Talkback: King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

[Goji]

Both themes are wonderful, and are equally effective.

[Mini-Godzilla]

Thoughts after the most recent re-watch: it's good if you want to throw something on in the background and half-ignore it. The monster action isn't bad, even if the Kong suit is abysmal. The characters are decent in the Japanese cut, at least, but they suffer from the U.S. trims. Either way, Ichiro Arishima stands out with his effeminate, hammy performance, which may or may not be a good thing.

[Rodan]

Thoughts after the most recent re-watch: it's good if you want to throw something on in the background and half-ignore it. The monster action isn't bad, even if the Kong suit is abysmal. The characters are decent in the Japanese cut, at least, but they suffer from the U.S. trims. Either way, Ichiro Arishima stands out with his effeminate, hammy performance, which may or may not be a good thing.

Really? I'm always quite enthralled by this one. It makes good background noise too, but it's so charming, even in the U.S. cut, that I have no problem seeing it through with full attention.

I think it's a slightly inferior film to Mothra vs., and part of that is its aiming more for pure spectacle, but I find myself enjoying it more on rewatches.

[ebirahsmeg1]

A rather nice Thanksgiving write up from David Kalat for KKvsG:

GIVING THANKS FOR KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (YOU’RE WELCOME)
http://moviemorlocks.com/2015/11/28/giv ... e-welcome/

[Giga Kaiju]

Thoughts after the most recent re-watch: it's good if you want to throw something on in the background and half-ignore it. The monster action isn't bad, even if the Kong suit is abysmal. The characters are decent in the Japanese cut, at least, but they suffer from the U.S. trims. Either way, Ichiro Arishima stands out with his effeminate, hammy performance, which may or may not be a good thing.

Really? I'm always quite enthralled by this one. It makes good background noise too, but it's so charming, even in the U.S. cut, that I have no problem seeing it through with full attention.

I think it's a slightly inferior film to Mothra vs., and part of that is its aiming more for pure spectacle, but I find myself enjoying it more on rewatches.

And that's mainly why the movie is so rewatchable. It aims for fun-value and it succeeds at that. It isn't that much of a masterpiece in terms and comparison to other entries but it still delivers.

[Kaiser]

My biggest problem with the Japanese version is that because it's a parody/satire on kaiju eiga I feel like some of the humor is lost in translation. Comedies just generally don't travel well outside of their home countries and for every joke that lands there are a few more that just fall flat for me. It's a fun film, but I've never enjoyed it as much as Honda's other films from this time period. I guess I'm just more used to his more serious style.

[Giga Kaiju]

I have only seen the 'american' version and it is amusing every time. Since the Japanese, I heard, has those elements you mentioned I could see why it didn't do as good to have comedy in it.

[Tamura]

I think it doesn't really help that the most widely dispersed subtitles for this film (from VDK's release) aren't an actual translation at all, most of the time. Evidently VDK at the time had someone who didn't know any more than a very basic knowledge of Japanese because a lot of the dialog is totally made-up, and in a few cases flat-out nonsense even in English. I've translated some of the dialog myself and it is pretty funny and translates fairly well. The pun with Tako's name is a little hard to translate though (his name means octopus and this is noted during the octopus attack).

I'm sure Toho wanted their big east-meets-west crossover monster epic to export easily and sell well, like all their previous genre films did, so they would've been crazy to fill it with untranslatable humor. I've never believed the claim that Toho created all of their genre movies with only a domestic audience in mind. You don't find yourself involved in an extremely lucrative business (exporting SFX spectacles and "art" films) and then refuse to appeal to the audience that makes up most of your customers, that's stupid. The moment you set up international offices to attract your films to international buyers, submit your films to international film festivals and then brag about the awards your films won at said festivals in English brochures, all the while pre-selling genre films to US companies and continuing to produce said genre films partially due to their success abroad, you begin to care what international audiences think.

[Giga Kaiju]

Well, it was a START for Toho in that regard, so this one can be excused, right?

[The Octopus]

I think it doesn't really help that the most widely dispersed subtitles for this film (from VDK's release) aren't an actual translation at all, most of the time. Evidently VDK at the time had someone who didn't know any more than a very basic knowledge of Japanese because a lot of the dialog is totally made-up, and in a few cases flat-out nonsense even in English. I've translated some of the dialog myself and it is pretty funny and translates fairly well. The pun with Tako's name is a little hard to translate though (his name means octopus and this is noted during the octopus attack).

Or in some cases spelling. Pharaoh island? Huh?

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Sad MST3K never got ahold of this. It's ripe for their riffing.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Sad MST3K never got ahold of this. It's ripe for their riffing.

This, GRA, and SoG

[Spuro]

^Hey, Minya and the Godzilla suit aside, I'd argue SoG was one of the better Showa movies.

The only copy of the Japanese version of KKvG that I own is one I managed to download off the internet when I got lucky one day. It has subtitles, but I have no idea how accurate they are. At least I don't remember there being any "Pharaoh Island".

[Lain Of The Wired]

^Hey, Minya and the Godzilla suit aside, I'd argue SoG was one of the better Showa movies.

The only copy of the Japanese version of KKvG that I own is one I managed to download off the internet when I got lucky one day. It has subtitles, but I have no idea how accurate they are. At least I don't remember there being any "Pharaoh Island".

Oh I'll agree with you there, I love SoG, including Godzilla and the Minya suit

And I own the Japanese version, it says "Pharaoh"

[Giga Kaiju]

Their suits are endearing after some time, it is just the first impression of both and you see them at first.

[M.o.g.u.e.r.a14]

Sad MST3K never got ahold of this. It's ripe for their riffing.

Thank god they didn't.

[g2vd]

Sad MST3K never got ahold of this. It's ripe for their riffing.

As well as GVKG oh man, that would be hilarious or actually any Heisei film post 89 lol.

[bugmolly]

I just watched this movie on saturday, and it reminded me why as a kid i hated monkeys, they should never win against Godzilla that said the movie was overall fun to watch and much better than i remember

[Goji]

I don't remember seeing any monkeys in this movie..

[bugmolly]

I used monkey in a very broad sence including apes and great apes