King Kong vs. Godzilla
Directed by	Ishirō Honda
Produced by	Tomoyuki Tanaka
Written by	Shinichi Sekizawa
Starring	Tadao Takashima Kenji Sahara Yu Fujiki Ichirō Arishima
Music by	Akira Ifukube, Henry Mancini, Herman Stein (US version)
Cinematography	Hajime Koizumi
Distributed by	Toho
Release date(s)	August 11, 1962 (Japan) June 26, 1963 (USA)
Running time	98 Minutes (Japan)
Language	Japanese
Preceded by	Godzilla Raids Again
Followed by	Mothra vs. Godzilla , King Kong Escapes
IMDb profile

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. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (450x625, 221 KB) Licensing This image is of a movie poster or title card, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio which produced the movie in question. ... Ishirō Honda (本多 猪四郎 Honda Ishirō, May 7, 1911 in Yamagata Prefecture – February 28, 1993) was a Japanese film director. ... Tomoyuki Tanaka (田中友幸) was a Japanese movie producer, most famous for creating the Godzilla movies. ... Kenji Sahara (佐原 健二 Sahara Kenji) (born May 14, 1932) is a Japanese actor. ... Ichiro Arishima (1916-1987), Japanese film actor and comedian Ichirō Arishima , March 1, 1916—July 20, 1987) was a Japanese comedian and actor. ... Akira Ifukube (伊福部 昭 Ifukube Akira, 31 May 1914 – 8 February 2006) was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores, perhaps best known for his work on the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies. ... Henry Mancini (April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994), was an Academy Award winning American composer, conductor and arranger. ... Herman Stein (born August 9, 1915, in Philadelphia, PA - died March 15, 2007, in Los Angeles, CA) was an American composer who wrote music for many of Universal Studios 1950s science-fiction and horror films,. Herman Stein at the Internet Movie Database Categories: | | ... The English-language version of Tohos famous logo, used from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. ... August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... June 26 is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 188 days remaining. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... Godzilla no GyakushÅ« , lit. ... Mothra vs. ... King Kong Escapes, released in Japan as Kingu Kongu no GyakushÅ« literally King Kongs Counterattack), is a Japanese/American tokusatsu film. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... KaijÅ« (怪獣) is a Japanese term that generically translates to monster. ... Ishirō Honda (本多 猪四郎 Honda Ishirō, May 7, 1911 in Yamagata Prefecture - February 28, 1993) was a Japanese film director. ... Eiji Tsuburaya (円谷 英二 Tsuburaya Eiji) (July 7, 1901 – January 25, 1970) was responsible for the special effects on many Japanese movies, including the Godzilla series (1954–??). Born in Sukagawa, Fukushima prefecture, He worked as a cinematographer in Kyoto from 1919, joining Shochiku Kyoto Studios in... KaijÅ« (怪獣) is a Japanese term that generically translates to monster. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Plot summary

Mr. Tako, head of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, is frustrated with the television shows his company is sponsoring and wants something to boost his ratings. When a doctor tells Tako about a giant monster he discovered on the small Faro Island, Tako believes that it would be a brilliant idea "...with a punch" to use the monster to gain publicity. Tako immediately sends two men, Sakurai and Kinsaburo, to find and bring back the monster from Faro.

Meanwhile, the American submarine Seahawk gets caught in an iceberg. Unfortunately, this is the same iceberg that Godzilla was trapped in by the JSDF seven years earlier in 1955 in the movie Godzilla Raids Again. As an American rescue helicopter circles the iceberg, Godzilla breaks out and heads towards a nearby Japanese Arctic base. The base, of course, is ineffective against Godzilla. Godzilla's appearance is all over the press and makes Tako angry. As Tako is complaining about Godzilla's media hype to his employees, one of them exclaims "And... there's a movie too!" JSDF is an abreviation for Japanese Self-Defense Forces. ... Godzilla no Gyakushū , lit. ...

Meanwhile on Faro Island, Oodako (a giant octopus) attacks the village. King Kong finally makes his appearance and defeats the monster. Kong then drinks some "red berry juice" and falls asleep. Sakurai and Kinsaburo place Kong on a large raft and begin to transport him back to Japan. Back at Pacific Pharmaceuticals, Tako is excited because Kong is now all over the press instead of Godzilla. As Tako is out of the room, one of the employees ask which is stronger between King Kong and Godzilla. Another employee responds "Stupid, it's not a wrestling match!" Tako walks back in the room and exclaims "I'll buy that idea!" Oodako (Ö-dako), or Daku, is a giant octopus from the movie, King vs. ... King Kong is a fictional kaiju, greatly based on the titular character from the 1933 film King Kong. ...

Mr. Tako arrives on the ship transporting Kong, but unfortunately, the monster then wakes up and breaks free from the raft. As Kong meets up with Godzilla in a valley, Tako, Sakurai, and Kinsaburo have difficulty avoiding the JSDF to watch the fight. Eventually they find a spot. Kong throws some large rocks at Godzilla, but Godzilla shoots his atomic ray at Kong, so King Kong retreats.

The JSDF constantly try and stop both Kong and Godzilla but are mostly ineffective. They set up some power lines filled with a million volts of electricity (compare that to the 300,000 volts Godzilla went through in the original movie). The electricity is too much for Godzilla, but it seems to make King Kong stronger. Kong attacks Tokyo and holds a woman from a train, named Fumiko, hostage. The JSDF explode capsules full of the berry juice from Faro's scent and knock out King Kong. Tako approved of this plan because he "...didn't want anything bad to happen to Kong." The JSDF then decide to transport Kong via balloons to Godzilla, in hope that they will fight each other to their deaths.

The next morning, Kong is dumbo-dropped onto the summit of Mt. Fuji from the balloon air-lift, and meets up with Godzilla and the two begin to fight. Godzilla eventually knocks Kong down with a vicious drop kick, and batters the downed ape unconscious with powerful tail swipes to his forehead. When Godzilla begins to try to cremate his fallen foe, an electrical storm arrives and revives King Kong, giving him the power of an electric grasp. The two begin to fight again, with the revitalized Kong shoving a tree into Godzilla's mouth, swinging Godzilla around by his tail, and judo tossing him over his shoulder. The brawl between the two monsters continues all the way down to the coastline. Eventually the monsters tear through Atami Castle and plunge into the Pacific Ocean. After an underwater battle, only King Kong emerges from the water and begins to slowly swim back home to Faro Island. Godzilla is nowhere to be found. As King Kong swims home, humanity breathes a collective sigh of relief; the battle of the century, it seems, has finished.

Production

The film had its roots in an earlier concept for a new King Kong feature developed by Willis O'Brien, creator of the original stop-motion Kong. In O'Brien's original proposed treatment, King Kong vs. Frankenstein, Kong fought against a giant version of Frankenstein's monster.[1] O'Brien sparked the interest of producer John Beck with some concept art and several screenplay treatments to make the film. Unfortunately, the cost of stop animation prevented the film from being put into production. Beck took the story treatment and had George Yates flesh it out into a screenplay. The title was changed to King Kong Vs Prometheus because it was believed that Universal had the rights to the Frankenstein name. After shopping the script overseas, Beck attracted the interest of the Japanese studio Toho. Toho had long wanted to make a King Kong film and decided to replace the Frankenstein/Prometheus monster with their own monster Godzilla. They thought it would be the perfect way to celebrate their thirtieth year in production. Willis OBrien with his Academy Award. ... Boris Karloff as Frankensteins Monster in Frankenstein (1931) Frankensteins monster (sometimes Frankensteins creature or the Frankenstein monster or even Frankenstein) is a creature first appearing in Mary Shelleys novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. ... Stop motion is an animation technique which makes things that are static appear to be moving. ... The English-language version of Tohos famous logo, used from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. ...

Spfx Director Eiji Tsuburaya had a stated intention to move the Godzilla series in a lighter direction. To this end, King Kong vs. Godzilla has a much lighter tone than the previous two Godzilla films and contains a great deal of humor and action sequences are decidedly less realistic. The decision was also taken to shoot the film in a "Scope" ratio (2.35:1) and to film in color, marking both monsters' first color portrayals. Eiji Tsuburaya (円谷 英二 Tsuburaya Eiji) (July 7, 1901 – January 25, 1970) was responsible for the special effects on many Japanese movies, including the Godzilla series (1954–??). Born in Sukagawa, Fukushima prefecture, He worked as a cinematographer in Kyoto from 1919, joining Shochiku Kyoto Studios in...

Toho had planned to shoot this film on location in Sri Lanka, but had to forgo that (and scale back on production costs) because they ended up paying RKO roughly $200,000 (U.S) for the rights to the King Kong character. The bulk of the film was shot on Oshima (an island near Japan) instead. Oshima ( Japanese: 大島) is the name of several places in Japan. ...

At that time, King Kong was seen as the bigger draw, even in Japan, which led to the decision to not only give King Kong top billing, but also to present him as the winner of the climatic fight. While the ending of the film does look somewhat ambiguous, Toho confirmed that King Kong was indeed the winner in their 1962 press book Toho Films Vol 8, which states, A spectacular duel is arranged on the summit of Mt. Fuji, and King Kong is victorious.

Trivia

• During pre-production, Ishiro Honda had toyed with the idea of using Willis O'Brien's stop motion technique instead of the suitmation process used in his film, but budgetary concerns prevented him from using the process except in a few, isolated scenes.

• For the attack of the giant octopus, four live octopuses were used. They were forced to move by blowing hot air on them. After the filming of that scene was finished, three of the four were released. The fourth became special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya's dinner.

• While photographing a scene where a river is set on fire, director Honda was injured after sliding 30 meters down a slope, and assistant director Kajita took over.

• Atami castle which King Kong and Godzilla destroyed was completed three years of this movie ago.

• Because Haruo Nakajima drank water in large quantities in the scene where King Kong and Godzilla of the last fell into the sea with having entered Godzilla and was about to be drowned, Shoichi Hirose held Haruo Nakashima with having entered King Kong and helped it.

Ishirō Honda (本多 猪四郎 Honda Ishirō, May 7, 1911 in Yamagata Prefecture - February 28, 1993) was a Japanese film director. ... Willis OBrien with his Academy Award. ... Stop motion is an animation technique which makes things that are static appear to be moving. ... Suitmation (スーツメーション) is a term used in Japan for a Tokusatsu (special effects) technique to portray a daikaiju (giant monster) using an actor in a monster suit. ... Eiji Tsuburaya (円谷 英二 Tsuburaya Eiji) (July 7, 1901 – January 25, 1970) was responsible for the special effects on many Japanese movies, including the Godzilla series (1954–??). Born in Sukagawa, Fukushima prefecture, He worked as a cinematographer in Kyoto from 1919, joining Shochiku Kyoto Studios in... The original 1933 King Kong model. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Haruo Nakajima (born January 1, 1929 in Yamagata, Japan) is a Japanese actor. ...

Cast (original japanese version)

• Tadao Takashima ................. Osamu Sakurai
• Mie Hama ................. Fumiko Sakurai
• Kenji Sahara ................. Kazuo Fujita
• Akihiko Hirata ................. Dr Syousuke Sigesawa
• Yuu Fujiki ................. Kinzaburō Furue
• Ichirō Arishima ................. Mr Tako（Pacific Pharmaceuticals's Mayor of publicity department）
• Jun Tazaki ................ Eastern part army corps inspector-general
• Akiko Wakabayashi ................. Tamie ( Humiko's friend ）
• Senkichi Oomura ................. Konno ( interpreter)
• Yoshio Kosugi ................. Faro's chief
• Ikio Sawamura ................. prayer chief
• Akemi Negishi ................. Chikiro's mｏｔｈｅｒ
• Tatsuo Matsumura ................. Dr Makioka
• Somemasu Matsumoto .................Dr Oonuki
• Sachio Sakai .................Oobayashi (Pacific Pharmaceuticals's employee)
• Ichirō Chiba .................Pacific Pharmaceuticals's employee
• Haruya Katō .................Pacific Pharmaceuticals's employee
• Mieko Kurenai.................Pacific Pharmaceuticals's woman office worker
• Kenzō Tabu ................. TV emcee
• Kou Mishima .................marine executive officer
• Yukihiko Gondou .................helicopter pilot
• Ikuo Kawamura .................sailor of a ship for Faro Island
• Harold Conway ................ investigating group scientist A
• Ousmane Yusef ................ investigating group scientist B
• Nadao Kirino ................ Mayor of eastern part armed forces
• Yoshihumi Tajima ................ captain of daini-shinseimaru
• Yutaka Nakamura ................ telegrapher of daini-shinseimaru
• Hiromi Mineoka ................ Mother in a train
• Yoshinobu Kaneko................ child of an apartment

• Godzilla ................ Haruo Nakajima, Katsumi Tezuka
• King Kong ...............Shōichi Hirose

Haruo Nakajima (born January 1, 1929 in Yamagata, Japan) is a Japanese actor. ...

U.S. Version

As with the majority of Japanese imports of the day, King Kong vs. Godzilla was re-edited for the American market by its U.S. distributor, Universal International. In addition to dubbing the film, much of the overt comedy disappears in the re-edited version and U.S. 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 mostly replaced with library music, much of it from the Universal film Creature from the Black Lagoon by Henry Mancini. The climatic Earthquake is also much more powerful in the U.S version, which uses stock footage from the film The Mysterians in order to make the Earthquake much more violent than the tame tremor seen in the Japanese version. Universal Studios logo Universal Studios is a famous Hollywood movie studio located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California, which is in the San Fernando Valley. ... John Beck was a Reform Party candidate in the 1993 Canadian election who was forced to abandon his candidacy after making a series of anti-immigrant remarks. ... Akira Ifukube (伊福部 昭 Ifukube Akira, 31 May 1914 – 8 February 2006) was a Japanese composer of classical music and film scores, perhaps best known for his work on the soundtracks of the Godzilla movies. ... Library music is created for use in media productions, generally TV, film, advertising, radio and new media. ... Creature from the Black Lagoon is a 1954 black-and-white science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold, and starring Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, and Whit Bissell. ... Henry Mancini (April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994), was an Academy Award winning American composer, conductor and arranger. ... The Mysterians, released in Japan as Chikyū Bōeigun lit. ...

The American version runs 91 minutes, seven minutes shorter than the Japanese version.

Reaction

In Japan, this film has the highest box office attendance figures of all of the Godzilla series to date. It sold 11.2 million tickets during it's inital theatrical run. After 2 theatrical re-releases in 1970 and 1977 respectively, it has a lifetime figure of 12,550,000 tickets sold. The term box office can refer to either: A place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to a venue The amount of business a particular production, such as a movie or theatre show, does. ...

Legacy

Due to this films great box office success, Toho had wanted to do a sequel almost immediately. The sequel was simply called Continuation: King Kong vs Godzilla. [2] However the project never got off the ground.

In 1991, the film was to be remade as Godzilla vs King Kong [3] as part of the Heisei Series. However, Turner Entertainment, who claimed to be the owners of the original film, asked too much money for Kong's use. Next, Toho thought to make Godzilla vs Mechani-Kong [4], but was again stymied by Turner, who claimed Mechani-Kong was too similar to Kong. In the end, the film became Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. It has been suggested that Updated Japan News be merged into this article or section. ... Turner Entertainment Company was established August 4, 1986 to oversee Turner Broadcastings film library after its acquisition of MGM/UA. In addition to the studio, Turner got its library, which included all of MGMs films, Warner Bros. ... Mechani-Kong in King Kong Escapes. ... Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (Gojira Tai King Gidora in the original Japanese) is a 1991 film. ...

DVD Releases

Goodtimes Video

• Released: May 15, 2001

• Aspect Ratio: Full frame (1.33:1)

• Sound: English (1.0)

• Supplements: Production notes

• Region 1

• Note: Contains the U.S. version of the film

Universal Studios

• Released: November 29, 2005

• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic

• Sound: English

• Region 1

• Note: Contains the U.S. version of the film; Only available in a two-pack with King Kong Escapes

King Kong Escapes, released in Japan as Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū literally King Kongs Counterattack), is a Japanese/American tokusatsu film. ...

External links

• Archer, Eugene. "King Kong vs. Godzilla" (film review) The New York Times. June 27, 1963.
• Kingu Kongu tai Gojira (King Kong vs. Godzilla) at the Internet Movie Database
• Gojira's Sanctuary- Info and forums
• Cast List, Synopsis, Trailer and Photos for King Kong vs Godzilla at MIN