With numerous shots of dead arms, legs, and heads poking through pools of oily sludge, is this the only Godzilla film to actually show the bodies of kaiju attack victims? The imagery here is panicked, desperate, with whole chunks built out of shots of dozens of talking heads on TV screens shouting at you or screaming babies and skulls mocking us. The inky black color palette is disrupted by slashes of color, whether it's at some psychedelic happening or a cheerfully sinister animated interstitial scene, or even a James Bond-style opening credits sequence. It's maybe trying to jar an audience it sees as oblivious swinging 60s burgeoning Japanese consumers out of their complacency. The sheer urgency of its sincere and simple environmental advocacy is almost disorienting. I'm amazed it doesn't end with Godzilla crying a single tear over a garbage-strewn Monster Island.

substitutes the original's nuclear holocaust fears for pollution and environmental ones with a giant sludge tadpole born of sewage viciously mutilating half of japan while the population is distracted by the pastel colors and psychedelic grooviness of 60s consumerism that has repackaged very real threats (like environmental destruction or, uh, giant monsters) as goofy things you watch on tv or hear in a song. some of the wildest imagery and brutal destruction of the franchise (including on-screen acidic sludge melting of civilians???) all in service of godzilla telling us to stop all the littering. might be my favourite godzilla sequel tbh

Man, the whole movie I just wanted to put Hedorah in my bong and take a hit of that sweet pollution Kush.

Godzilla VS Hedorah is certainly one of the most unique Godzilla movies ever made. This movie is full of so many bizarre wtf moments that I kind of love it!

Probably the only Godzilla movie I've seen where the final smackdown is the LEAST interesting part of the picture. That's because up to that point director Yoshimitsu Banno uses a plastic filmmaking style that's dynamic and exciting, with everything from animated interludes to onscreen poetry, whacked-out dream sequences, and a montage of man-on-the-street interviews that inexplicably includes footage of multiple babies trapped in sludge and laughing cartoon skulls (www.bigassmessage.com/5eea1 ).

The overall effect is difficult to describe without sounding incoherent and/or insane, so let me just say that this beats any episode of Captain Planet yet produced.

Godzilla: "hey hedorah, get over here and fight me, you ugly ass hunk of sludge"
Hedorah: "but no! I am merely a manifestation of mankind's neglect for the planet!"
Godzilla: "me too bitch! come over here and fight me!"

*cut to swinging hippie soundtrack battle music*

Clearly one of the best Godzilla movies.

Yeah man thissssss is somethin' else alright. Everything from the crazy distorted shots to Hedorah's design looks absolutely bonkers & gorgeous. I was in sludge heaven! This is probably the smartest version of Godzilla we've gotten too, I mean the way he figures out how to use the electric field and then uh, look, I was basically gonna give this 4 stars but then he started flying using his breath.

This is a Godzilla film that doesn't shy away from the collateral damage of kaiju destruction. Yoshimitsu Banno's Godzilla vs. Hedorah is the first Godzilla film since Honda's original to show corpses, and like Honda he tries to introduce a metaphor around the nuclear fallout of World War II. Unlike Honda he doesn't have the skill to pull off his environmentalist message with moving grace, but there is power in the blunt way he goes about relaying the fears of pollution, smog, the dangers of factory work and what would later be refereed to as climate change. This is the only Godzilla sequel where the moments inbetween the kaiju battles are more interesting than those action sequences.

It was alright

puppetry, special effects and set design is incredible. i love the animations throughout. i could listen to godzilla scream all day

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Unfortunately I'm not a kaiju fan, so these films are pretty much wasted on me, but it was cute.

"Oh, no, there goes Tokyo"

Its like 5 directors worked on this, all of them with his own style and idea of what they wanted for the movie and at least 2 of them high.

Is also one of the most visually rich movies in the series constantly pulling new visuals tricks and mood whiplash passing from an almost nightmarish atmosphere closer to the original to embracing the goofiness of two men in reptile suits fighting to a kids documentary returnig to the dark athosphere and so on, is basically a rollecoaster of styles and mood and it somehow makes it work.

Is by not means a perfect movie but easily of the most creative and fascinating chapters of Big G.

Hedorah is my spirit animal.

While I can confidently say that this is not my favorite film in the Godzilla franchise I still had a good time watching it. It does however have two massive creative holes in the shape of special effects guru Eiji Tisuburaya and director Ishiro Honda. The films that the two collaborated worked on together are early my favorite and even a film with a solid story and effective message is undermanned by their absence.

Criterion Challenge 2021: #32

There was a time and place for subtlety, and that time was before Godzilla vs Hedorah.

This is one of the best classic Godzilla movies full stop. The Smog Monster, Hedorah has an unbeatably cool design and numerous stages. And to top it all off the heart-on-your-sleeve environmental messaging is delivered via some super cool animated segments. A lot to love in this one.

This is still a stupid Showa era Godzilla movie but it's one with an actual vision, which genuinely makes it worth watching.

My brother warned me this was a weird one and he wasn't kidding. From its animation sequences, to its heavy message on pollution implied via Hedorah (a bizarre/gross kaiju), and at one point Godzilla literally curls up like a ball and freaking flies in this one... WTF!?

This was a totally trippy movie.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.