TALKBACK #11: Godzilla vs. Hedorah

[DannyBeane]

I really like this film and its offbeat attitude but I will say, more than any other godzilla film, if I'm not in the mood for it, G vs The Smog Monster is a total chore to sit through.

[MekaGojira3k]

This movie is one of those "I CAN ALWAYS WATCH THIS" G films. Admittedly, there are a large number of those I can just pop in and feel pretty entertained.
(KKvsG, MvsG, MZ, GvsGigan, GvsMG 74', GvsBiollante, G2k)

I just have too much of a blast watching this thing.

[Dr Kain]

I'm the exact opposite. I don't hate it, but it is one of those movies I need long breaks between viewings. Usually a year, if not more.

[EricDent]

I just watched it on Blu-Ray from Kraken Releasing.
I think it had a slightly different dub than I'm used to (had the older DVD release).
Man it looks great though (never really noticed the eyes of Hedorah during the title) of course the last time I watched it was on a 26" HDTV and now I have a 40" HDTV.

Again somewhat annoyed that there are no subtitles for the infamous "Save the Earth" song.
Yes I tried every subtitle option.
Still think it's a shame that they decided to not put the English version of that song on the last two home video releases.
I mean it's such a nice voice: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kC1CGrVuGV8

Must say the girl who sang the song was stunning in that skintight outfit...

[H-Man]

[EricDent]

I don't mind the Japanese version of the song, it's just that there are no song subtitles for it...

Which was also a big problem in another thing the same "company" (Sentai Filmworks is part of Section 23) did on the idol anime AKB0048 which they also don't have song subtitles during the episodes (the opening & closing songs do).
That was a big part of the show, since they use the songs to inspire people to rebel against a rather strict government that didn't allow music/art.

[eabaker]

[kiryugoji04]

Finished this last night:

[lhb412]

That's absolutely lovely!

[Henry88]

[Benjamin Haines]

Psychedelic art!

[lhb412]

Watched this in the leadup to Shin Godzilla, and for the first time I really paid attention to the differences in Hedorah's quadruped and biped forms. I guess for most my life I just assumed that it was the same costume, but aside from the size (final form Hedorah is massive) the quadruped's head looks so much fiercer.

[lhb412]

Reading Kalat's book, and was really interested in how Banno was promoted as the hip, modern voice who was gonna take the Godzilla series into a new direction.

When I look at other stylish and surreal Japanese genre films from the '70s (Lone Wolf and Cub, Female Prisoner Scorpion, House) it's obvious Godzilla vs. Hedorah was part of some sort of trend.

[GFan]

[Mac]

[klen7]

[lhb412]

^I don't know who did the animation, but thanks for providing a bit more context; aping the style of an 'avant garde' cartoonist instead of simply other animation makes a lot of sense when you look at the competed scenes.

[Gojira07]

Watched this again last night for the first time since right after the Blu-Ray was released. I used to love this one as a kid, but it just hasn't aged well for me. I think the biggest problem is tonally - its just a mess. All the weird 70's Superhero Godzilla/kid friendly stuff clashes so hard with a movie that feels like it wants to be more adult. Some of the Hedorah stuff is legitimately horrifying, and I think this film has the largest bodycount of any Kaiju film from the period, almost everyone dies.

Imagine how affective this film would be if it just leaned into the dark tone all the way.

[eabaker]

[lhb412]

Both Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Terror of Mechagodzilla have this extreme tonal clash to them that I think is a big reason why the most ardent fans of those love 'em so much. They may not be in everyone's top five, but the folks who do have them there have them near the top, especially in the case of Hedorah.

[O.Supreme]

For me, even all these years later, when we have pretty much all the films available in some home media format, the ones that were hardest for me to find and watch are the ones I appreciate the most. This was certainly the case with Smog Monster. I saw it once when I was 4 on TV, and that was in 1980, and I don't even know if I saw the whole movie. All I remembered was the scene where Hedorah's ooze was covering the car the two main characters were in, and hedorah's flying form (I thought that was his nly/main form for about a decade), then 10 years later, in 1990, I finally saw it for rent at Blockbuster. In fact this was one of 4 films (The others being Gamera, Gamera vs Guiron and Monster form a Prehistoric Planet), that we made an elaborate plan to rent all in one day, daisy chain our VCR's together, and record them to make copies for ourselves.

G vs. The Smog Monster is up there for me with Destroy All Monsters as both of these were the last G films I saw as a kid since they were seemingly never on TV in the 1980's. Of course they did both show up in the mid 90's on sci-fi channel, and on home video shortly thereafter, but of course those were the Toho International dubs. thankfully the Orion VHS (which I own) of Smog Monster has the AIP dub, and before MB offered their *butchered* AIP of DAM, I got it on VHS from a friend off of a TV broadcast from many years ago.

[Benjamin Haines]

[DannyBeane]

My local video store had a vhs copy of Smog Monster that I would abuse when I wasn't renting Gigan or Mechagodzilla. They also had G-85 and Megalon.

[Gojira07]

[O.Supreme]