King Kong is represented by an extremely shabby man in a monkey suit. The special effects are not particularly good. Godzilla, Japan seems to rely on the intelligence of the foreign monster to save them where it is as though Ishiro Honda has bowed and surrendered to the post-War US military occupation of Japan and acknowledged its superiority in dealing with crises. Ishiro Honda made Godzilla so that nobody would ever forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki in King Kong Vs. If you want to try delving into the murky level of subtext these films operate on, the metaphor has almost completely reversed since the howl of pain represented by the 1954 Godzilla. It is also a long way down even from the ferocity of the original Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1954) – at most this film operates on a crude level of metaphor where Godzilla is seen as representing mindless brute strength and Kong intelligence. It is a long way down from the original King Kong – the lowbrow buffoonery with the explorers trading radios and cigarettes to the natives and pratfalling with iguanas is a world of difference from the primal power of the scenes meeting the natives and venturing into the jungle in King Kong. Godzilla is absurdly entertaining in the surrealistically cartoonish way that only Japanese monster movies can be. Godzilla in existence – one for Japanese audiences in which Godzilla wins, and one for American audiences in which King Kong wins – although this is untrue – Kong wins in both versions.
Rumours have persisted over the years that there were two versions of King Kong Vs. Although at this point, Godzilla had not yet made his way to become Japan’s defender – and would not for several more films – and was still seen as a villain.
Godzilla vs king kong 1962 series#
Godzilla, the series began its move toward what all the subsequent Godzilla films became – large-scale wrestling matches between Godzilla and one or more giant monster.Īnd what a great title match it was too – it must be one of the great drawcard title fights of the century, with Toho somehow having gotten the rights to sequelise King Kong (1933) from RKO. Toho clearly felt they had exhausted most of the possibilities of large monsters attacking Japan with the first two films. Godzilla was the third of Toho’s Godzilla films.
If you would like to be featured on an upcoming episode head over to: can also join the discussion in our new Discord server. With the release of “GODZILLA vs KONG”, podcasters from across the globe are on a mission to celebrate Kaiju cinema’s 88* year history by revisiting some of the biggest films from these two titan franchises! In today’s episode our group of podcasters discuss their favorite memories from *the original*, 1962’s “KING KONG vs GODZILLA”! (GvK 2021 review coming soon!) Let them podcast: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy…”