Godzilla vs. Hedorah

""Why can't anything go right today?!"

~ Army Commander, after Godzilla and Hedorah destroy the power lines to the electrodes"

Number 11 in the Godzilla series, Godzilla vs Hedorah, also known as Godzilla vs the Smog Monster is, well, one of the more surreal entries in the series.

Rampant pollution off the coast of Japan, combined with a mysterious lifeform that came on a meteorite, has created a monstrous pile of pollution. A researcher, Dr. Yano and his young son Ken are stricken by the creature's poisons upon discovering the creature, who begins making trouble on Japan's coast. Ken keeps receiving visions that Godzilla has decided to take the matter in his own hands and is making his way to fight the creature. Though beaten back into the sea on their first encounter, Hedorah quickly adapts and grows in power between choking the streets with his creeping sludge or skeletonizing people where they stand with toxic gases left in it's flying wake and even bringing Godzilla to his knees. The situation looking dire, a group teenage hippies plan one final celebration of life on the slopes of Mount Fuji and Dr. Yano manages to find a weakness in Hedorah. Using giant electrodes, the creature can be killed by drying out. Though Hedorah manages to interfere with the power, Godzilla arrives to power them on with his atomic breath and fights harder to make sure Hedorah becomes deader then dead, even resorting to flying in pursuit using his atomic breath.

This film provides examples of

 * Blob Monster
 * Disney Acid Sequence
 * The End or Is It: Point is hammered home at the end that continued pollution could easily bring Hedorah back
 * Green Aesop
 * Unintentional Period Piece
 * Walking Wasteland
 * What Could Have Been: Some plans for a sequel and taking place somewhere in Africa.