Director: Yoshimitsu Banno
Year: 1971
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Gojira tai Hedora; Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster
Genre: Kaiju
Plot:
In the waters of Suruga Bay, a young kid discovers a strange tadpole living in the area which his father finds is the one responsible for causing a series of strange shipping disasters in the area. When it soon grows into a massive bipedal form that’s bold enough to attack the surrounding city looking for smog to feed on, he deduces that it was brought to Earth from a meteor and can feed on pollution but leaves a far more deadly sulphuric acid residue in its wake which can threaten the entire planet and forces Godzilla to come to humanity’s aid to fight off the creature. When even he struggles to stop the deadly smog monster, the scientist and the JSDF combine with Godzilla creating a special device that will hopefully bring the creature down.
Review:
Overall, this section of the film is one of the strongest and most impactful where its environmental messages are so detailed and damaging that it becomes obvious and apparent what the overall message and goal of the film are. The idea of turning on the topical topic at that time with the Earth-born pollution and trash taking over the planet not just from the land but sea with the dream sequence showing Godzilla rising from the ocean depths to destroy a floating barge of sewage that threatens to take over the world. Turning Godzilla into a hero as a protector of the Earth fighting off the pollutants of our planet is a solid metaphor, with it being such a concurrent menace that it's only able to be defeated by someone like Godzilla himself with the assist from mankind taking down the creature. The struggle to do so as they're barely able to do even that much together says how badly that problem has become.
However, beyond that, the film is most noticeable for a series of utterly bizarre and somewhat controversial filmmaking tactics that are employed throughout here. Not only does it feature animation sequence transitions featuring Hedorah guzzling oil from damaged ships that are utilized several times throughout here, but there are other factors at work here. The acid-washed aesthetic and trippy, mod-rock look that feels straight out of 1960s London create a wholly unique and memorable series of visuals whether it's the sequences in the club where the dancers suddenly turn into fish-headed people under his drunken hallucinations or the bizarre and completely random insert shot of what seems to be ghostly figures emerging from the underbrush and advancing on the youth serves to further the bizarre, unconventional approaches. On the whole, it’s mostly up to the individual where all this stands in the end. The idea of attempting to incorporate arthouse/avant-garde elements within a kaiju film could be seen as completely out-of-touch with the series as a whole with it taking on a series of obscure and otherworldly aspects that don’t work here.
As well, the special effects are hit-or-miss. The new creature, Hedorah, is pretty enjoyable in nearly all of its stages, being one of the first evolutionary creations in the series where it goes through a distinct physiological change. The first appearance, a sea-dwelling tadpole-like creation that has large red glowing eyes and scores of droplets coming off its body, looks enjoyable enough while the second stage is a more unique version. Crawling around on all fours with a unique split head where its eyes are turned to the side in the same manner as the tadpole, where the liquidy substance making up its body construction looks quite realistic with the slimy look and wet appearance where it literally oozes sludge from its body at several points. With the flying stage incorporating the tadpole-like head with the large eyes into a flying saucer-like design and a bipedal, Lovecraftian monstrosity final stage that looks able to grapple and fight rather well, this has a lot to like.
The Godzilla suit, however, is where it suffers somewhat. Trotting out the same suit as the last two films, it looks fine enough for the most part but carries the stigma of being utilized several times already with the moldy features looking suitably ragged and worn before he even gets out to do anything. Also noticeable is a rather obvious flip throughout the final fight where the wounded hand on the costume switches to the other several times over. However, it's the frequent changes to past costumes that somewhat undermine this one since it's where the change in appearance is obvious even though the tactics employed by Hedorah to stop him. Likewise, it's nearly impossible not to notice that the film's budgetary limitations are on full display. The miniatures in the city scenes are far less dense and detailed than normal, especially in the shots where Godzilla tries to chase Hedorah into the water after its feeding frenzy. The rampage through the city is kept tight and close-in, obviously trying to hide the obvious that these scenes featured only the singular location and not a full-on in-depth cityscape for these sequences, and the lack of a military construction sequence showing the army building the trap to stop the creature is handled off-screen and then shown the humans inspecting the final product.
Overview: ***.5/5
A far more enjoyable and worthwhile effort than initially imagined, its few negatives are not enough to downplay the fact that most of them due to an individual's preference rather than true flaws. The film is mostly for those who are willing to go along with unconventional matters to look at something new and unique, while those who can't and simply want more of the same without much tolerance for its creative aspects should heed caution.
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