King Kong vs. Mehani Kong. A also Horosaurus and the Giant Sea Serpent. While the pictures about Godzilla became more and more simple and family, Ishiro Honda tried as best he could so that the Kaiju genre flourished in different directions, shooting a real horror - Sandu vs. Gaira, then this is not comedic fiction.
There is no childishness or naivety in the film, and no comedic elements. There’s only one ironic joke in the whole movie, and that one is a good one: “Do you think we’ll find Kong?” - Of course, they did not take him to the North Pole! - Do I need to add, where in the next frame will be the kidnapped gorilla?
In the northern ice, the sinister genius Doctor Who, no, no, in all seriousness - Dr. Who, played by a regular participant in genre films - Hideyo Amamoto, stealing the drawings, designs a mechanical Robot Kong so that he could get a rare radioactive element. Mehani-Kong cannot cope with the task - radiation destroys its chips.
Then this same Dr. Hu with his customer Madame Piranha (Madame-X) - a representative of one unnamed very militant Asian country (Korea?), played by Mie Hama who has already met with an overgrown gorilla in King Kong vs. Godzilla and, incidentally, the Bond girl from You Only Live Twice, are going to make the real King Kong work.
Meanwhile, Honda introduces the already familiar classic trinity of the main characters - a military (this time an American), a scientist (Japanese, a regular of kaiju films - Akira Takarada) and a woman - a blonde American, it's a movie about King Kong, after all!
The first, after Mehani Kong, the film presents Horosaurus, and then you realize how much Toho in those years mocked the costume of Godzilla. Here's a superb giant dinosaur, a beautifully made lizard that looks like it should! Why are Godzilla costumes so bad in those same years?
The predatory lizard who attacked the blonde soon receives tumakov from the awakened Gorilla. Kong’s costume has been updated since King Kong vs Godzilla, so it looks several times better and looks more like a gorilla. Even with the movements, this time everything is much more realistic, Kong and hunched, and sometimes runs on four legs, and not only walks on the back two.
A little strained that Kong obeys the orders of the language, which the idea did not even hear – because the natives on the island speak their own dialect, but for the fiction of those years, this is not the most terrible assumption of all. The story is pretty good here. Unless, when King Kong ceases to obey, it would be more logical to mention that the effect of hypnosis has passed, and not just blame the radiant crystals.
But, of course, the sharp movement of characters on the map of the globe - causes much more bewilderment. But Honda perfectly shows the variety of locations. Fukuda’s films about Godzilla from 1966-1967 were a kind of “island adventure” genre. Honda made his answer to family-entertainment tapes, shooting much more seriously than the tape about an overgrown gorilla fighting its mechanical copy could ever come out.
Honda perfectly removes the island, and the icy expanses, and the final action in the metropolis. Kong in the picture is very much and he constantly fights with someone, so fans of old-school action with rubber suits will be enough with more than delight!
The magnificent Horosaurus is not the only monster inhabitant of the island. But the first battle takes place with him to show the power and ferocity of King Kong. Two toothy monsters arrange an homage to the classic American tape of the 30s - Kong also puts the lady of the heart on a tree and goes to fight with a dinosaur, confidently winning in a protracted fight.
The problems don't end there. Trying to get off the island, the main characters are attacked by a Sea Serpent or a giant eel. The creature almost disables the motor apparatus, but the brave Kong goes to protect the blonde, bravely fighting in the water with the monster entangled him.
And here the director includes all the duality of Kong’s nature, having stopped making him a brave knight – Kong attacks the submarine, not wanting the beauty to swim away. So a giant gorilla, in general, does not matter - their own or strangers, villains or heroes, he in a selfish manner destroys everything around him if it wanders into his head.
He just wants to see the little beauty again and again. But the heroes manage to escape, and their report provokes an invasion of the Doctor's island and his villainous team. No sooner did the action with monsters end, as military equipment is used - a giant gorilla is bombed with sleeping pills to clutch and lead to the North Pole to extract a rare Element-X, capable of raising the nuclear potential of any country to unprecedented heights.
There, the monster encounters its mechanical counterpart. Mehani Kong is well done. The film in many details makes homages to the American “King Kong”, playing various episodes in its own way.
The picture is full of diversity, not shy of murder and blood, demonstrates an excellent crowd of military and civilian urban residents for joint scenes with monsters and simply captivates with its history. And the characters in the picture are nice.
The antagonist turned out to be very “Bond” and “comic”, perhaps one of the best negative characters in the Kaiju genre, far surpassing any evil alien leaders from the Godzilla films. And his partner is revealed as a character, generally better than all the others in this picture due to his development from a cold-blooded villain to a woman who is aware of the mistakes of her country.
At the same time, the film tries to move the genre further, to bring more variety and interesting features. For example, here the monster does not confront the troops and the army – the scene in which Kong is declared safe and the tanks are deployed – is a truly unique event.
Next comes Mehani Kong and begins to destroy the city - here he is a true monster, man-made creation of mankind! Perhaps this is where some clever message and symbolism should be seen, there would be a desire. And there is something in the scene where the main character begs Kong to run away, and not fight with the robot, because you can not defeat the mechanism. Is there any allusion to a battle against the system or anything like that? In general, the long-awaited “Sunday fight of two yakozoons” begins to the final.
It is interesting to follow the fight of Robo-Cong with the real one at least later that Kong is faster and more agile, but the mechanical creation cannot get tired and tired, which is clearly and pronounces the antagonist of the picture, proud of his creation. Moreover, the fight itself takes place not even among houses and not in the open area, but on a high building of the Tokyo tower.
The King Kong Escape was a success! One of the best films of Ishiro Honda, one of the best Kaiju films of cinema. Not as meaningful as disaster films about huge monsters like the first Godzilla, and moving away from the horror genre to the fiction genre, while fascinating and high-quality for its year of release. Great movie about giant monsters from the master of the genre!
9 out of 10
Original