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BEASTS
BREASTS
Original title: Gojira tai Hedorâ
Director: Yoshimitsu Banno
Writers: Yoshimitsu Banno & Takeshi Kimura
Cast---
Akira Yamauchi ...  Dr. Yano
Toshie Kimura ...  Toshie Yano
Hiroyuki Kawase ...  Ken Yano
Keiko Mari ...  Miki Fujiyama
Toshio Shiba ...  Yukio Keuchi
Yukihiko Gondo ...  Mean general
Eisaburo Komatsu ...  Fisherman
Tadashi Okabe ...  Scientist

Runtime: Germany: 96 min | USA: 87 min
GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH (1971)

 Hedorah is an alien life form that feeds on pollution and the Earth has plenty of it.  So the creature
grows, mutates and gives the people of Japan and Godzilla a really good fight.  Can Godzilla survive or
has man’s propensity to pollute finally caused his downfall.

 Overall:  In many ways this is the typical Godzilla film.  It’s got Godzilla in a role of “Hero” and we see
tons of destruction of the Japanese countryside.  We see the usual models and sets that make up our
battle scenes and of course the same cheesy dubbing.

 What’s different for once is we have Godzilla flying through the air using his atomic ray breath.  In
addition we have many “artistic” scenes which show us what Hedorah was up to, even though none of
that is shown using live motion.  It’s a very psychedelic film with the music, outfits and of course the
underlying statement: Stop polluting otherwise it’ll kill us.  

 I loved the fact that I read this:

"Tomoyuki Tanaka, who produced the first 22 Godzilla films, was in the hospital during the time the film
was made. Upon recovery and actually seeing the film, it is said that he told the director of the film he
ruined the Godzilla series"

Frankly it changed nothing but it should give you a heads-up that this is different from all the films that
came before so you’ll see some stylistic changes.  

I thought what was most fascinating is that no one ever truly tries to search or stop the monster…it’s all
about waiting for the monster to attack and Godzilla to save them.  That I think sorta betrays the mission
of the film, telling us not to pollute.  Because now it also tells us that we, the people, have no control
anymore over nature and we can only rely on others to save us.  That I think betrayed the motto to tell
us to try to be a clean folk.  Anyway, we see the usual Godzilla ending and the little boy who supports
Godzilla.

Overall, it’s an amusing film but nothing you gotta run to watch.

   
                                                                                                                - Rich Wolf
                                                                                                    of obscurehorror.com
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Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
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