KINGKONGU TAI GOJIRA
(KING KONG VS. GODZILLA) (1963)
"The atomic bomb is out of
the question. Our only chance is somehow to bring them together. Kong versus Godtilla. If
we are lucky, both will die."
Director:.. Inoshiro Honda, Thomas
Montgomery
Starring: Michael Keith, James Yogi, Harry Holcombe, Tadao Takashima, Yu Fujiki,
Akiko Wakabayashi, Kenji Sahara, Akihiko Hirata, Ichiro Arishima Screenplay.. Shinichi
Sekizawa, Paul Mason, Bruce Howard
Synopsis: The world is shaken by terrible earthquakes. Icebergs are breaking up
in the Bering Strait, which is unusually warm. An American nuclear-powered submarine is
sent to investigate. Meanwhile, a Japanese scientist announces that he has discovered on
one of the Solomon Islands a berry with great medicinal properties. However, the natives
will not let him have many of them, as they give the berries'juice to a "mysterious
god". The Pacific Pharmaceutical Company sends an expedition to the island. In the
Bering Strait, the US submarine sees a strange light coming from an iceberg, which begins
to break up, severely damaging the vessel. The crew sends off a distress signal, but the
submarine is destroyed. A helicopter team responding to the signal sees Godzilla. He is
heading for Japan. On the island, the expedition team is captured by the natives, but
manage to make friends with them. A giant octopus attacks the village, but is defeated by
King Kong, who drinks the pots of berry juice the natives have left for him and falls into
a heavy sleep. The expedition team captures him, towing him towards Japan. Hearing of
this, the government dispatches the coast guard to prevent Kong entering the country.
Godzilla attacks Japan, destroying a train. An attempt is made to destroy Kong, but he
escapes, immediately setting out to find and battle Godzilla.
Comments: In the early days, Godzilla was a "bad" monster, perpetually
trying to destroy Japan, and waging war with "good" monsters trying to defend
the country. In this case, the fable is given a harder edge than usual by having King Kong
the resident of the Solomon Islands, which were occupied by the Japanese and then captured
by the Americans, and the site of some horrendously bloody conflict during World War II.
In this context, the original ending of the film, the defeat of the "natural"
Kong by the "unnatural", atomic bomb created Godzilla, takes on very grim
overtones. However, the intended subtext of the story has, not surprisingly, been almost
entirely jettisoned by worse than usual Americanisation. It is fitting, then, that the
funniest moments in the film come about in the English language inserts. We are introduced
at the beginning to Eric Carter, a news broadcaster for the UN (the "UN Channel"
-I wonder if you have to pay extra for that....), who seems to work twenty-four hour
shifts. When Godzilla appears, Carter announces that, "The world is stunned to learn
that prehistoric monsters exist in the twentieth century!" Obviously, he hadn't been
paying attention for the preceding ten years. (Question: if he doesn't know who Godzilla
is, how does he know he's called Godzilla?) The prior battles with Godzilla, Gigantis,
Rodan and Mothra are conveniently ignored as the Japanese are forced to turn to the
Americans for help. Or at least to Eric Carter, who calls in Arnold Johnson, the curator
of the New York Museum of Natural History. Johnson lectures the audience from his Big Book
Of Dinosaurs, and announces that Godzilla is a cross between a tyrannosaurus and a
stegosaurus (well, if the dinosaurs were carrying on like that, it's no wonder they died
out). When Kong appears, we again turn to Johnson for help. He informs us that Godzilla
has a brain the size of a marble, but that Kong is a thinking animal. That might be so,
but you wouldn't know it from what follows, one of the most knock down, drag 'em out,
dirty tactic slugfests ever committed to film. No holds barred between these two: tail
pulling, tree stuffing, rock throwing, kidney punching, dirt kicking, stomping and obscene
hand gestures, it's all here. Unfortunately, quite a lot of this is lost through some
truly terrible pan-and-scanning - or rather, the lack of any - which leaves the audience
to gaze at an expanse of blue sky while the two out of shot combatants shout abuse or
chuck rocks at each other. Godzilla wins the first two rounds, and should have won the
last, except that for some peculiar reason the Americans decided that people wanted King
Kong to win. Earlier, Arnold Johnson (apparently an expert on island gods as well as
prehistoric monsters) had told us that electricity makes Kong stronger, "for some
reason we do not as yet understand", and we were treated to a shot of Kong chowing
down on high tension wires. So while he's lying dead, having had the crap stomped out of
him by the big G, Kong is mysteriously revived by a bolt of lightning. And then it's into
the final round. The two slug it out some more, take time out to wreck a pagoda (old
habits dying hard), then wrestle each other off a cliff and get buried by an earthquake.
There's no sign of Godz after this, but Kong heads off back to his island. Inevitably, the
ubiquitous Eric Carter gets the final word: "We wish him well on his long, long
journey home." Since Kong has done far more damage than Godfilla this seems a little
strange to me, but never mind. All in all, King Kong Versus Godzilla is one of the funnier
Japanese monster movies, dispensing with its serious overtones at quite an early stage and
letting its stars get down to business. The only darker notes are sounded in the Japanese
government and military's reiterated refusal to consider using the atomic bomb against
Godzilla, and in a tasteless sequence in which the members of the island expedition win
over the natives by giving cigarettes to everyone in the village, including the children.
After that, Japan - or at least, the Pacific Pharmaceutical Company deserves anything it
gets.
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