What’s that? Didn’t I already cover Godzilla vs. Hedorah back in July? Sure did. But this year we got quite a treat as part of Toho’s celebration of Godzilla Day on November 3rd, honoring 67 years of Godzilla, and Hedorah’s 50th anniversary. The event is essentially a merchandizing festival, but in addition some interesting hot sauces, Toho released a short film with actual suitmation featuring everyone’s favorite psychedelic induced fever dream of an anti-pollution allegory: Hedorah! Toho had put out an even shorter film last year that was kind of fun, but this one is much more involved. It’s been five years since the release of Shin Godzilla in 2016, and this a welcome little gem for fans of practical effects and suitmation. They apparently took it down from the official account, but luckily it’s been preserved by RickDaSquirrel over on Youtube, enjoy!

The video is directed by Kazuhiro Nakagawa, who did a couple episodes of Ultraman Z, some Godzilla video attractions at Universal Studios Japan, and was 2nd assistant director on Shin Godzilla. It features some great stock music from Akira Ifukube and Riichiro Manabe who did the original Hedorah. Naoya Matsumoto and Hikaru Yoshida play Godzilla and Hedorah respectively using suits out of storage from Godzilla: Final Wars (2004). The suits are still in pretty good condition, but at times, the advancements in high definition cameras don’t do them any favors.

For fans of the original film, there’s a ton of callbacks. It opens with some beautiful flowers that get killed by Hedorah’s smog and slop, a reverse of the original’s smash cut from pollution to nature. Hedorah takes a massive toke off a smokestack like a bong, and the Manabe’s 60s music does well to establish the campiness of it all. Godzilla appears to the classic Ifukube thundering score, and switches up into a more modern industrial/rock track as the monsters clash. The direction and camerawork is inspired, doing a lot with what little they have. There’s some great super-low angle shots looking directly up similar to those that I enjoyed in Terror of Mechagodzilla, and a great shot when the fight rages on behind some buildings, obscuring most of the action except a vertical splash of toxic goop. They do this again with Godzilla’s atomic breath, and it really puts the viewer in the action, as if you’re nearby. Hedorah scars Godzilla’s eye before Godzilla blasts him and walks out during the sunset to goofy trumpets and then some psychedelic jamming over a liquid light show, all great callbacks to the original.

This is an amazingly fun little short that shows a ton of love for the source material. While it was originally reviled by producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, and audiences being split either loving or hating its oddball approach, I’m glad to see Hedorah getting so much love these many years later. You really wish Yoshimitsu Banno were still alive to see this; I get the feeling he really would have loved it. Banno was a one-and-done Godzilla director, but he wanted to do more, and really pushed for projects that would end up influencing the current Monsterverse films. RIP Banno, you won out in the end!