Kingu Kongu tai Gojira (1962)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writers:

Bruce Howard (american version)
Paul Mason (american version)
(more)

Release Date:

26 June 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The motion picture screen beckons you to adventure that thrills the emotions with shock and terror!

Plot:

A pharmaceutical company captures King Kong and brings him to Japan, where he escapes from captivity and battles a recently released Godzilla.

Plot Keywords:

Berries | Godzilla | Giant Ape | Island | Monster

Cast

Tadao Takashima	...	Osamu Sakurai
Kenji Sahara	...	Kazuo Fujita
Yu Fujiki	...	Kinsaburo Furue
Ichirô Arishima	...	Mr. Tako
Jun Tazaki	...	General Masami Shinzo
Akihiko Hirata	...	Dr. Shigezawa
Mie Hama	...	Fumiko Sakurai
Akiko Wakabayashi	...	Tamiye
Akemi Negishi	...	Chikiro's Mother (Dancing Girl)
Senshô Matsumoto	...	Prime Minister
Senkichi Omura	...	TTV Translator Konno
Sachio Sakai	...	Obayashi (Mr. Tako's assistant)
Haruya Kato	...	Obayashi's assistant
Nadao Kirino	...	General's Aide
Kenzo Tabu	...	Dreary Newscaster
Shin Otomo	...	Captain of Vessel
Yoshio Kosugi	...	Farou Island Chief
Tatsuo Matsumura	...	Dr. Makino
Ko Mishima	...	Official
Yoshifumi Tajima	...	Captain of Fujita's Ship - Japanese version only
Ikio Sawamura	...	Witch Doctor
Ren Yamamoto	...	Helicopter Pilot
Harold Conway	...	Scientist in Sub
Osman Yusuf	...	Submariner
Shoichi Hirose	...	Kingukongu
Haruo Nakajima	...	Gojira
Katsumi Tezuka	...	Gojira
Michael Keith	...	Eric Carter (U.S. version only)
James Yagi	...	Yutaka Omura (U.S. version only)
Harry Holcombe	...	Dr. Arnold Johnson (U.S. version only)
Byron Morrow	...	TV Newscaster (U.S. version only)
Les Tremayne	...	Narrator (U.S. version only) (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Takuzo Kumagaya	...	Police Executive (as Jirô Kumagai)

Directed by
Ishirô Honda

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
John Beck		story "King Kong vs. Prometheus" (uncredited)
Bruce Howard		american version
Paul Mason		american version
Willis H. O'Brien		story "King Kong vs. Frankenstein" (uncredited)
Shinichi Sekizawa		writer
George Worthing Yates		story "King Kong vs. Prometheus"

Produced by
John Beck	....	producer
Tomoyuki Tanaka	....	producer

Original Music by
Akira Ifukube

Cinematography by
Hajime Koizumi

Film Editing by
Reiko Kaneko

Production Design by
Teruaki Abe
Takeo Kita

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Koji Hashimoto	....	third assistant director
Koji Kajita	....	chief assistant director

Sound Department
Sadamasa Nishimoto	....	sound effects editor
Hisashi Shimonaga	....	sound effects
William L. Stevenson	....	sound effects editor: USA

Special Effects by
Teruyoshi Nakano	....	assistant director of special effects
Teizo Toshimitsu	....	special effects suit design
Eiji Tsuburaya	....	director of special effects
Akira Watanabe	....	art director of special effects/gojira and kingukongu suit designs
Fuminori Ohashi	....	special effects technical advisor (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Sadamasa Arikawa	....	director of special effects photography
Koichi Kawakita	....	assistant special effects cameraman
Kuichiro Kishida	....	special effects lighting
Yukio Manoda	....	optical effects
Hiroshi Mukoyama	....	matte process
Sokei Tomioka	....	special effects camera operator
Taka Yuki	....	optical effects

Stunts
Haruo Nakajima	....	stunt choreographer

Camera and Electrical Department
Shoshichi Kojima	....	lighting technician

Music Department
Robert Emmett Dolan	....	composer: stock music (US version)
Joseph Gershenson	....	conductor: USA
Henry Mancini	....	composer: stock music (US version)
Milton Rosen	....	composer: stock music (US version)
Hans J. Salter	....	composer: stock music (US version)
Herman Stein	....	composer: stock music (US version)
Peter Zinner	....	music supervisor: American music

Other crew
Tom Montgomery	....	director: American version

Production Companies

• John Beck
• RKO General Pictures
• Toho Company
• Universal International Pictures (UI)

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1963) (USA) (theatrical) (English dubbed)
• Kuk Dong (1963) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (1963) (UK) (theatrical)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD) (2007) (Germany) (TV)
• GoodTimes Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Nihon Eiga Satellite Broadcasting (2008) (Japan) (TV)

Other Companies

• Toho Studios  sound stages

Also Known As:

King Kong vs. Godzilla

Runtime:

Germany:82 min | Japan:98 min | USA:91 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Perspecta Stereo (Japan theatrical release) | Mono (Westrex Recording System) (US version)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | UK:PG

Company:

John Beck

Trivia:

The idea for this movie was spawned by Willis O'Brien, who had done the special effects for King Kong (1933). In the late 1950s, he tried to drum up interest in a sequel to be titled King Kong vs. Frankenstein. The Frankenstein would have been a giant monster created from different animals. Unable to find an American studio interested in the project, producer John Beck offered the idea to Toho who replaced Frankenstein with Godzilla.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: You can see the eyes of the stuntman playing Kong through the eyes of the Kong suit head, especially near the end when Kong is unconscious, before he gets struck by lightning, in the close-ups of him laying on the ground while Godzilla is hitting him with his tail.

Quotes:

Furue: What's happening?
Osamu Sakurai: Giant octopus. Hurry.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1998) (TV)

Soundtrack:

A SI ANAROI

Good monster carnage.

Excellent entry into the Godzilla series, the idea of the best known monsters fighting each other was inevitable. The fact that King Kong and Godzilla are in it is reason enough alone to watch it. The American footage was obviously added in such as in "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" but they didn't do a bad job. I have to resolve this one little question that I have been asked many times: Why didn't Godzilla win? Well, the answer to that is that when this was made Godzilla was still a bad guy, and humanity still wanted him destroyed. Because King Kong was loved so much in previous movies, it was a good idea to let him win. In other words, Godzilla was not yet a superhero.