Godzilla vs. Hedorah

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Yoshimitsu Banno directs. Yôichi Manoda behind the camera. Riichirō Manabe scores. Yoshitami Kuroiwa cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Japan, United States of America. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 185 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
• 2Shot for just $0.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 3Grossed $3M — a 11.1× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
• 455 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 5International production across 2 countries: Japan, United States of America.
• 6Part of the "Godzilla (Showa) Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
• 7Directed by Yoshimitsu Banno, shot by Yôichi Manoda. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 8Original score by Riichirō Manabe. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 9Editor Yoshitami Kuroiwa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 10Akira Yamanouchi and Hiroyuki Kawase and Toshie Kimura carry the top of the cast.
• 11Marketing tagline: "The Smog Monster Hedorah arrives in a shooting star!".
• 12IMDB entry: tt0067148 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 13Classified under 16 themes, including "japan", "pollution", "giant monster", "sequel".

The technical file

Cinematography

Yôichi Manoda

Original score

Riichirō Manabe

Editing

Yoshitami Kuroiwa

Production design

Yasuyuki Inoue

Costume design

Nobuyuki Yasumaru

Runtime

85 min · 1h 25m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$250,000

Box office

$2,768,400

Return

1107% of budget

Original language

JA

Certification (US)

G

IMDB

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) ↗

Part of

Godzilla (Showa) Collection

Film series featuring Godzilla from the Showa era.

• 
  Godzilla

  1954
• 
  Godzilla Raids Again

  1955
• 
  King Kong vs. Godzilla

  1962
• 
  Mothra vs. Godzilla

  1964
• 
  Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster

  1964
• 
  Invasion of Astro-Monster

  1965
• 
  Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

  1966
• 
  Son of Godzilla

  1967
• 
  Destroy All Monsters

  1968
• 
  All Monsters Attack

  1969
• 
  Godzilla vs. Hedorah

  1971 · this one
• 
  Godzilla vs. Gigan

  1972
• 
  Godzilla vs. Megalon

  1973
• 
  Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

  1974
• 
  Terror of Mechagodzilla

  1975

Also by

Yoshimitsu Banno

• 
  Cruel Famine Continent

  1973
• 
  Satan's Creature

  1972

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  U.S. TV Spot #1

  Teaser
• 

  ▶
  US Trailer

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  Smog Monster Director / ゴジラ対ヘドラの監督 (SciFi JAPAN TV #26)

  Featurette
• 

  ▶
  "Save The Earth" Theme by Adryan Russ

  Featurette
• 

  ▶
  1970's Godzilla FX Director PART II - ７０年代のゴジラの特技監督〜第２部 (SFJTV 07)

  Featurette

Community reviews

What people are saying

• John Chard2019-11-24
  ★ 5/10

  There's no place else to go and pretty soon we'll all be dead, so forget it! Enjoy yourself! Let's sing and dance while we can! Come on, blow your mind! The 11th of the Godzilla franchise is easily the most trippy, and most divisive. Hedorah (AKA: The Smog Monster) is spawned from pollution and begins to destroy Japan. It spews poison, shoots acidic mud, tokes on smoking chimney stacks and can shape shift into the bargain. Enter the atomic lizard, Godzilla, who takes up the challenge to hopefully rescue mankind, he can even fly in this one... There's some psychedelic animation inserted into proceedings, which couples up with the whole hippy vibe and LSD infused musical interludes. It's really a hard film to recommend with confidence, with director Yoshimitsu Banno doing an appalling job of staging action and pacing the narrative for cohesive viewing - a first line director he was not. However, it's just nutty enough to understand why some Zilla fans love it, kind of like it's a fun off-shoot of the more potent pics of the series. Certainly the eco message is worthy, but really I'd personally have to be under the influence of strong liquor to ever watch it again. 5/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  TOHO

  JP

• TO

  Toho Eizo Bijutsu

  JP

• 

  Tokyo Laboratory

  JP

Key crew

• Executive ProducerTomoyuki Tanaka
• Production DesignYasuyuki Inoue
• EditorYoshitami Kuroiwa
• Assistant Art DirectorHiroshi Komura
• PublicistTakeharu Ikebuchi
• First Assistant DirectorHeikichi Tsushima
• Music ArrangerHiroshi Takada
• LyricistYoshimitsu Banno
• Theme Song PerformanceKeiko Mari
• Sound RecordistMasao Fujiyoshi
• Lighting TechnicianFumiyoshi Hara
• Special EffectsTeruyoshi Nakano
• Visual EffectsTeruyoshi Nakano
• Visual Effects DirectorTeruyoshi Nakano
• Second Assistant DirectorYoshio Tabuchi
• Third Assistant DirectorKoichi Kawakita
• Special EffectsYôichi Manoda
• VFX Director of PhotographyYôichi Manoda
• Costume DesignNobuyuki Yasumaru
• ModelingNobuyuki Yasumaru
• Property MasterTadaaki Watanabe
• OtherKazuo Baba
• Assistant CameraTakeshi Yamamoto
• Assistant CameraShigeo Nakao

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• japan
• pollution
• giant monster
• sequel
• alien
• ecology
• gojira
• kaiju
• water pollution
• smog
• environmental issues
• acid burning
• godzilla
• hedorah
• tadpole
• tokusatsu

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1972-02-01G· American International Pictures (AIP) release titled "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster". Replaces the song "Return the Sun!" with "Save the Earth!", written by Guy Hemric & Adryan Russ and sung by Adryan Russ. New direction by Lee Kresel, supervised by Salvatore Billitteri, and re-edited by Eli Haviv, with dubbing recorded by Titan Productions. Exact date unknown.
• Physical2004-10-19PG· DVD
• TV1996-01-20· Sci-Fi Channel (Toho English dub)

Also known as

International titles

• Godzilla vs. The Smog MonsterUS
• Godzilla vs. HedorahDE
• Godzilla 11 - Godzilla vs. HedorahUS
• Godzilla vs HedoraFR
• Gojira tai HedoraJP
• Os Monstros Invadem A TerraBR
• Γκοτζίλα εναντίον ΧεντόραGR