‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’ or — ‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’ vs. ‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’?
Like many big kids I love the 1963 ‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’ and like many big kids living outside of Japan I had never seen the original 1962 Japanese version, possibly because until relatively recently it hadn’t been readily available, but thanks to the Godzilla Showa era blu ray set I now have both in my clutches so thought I’d have a double-bill of the two to see which would reign supreme. Just how different would they be and would any noticeable changes have an impact on quality? Turns out the answer is “significant” and on both counts.
The plot to both films is, essentially, the same where King Kong is bought to Japan for publicity purposes only to escape and fight Godzilla after the slumbering lizard emerges from an iceberg. It’s a fun, if highly silly, story but whilst the main thrust remains pretty much identical in both the contrasts in tone, pacing, editing, music, subplots, humour, characters and footage are so extreme it’s a jolt.
For one thing, the Americanised version is not only 9 minutes shorter but jettisons huge chunks of the Japanese film entirely and in its place inserts dry, dull, interminable scenes of a newsreader explaining what’s going on directly to the audience even though the audience has just seen exactly what’s been going on. So, all in all, there’s maybe around twenty minutes (I’m hazarding an approximate guess here), if not more, of the original that’s totally excised and replaced with talking heads shots so dry, turgid and flat they grind proceedings to a screeching halt whenever they appear.
This highlights the Japanese version’s main strength in that it flows and hangs together in a vastly more satisfying manner (who knew that hacking a movie to bits would weaken its structural integrity?) and by having more time to focus on the pharmaceutical company and its television sponsorship the satirical element of ‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’ concerning corporate greed, advertising and consumerism is vastly increased. Indeed, what with all that plus the fact that the film goes full-blown meta commentating on a genre — the kaiju smackdown movie — it is simultaneously in the process of creating then you could argue it almost works better as a comedy than a monster movie (the American version is both po-faced and daft whilst the Japanese cut is genuinely funny and smart).
This cohesion also extends to the dramatic tension as the scenes of destruction and threat are given room to breathe and organically develop as opposed to simply cutting to them on an omnipresent TV monitor. It immerses us in the action as opposed to violently detaching us from it.
The other huge bonus of the Japanese version is Akira Ifukube’s excellent score (the American film replaced it with extracts from, amongst others, 1954’s ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’) which, again, adds to the coherence, excitement and momentum.
Having said all that both versions still possess the same weakness, namely Kong’s laughable costume which looks so raggedy, tatty and rough it’s like watching a sentient, moth-eaten fur-coat go berserk. Also, for all its flaws the American version still has a decent amount of its own idiosyncratic charm and appeal and is far from an obnoxious travesty, especially if that’s the only version you’ve known.
But the Japanese version is easily superior and whilst it might not elevate ‘King Kong vs. Godzilla’ to the very top of the Showa era Godzilla entries it’s a radical improvement in every possible area. If you’ve only seen the American version and not the original Japanese then do check it out because it’s like watching a completely different movie… possibly because it is.
