Retro Revelations: Godzilla Chronicles: Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster

In the last Godzilla Chronicles entry, we looked at the bizarre, childhood fantasy near-spinoff project known as Godzilla's Revenge, aka All Monsters Attack. But if you thought THAT film was odd, well then buckle in tight and hold onto your seats, because as the old saying goes, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"

Even by the late 60s, Toho was beginning to feel that the Godzilla series, which had seen a new entry nearly every year since 1962, was beginning to get a bit stale. It was due in part to this, that I'm sure they were willing to allow Ishiro Honda to experiment as he did, with All Monsters Attack. This experimentation continued on the next Godzilla project, but in different ways. With Honda looking to scale back his filming (he actually wound up basically taking a break for a few years), Toho turned, surprisingly, to a new director, Yoshimitsu Banno. A man with very different ideas, and a new take on Godzilla in particular.

Fan art, representing the "trippy" nature of this film.

Banno's biggest conceptual theme that he wanted to build his contribution to Godzilla around, was the environment, and how it was being poisoned by pollution. He saw Japanese cities rife with horrible smoggy air, and Japanese coastlines foaming with crap that people threw into the water. All pretty terrible, disgusting, frightening stuff. And his idea was "Hey, what if this pollution came to life, and became a monster that attacked humanity?" To this end, he created the alien creature, Hedorah, an originally microscopic being from deep space, who came to Earth via a meteorite, and eventually started growing and mutating into an enormous, sludgy mess, after feeding on humanity's ample pollution.

But clearly, Banno's vision didn't stop at having a strong environmental theme, something in and of itself that was used by several other filmmakers in the 1970s. Likely being a part of it himself, he also wanted to play to what he likely saw as a more "modern" Godzilla audience, one which represented the so-called "Hippy" counter-culture that was going strong at the time. To this end, "Hedorah" features, outside of a couple of major exceptions, a "hipper" young adult crowd at its core of human characters. There's a hip night club featuring "painted" dancers, and a woman singing about the environment. There are montages and animated segments that are VERY "60s". And late in the film there is even a moderately large gathering in the hills of young Japanese "Hippy" types, dancing around a fire and singing songs to...defeat Hedorah with positive vibes? But I'm getting ahead of myself.

A true Godzilla fan.

Pictured above is die hard Godzilla fan, Ken Yano. His father, Dr. Toru Yano, a marine biologist, has been collecting odd samples from the sea lately, seemingly mutated sea-life, results of humanity's pollution. Ken's mother, Toshie, often acts as his assistant. After discovering a strange "tadpole", Ken accompanies his father to the beach, where he patiently waits while Dr. Yano goes diving to see if he can find traces of this "tadpole", as well as a mysterious sea monster that has appeared, sinking an oil tanker.

Toru is attacked while underwater, by what turns out to be Hedorah in its early, aquatic form, badly burning his face. A small piece of the monster also attempts to attack Ken on the shore, but only manages to burn the boy's hand. Now fully aware of the existence of Hedorah, Dr. Yano tries to warn the public, using his own tragedy as a cautionary tale. Meanwhile Ken, apparently the world's biggest G-Fan, has a vision of Godzilla saving the world from Hedorah, and firmly believes in his heart that this will actually occur.

One of several odd animated segments, showing Hedorah feeding.

The creature's second form.

It isn't long before Hedorah is no longer satisfied with feeding on oil and pollution found in the ocean. It grows stronger, and metamorphoses into a more amphibious form, which allows it to come up on land, seeking out new kinds of human poison, such as the smoke stacks of factories. As it turns out, not only does the monster feed off of and grow stronger because of pollution, but it is also essentially composed of highly toxic, pollution sludge itself. So much so, that the slime and fumes from its body, are highly dangerous, even lethal, as evidenced by the Yanos' burns.

But Hedorah becomes even more dangerous, when it displays the ability to shift between its more "frog-like" land form, and a deadly "flying saucer" form, in which it can fly, and pour out highly acidic, toxic exhaust, which is even shown to melt human beings right down to their bones. That alone is highly gruesome and unusual for the Godzilla series, and I'm sure may well have caused some controversy upon the film's 1971 release. But it also needs to be said, that regardless of what one might think of the movie itself, love it or hate it, the monster Hedorah is arguably the most unique ever conceived "daikaiju" the series has ever produced. And it was certainly very well realized by the special effects team for this movie as well. Not just Hedorah's unique, pollution-based nature, but also the fact that it shifts between so many different forms, and evolves throughout the story. If nothing else, Hedorah the monster itself, deserves major kudos for creativity and execution.

Dreams DO come true!

True to little Ken's vision, Godzilla does indeed arrive in Japan, to show this new monstrosity what's up. Their initial battle goes Godzilla's way, as he basically hands "Frog Hedorah" its ass. But Hedorah doesn't stay defeated for long, consuming more pollution, and transforming once again, into its "Perfect Form", a more upright, bi-pedal form. In addition to this, he uses his "Flying Saucer" form to pepper Godzilla with toxins, and the "Big G" is actually wounded and somewhat defeated himself, to the horror of Ken and his adult friends, Yukio and Miki.

All seems lost, and for some insane reason, Ken's parents let him go to the aforementioned "Hippy" party up near Mt. Fuji with Yukio and Miki, where a renewed, but equally hopeless battle between Godzilla and Hedorah breaks out. But, as it happens, Dr. Yano and his wife discover almost by accident, that the small Hedorah samples they had been studying, when dried out turn to brittle ash. Dr. Yano theorizes that if a large amount of electricity can be used to essentially "dry out" the giant pile of shit that Hedorah is, it too would become brittle and vulnerable, unlike its seemingly indestructible slime form, giving Godzilla a chance. The army, naturally, sets to work right away, setting up a giant electric trap for the monster, right nearby where the hippies happen to be partying.

Godzilla lamenting the ignorance of man's polluting ways.

One of the ridiculous visuals in all of Godzilladom.

The battle between Godzilla and Hedorah doesn't go well at first, as Godzilla can't seem to harm the damn thing, and in return gets his eye and hands burnt, and then gets drown in sludge after being thrown into a small chasm. But all would not be lost, as the Yano's plan is put into action, and Big Slimy gets zapped with trillions of volts of juice. The monster's battle damages the apparatus before it can totally dry out Hedorah, but not before it makes the thing vulnerable (FINALLY) to Godzilla's attacks.

Hedorah tries to flee after finding itself damaged, and as you can clearly see above, to keep hot on the trail of its flying form, Godzilla suddenly decides that HE can fly as well, in perhaps the most ridiculous way possible: by rocketing himself through the air via his atomic breath! This would be the first of several "one use/film only" abilities that Godzilla would conveniently discover, a trend through several of his 70s outings. It also happens to be one of the most comical looking Godzilla moments in the series' history, but it's damn entertaining.

The awesome Criterion artwork.

Ultimately, the film didn't perform super well, probably in part because of its darker, more gruesome nature, but also probably because of its oddball "Hippy" sensibilities. Long-time Toho Godzilla producer, Tomoyuki Tanaka, reportedly hated it, and allegedly banned Banno from ever directing another Godzilla film, claiming he had "ruined Godzilla". Banno himself was extremely pleased with the final product, and had a sequel planned that supposedly would have taken place in Africa, another unique choice in Toho films. This sequel never happened, however, as Jun Fukuda, director of 60s Godzilla island romps Godzilla vs The Sea Monster and Son of Godzilla, was brought back to direct the following three Godzilla films.

As for myself, this is one of those Godzilla movies that I didn't get to see until I rented it sometime in my later teen years. I did have the opportunity to own it as a child, as ONE solitary time, I saw the cover for it at my local Walmart VHS rack. But that just so happened to be one time where, for whatever reason, my grandmother to my horror said "No". And thus, there went my ONE chance during my biggest, most fanatical Godzilla fandom phase, to be able to see it, and experience it as only a child/pre-teen can. I wish that I had been able to see it at that age, as surely I wish I had been able to see ALL the "Showa Era" films at that age, along with many other movies I missed out on. Because, quite frankly, before my teens, before depression and the horrible jaded bitterments of adulthood creep in to kill off childhood wonder, everything I experienced as a child, be it music, comics, literature, cartoons, shows, movies, you name it, everything was far more raw, and BIG and pronounced. Seeing these old movies as a kid, even the shittier ones, everything I took in at that age, was, looking back, experienced to the max, to its fullest extent. Versus the more numbed, jaded experiences one has as a "Grown Up".

Would I have liked, or loved, Hedorah back then? I think so. I think I would have been mortified by the toxic burns and the poor people being melted by that vile Smog Monster. I was like that as a kid, even feeling bad when villains would die in media I watched. I still feel a bit that way as an adult, that little part of my childhood that has never fully submitted to exile. But yes, even though it's bizarre as hell, I think that Godzilla vs. Hedorah has some great moments, and I would have taken the environmental message VERY seriously as a kid. Hedorah is one of the most interesting monsters Toho ever produced, and at the end of the day, it's a GODZILLA movie, so I would have ate it up regardless (even though to be fair, I wasn't fully impressed by Godzilla's Revenge at that age). But this is a movie my grandmother should have gotten, and I should have been able to see back then, because I think I would have ultimately enjoyed it.

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Well, that's it for now, folks! I'll be back soon enough with a new Halloween-time article for you all. But for the time being, here is the full list of Godzilla Chronicles articles, if you've missed any:

1. The Beginning

2. Gojira (aka Godzilla: King of the Monsters)

3. Godzilla Raids Again

4. King Kong vs. Godzilla

5. Mothra vs. Godzilla

6. Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster

7. Invasion of the Astro Monster (aka Godzilla vs. Monster Zero)

8. Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

9. Son of Godzilla

10. Destroy All Monsters