[HorrorScience] King Kong Escapes (1967)

Reading time: 6 minutes

Qualification

Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū

Year

1967

Duration

100 minutes

Director

Ishiro Honda

Distribution

Rhodes Reason, Akira Takarada, Linda Miller, Eisei Amamoto, Mie Hama, Yosihumi Tajima, Nadao Kirino, Susumu Kurobe, Shoichi Hirose, Toru Ibuki, Nadao Kirino, Sachio Sakai, Kazuo Suzuki, Yoshifumi Tajima, Andrew Hughes, Masaaki Tachibana, Ikio Sawamura, Yasuhisa Tsutsumi, Osman Yusuf, Haruo Nakajima and Yu Sekida

Script

Kaoru Mabuchi

Everyone knows King Kong, the giant ape who, after being taken from his habitat (Skull Island) was dragged to New York where he escaped from his captors and began his escape through the city, while carrying in one of his hands the beautiful actress who "fell in love" with him.

king kong (1933) is a cinema classic and one of the most important giant monster films in the world, which is why I can't explain how attempts have been made on more than one occasion to remake that film, since the result has been to create easily forgettable films, something predictable. In that sense, the remakes are treated quite similar to what happened to the sequel to the original film, Kong's son (1933) or to Japanese experiments such as King Kong VS Godzilla (1963) or King Kong Escapes (1967).

It will be from this last film, known in Japan as Kingu Kongu no Gyakushu and internationally as King Kong Escapes, which I'm going to talk about next and I'll warn you that being a Japanese production you can expect anything as demonstrated by feature films like Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)

The evil Dr Who (yes, there is a doctor called Who, but it has nothing to do with the Doctor Who we are all thinking of) has created a giant ape-like robot called Mechani-kong in order to use it as an excavator and thus extract Element (a very powerful material that could be used as a weapon in world control) from underground areas located at the North Pole. Unfortunately, the radiation from the material ends up causing the gigantic robot to malfunction and the plans of Dr Who and his ally (a mysterious young Asian woman representing some unmentioned country) fail miserably.

[HorrorScience] King Kong Escapes (1967) — The huge Mechani-Kong

On the other hand, a submarine captained by Carl Nelson ends up arriving almost by chance at Mondo Island, where they will find a lot of prehistoric and giant creatures. Among them a huge dinosaur (Gorosaurus) that after becoming interested in the crew will be beaten by the Japanese version of King Kong (bigger and uglier than the Western one).

The ape does what everyone expects: he is attracted to the pretty girl (Susan Watson) and protects her, but she manages to communicate with Kong (more or less) and manages to return to the submarine along with her companions.

After the failure of Mechani-kong, Doctor Who's ally puts the mad scientist on the ropes, whose new idea is kidnap the original Kong and use it to dig through the ice, Well, material

To avoid problems, Doctor Who decides to kidnap Admiral Nelson (with whom he seems to have some kind of rivalry) and his companions (in case Kong gets out of control, he can use Susan to obey him).

Everything seems to be going well for Doctor Who, but obviously that situation is temporary, since everything will get out of control and that will be when Mechani-kong will have to face King Kong, as dictated by the Japanese tradition of Kaiju Eiga films.

Despite all the crazy fun it offers, King Kong escapes It's a pretty weak movie.In fact, if it weren't for the appearance of a robotic King Kong, there would be nothing notable or striking to say about it, at least on my part.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but the truth is that the two Japanese King Kong films made by Toho are not much and are at the level of some of the worst films in the saga. godzilla, which is not a very positive thing. Although I have to admit that King Kong escapes It's not as bad as King Kong VS Godzilla, the truth is that both films are laughable and contribute very little to their genre.

I really like some ideas from the movie, like the Mechanikong (it had to exist, yes or yes), the crazy Dr Who (who was perhaps a source of inspiration for Dr Hell from Mazinger Z) and even the little-explained rivalry between Nelson and Who, but in general terms I don't see anything notable that makes this film a forgotten gem as they can be. Frankenstein Conquers The World either War of Gargantuas (all from the same director, Ishiro Honda).

Curiosities about the film:

Although the film is produced and directed by the same people who created King Kong VS Godzilla, there is no moment in which both films connect. Even the island where Kong lives is different.
One of the Dr Who hitmen is Susumu Kurobe, an actor who played the first Ultraman. This curious fact is not entirely a coincidence, since the main person in charge of the special effects of the Toho films (Eiji Tsuburaya) was the creator of ultraman.
Some ideas for the film come from a 1966 Kong animated series called The King Kong Show.
Mie Hama, the woman who hires Dr Who, became a bond girl the same year this film was released, with You only live twice.
Kong's unfortunate suit was reused years later for the television series Go! Greenman!