora is the first of G's multi-form mutant foes (unless you count Mothra), and each form - giant tadpole, crawling worm, flying pancake, and finally quasi-upright slug-thing - has to get its fair share of screen time wandering from place to place consuming pollutants and transforming them into even nastier chemical attacks. Throw in several good fights against Godzilla and/or the military, and one might almost be willing to forgive the famously embarrassing "Godzilla uses his atomic breath to 'fly'" sequence.