Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

Directed by: Yoshimitsu Banno

Starring: Akira Yamauchi, Toshie Kimura, Hiroyuki Kawase

I was really surprised by how good this one was. I’d never seen it before, since it’s alternate title, Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, led me to believe it would be about some stupid hippie anti-pollution thing or something. Little did I know that it’s perhaps the most badass Godzilla has ever been. Weird.

A crazy monster that lives in and on pollution evolves larger and larger and goes around breaking the shit out of Japan. Godzilla, of course, doesn’t like this much, so he walks to Tokyo from Monster Island to lay down a whuppin’. With the help of a scientist who figures out how to finally kill the thing (it’s power is being able to reshape itself after any amount of damage) by drying it out, Godzilla finally takes Hedorah to task and just mutilates the thing. You almost feel sorry for it.

The giant monster fight sequences in this movie are fucking BRUTAL. There’s a part where Godzilla pulls out the eyes of Hedorah, then crushes them with his hands as he steps on it’s head. I heartily recommend this one to anybody who may have passed it up, and if it takes more than the promise of extreme monster violence to do that for ya, then maybe THIS will do the trick!