Weekly Kaiju Movie Viewing Thread #3 (5/26-5/27)

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[Henry88]

[MekaGojira3k]

[gila-monster]

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The Jiffy Pop set off the smoke alarm.

I love the opening tune. It really sets the mood.

I think the transfer on this is better than Son of Godzilla. So colorful and such a clear picture. Sony did an excellent job.


Our environment is doomed!

I'm sure some forum members can name the figures Ken has. Can they?


Mt Fuji! This popped out to me while I was forwarding ahead to another screencap I wanted.

That's just an excellent Godzilla intro. I said I wouldn't do the easy ones, but I really like this one.


Round 1! Fight! How's it feel to fight The Blob!? Toxic spit! How about some atomic breath? Godzilla Wins!

Round 2! Fight! Flying poison propulsion gas! Godzillla can't breathe! Hedorah wins!


I'm a sucker for perspective shots.

This really plays like a horror movie at times. There's a body count of 1,600 dead and the injured exceeding 30,000.

Round 3! Fight! Welcome to the fourth and final form! Hedorah is definitely cocky. Sulfuric acid all around! Godzilla in the pit being covered with sludge! Ahh! The poor guys in the truck! Hedorah wins?

This is no short fight. I guess if they theorized that Hedorah flys by means of nuclear propulsion, then eye beams aren't totally out of the question. I like that.

Did Godzilla know to fire atomic breath at the walls because of his link to Ken? How did he get the idea? I think I would have prefered if he had done it accidentally and *then* noticed how it was killing Hedorah. Maybe he did? It's just not the impression I got.

If Hedorah is a mineral, then why does he need eggs?

Oh no, here it comes. Gah, I hate this. And there's the marching victory music too. It's an iconic scene, for sure, but I just don't like anything about it. Ack! And he did it again to bring Hedorah back to the electric walls. Godzilla wins!

This Godzilla movie just works. Well, apart from the Godzilla flight bits. The cartoon segments, the abstract artistic segues, the occasional odd perspective camera zoom on either of the kaiju, the music, the message. None of it would have worked in any other Godzilla movie, but here *all*together*, it does. Hrmm, keeping that in mind, the Godzilla flight bits do kind of fit in. I still don't like them though, and you can't make me.

Coming from Gyaos last week, I do like how this movie takes us into further horror aspects of kaiju movies. Though this is heavy on message at times. This is not the fun family film Son of Godzilla was.

[MekaGojira3k]

The mix of the Godzilla as a hero aspect, the outright horror (the most outright since the original film), Hedorah and his abilities, and the bizarre visuals and music makes this such a unique film. That uniqueness is why I adore it.

That and its a ton of fun.

[Henry88]

[MekaGojira3k]

Jeezus. This movie. Everything about it works for me. I love the crazy opening song, and that lingering shot on the clock telling us “Mankind, your time is up.â€

[Alpha OTS]

[MekaGojira3k]

[Benjamin Haines]

We need a new poll for this week and I'm passing the glowing red rock to king_ghidorah.

I'll post my thoughts on Godzilla vs. Hedorah once I have time to watch it.


EDIT: king_ghidorah has disappeared off the face of the Earth. MekaGojira3k will make a new poll and I will report king_ghidorah missing to the police.

[MekaGojira3k]

I wanna say something else about the movie that struck me this weekend. I've always loved Godzilla vs. Hedorah since I watched it, or I remember it that way anyhow , but I've always thought of it as an inferior sort of film critically. I'm not even sure why anymore. Maybe it was the scene of Godzilla flying. Maybe it was the cast not really making much of an impression, but honestly from here on out I'm going to give this thing a lot more credit than I have in the past. Because I LOVE Hedorah, I LOVE the weird music, and I LOVE the way this thing is shot and all the weird little touches Banno gave the film.

Ima going to say not only do I love the film, but that I think it's genuinely good.


*hears Jellydonut screaming off in the distance*

[Benjamin Haines]

Finally watched this last night. Godzilla vs. Hedorah just works on every level for me. The atmosphere is so trippy and so distinctly '70s, with the crazy nightclub scenes, the symbolic cartoon interludes, and the end of the world festival on Mt. Fuji. The wonky music by Riichiro Manabe suits this film perfectly.

Hedorah is a really creative monster; not just a living blob, but alien microorganisms that feed on industrial waste, combine with each other to grow larger and metamorphose like an amphibian. He's a powerful and tricky foe for Godzilla and the JSDF, neither of whom would have been victorious without the other's help. I think that's a cool dynamic.

I love how quirky the monster fights are, with both monsters staring each other down and making threatening gestures, plus all the crazy combat tactics they pull out. From the moment Hedorah gives that angry glare when Godzilla interrupts his smoke session, there's a clear sense of disdain and rivalry between the two monsters that runs throughout the movie. Godzilla hates seeing his ocean so polluted and Hedorah is the embodiment of that pollution. It all culminates with Godzilla ripping apart Hedorah's dried remains, stomping his pieces into the ground and frying them with the electrodes one more time for good measure. The suitmation performances here are among the finest of any kaiju film, with both monsters expressing a wealth of personality.

After watching all of the Showa Gamera films in the past year, I see now just how much they influenced Yoshimitsu Banno when he made this movie. There's a child protagonist who idolizes Godzilla, correctly predicts that he'll come to the rescue and cheers him on against Hedorah. The battles are full of graphic monster injuries, which the Gamera films had already been doing for years. Godzilla has his own heroic theme music, and he even flies!




It's interesting that in this world, not just Godzilla but even the three-headed terror from space are made into toy form and marketed to children. I wonder if Ken would buy a Hedorah figure after the events of this film.






An eye for an eye. Godzilla and Hedorah take each other's left eye during their final battle.




Partially skeletonized hand. That's gotta hurt.


There are a lot of really well-structured shots in this movie that I would have loved to screencap, but the Sony DVD transfer is peculiar. The nighttime scenes all look really, really dark on a computer, borderline indiscernible. This isn't the case when I watch it on my TV.

Screencap on the computer:



Photograph of my TV:



I don't know why that is. I haven't tinkered with the picture settings on my TV at all.



A couple of years ago, I watched the Hedorah DVD on my friend's big, widescreen, flatscreen HDTV and it looked just as dark and indiscernible as it does on a computer. Whatever the reason for that, I've had this TV for eight years now and I have absolutely no desire to upgrade to a bigger, flatter, worse-looking set.

[MekaGojira3k]

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[canofhumdingers]

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[MekaGojira3k]

[canofhumdingers]

Well, I took the screenshots but imageshack has apparently severely limited their free hosting allotment. So I'm now over the limit despite not having uploaded anything in months... And I haven't had time to set up something with a different host site.

It doesn't really matter as you couldn't really see it very well in the still images anyway. It's MUCH more obvious watching it in motion.

I warn you again though, once you see it you can't unsee it & you'll start to notice it in other movies too.

But if you must, watch the scene where Hedorah has walked between the electrodes & Godzilla has blasted it to make it work. Hedorah is dried up & about to have his eyes ripped out. Watch the shot as Godzilla is walking towards the dried up Hedorah, scratching his neck. Look at Godzilla's neck. Just under his jaw, on his neck, is a clearly defined horizontal line. That's the top of Nakajima's forehead. Below that is a nose bump right in the middle with two eye dents on either side. A little lower you can see his chin bump. You can clearly see Nakajima's face pressing against the inside of Godzilla's neck. It's pretty obvious when you watch it in motion.

[Legion]

Is it the shot seen in the fourth photo of Ben's post above?