Talkback: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

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BurningGodzilla
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by BurningGodzilla »

This is one of the few Godzilla films of which I haven't seen the Japanese version all the way through. So strictly speaking on the portrayal of Godzilla in the American version, I find this movie to have the most offensive depiction of Godzilla of all time, at least to my personal tastes. His brain is tiny, and he is weak to electricity, really? I believe his portrayal is about the same in both the Japanese and American versions. I have read all the steps of production that led to this happening to Godzilla's character in this film (what with it almost being another character), but still... They somehow made the script canonically fit in with his entrapment in ice, but they didn't remember to include his proper powers already established in the first two films? All in all it's still a fun movie to watch, and I can't help but love Godzilla's design.
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Mr. Xeno
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Mr. Xeno »

Agree with you guys. I think I've only seen the Japanese version once before, (long, long, looooooooooong ago when I was actually quite young) on an imported/recorded VHS, because I believed in the double ending. But since I only remember the American cut, which is quite different, I don't feel comfortable talking about the original Japanese version.

But my God, the American cut of this movie is a disaster, and I would honestly be quite surprised if most of my complaints were resolved with the Japanese cut. In all honesty, I think my main problem is that I just can't wrap my head around the fact that it's a comedy. I mean, I know the film was a satire on the TV industry, but satire =/= straight up comedy. Not a single other Godzilla film was so directly comedic as this one, and considering how it came right off the heels of two very serious films, it's only all the more jarring.

On top of that, the suits are of rather poor quality, and the concessions they have to make to give King Kong a fighting chance (we all know Godzilla would fucking crush the actual Kong in two seconds) gives this film an extremely strange place in the franchise's continuity.

The characters are also fairly meh. The corns guy was the only memorable one, really, and that was more so for his stupidity/annoyance. The worst character, though, is easily Fujita's girlfriend. She exists just to be the woman, and later, the woman that Kong takes. She's a total blank slate.

That said, I do think Ifukube's score for the film is rather great. The island chant is definitely memorable (although I think it might be taken from Varan).
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BurningGodzilla
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by BurningGodzilla »

Mr. Xeno wrote:...because I believed in the double ending.
Those were the days! :huge:
I spent most of my childhood leading a lie about this film.
Mr. Xeno wrote:The worst character, though, is easily Fujita's girlfriend. She exists just to be the woman, and later, the woman that Kong takes. She's a total blank slate.
The scene where she is running from Godzilla and continuously falling across the stream by the railroad, was kept from being extremely annoying only because of how hilarious it was!
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by three »

i only ever had access to the dub of this. through the years, I have fluctuated in how much i personally enjoyed it. i remember being little and always wanting to try the berries haha...

currently, i sit at a place where i find the film to be critically great, but not so awesome for me entertainment wise. perhaps this will change again in the future.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by edgaguirus »

I enjoy some of the humor in this film. Corn guy is amusing.
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Kaiju no Kami
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Kaiju no Kami »

The best character in the movie is hands down Tako. That guy is just awesome!!!!

For those who have never seen the Japanese version, I do do a comparison between both versions in my review on my Youtube channel. The link to my channel is in my signature.

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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Armored Colossus »

My uncle used to tell me Godzilla got bored with King Kong and swam away.

I think Godzilla could killed Kong rather easily underwater. He can drown and burn Kong.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

King Kong vs Godzilla is possibly the most significant entry in the series(equal footing with 1954, yes I'm going there) . I'm not going to elaborate on this now but I'm actually writing a huge paper on it and it'll make sense later. I'm paranoid if I write it all out here before I submit it somehow my teacher will accuse me of plagiarism.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Godzillian »

As a kid never liked this to much but now that I'm older I absolutely love it!
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Pkmatrix »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:King Kong vs Godzilla is possibly the most significant entry in the series(equal footing with 1954, yes I'm going there) . I'm not going to elaborate on this now but I'm actually writing a huge paper on it and it'll make sense later. I'm paranoid if I write it all out here before I submit it somehow my teacher will accuse me of plagiarism.
Well, whenever you're ready to post it I'll definitely be interested in reading. As I said earlier, I don't think all that highly of the movie so saying it's equal in significance to G'54 is a bold claim from my POV.

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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Space Hunter M »

Yeah, well, regardless of one's critical opinions, the franchise owes so much to this film it's not funny. I agree with LSD on this one.

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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Pkmatrix »

Space Hunter M wrote:Yeah, well, regardless of one's critical opinions, the franchise owes so much to this film it's not funny. I agree with LSD on this one.
Oh, well that IS true. An argument could be made that we'd never have gotten to a fourth film - let alone thirtieth - had KKvG not been made and been as successful as it was.

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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by KaijuFiend »

Not a huge fan of this film. In fairness, I've only seen the Americanized version, so perhaps the Japanese version will be better suited to my tastes. Unlike many on this forum, this was never a childhood favorite of mine. It was one of my least favorites growing up, because I always disliked how Godzilla was said to be a "dumb animal" (the "Godzilla's brain is only about as big as a walnut" scene), and I thought both Kong and Godzilla looked ugly. To this day, I'm just not fond of the '62 suit.

That said, I wouldn't say this is a bad film, and I definitely do understand and respect the importance of it. It's just pretty meh for me.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by eabaker »

KaijuFiend wrote:Not a huge fan of this film. In fairness, I've only seen the Americanized version, so perhaps the Japanese version will be better suited to my tastes. Unlike many on this forum, this was never a childhood favorite of mine. It was one of my least favorites growing up, because I always disliked how Godzilla was said to be a "dumb animal" (the "Godzilla's brain is only about as big as a walnut" scene), and I thought both Kong and Godzilla looked ugly. To this day, I'm just not fond of the '62 suit.

That said, I wouldn't say this is a bad film, and I definitely do understand and respect the importance of it. It's just pretty meh for me.
At the very least, the Japanese cut would spare you the "dumb animal" aspect. And it just has the advantages of more consistent tone, style and pace.

Alas, can't help you with the suits. ;)

To me, G '62 sits alongside '54, '64, '84 and '89 as those that simply define what Godzilla looks like in my mind.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Lain Of The Wired »

I liked the Godzilla 1962 suit, although the giant hands and claws made him look odd.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Mechagigan »

I like this one for it's humor, mainly. It's really a fresh of breath air among some of the more 'serious' Godzilla movies. The suits are kind of weird to me... sometimes Kong looks good, other times it almost looks like fur has rubbed off. Godzilla only looks right from the side view IMO, but that view definitely looks nice.

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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by BARAGONZILLA »

You know in the 90s they were going to make a sequel in which Godzilla killed king Kong. Why didn't they do that? :cry: It would have been beautiful for fans who wished the double ending was true.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

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BARAGONZILLA wrote:You know in the 90s they were going to make a sequel in which Godzilla killed king Kong. Why didn't they do that?
The rights to use Kong were way more expensive than Toho could justify for what the Godzilla movies were bringing in.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by Lain Of The Wired »

Sure wish Anthony would get to finally reading my email so we can get those pieces of concept art I found from this movie uploaded to this site...
Pretty cool that Kong in concept art looks like the snowman from Half-Human.
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Re: Talkback Thread #3: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Post by tymon »

BARAGONZILLA wrote:You know in the 90s they were going to make a sequel in which Godzilla killed king Kong.
That sounds depressing as fuck.
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