On 16th May 2014, Toho’s greatest monster will return to the big screen in an American reboot. With just 27 weeks to go, we here at THN are counting down the GODZILLA back catalogue.
Director: Ishiro Honda
Starring: Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara, Yu Fujiki, Ichiro Arishima, Mie Hama, Akihiko Hirata, Jun Tazaki
Plot: A pharmaceutical company sends an expedition to an island in order to retrieve some special berries. It just so happens that this island is home to a gigantic gorilla named King Kong. Meanwhile, a submarine has problems with a gigantic lizard named Godzilla. LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE.
It’s lizard versus ape, America versus Japan! NO! It’s KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA. It was time for these two giants to both undertake their third feature film, as the unforgettable gorilla from 1933’s classic KING KONG was chosen as an opponent for Godzilla. However, that’s not strictly true. Although many would assume that, being a Japanese production, the film would revolve around the gigantic radioactive beast, Godzilla was actually a late comer to the party. In fact, there are a number of misconceptions surrounding the battle of the beasts, with rumours of alternative endings for individual markets running writhe for many years. What may come as a surprise to some is that King Kong was far more popular in both the US and Japan. Not only that, but as the story unfolds it becomes clear that King Kong is representative of Japan and Godzilla is a metaphor for the destruction caused by the US’s A-Bombs.
It had been 29 years since King Kong had hit the screen and even Godzilla had been on hiatus for 7 years. A lot had changed for both of these monsters, including colour pictures and widescreen. It was King Kong’s special effects guru Willis O’Brien who took it upon himself to bring Kong back to the big screen, although his original idea was for Kong to go up against a sort of Frankenstein monster created from many different animal parts. Japanese production company Toho took him up on the idea, but decided to bring out their biggest and baddest villain, Godzilla. You see, in the years between GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN and KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA, Toho had tried their hands at other monsters such as RODAN and MOTHRA. Both would later get their shot at the G-man, but for now it was ape versus gigantic dinosaur awakened by radioactive bomb. But some changes needed to be made, most notably the discrepancy in size between the two creatures. This was changed to simply increase Kong to Godzilla’s size, which meant not so much scaling skyscrapers, as just pushing them over.
The film starts with lots of chanting, preparing us for our journey to Kong’s island. We’re also clued in pretty quickly to the broad sense of humour that KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA has throughout with the old “the phone is upside down” piece. Mr. Tako (Arishima) is the clown of the film, and is played very well in terms of eliciting laughs. His mannerisms and facial expressions are all very exaggerated in the classical Three Stooges style, and his bumbling persists even throughout the more serious moments. Mr. Tako is also the head of a pharmaceutical company that sponsors a number of TV shows, and with ratings on the decline he decides to send two of his men to an island where a doctor has brought back a new berry for use in medicine, as well as rumours of a giant monster. Meanwhile a submarine investigates levels of radiation and such in the waters surrounding Japan, only to uncover the iceberg that Godzilla is trapped in. Presumably the icy avalanche from the previous film turned into a solid iceberg at some point.
The mainland action is fun to watch just to see how Japan developed in style over the course of 7 years. It’s now a place filled with cool jazz tunes as well as stylish 1960s fashion and hairdos. It’s also another chance to buckle down and get to know our human heroes. Sakurai (Takashima) will be our Kong adventurer, while his brother in-law Fujita (Sahara) is investigating the missing submarine…conveniently enough. Sakurai and Fujita share a bond; the love of Sakurai’s sister, which allows for a bit more heart and easy welding of the individual plot strands later on. They also offer up two Chekov’s guns as Sakurai is introduced while drumming (it comes into play later) and Fujita gives Sakurai some brand new super strong and super thin wire developed by the government (it comes into play later).
The film actually keeps the plots separate for a very long time. It is both a Godzilla film and a King Kong film, with King Kong actually getting more of the focus as well as receiving top-billing. Mr. Tako sends Sakurai and Kinsaburo (Fujiiki) to the reported island. It should be stressed that although this is a sequel to GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN, it pretty much ignores KING KONG and SON OF KONG and merely apes (sorry about that) certain scenes from the original. Once arriving on the island the makers of the film manage to avoid offending anyone in their portrayal of the natives by comically fusing every stereotype from different cultures. They have dark skin, are portrayed by Japanese actors, make sounds of red Indians, wear colourful flowers you see on hula girls in Hawaii, and their language is poorly pronounced and broken English. It’s a clever technique of going tribal and adds to the humorous slant. It’s also great to see some politically incorrect humour as the trust of the natives is bought by our old friend – cigarettes. Even the children are given one to puff away on, long before this kind of stuff polluted our minds.
While there’s some fumbling about on the island, Godzilla gives us a bit of action where we get to see our star (don’t care whose name comes first in the title) in colour for the first time. His costume is given more detail than ever, and he looks exceptionally vicious with his bright yellow eyes similar to that of an alligator. Godzilla looks great in colour, and has piled on a few pounds, but it must be said that colour also makes some of the effects a bit more obvious. Unfortunately, King Kong’s costume isn’t on to such a winner. His reveal comes opposite a giant octopus attack which is played by a real octopus in the majority of shots. Perhaps this, and reports of running low on budget, may explain Kong’s lacklustre look. It doesn’t completely derail the film, but it was enough to keep the actual suit from appearing on promotional material. Despite this, the man behind the mask, Shoichi Hirose, captures apelike movements very well, especially with his thrusting shoulders and swinging arms. The Kong/Octopus fight shows off a number of great special effects, including some moments of top-motion. It’s all followed by a well choreographed dance as Kong is celebrated as a hero and sent to sleep thanks to a mixture of the native berries and some rhythmic drumming.
As Godzilla terrorises the land folk we are treated to one of the scenes that best harkens back to the original format. A distressing train attack captures the original sense of fear that the first films went for. It comes off even more brutal in colour and features Mie Hama (of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE fame) as Sakurai’s sister/Fujita’s wife and the classic damsel in distress. King Kong escapes from his raft and turns up to where Godzilla is simply hanging out and the two decide to square up to each other. Godzilla deters King Kong with a simple one time use of his atomic breath. I actually enjoy the way the first confrontation fizzles out like many a drunken tussle outside a pub, and it also shows that Kong knows when to pick his battles. The two go their separate ways and the human characters, now joined by Dr Shizegawa (Hirata), set about setting up a number of traps in which to force the two behemoths together. Akihito Hirata returns in a different role, which is something the Godzilla films do a lot. It’s great seeing familiar faces in new roles throughout the series.
While the two monsters are separated, we’re treated to more Kong antics. One hilarious scene has a voice on the radio announce that Kong is running through suburban areas and the film quickly cuts to a funny shot of Kong running like a mad man in a monkey suit. It also builds up to more references to the original KING KONG, as our big ol’ ape still has a thing for the ladies. He takes Sakurai’s sister (of course) and it ends in a rather comical moment where Kong seems to realise he can’t do much climbing at his current size, and he ends up just crushing a building. The humans eventually send Kong to sleep much in the same way the islanders did, and he is hilariously airlifted (in an UP! balloon related fashion) to Godzilla on Mount Fuji. There the two have their climatic battle which is filled with ferocious fighting, but does go a bit too human at times. It also has moments such as toe-punting rocks, which would still surely hurt if not for the fact they were hollow/made of polystyrene. This just emphasizes the fact that we’re on a set. The fight swings in Godzilla’s favour before lightning strikes King Kong and bestows upon him an electric touch superpower. Although this deus ex machina may make many shake their heads in disbelief, it is tied into the plot regarding Kong being a force of nature. He IS Japan, the little island trying to get back to normality, which he eventually does as Godzilla and Kong fall into the ocean and only Kong is seen swimming back home.
At times, KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA captures both the tone of the earlier films, as well as preparing us for some of the silliness we had coming later. The comedy and action don’t always mix, and it does feel like two different scripts slapped together in parts. Sure, when it’s funny it is funny and when it’s tense it is tense, and it does show a great range from original GODZILLA director Ishiro Honda. But at the same time, there needed to be more cohesion between the elements. Despite all of this, it is just enjoyable to see two huge characters against each other on the screen for the same time. Seeing how difficult it is to get Marvel characters on screen together, it’s great that this happened before too much political and business nonsense swamped cinema. It also led to Toho having another shot at Kong with KING KONG LIVES, which was also directed by Ishiro Honda. The final third of the film, when Mr. Tako is less prominent and the monsters are finally together, is probably what the entire film should have been, but when it’s all this much fun, who cares?
Dub-Misstep: The dubbed version of KING KONG VERSUS GODZILLA simplifies things by cutting down scenes to their bare essentials. It also stops every now and again and has somebody explain events to the camera under the guise of a UN announcement. These reshot scenes just interrupt the narrative flow of the whole production. Worst of all, the score is completely changed with all of the original music gone and replaced with library music.
Monsters: Godzilla is back and badder than ever. The (arguably) most famous monster in the world, King Kong, is the real star though, even if budget restraints made him look a tad ridiculous at times. They’re a pretty even match. The film even has time for a giant octopus, who almost steals the film thanks to being a real octopus (or octopodes).
Notes For GODZILLA (2014): The over reliance on obvious humour is something to stay clear of, as we assume the latest film will be going for serious realism. Having two heavy hitters also means that there is need for a lot of split screentime. Godzilla needs to be the star, which means that reports of brand new and unknown monsters being his opponents are very welcomed.
G-RATING:
View all the articles in our countdown right here!
GODZILLA will be released 16th May 2014. It stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Sally Hawkins, Akira Takarada, and David Strathairn.
