Movies - King Kong vs. Godzilla

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	Movies - King Kong vs. Godzilla

King Kong vs. Godzilla (キングコング対ゴジラ - Kingu Kongu tai Gojira) is a 1962 tokusatsu kaiju film directed by Ishiro Honda with visual effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It was the third installment in the Japanese series of kaiju films featuring the monster Godzilla. It is an eccentric departure from the visual effects style of the original 1933 film King Kong
, this film features a man in a gorilla suit playing Kong instead of stop-motion animation. Godzilla, freshly released from his iceberg enclosure from the end of Godzilla Raids Again
(U.S. title: Gigantis the Fire Monster) rampages through Japan. He eventually faces King Kong, brought from his island originally as a publicity stunt by the greedy head of a pharmaceutical company (played by Ichiro Arishima).

Overview

Unlike the other films in the series King Kong vs. Godzilla overtly emphasizes comedy, both in the human and monster scenes. This is usually attributed to Eiji Tsuburaya, who wanted to move the Godzilla series in a lighter direction. The film is obviously a spoof of commercialism and the burgeoning media in Japan. Some critics also claim that Kong, and in the following film Mothra, represent the resources of the Pacific Islands with Godzilla as symbol of the United States's nuclear power. However, Kong is usually viewed as an 'American' monster.

Much of the overt comedy of the film disappears in the re-edited version released in America by Universal International. Producer John Beck cut large amounts of the Japanese footage and replaced it with new footage of American actors playing newscasters commenting on the action. The score by Akira Ifukube was also replaced with library music, much of it replaced by stock music from the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon by Henry Mancini. The score swap angers many fans to this day.

The film had its roots in earlier concepts for a new Kong feature put out by Willis O'Brien in his search to fund another film starring the famous ape. In O'Brien's original proposed treatment, the gorilla King Kong fought against a giant version of the Frankenstein creature. After American producer John Beck sold the concept to Toho Studios (much to O'Brien's dismay), the Japanese executives replaced the Frankenstein monster with their own flagship giant monster, Godzilla. This was the first color feature for either monster.

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Movies - King Kong vs. Godzilla

Overview

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