GODZILLA VS HEDORAH   1971 * (ゴジラ対ヘドラ, Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster) * Directed by Yoshimitsu Banno * 88 minutes * In Japanese with English subtitles

Back in the late 1960s, worldwide protests and actions rallied against our mindless consumption of plastic, along with outright destruction of the ecology by industry. They warned of the fatal result of such greedy and reckless behavior: slaughtering of vast rain forests and wildlife, using lakes and rivers as garbage dumps... All to make a quick buck. How could this end well? These issues were so widespread they even overflowed into sci-fi movies, like this one from Japan in 1971, or Soylent Green from America in 1973. But in the 80s a new conservative politics was ushered in, and as the corporate media decided to dump the entire discussion, Hollywood unleashed four decades of unmitigated blockbuster entertainment.

One of the most dangerous aspects of our modern society is that people only care about something only when it is highlighted by the mass media, but once the media stops reporting it, people forget instantly. Today much of what was warned about 40 years ago is coming to an unavoidable climax, and I would even speculate that our recent pandemic is partly the result of our lack of understanding of social issues.

So here we have a Godzilla flick that jumped head-first into the ecological fray. First, we have to remember the origins of Godzilla - a monster born from the radioactive fallout of the atomic bombs America had dropped on Japan. In a way, Godzilla was rampaging against mankind for going in such an insane direction. In the sequels that followed, Godzilla started changing character, even becoming a defender of humans against dark forces. Eventually we get to this flick, the eleventh in the series, where Godzilla rises from his watery grave to fight off Hedorah, a blob-like smog monster. Besides the unique storyline, this is a crazy flick on very many levels. It opens with a ripping psychedelic music track called “Save the Earth'' sung over images of environmental destruction. It also happens to be the only film in which Godzilla can fly. It's a bizarre mix of dark themes and playful experimentation. Director Banno wanted to breathe new life into the dying Godzilla franchise by creating something radically different, but when the studios saw it they never allowed him to make another one. A mind-blowing flick, that rams into us from a weirdly wonderful angle...

This will be a high-defintion screening.

Tickets go on sale at 19:30 * Film starts at 20:30