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From http://wrongsideoftheart.com/wp-content/gallery/
posters-k/king_kong_vs_godzilla_poster_03.jpg |
Dir. Ishirō Honda
After seeing him climb the Empire
State Building in
King Kong (1933) for
this season, I can see the great ape in a position drastically different, a
result of the original film's success, getting into a fist fight with the
legendary Japanese kaiju Godzilla as depicted through TohoScope and full
colour. First thing to mention is that the version I viewed is the American
release which has a drastically different tone, including scenes of an American
news reporter and his correspondents. The result actually added to the film,
though I want to see the original Japanese release, furthering the paracinema
nature of the viewing experience with a reassuring American voice informing the
viewer within a room you'd might have found in Willy Wonka's bachelor pad. The
film's title is its plot. Godzilla suddenly appears out of an iceberg and goes
to Japan for a rampage. Kong, now the god of an island populated by Japanese
extras painted up as African tribesmen, making the tribe on the original Skull
island, including a couple blacked face white actors, modern in comparison, ends
up being acquired by a Japanese advertisement company. (All with the help of
giving cigarettes to the natives, even the kids, and the effect of a berry also
from the island with a narcotic quality to get the ape high.) Kong eventually
gets to Japan and sizes up Godzilla, leading to a fist fight between both
monsters as the humans hope Kong wins.
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| From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtrD5Qdsf2x5X3_BY2iwH0mA9SNVfZMlS2cg3FVHW9YsxHwCXvsUmWTDEd-PfJ7mcvDLpe-xoL7HKYRGbsnyGyMmVGwyBkezegmZcZ8cg2jTbatXjk5XyN-CCMjA8qbPtabIrGczkgDfk/s1600/King+Kong+vs+Godzilla+1962+movie+pic1.jpg |
Out of the films of Ishirō Honda I've seen, becoming a
favourite director, this is admittedly the schlockiest of them all, the film compared
to the others that, for all their kitsch, are highly artistic and spell
bounding in their imagination, while this one is a lot more silly and obviously
absurd. It doesn't help that Godzilla has googly eyes or Kong looks more like a
yeti than an ape, evoking Tony Schiavone
commentating over the fight between the two*. A lot of the more fantastical
aspects of these Honda productions feel
more childish and amusing, as a result, in a great way here - the models
representing military vehicles, the gaudy bright colours, the pan international
tone despite being a Japanese film dubbed or otherwise. The drastic changes
made for the American version - added footage, use of pre-existing footage and
music from other films and how it juggles the added material with the original
content - does give it a campier tone. The other Honda films I've seen were in their uncut Japanese versions, which
for all their kitschy aspects have a serious, rollicking tone to them, thus
leading me to consider that American sci-fi films from this time, and their
reedits of other countries' sci-fi, is far and away more dated and ridiculous
in tone to the Japanese ones. Still great and entertaining, but possibly more
ridiculous than even the content in the Asian films in terms of tone.
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| From http://www.fantastique-arts.com/photos/6647.jpg |
Actually describing the film in
more detail is difficult because it is all a wait for the dramatic fight, which
if you watch expecting a colossal, fight-to-end-all-fights, or one from a
modern day blockbuster, you'll be disappointed. The film waits it's time with
diversions. Comedy in the two people sent by the Japanese advertisement company
to the Kong island who, with a translator, play up a shtick that involves
exaggerated facial features and bumbling about. Their boss is a complete buffoon
for more comedy. There is a slight drama involving a romantic couple and their
friends in the midst of this monster rampage, briefly evoking Kong's continuing
obsession with grabbing women and scaling buildings with them. Outside the
titular two's various interactions, there is a giant squid attack, mostly done
with real squid on model sets that, despite the effects looking utterly ropey
today, is entertaining just to see a real squid (or four) being plonked on a
model shamelessly. (More so knowing three were released back into the wild, and
the fourth went into the stomach of special
effects director Eiji Tsuburaya afterwards).
And the fight between Godzilla and King Kong? They interact on numerous occasions
beforehand, which usually consists of Kong throwing a boulder at Godzilla,
Godzilla using his fire breath, and Kong, always checking if his fur has been
singed, trundles off. The actual fight is two men in suits crashing into each
other, which is fun, not the greatest fight that could've happened, but
considering the film still enjoyable. The film has a goofy, childish tone, and
it's not a coincidence, after this film did well financially, the franchise
called Godzilla started fully
afterwards, growing into its own style drastically different from Honda's original 1954 film in favour of
a gaudier style and rubber suit fights.
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| From http://m.cdn.blog.hu/me/mediaviagra/image/1962_king_kong_vs_godzilla_2.jpg |
Abstract Rating
(High/Medium/Low/None): None
Japanese kaiju/sci-fi/horror from
this era, as I view more of it, could get an entry on the Abstract list, the
mix of the aesthetic style and the fantastical content potent enough to be
trippy to modern eyes. Honda has a likely candidate, in fact, with Mantango: Attack of the Mushroom People (1963),
but that's a literal mushroom trip for another time. As for King Kong Vs. Godzilla, it has nothing
that really qualifies as weird or unconventional.
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| From http://www.notcoming.com/images/reviews/l/kingkongvsgodzilla.jpg |
A Cinema of the Abstract movie?
Now having seen the original King Kong, there are numerous
continuations of the character for me to see, becoming a fan of the ape. This
isn't the last time Japan, or Ishirō
Honda, took interest in Kong either. (If Frankenstein's monster can become
a kaiju, nothing's off limits). And fittingly, as one monster was brought to
Japan, the country's own would grow in strides to be a pop culture icon
himself, as passing of the touch unintentionally happening here regardless of
who won the fight. The film itself is a silly diversion, the drastic retooling
for US release having as much a peculiar effect on the content too. Far from
the best Japanese sci-fi films of this era for me, far from Honda's or Godzilla's best, but utterly
entertaining. It's the kind of flamboyant pulp that is just entertaining and
that's all I'd wished for from it.
(*Forgive the obscure wrestling
references, but if you know what the reference is, I couldn't resist.)
The Host is an interesting case of a kaiju/monster movie if shrunk
to concentrate on a small character piece; while Hollywood blockbusters tend to
downscale their drama to one character and their family to a detriment, this is
deliberately a drama about a dysfunctional family first which just happens to
centre around a crisis that effects the local population. Chemicals poured into
the Han river creates a mutated aquatic beast that terrorises the locals and
may spread a virus to those who come into contact with it, but the central
drama is not a scientist or the military trying to destroy the beast like in a
Toho film from Japan, but a less than perfect family. A divorced slacker (Kang-ho), whose daughter (Ah-sung) is captured by the beast, and
is followed by his father (Hee-bong),
his sister (Doona) who is a professional
archer, and the washed up, alcoholic second son (Hae-il) to try to rescue her when they discover she's still alive.
