#338 – King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)
King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)
Film review #338
dir. Ishirō Honda
SYNOPSIS:
Pacific Pharmaceuticals are having trouble coming up with some
successful advertising. Mr. Tako, the head of the company, is told about
a monster that exists on a remote island, and sends Sakurai and
Kinsaburo, two of his employees, to capture it so he can use it as the
new mascot for the company. However, another monster appears: Godzilla
is back and goes on the rampage, and a plan is devised to bring Godzilla
and this new monster, King Kong, together in the hopes they destroy
each other before they destroy everything else…
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: King Kong vs Godzilla is a 1962 monster film and the third film in the Godzilla
series. Given that King Kong is a Hollywood character, and Godzilla a
product of Japanese cinema, this film is a true crossover of east vs
west. The film starts off showing the failed marketing of Pacific
Pharmaceuticals, and their boss Mr. Tako tearing his hair out trying to
get attention for the company. A doctor tells Mr. Tako about a remote
island in the South, where an indigenous tribe worships some kind of
monster. Mr. Tako somehow concludes that getting this monster to
advertise his products as a mascot would lead to the company dominating
TV ratings, and so sends to marketers Sakurai and Kinsaburo to the
island in order to capture the monster and bring it back to Japan. This
monster turns out of course, to be King Kong, and the opening act of the
film focuses on his origin story. It’s pretty similar to earlier
incarnations in that King Kong is worshipped as a God by an indigenous
tribe, who make various offerings to him. The film slowly builds up to
his appearance then engages in a fight scene with a giant octopus
(really just a regular-sized octopus on a model set), which establishes
King Kong’s strength and showcases his power before the inevitable
meeting with Godzilla. It doesn’t add much to the character of King
Kong, but it doesn’t need to: some characters just don’t need to be more
complex or have a motivation to smash stuff.
When King Kong
is sedated and on the way back to Japan, Godzilla awakens from being
trapped in ice, and heads off on the rampage. The Japanese Self Defense
Force tries a number of operations to try and stop it, but all of them
fail. The only option left to them is to get King Kong and Godzilla to
meet and destroy each other. It should be noted that the whole tone of
this film is a lot lighter than the previous two Godzilla films.
The story being based around using these monsters in a war for TV
ratings shifts the focus from the horrors of the destruction to more of a
satirical look at human’s and corporation’s response to tragedy to use
it to maximise attention and ratings. This ultimately makes the film a
bit more goofy and silly than the original two films, which were very
dark, and had powerful messages about Japan’s relationship to
destruction and nuclear technology in the aftermath of the Hiroshima
bomb. It’s not a bad move that the film takes, it’s just something
different, and it is the direction the film series takes after this one
to appeal more to younger viewers. Again, we get the basic plot points
of King Kong condensed into this film, with him being captured, breaking
loose, and going on a rampage in a city, while kidnapping a woman and
climbing a tall building. The people that made this film clearly wanted
to tell King Kong’s story in full, but also in their own way, making him
feel almost at home in the setting of Japan, by which I mean trashing
their cities…
When we eventually see King Kong and Godzila
face off, Godzilla manages to overcome King Kong easily thanks to his
atomic breath meaning King Kong cannot even get close. In their second
meeting, King Kong fares better thanks to having absorbed electricity
form power lines and an oncoming lightning storm: it is hinted that King
Kong has the ability to summon storms and has an affinity with
lightning, but it’s not explained very well. So while King Kong
eventually emerges the winner in the end, Godzilla gets a victory as
well, so it should satisfy both fans. Apparently King Kong was even more
popular than Godzilla in Japan at the time, so having him win at the
end obviously satisfies more people. The monsters are played as in
previous Godzilla films by men in suits rampaging over model sets. The
suits look decent, and the fighting is carefully choreographed, but does
get a little silly at points, such as when they’re throwing rocks at
each other. Some of the plans to deal with Godzilla are very cartoon-ish
too, such as literally digging a pit and covering it up, so that
Godzilla will fall down into it. Also airlifting King Kong by tying
balloons to him looks pretty silly.
This is the first time we have seen Godzilla and King Kong in colour, since their previous films were in black and white too, and the addition of colour definitely makes them look less threatening anyway. One thing that stands out is Godzilla’s big eyes that are almost cartoon-like, whereas King Kong looks extremely messy and primal, which sets up a good contrast between the two. The effects are pretty decent, but there’s not as much destruction as the previous films, probably because over half the film’s budget went to securing the rights to use King Kong in the film. Overall though, while it is a little different in tone to previous Godzilla films, it changes things enough to keep it fresh, and is structured well to tell the story of two monsters alongside giving ample screen-time to both. Some people may not like the goofy human stuff, but all in all it’s a decent offering.
