A movie about a giant monster spawned from toxic garbage… which is sadly a bit ironically poetic when examined as potential summation for the overall film.
What They Say:
Forget about acid rain and global warming! The worst ecological nightmare is actually Hedorah, which starts off small but quickly mutates into a giant flying monster capable of wiping out all life on whatever unfortunate planet it lands on! And since Hedorah grows by consuming the toxic gases and chemicals mankind has spilled into the air and water, in the early 1970s that means that its potential growth is unlimited!
Fortunately for the human race, the Earth has an ultimate green defender who doesn’t need to sing protest songs or try to enact new laws to get things done. Nobody and nothing can stop Godzilla when he decides to push an environmental issue, and while Hedorah may be the dirtiest opponent Godzilla has ever faced, his name is going to be mud by the time he’s been stomped into the whole Earth a few dozen times.
The Review:
Audio:
The release of this feature contains both the original Japanese language track as well as an English dub with both tracks making full use of the Blu Ray format as they are present in DTS-HD Master Audio, though in both cases the track is only a mono one due to the age of the film. For the purpose of this review the Japanese track was used and it was found to be well done with no obvious drop outs or distortions notice, though there is one scene of a collapsing steel structure that is silent but given some of the other things present it appears that is intentionally so.
Also of note, the opening song is not subtitled nor is it dubbed in English –though it does feel larger in range in on the English track- than the Japanese track version- so those not familiar with Japanese (such as myself) will miss out on what the exact message of the song is even if the images that pop up during it make the intent pretty obvious.
Video:
Originally premiering in theaters in Japan in 1971, the feature is presented here 1080p High Definition in its theatrical 2.35:1 ratio with AVC codec encode. The presentation is one that shows its age a bit as there are a rather good share of elements present that one would expect from a film from the period as there are pops, scratches and other noise that are common to films of the same time period (and even younger) that have not gone through a meticulous re-master project. In addition the film has a decent level of grain that largely is consistent throughout the film though there are a couple of spots in the feature when the image on the screen gets blurry, most noticeably the first shot of the film, and there are a few places where motion blur was noticed. The colors come across really well as they are bright and solid in both live action and animation while the film also retains a solid look during a period when the film color switches over to a black and white hue. The feature also makes use of a good deal of night settings which helps to hide some of wall painted backdrops often used in this film series. Also of note there is one spot of the film that uses hard subs as the names of some constellations appear in both Japanese and English for less than a minute or so. Overall the presentation looks good, though the visual quality of the film can’t make up for the actual story portion’s deficits.
Packaging:
The feature comes in a single disc eco Blu-Ray case that has pieces of the case taken out which makes it lighter (and likely cheaper to produce) but which does open up the possibility for the sleeve to get damaged more easily in routine handling. As for the sleeve, a few years back when a different company was releasing a number of Toho films they went with a look that provided an image of a theatrical poster on the cover and surrounded it with a flashy almost metallic print like boarder/case and Kraken Releasing’s presentation kind of keeps part of that theme going with a Japanese theater poster in the center surrounded by a boarder that almost looks like Godzilla-green flesh (or what it might look like without the creatures distinctive scar ridges anyway). The release also includes a tag line at the top of the front cover in a deep, almost forest green type color just over the US title of the film in white while the original Japanese title is presented the same green at the bottom.
On the back the background green texture continues with five stills from the film present (noticeably showing off some of the different forms Hedorah takes, often including fights with Godzilla who manages to only snag one small square for it) as well as a pair of tagline and a box containing the “What they say” portion from above. Below that is a small set of circles highlighting the two monsters in the movie as well as the tech specs, copyright info and a box listing the languages and extra. The biggest standout to the sleeve’s theme though is found on the spine which uses a bright green background with both the US and (translated) Japanese tile on it in white with Kraken Releasing’s logo at the bottom though the disc label itself reverts to the green skin like texture background with the US title in white over the hub and the Japanese (translated) title in that bright-ish green below the hub.
Menu:
The Blu Ray menu is one that is a rather simple but competent that uses a close up of the Japanese movie poster used on the cover as it zooms in on Godzilla and Hedorah’s heads (or whatever passes for it with Hedorah anyway) for the screen image. The menu selection appears at the bottom of the screen on a grayish bar with the options listed in a bright green which some small green splotches sprinkled about, one group of which might be a nod to the releasing company’s logo tendril. Each of the selectable Menu options are shown with the same color green splotches appearing over them which then turn the color of the options white in order for them to still stand out when highlighted.
On the language screen the current selected language has a small speaker and audio waves image to indicate which option is currently chosen while the green splotches appear over the other language option- the biggest problem here is that the menu almost instantly shifts back to the main after making a selection and one might feel the need to go back and check which option is selected and so using this menu for the first time can be confusing of frustrating. The only option that has a significant difference is that when selecting the Japanese trailers the splotch effect turns to red.
Extras:
The only extra on the disc is a is a theatrical film trailer that looks to be in poorer condition than the film itself as if it were either left in a location that helped eat away at its colors or if it didn’t receive some sort of re-mastering as it is tinted and not at all representative of the quality of the film itself’s presentation.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Godzilla vs Hedorah (alternate title Godzilla vs the Smog Monster) opens with scenes of industrial smokestacks spewing black pollution and then a shot of sludge filled water from which a black head with red eyes rises which then combines with an opening that features more images of modern waste products and discarded junk that makes sure the film’s message gets onto the screen very powerfully right from the start. Similar images are used in scene cuts with a singer belting out what appears to be an environmental message (the song isn’t subbed nor does it have an English dub version) takes away any subtlety that might have remained as to what the film’s message is- but just to be sure the environmental message gets delivered very clearly and bluntly more than a few times in the film anyway.
The audience is then introduced to the Yano family that will be largely involved in driving the human side of the film narrative as the father, Dr. Toru Yano, is an scientist whose expertise with marine life will play a vital role in humanity’s interactions with the strange new monster while his son Ken has a hero worship of Godzilla…and perhaps something more as he seems to be able to sense just when the gigantic creature is going to appear at times. Dr. Yano is initially approached by a neighboring fisherman who has been unable to catch fish in the bay but who has caught an unknown creature that looks something like an oversized tadpole. When the evening news shows footage of a large black creature with glowing red eyes sinking two large ships in the nearby waters Ken declares that the creature is the same as the one the fisherman brought and Dr. Yano can’t dismiss the idea easily.
His curiosity aroused, Dr. Yano dons his scuba gear to search the bay but both he and Ken who had come along to look for clams have encounters with the creature and each comes away scarred though still alive. Ken dubs the creature(s) Hedorah based off how they appear to be made from sludge (though I can only infer that based off the context and follow up dialogue as there aren’t any translator notes to explain it) when a news crew comes to interview Dr. Yano which catches on and becomes the name of the creature. While Dr. Yano is investigating the origins of Hedorah he discovers that each large mass is made up of smaller creatures that have joined together.
Meanwhile family friend Yukio has his own encounter with the creature as Hedorah makes land in an industrial area to feed directly off the pollutants produced in that area which also includes an underground club where Yukio hangs out as his female friend sings. As the creature feeds and grows however his tranquil meal is interrupted by the arrival of Godzilla who sets into a fight with the creature only to discover that a creature made of sludge makes for a more difficult opponent than even Godzilla is use to and that many of its standard attacks don’t have the impact like when they are used against more solid foes.
While Dr. Yano is in a desperate race to figure out how Hedorah’s biology works in the hope to find a way to stop the creature the rest of Japan has to hope it doesn’t approach them as it brings corrosion and poison with it. Various entities are left to try to cling to their own means of dealing with the impending terror from the military hoping to build a means of stopping the creature with Dr. Yano’s research, Yukio throwing a giant ‘send off’ party with hundreds of other disillusioned youths or Ken clinging to his belief that Godzilla will win the day for them. As time runs out some will find that their path is rewarded while others will discover oblivion when Hedorah launches an assault on Mt Fuji itself.
The 11th entry into the Godzilla film franchise, Godzilla vs Hedorah, walked into what some might see as a rather fertile ground as they had a franchise that was established but which had just suffered a figurative black eye with the previous film, Godzilla, Minilla and Gabara: All Monsters Attack (aka Godzilla’s Revenge) having seen the lowest ticket sales to date. With a previous entry that failed to fully satisfy fans the door was open for Yoshimitsu Banno to be able to not only direct his second feature film but also give him the ability to write it all while dealing in an environment where the expectations wouldn’t be as high as if he had followed one of the more acclaimed and successful films.
And yet despite having a seemingly more forgiving environment set up for the film things went completely wrong leading Banno to a place where (to date) he has never directed another film again and his Godzilla entry isn’t generally remembered fondly with time by a fair number of franchise fans and critics. Watching through the film I can pick out places that feel off and come across like some bizarre attempt to either take bold artistic license or to try to court a definitely different audience into the film while still trying to keep the child audience that the films had cultivated and which had helped propel the franchise back to the heights it had reached but which when combined with continuity problems within the film creates a mess not all that dissimilar from the titular sludge monster.
It is an odd thing really because many of the pieces that make for memorable Godzilla films are present as the director brings back a message of a real world concern and monster based off societal concerns which in theory could have helped the film establish itself as one that has a poignant underlying message that stands pretty clear throughout. But that only works if the rest of the film can keep an audience’s attention and help them connect events on screen to real world actions and in that regard the ball gets dropped as director Banno never seems to have full command of the material or script to make his message and vision flow smoothly, seemingly content that the audience will be OK with odd coincidences and switching between characters to follow simply because it is a movie about two monsters clashing despite the attempt to be something deeper in other places.
If it were simply about flow or characters Banno might have gotten away with it as fans are forgiving of such kinds of things in the right story as modern Hollywood shows if one sits down to dissect the average Summer blockbuster. Unfortunately Banno gets far more ambitious (or possibly unfocused depending on how kind one wants to be to his attempt) as he piles in a lot of other elements visually that come across as almost an experimental mix of material designed to capture more audiences or possibly expand the current audience’s palate when it comes to enjoying a less commercial and common form of film. From the almost James Bond inspired opening to the use of short animation pieces inserted between some scene shift cuts, the underground club scene that feels very psychedelic film inspired, odd moments of silence or when the film goes to black and white for a bit (which includes shots of some old people standing in corn with no real connection to film events) and the feature seems to be trying to gather in some of Banno’s favorite elements from other films here without any concern about how a tyoical Godzilla feature attendee will react to these differing elements.
Whether or not this alone would have doomed the film is up to each individual viewer of course but if it had been just these elements going either for or against it the film might not have garnered some of the negative reaction it has as some of the other Godzilla movies also indulge in some oddities from time to time, but when those oddities also start affecting the main franchise star that is when things can get personal to some fans and Banno doesn’t shy away from this.
The first inescapably bizarre choice made that effects the beloved monster is that Banno chooses to use an audio cue for the monster that probably attempts to give a sense of the creature’s power but which instead comes across as a cue that makes Godzilla seem more like a lumbering and possibly clumsy comedic character rather than an unstoppable force of nature. Throw in some places where Godzilla takes on odd mannerisms of taunting, standing and rubbing his snout and one gets an impression that Banno may be taking a few more liberties with the creature than might be good to do in a single film…and that is before he has Godzilla using his atomic breath attack to fly. With all of these elements combined the film feels like it is shrinking its audience rather than growing it due to all these wildly different than the norm takes on the King of Monsters.
And then there is the violence of the film. Now Godzilla films have been built on destruction since the original film as Godzilla has always been leaving carnage in its wake from sunken ships, destroyed buildings, stepped on people and the flames either from its own breath attack or the fires that spark from collapsed buildings or power lines but a fair amount of the more recent action was monster suits fighting monster suits which is closer to a really tame wrestling program or the 60’s Batman TV show in terms of violence. Here however Godzilla is shown with a much nastier streak as it looks to avenge the loss of the use of an eye to Hedorah by similarly aiming to also cost that monster an eye and in other places Godzilla reaches into the sludge monster to try to pull out its core with a viciousness not often display with the monster.
From there throw in a lack of consistence with Hedorah and just what it is made of and its powers- at one point it leaves a kitten covered in sludge but otherwise unharmed (if incredible not happy looking) to others points where its presence causes metal corrosion and can also dissolve organic material (like humans) almost instantly- and it becomes hard to see Hedorah as anything more than a plot device adapting as the script needs for the next shot than a creature that creates the events which shape the plot. Throw in moments where the film forgets to show some transitions- in one place it leaves Godzilla trapped and then suddenly it is free and combating with Hedorah seemingly out of the blue, the characters appearing in locations for no explained reason only to forget about them when the action heats up and a Godzilla that seems to be intelligent enough to use a human weapon when it is damaged as well as Godzilla staring at humans as if warning them about their acts of pollution and one can’t escape the feeling that this young writer-director could probably have used either more seasoning- or a powerful and caring enough producer to reign him in- to save this film from the wild excesses and flaws within.
When combined with instances where the scenery sets/walls have damage that isn’t touched up or seams are clearly visible all this combines to give the impression that Toho had left the franchise on autopilot and simply no longer really cared about the creature enough to try to really shift things back from the previous lackluster film figuring the name ‘Godzilla’ and a new script would be enough to draw people in. Given that Hedorah has never appeared in any other Godzilla movie (in new footage anyway) that reuses previous monsters it appears that the gamble failed and Hedorah is a bit of rubbish that even the film owners would like to bury. Yet it is still part of the creature’s film legacy and is a film that can be enjoyable enough if one can get past (or relish) some of the more art-house film attempts sprinkled in and doesn’t look too closely at some of the elements that don’t quite fit together.
In Summary:
Godzilla vs Hedorah/Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster is proof that just because someone is talented and has a good eye for making a feature film in general doesn’t mean they should necessarily be allowed to make just any film, particularly one that is part of an existing franchise- even if the previous entry has the property holders looking for a new direction. As an art film the feature has a lot of interesting touches applied to it as it plays with color, sound and even switches at time from live action to animation for short bits (though some of the narrative failures and a missing scene wouldn’t have it standing up on its writing merits all that well either). As a Godzilla film it falls apart on too many levels including Godzilla’s musical theme, an antagonist monster whose properties aren’t consistent and of course, flying Godzilla. In final reflection it still is better than the 1998 American Godzilla film but that is an incredibly low bar as this film manages to cover itself with Hedorah’s sludge rather than glory.
Content Grade: C-
Audio Grade: A
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: C-
Extras Grade: C
Released By: Kraken Releasing
Release Date: May 6th, 2014
MSRP: $14.98
Running Time: 86 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Samsung 50″ Plasma HDTV, Denon AVR-790 Receiver with 5.1 Sony Surround Sound Speakers, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080.
