The Japanese film, Godzilla vs Hedorah, opens with a scene featuring a river filled with sludge and waste pollution, with an ambiguous monster emerging from the surface of the water. This monster, which received the name Hedorah, is assumed to be an alien form that came to Earth and fed on garbage, sludge, and various gases, oils and acids that were released from factories. Hedorah became a shapeshifting monster that attacks by releasing poisonous acid. 

For most of the film, the citizens of the city seem unfazed by their harmful actions towards the environment because they are depicted as reckless individuals who only care to dance and party. Their perspective changed once Hedorah showed up and started killing everyone in its path. To save the day, Godzilla, who was previously formed by nuclear waste in Japanese seas, came to the city to destroy Hedorah.


Historical Context
This movie is only one in a large franchise consisting of 38 Godzilla movies. The first Godzilla (1954) was created to represent Japan's cultural anxieties of the time. In 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs in Japan. These were the world's first atomic bombs that were dropped during war, nearly devastating the entire cities. Seven years later, the US continued to “test” even more bombs that were “one thousand times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima” (Noriega 65) near Japan. Soon after, film production for the first Godzilla movie began. Godzilla is a reptilian monster that was empowered by nuclear radiation from American weapons used to punish Japan. In this first film, Godzilla is characterized as the villain, taking vengeance on the country. However, in later films, Godzilla became a hero for the characters because he always came around to defend humanity when a monstrous villain was attacking the people as a consequence of their own actions. That is exactly what we see here in Godzilla vs Hedorah.

This particular film was inspired by Yokkaichi asthma. Yokkaichi is a city that was one of the largest industrial centers in all of Japan (Kitagawa 743). Because of the city’s industrial prosperity, there was an abundance of toxic materials such as sulfuric acid mist, being released into the air by the factories causing respiratory diseases of asthma, bronchitis, and sore throat. In the film, Hedorah flew around cities emitting toxic mist that would either kill the people or cause them to go into a coughing fit. 

Ignorance
A few times throughout the film, a song called “Save the Earth” is played. The song describes the deterioration of the country’s waters, animals, plants, and citizens as a product of their pollution and complete disregard of the land. Some lines of the song are, “polluted seas and skies, all life is gone, the fields and mountains are silent.” There is a prominent scene where a lot of the citizens are at a club singing and dancing to this depressing, yet informational song, but the people express no desire to make a change. This highlights the ignorance of the townspeople. They know the right thing to do, but refuse to do it. When Hedorah began to attack the people, they created a goal to just get rid of this monster, but in ignorance, they did not decide to change their harmful behaviors. By the end of the film, Godzilla killed Hedorah, but there was still an abundance of pollution everywhere, implying that the people still have not learned. 


Children in Horror
The main character of the film is a scientist, Yukio, who survived an attack by Hedorah and began to conduct experiments to find out the characteristics of this unknown monster. The scientist's son, Ken, is a young boy who was always able to sense danger. Ken is the one that gave Hedorah his name after witnessing the monster maim his father. Godzilla is his favorite "superhero" and every time Godzilla came around the town, Ken knew. He would suddenly look up into the sky and say, "Godzilla is near! That means Hedorah is here too." This film connects with other horror texts that feature children because they are often depicted as characters that are able to sense an upcoming danger.


Ecohorror is a reflection of our current anxieties and fears of the world. The stories typically overemphasize the reality of a situation; however, they get the viewer to think about how their own actions are leading to the inevitable harm of the earth and all its inhabitants. Godzilla vs Hedorah is not saying that a killer monster will materialize from our pollution. The film is rather communicating the repercussions and urging the audience to make a change. The film does this by showing scenes of dead fish and people, wilting plants, gray skies to convey lifelessness and decay. In my opinion, the message of the film is “eventually everything and everyone is going to die, and it will be on YOUR hands because of your pollution, blatant ignorance, and carelessness. It is not too late to make changes.”