Godzilla Goes Green

Having gone on bit of a bender over yesterday's Godzilla news (too much rot gut, then fighting, then tears), filmbrain was positively elated to read the following news this morning: Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster is coming to DVD!

Not just another Godzilla movie, this is a cautionary tale on the evils of pollution. Deeply rooted in psychedelia, filmbrain remembers watching this as a wee lad and being greatly disturbed by it. With its fuzz-guitar laden theme song "Save the Earth!" ("Return the Sun" in Japanese), psychedelic animated inserts, and scenes of the Smog Monster doing bong hits off factory smokestacks; this is one head-trip of a film. Who would have imagined that Godzilla would turn out to be a tree hugger? Just cause you're born out of nuclear fallout doesn't mean you can't be eco-conscious, I guess.

The director, Yoshimitsu Banno, was quoted in the book Tokyo Scope as saying that the Smog Monster's eyes were modeled on female genitalia. . .vaginas are scary!" Hmmmm......

Sadly, the DVD is without subtitles, from what I can tell. Still, this is a must own disc. You can order it here.