King Kong Appeared in Edo (1938)
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
King Kong Appeared in Edo (江戸に現れたキングコング Edo ni Arawareta Kingu Kongu), also known as simply King Kong (キング・コング Kingu Kongu), is a lost 1938 kaiju film produced by Zensho Cinema, based on RKO Pictures' King Kong. Released to theaters on March 18, 1938, it was the second Japanese film based on the story of King Kong, after the also lost Japanese King Kong from 1933.
Plot
In the first part, titled King Kong Appeared in Edo: Volume of Transformation (江戸に現れたキングコング：変化の巻 Edo ni Arawareta Kingu Kongu Henge no Maki), Chinami, a daughter of Hyoe Toba, is mysteriously kidnapped one night. Toba offers a 3,000 ryō (one of several currencies used by the Tokugawa shogunate) reward for his daughter. Yuzuru Kawasaki and other spongers set about searching for Chinami, but Magonojo Go, one of Toba's spongers, sneers at his fellows' efforts. In fact, Go is the very man who kidnapped Chinami, forcing his father Senbei's pet ape to abduct her.
The second part, titled King Kong Appeared in Edo: Volume of Gold (江戸に現れたキングコング：黄金の巻 Edo ni Arawareta Kingu Kongu Ōgon no Maki) has complex circumstances behind it. Toba influences Senbei to counterfeit coins, but he refuses. Toba imprisons Senbei somewhere. To get a clue of his father's whereabouts, Go disguises himself as one of Toba's spongers. Go menaces Toba with the ape covertly. He offers Toba Chinami's location in exchange for the prize money, and takes him to his secret cellar to shut him up. There, the vengeful ape kills Toba but he, too, is fatally wounded. Go then leaves Edo with 3,000 ryō. What happened to Chinami after that is unknown, but it is assumed she was freed when Magonojo received his money from Hyoe.
History
King Kong Appeared in Edo was one of Japan's first kaiju films, predating Godzilla by sixteen years. Although inaccurate to its historical setting, some Caligari-esque expressionistic buildings were added for Kong to climb. Like most of Japan's prewar cinematic output, the film is now completely lost.
Fuminori Ohashi, who would later provide guidance on the construction of the suit for Godzilla in the original 1954 film, created the ape suit and special effects for this film. He explained, "The first model making to be counted as 'special art direction' in Japanese cinema was a giant gorilla which I did for the movie King Kong Appeared in Edo fifty years ago. It was also the first movie to feature certain kinds of special effects." However, the film's synopsis, as published in the March 1938 issue of Kinepa Junpo, does not seem to indicate that the movie's "Kong" is a giant at all.
Staff
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Soya Kumagai
- Written by Daijo Aoyama
- Cinematography by Yozo Okuda
- Special Effects by Fuminori Ohashi
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Eizaburo Matsumoto as Magonojo Go
- Ryunosuke Kabayama as Anthropoid
- Reizaburo Ichikawa as Hyoe Toba
- Reiko Mishima as Chinami
- Shojiro Ogata as Kuroami the Hunchback
- Yasutaro Yagi as Ginbei Inoue
- Noboru Takashima as Yuzuru Kawasaki
- Keinosuke Yashiro as Kinnosuke Segawa
- Shotaro Shiba as Tetsusaburo Azuma
- Shin Taga as Shinjuro Nakazawa
- Ryutaro Hibiki as Izunokami Matsudaira
- Keisuke Matsudaira as Clerk at charcoal shop
- Kikutaro Yoshii as Clerk at soy sauce shop
- Do Jitsukawa as Rice shop apprentice
Appearances
Monsters
Gallery
- Main article: King Kong Appeared in Edo/Gallery.
Trivia
- King Kong Appeared in Edo has often been mistranslated as King Kong Appears in Edo. The phrase arawareta (現れた; "appeared") in the title is an inflection of arawareru (現れる; "appear") using ta-form, which indicates past tense.[1]
References
This is a list of references for The King Kong that Appeared in Edo. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
|
|
| ||
Comments
Showing 24 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators.
|
|
|
