King Kong Vs. Godzilla/Review

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< King Kong Vs. Godzilla
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Recently, when I went to theater with my family to watch Raya and the Last Dragon (in which I surprisingly enjoyed, considering that I'm not really a target group for movies like this), they played an upcoming trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong. I completely forgot about it since, months ago, there was a lot of hype for this epic battle between two legendary monsters. I remember that, as soon as I heard about it, I couldn't wait to see the original version that I had heard before for the longest time. That's right, in 1962, the war between gigantic monsters began with King Kong Vs. Godzilla. However, the version I'm about to review here is the Japanese cut. I haven't seen the U.S. cut that everyone grew up watching on UHF channels yet, but several people say that the editing is a little bit confusing and has newly-shot scenes that don't relate to the main storyline at all. So I might watch it later on.

So how does the Kong fight against King of The Monsters? Well, the story begins when US submarine crashes into an iceberg that has frozen Godzilla for quite a while (possibly as depicted in Godzilla Raids Again). Thus, it wakes up again and goes on rampage in Japan. Meanwhile, a pharmaceutical company wants to boost its TV show ratings and sales, so they come up with the idea to catch a monster on Faro Island (or "Pharoah Island", based on the subtitle on the copy that I watch) as a gimmick promotion. How does the Kong have anything to do with drugs? I'm not sure, but, as you may guess, the King Kong escapes from the boat to Japan and the chaos as well as epic battle ensures.

Those who expect this film to be either serious with political message (like in original Gojira) or campy and over-the-top (like Godzilla Vs. Megalon) might be disappointed since King Kong Vs. Godzilla actually falls somewhere between both types of movies. It clearly has more humorous moments here (most of it comes from the boss of a pharmaceutical company, who eagerly wants to take the Kong from island, easily pissed off when he's afraid that Godzilla might steal public interest from the Kong, and tries to make sure that the Kong won't be hurt in any shape or form...so he can use it for profit later on), but they aren't goofy and still has an interesting speech in the end about how human should live with the nature peacefully. Nonetheless, it's as straightforward as it can get. No deep characterisation or symbolic pieces in the storyline here, so what we have is a pure old-school Kaiju fun.

Want to see the miniatures get crushed? You got it. How about the exciting climactic fight at the end? It's all here! In fact, there are scenes that actually pay homage to original 1933 King Kong as well. One of them is when our Kong goes nuts in Tokyo, catches gorgeous woman (played by the soon-to-be-Bond-girl Mie Hama), and tries to climb a building. These are very well put details and efforts to satisfy both who've seen the RKO Pictures' classic and those who've heard of the Kong for the first time from this film.

So who's going to win? Well, I think we may already know the answer, but I have to confirm here again that the myth about "different ending" from Japanese cut is pure fake news. It ends the same as in the American cut and, in all honesty, if Godzilla wins, how should the film end anyway? Keep in mind that this was before the King of Monsters became a good-guy type of character and, therefore, he has no choice but to get killed in both versions.

Modern audience might find it to be cheaply-made and not as blasting as the upcoming movie, but King Kong Vs. Godzilla successfully revitalised public interest in this franchise again in Japan and absolutely deserved to be one of the Toho's 30th Anniversary commemorative films (besides masterpieces like Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro). Sure, it's not as superb as Gojira, but definitely entertaining and pave their way to later entries, which includes more characters (like Mothra or Mecha-Godzilla) and campier tone as the time goes by during 70's...

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