The return of King Kong
| Movie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| German title | The return of King Kong | ||
| Original title | Kingu Kongu tai Gojira | ||
| Country of production | Japan | ||
| original language | Japanese | ||
| Publishing year | 1962 | ||
| length | Yep Original Version: 97 minutes US Cut Version: 91 minutes German. Theatrical version: 78 minutes |
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| Age rating | FSK 12 | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Ishirō Honda | ||
| script | Shinichi Sekizawa | ||
| production |
Tomoyuki Tanaka , John Beck |
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| music | Ifukube Akira | ||
| camera | Hajime Koizumi | ||
| cut | Reiko Kaneko | ||
| occupation | |||
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| chronology | |||
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The return of King Kong ( Japanese キ ン グ コ ン グ 対 ゴ ジ ラ , Kingu Kongu tai Gojira , German "King Kong against Gojira" also known under the German "Battle of the Giants" and "King Kong Comes Back") is the title of a 1962 created monster films by the Japanese director Ishirō Honda . After Godzilla and the sequel Godzilla Returns, which was released a year later, it is the third Japanese film about the cult monster Godzilla and also includes an adaptation of the King Kong character , for whose official use the producing Toho studios acquired the rights from RKO Pictures . The film is a representative of " Kaijū Eiga", the genre of the Japanese monster film. It is the first color film for both King Kong and Godzilla.
action
Dr. Muro Makiamato brings huge berries with him from the South Sea island of Faroa, which have a numbing effect. When he tells that the inhabitants of this island worship a monster named King Kong , Mr. Tako, head of a pharmaceutical company, sends his employees Osamu Sakurai and Kinsaburo Furue to bring the monster to Japan as an advertising medium.
At the same time, an increase in water temperature is reported from the Bering Sea , causing icebergs to melt. A submarine that is supposed to research this phenomenon collides with an iceberg in which the primeval dinosaur Godzilla has been stuck since Godzilla returned and is now drifting towards Japan. On the coast, Godzilla is chased back into the sea by Japanese tanks.
In the meantime, Sakurai and Furue arrive on the island of Faroa and indeed find the giant monkey King Kong there. The two witness King Kong fighting a giant octopus . When they are on their way to Japan by sea with King Kong, they are stopped by a navy ship that informs them that King Kong cannot be brought to Japan. However, King Kong manages to break free and swims towards Japan.
When Fumiko, Sakurai's sister, is on the train because she falsely believes that her boyfriend Fujita is the victim of a plane crash, Godzilla, who has returned to the mainland, crosses her path. She is saved by Fujita.
Tako and his two assistants witness a first encounter between the two monsters, but it ends in a draw. The military's plan to blow up Godzilla in a deep trench fails. However, Godzilla can be kept away from Tokyo by means of high-voltage pylons, which King Kong will not be deterred by. While Tokyo is being evacuated, King Kong dismantles a train that Fumiko wants to take to escape. King Kong kidnaps her and climbs with her on a building in the city center. At Sakurai's suggestion, the military stuns King Kong with the juice of the Faroa berries. Fumiko is rescued and King Kong is helicoptered to Fujiyama , where he meets Godzilla. There both immediately attack each other and leave a trail of destruction. A sudden earthquake causes both monsters to fall into the sea. Godzilla no longer appears, King Kong swims back to his homeland.
backgrounds
Emergence
Originally, this film under the name King Kong Versus Frankenstein was an idea of the effects pioneer Willis O'Brien , but with which it was not well received. After several changes to the concept - so should u. a. King Kong and Frankenstein's monsters compete against each other - the idea finally landed with John Beck . This in turn turned with O'Brien's plans behind his back to the Tōhō studios, which had once created Godzilla and saw in Beck's shack the solution to their current financial problems. Now Godzilla should play against King Kong. Filming finally began in 1962. In the same year Willis O'Brien died of a heart attack.
After the original Godzilla movie of 1954 was The Return of the King Kong of the second Godzilla film under Ishiro Honda's directing. It was the first color screen appearance for both King Kong and Godzilla. Under Honda's direction, she has a supporting role as Dr. Shigezawa to see Akihiko Hirata again, who starred in the 1954 film in his role as Dr. Serizawa had killed Godzilla with his invention, the oxygen destroyer.
The trick technician Eiji Tsuburaya , who had worked with the suitmation process in the Godzilla film from 1954 , used it again here, as it was cheaper than the stop-motion technology originally planned for King Kong . King Kong and Godzilla were set in motion here by appropriately disguised actors. The King Kong costume is considered by fans to be the worst on the giant monkey's screen appearances. So is z. B. in one setting the zipper on the back of the costume is very clearly visible. According to Tsuburaya, Kong's appearance was deliberately designed in a more comedic style so as not to frighten young children. - However, the octopus with which King Kong clashes on Faroa was real. Four specimens of this species were used to shoot this fight scene; and it is said that one of them ended up in the saucepan for Tsuburaya.
For a long time it was rumored that Honda had staged two different film endings: for the American audience, he would have let King Kong win, while the Japanese audience would have seen Godzilla emerge victorious from the final fight. However, this assumption is now considered untrue.
US version
In order to better market the film in the USA, co-producer John Beck removed some of the Japanese scenes and added new scenes with the two television actors Michael Keith as explanatory UN reporter Eric Carter and Harry Holcombe as scientist Dr Arnold Johnson. The script for these additional scenes was written by Paul Mason and Bruce Howard. Thomas Montgomery directed it. Much of the subplot about the relationship between Fumiko and Fujita has been removed; when Fumiko assumes that Fujita was killed in a plane crash, the Japanese version speaks of a trip by ship. The US version also shows Mr. Tako's personality more briefly than in the Japanese version. The earthquake scenes at the end of the US version were supplemented with footage from Inoshiro Honda's older film Space Beasts .
Akira Ifukube's original soundtrack has also been largely exchanged for soundtracks from other films (including from Jack Arnold's The Horror of the Amazon ; music from Jack Arnold's film is used, for example, when King Kong is able to break free from the raft on a trip to Japan).
This edited version was released in the US under the title King Kong vs. Godzilla and grossed $ 1,250,000 there.
The German version of the film is based on the American version (unlike the two previous Godzilla films).
World premieres
- Japan: August 11, 1962
- USA: June 3, 1963
- Germany: August 23, 1974
reception
“The perfectly staged animation show offers an anthology of monster cinema à la Inoshiro [= Ishirō] Honda. An entertaining pastime for lovers of the genre. "
On August 3, 2018, the film was shown as part of the Tele 5 series The Worst Films of All Time .
The film received mostly negative reviews. Critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website rated him only 47 percent positive. A comparably poor result came from the audience, who liked the film 53 percent.
The Return of King Kong is still considered one of the most successful Godzilla films: in Japan alone, over 12 million cinema-goers saw it. The film was also very successful internationally.
The film grossed around 41 million US dollars worldwide.
Web links
- King Kong vs. Godzilla in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- www.schnittberichte.com - Comparison of the US and Japanese versions
- www.schnittberichte.com - Comparison of the German version and the US version
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for Return of King Kong . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2012 (PDF; test number: 46 682 V).
- ↑ World premieres according to IMDb
- ↑ The Return of King Kong. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 2, 2017 .
- ↑ King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963). Accessed August 6, 2019 .
- ↑ King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) | Ultimate Movie Rankings. Retrieved November 30, 2019 (American English).
King Kong and the White Woman (1933) | King Kong's son (1933) | Panic for King Kong (1949) | The Return of King Kong (1962) | King Kong - Frankenstein's son (1967) | King Kong (1976) | King Kong Lives (1986) | King Kong (2005) | Kong: Skull Island (2017)