Gojira tai Hedorâ (1971)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Yoshimitsu Banno

Writers:

Yoshimitsu Banno (writer)
Takeshi Kimura (writer)

Release Date:

February 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Music | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Our environment is doomed!

Plot:

From Earth's pollution a new monster is spawned. Hedorah, the smog monster, destroys Japan and fights Godzilla while spewing his poisonous gas to further the damage.

Plot Keywords:

Monster | Pollution | Japanese | Godzilla | Gojira

Cast

Akira Yamauchi	...	Dr. Yano
Toshie Kimura	...	Toshie Yano
Hiroyuki Kawase	...	Ken Yano
Keiko Mari	...	Miki Fujiyama
Toshio Shiba	...	Yukio Keuchi
Yukihiko Gondo	...	Mean general
Eisaburo Komatsu	...	Fisherman
Tadashi Okabe	...	Scientist
Wataru Omae	...	Helpless police officer
Susumu Okabe	...	Interviewer
Haruo Nakajima	...	Gojira
Kenpachiro Satsuma	...	Hedora (as Kengo Nakayama)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Teruzo Okawa
Kôji Uruki

Also Known As:

Godzilla vs. Hedora (International: English title) (informal literal title)
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (UK) (video title)
Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG for sci-fi monster violence and brief mild language.

Runtime:

Germany:96 min | USA:87 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:PG | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:G (re-rating) (1972) | West Germany:12 (nf)

Company:

Toho Company

Trivia:

A sequel, set in Africa, was planned. However, G-series producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, who had been hospitalized during the film's production, was enraged by the film once he saw it, telling director Yoshimitsu Banno that he had ruined the Godzilla series. Tanaka immediately ordered the filming of a more conventional Godzilla movie (Chikyû kogeki meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan (1972)). Thus, the "Smog" sequel was never made.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Hedorah throws some sludge at Godzilla's eye in the Mt. Fuji scene, it hit's Godzilla right eye, but after Hedorah gets done laughing, Godzilla's left eye is the one that is damaged.

Quotes:

[Godzilla and Hedorah battle it out on top of Mount Fuji]
Ken Yano: Get'em Godzilla!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Frogs (1972)

Soundtrack:

Kaese! Taiyô wo

weirdly hyperactive entry.

Oh man, what a movie! I can't believe this is even part of the series. All the others were really so staightfoward, this one is hyperactive. Lets see all the things our pal Yoshimitsu Banno threw in: There's the song "Save the Earth"(In the American print it sounds like a bunch of drunk guys for the backround singers!), The trombone music that was played throughout, the stupid and pointless cartoons that popped in at the most inappropriate times, all the Japanese hippies, the fish hallucination sequence, the guitar playing scene in black and white, the multiple screens showing the complaining citizens, the annoying little kid, the badly designed Hedorah, the garbage acid, the bad special effects, and a whole lot of other garbage that you simply won't believe. To this day my favorite 70's Godzilla film and one of my all time favorite Godzilla films. It's so wonderfully goofy, you won't believe MST3K didn't recycle this. A must see, it's always wild and not for once ever stops.