Journey to Skull Island: A King Kong Retrospective (PART 2)

Part 2: Kong's Japanese Vacation

 KING KONG VS. GODZILLA 

(August 11, 1962)

-To be honest, I debated long and hard about including this movie in the retrospective since it's primarily a Godzilla film. But, since Kong's name is in the title and he's just as prominent in the movie as Godzilla, it had to be done-

Eiji Tsuburaya (E-gee Sue-burr-eya-ah), the special effects director who worked on many of the Godzilla and Kaiju films from Toho Studios, was inspired by the original King Kong like so many other filmmakers. He said it stayed with him for many years and he would work on a movie just like it one day.
Little did he know, that he would get his chance.

What most people may not know is that before 1962, there were 2 King Kong movies made in Japan. The first was actually made in October in 1933 by Shockiku Studios, it was called 'Wasei Kingu Kongu' (Japanese King Kong). The plot centered around a man trying to earn money to marry his lady-friend by putting on a Vaudeville act based on the film 'King Kong'. No, really.
The other, was Zensho Studio's 1938 'King Kong Appears in Edo', which involved a trained Ape named "King Kong" involved in a kidnapping plot.
I would talk more in-depth about these movies, but I've not seen them, which is the case for most people seeing as how these movies are now considered lost. Supposedly, the reels were destroyed during the World War II fire bombings of Japan.

Japan wasn't the only one looking to make films riding on the success of the original. Willis O'Brien, the Stop Motion animator, had worked up a treatment for a new movie called "King Kong vs. Frankenstein", which would see the Gorilla brought to San Francisco to fight a monster made by the titular Doctor's Son. The project was pitched to various studios and fell into one studio's hands after another before eventually coming to Toho.
Toho of course had their own giant monster movie star: the King of the Monsters himself. Godzilla's film career almost mirrored that of Kong. His first film was released in 1954 with a sequel being made only a few months later. With most of the crew being huge Kong fans themselves, they leapt at the chance to make the movie, on the obvious condition that they replaced the Frankenstein monster with Godzilla. (Toho would later make Frankenstein movie.)

So how do you have Kong and Godzilla meet up? Well, you have a pharmaceutical company looking for a way to get publicity for their sponsored television shows by sending a team to an island in the South Pacific in search of a legendary Monster God who just so happens to be Kong. Meanwhile, Godzilla wakes up from being frozen in an iceberg and goes on a rampage throughout Japan. And eventually, the two meet up for the ultimate showdown at the base of Mount Fuji. Naturally.

Both monsters were of course portrayed by men in suits, an art in which the Japanese would come to master through the years. The Godzilla suit looks great of course, the Kong suit however looks...I don't wanna say bad, but it just looks weird. I mean, I can tell it's supposed to be a Gorilla and it can look really fierce at times, but other times Kong has this really drunk/stoned expression on his face.

The very first Godzilla film from 1954 was very dark and somber in tone, but it was decided that the series should move in a much lighter direction to appeal to children, a decision that would affect the series until 1975.
l was probably about 8 or 9 when I started getting into Godzilla and this movie was definitely one of the most entertaining of the series with hilarious moments from both the human and the monster characters. Of course, the big highlight is the big fight at the base of Mount Fuji, Kong and Godzilla really wail on each other. Even with Godzilla's atomic breath, Kong refuses to give up fighting the Big G, he throws large rocks at him, shoves a tree down his mouth and even grabs him by his arm and throws him over his shoulder. (With the actor still inside the suit!)
There's also an homage to the original movie in one quick scene where Kong and Godzilla are both stop-motion puppets.

A year later, King Kong vs. Godzilla would be brought over to the United States with some major edits done by Universal-International. Besides dubbing the film in English, they included scenes involving American actors as UN Reporters covering certain events in the film. There's also an "expert" character who claims that Godzilla's brain is no bigger than a marble, which is bulls--t! He also calls Godzilla a cross between a Tyrannosaur and a Stegosaurus by showing pictures from a children's Dinosaur book called "Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals", a book that I myself own.
One change that I just can't understand was replacing the original score by composer Akira Ifukube with film scores from other Universal films such as 'Creature From the Black Lagoon' and 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman' (Just to name a few). While that music is fine, I much prefer Ifukube's music. The main theme for Godzilla in this film by Ifukube would later be used in 2016's 'Shin Godzilla'.  

The 2 versions would also give rise to one of the biggest myths surrounding the Godzilla series, the belief that both versions of the film had different endings. The myth went that in the Japanese version, Godzilla was the winner, while Kong came out victorious in the American version. In reality, both versions end in the exact same way: After their long battle, Kong and Godzilla grapple with each other as they fall into the sea. After a brief earthquake, Kong emerges from the water and swims back to his island while Godzilla is nowhere to be seen. Keep in mind that Godzilla spends most of his time deep underwater, so what likely happened is that both monsters had a brief scuffle underwater before simply giving up on fighting as they are too evenly matched. Plus, there's no way Kong could stay underwater as long as Godzilla. However, Toho themselves claim that Kong was always meant to be the winner. The only major difference in both endings is that originally both Godzilla and Kong's roars were heard as the 'The End' title came up as a sort of sign off or curtain call. But only Kong's roar was heard in the American cut.
I, like many fans, believed the alternate ending story and as a kid I watched the American cut a lot. Years ago, my Dad's job required him to go to Japan and I asked him if he could bring back a DVD of King Kong vs. Godzilla so I could see it. That was when I was introduced to the 2 words us American Kaiju fans hate hearing the most: Region Coding. So I never got the chance to see it (he did get me some awesome figures though). I have a feeling that if I had seen the original cut as a kid, I would have been majorly disappointed. Looking at it now, it was nothing more than so much hullabaloo over nothing.

Unfortunately, King Kong vs. Godzilla is the only film in the Godzilla series that has yet to be released on DVD or Blu-ray in the United States in it's original uncut version. Hopefully with the new 'Godzilla vs. Kong' movie coming out in 2020, that will change so people can look back on one of the greatest Kaiju battles in film history before bearing witness to the rematch of the century.

After this movies release, interest in making more Godzilla movies was re-ignited. But Toho wasn't done with Kong just yet...

KING KONG ESCAPES
(July 22, 1967)

~King Kong you know the name of~

~King Kong you know the fame of~

~King Kong ten times as big as a man~

Those were the words heard by folks who tuned in to watch the Saturday morning cartoon series: The King Kong Show. The show was a co-production between Toei Animation in Japan and Videocraft International in America. You may not be familiar with the name Videocraft, but you most likely know who they are since they would later change thier name to Rankin/Bass Productions (Ya know, the same guys who made those stop-motion Christmas Specials).This show focused on Kong befriending a human family, having many adventures and fighting off various enemies.

If your wondering what I think of this cartoon, well I'm afraid you are out of luck. I have never seen one episode and I am only familiar with the opening song, which is extremely catchy.

So why am I talking about it? Because it was what inspired the next movie in Kong's legacy, King Kong Escapes. 

Hideyo Amamoto as Dr. Who

Once again Produced by Toho and even Co-Produced by Rankin/Bass, the story revolves around the evil Dr. Who (No, not that one!) trying to obtain what he calls Element X using a large mechanical version of Kong named 'Mechani-Kong'. But when that plan goes wrong, he goes after the original Kong and attempts to put him under his control to do his bidding. But if you take one more look at the film's title, you can figure out how well that plan turns out (It ain't called "King Kong Stays Locked Up"). The Element X plot really doesn't go anywhere.

Left to Right: Akira Takarada, Linda Miller and Rhodes Reason

Being a co-production between the US and Japan, American actors were brought on to portray 2 of the main characters, Rhodes Reason and Linda Miller play submarine commanders leading an expedition to study Kong.
Understandably, they are dubbed in the Japanese version. But confusingly the American version dubs their voices as well, which makes no sense at all. Why dub what we can already understand? Did they just not like how their voices sound?

As for Kong himself, he's once again a guy in a suit performed by Haruo Nakajima, the man best known for playing Godzilla. The suit itself is...well, a downgrade from the last suit, and that's saying a lot. It seemed that this suit was designed to look more like an actual Gorilla, but it just comes off as awkward, especially with its long noodle arms.
And the face. Ugh! The face!

Another thing that I find weird is that for some reason they used Godzilla's grunting noises for Kong.

Another monster that makes an appearance is Gorosaurus, a large, greenish-blue Dinosaur whose main attack is to kick it's opponents like a kangaroo. The scene where Kong and Gorosaurus fight is pretty spectacular and some parts even pay homage to the original movie with Linda Miller's character up in a tree while the fight goes on. 

As for Mechani-Kong, while admittedly looking cool is a bit underused. He shows up in the beginning built up as this ultimate engine of destruction only to conk out and not be of much use until the climax where the 2 Kongs have a scuffle while climbing Tokyo Tower. It's like watching 2 kids fight on a playground. 

He's also constantly making this weird beeping noise that will get annoying the more you hear it.

I'll admit, at the time of writing this, I can count the number of times I've seen this movie on one hand and the past times I didn't think much of it. 

But after watching it again with a fresh perspective, it's a really fun movie to watch. I'd even rank it at a level of enjoyment up there with other Toho monster movies like Frankenstien Conquers the World, War of the Gargantuas and Space Amoeba.

After nearly a decade, Kong would return to his homeland for a re-telling of the original classic. As well as a sequel.

Oh, god...I have to talk about those movies next?

wonderful...

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

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