Godzilla aficionados consider this the worst entry in the series; it certainly is one of the wackiest. The Japanese studio Toho abandoned its usual team in favor of new talent who apparently wanted to appeal to a more "hip" teen audience. But disco sequences, animated inserts, and an
ecologically aware plot line simply succeed in making GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER exceedingly strange.
A fisherman brings a weird tadpole-like creature to marine biologist Dr. Yano (Akira Yamauchi). Yano suspects that it may have something to do with both the sudden decline in the fish population and a large creature that was briefly glimpsed in Seruga Bay. With his young son Ken (Hiroyuki Kawase)
he goes to investigate, leaving Ken to play on shore while he enters the bay in a wetsuit. Both he and Ken are attacked by a weird slug-like creature, contact with which leaves Dr. Yano with severe acid-like burns.
Analyzing bits of the creature, Dr. Yano discovers that it is a living mineral formed of sludge left by industrial pollution, possibly based on an extraterrestrial organism that landed on Earth in a meteor. Named "Hedora" by Ken, it is a series of small creatures that can merge into one larger
being capable of growing as it absorbs more sludge and smoke. Ken hopes that Godzilla will come to destroy this new monster.
An enormous Hedora attacks Japan, emitting fumes of sulfuric acid that disintegrate flesh, killing thousands of people. It is fought by Godzilla, who is unable to stop it. During the fight, small pieces of Hedora break off; one of the larger pieces becomes a river of slime that infests a teen
nightclub. Hedora returns to attack Mt. Fuji in a different form, as a flying monster able to feed from smokestacks. The teens who encountered it at the nightclub decide to hold a rally on Mt. Fuji. Spurred by Ken's suggestion that Hedora could just be dried out, Dr. Yano helps the military devise
huge electrodes in order to electrify Hedora, thus removing its water and therefore its lifeforce. As the gathered teens watch, Godzilla and Hedora battle again on Mt. Fuji. The fight brings Hedora between the electrodes before they are at full power, and the creature is weakened but not
destroyed. Godzilla brings it back for another jolt, aided by his own radioactive breath. Hedora is reduced to a pile of ash.
Apparently enamored of the "pop art" of the 1960s, the creators of GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER added numerous such touches to their film, including brief bits of animation and multiple split screens. And the film opens with a song, "Save the Earth (Find a Solution/To Stop Pollution)," backed by
pseudo-psychedelic lighting effects. These touches clash with a script that emphasizes the extreme destructiveness of its evil monster; at one point a newscast announces that Hedora's latest outing has resulted in 1600 deaths and other casualties expected to total 30,000. (Unlike most GODZILLA
films, dead bodies are on full display here.) It's similarly difficult to reconcile the ludicrous sight of Godzilla flying backwards through the air, propelled by his all-purpose radioactive breath, with the big guy a few minutes later ripping out Hedora's intestines and stomping them into a
paste. Rather than using Akira Ifukube's traditional Godzilla music, a ridiculous new trombone-based theme is provided that makes the heroic monster seem like he's staggering around drunk. But the final nail in the coffin is Hedora itself: a second-rate combination of the creatures from THE BLOB
(1958) and THE GREEN SLIME (1969), it is surely one of the dumbest looking creatures (especially in its walking mode) ever to come from Toho. Toho wisely put Godzilla back in the hands of veterans for his next appearance in GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND (1972). (Violence.) leave a comment