Farolacton
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Farolactone (ファロラクトン Farorakuton), refers to a molecular potent ingredient of a fictional species of berry-bearing plant, named Soma in the American version of the film, that is distilled into a beverage offered to King Kong by the people of Faro Island in King Kong vs. Godzilla. It is described as a relative of Actinidia polygama, or the silver vine.
Name
The Japanese name of the fruit's potent ingredient, Farorakuton (ファロラクトン), combines Faro, from the island they were discovered on, with -lactone, a functional group suffix in chemistry associated with esters. The film's English subtitles on the Criterion Blu-ray romanize it as Farolacton, while the plant's name in the U.S. version, Soma, may reference either the ritualistic drink of undetermined botanical origin mentioned in Hindu texts including the Bhagavad Gita, or references to it in science fiction, such as the mood-altering drug in the novel Brave New World.
Origins
The Farolactone plant grows naturally on Faro Island, where its berries are collected and distilled into a beverage before being offered to the island's giant god King Kong. The U.S. version of the film in which they appear supposes that their natural medicinal qualities could be used as a means to treat illnesses, and that including them in their diet allowed Kong and Faro Island's other creatures to attain their great size.
History
King Kong vs. Godzilla
Farolactone, when purified into a juice, is highly valued for its narcotizing medicinal advantages, but it comes with a difficult limitation - the berries only grow on the tropical South Pacific Faro Island. Dr. Makioka, a Japanese pharmacologist with a working relationship with the drug company Pacific Pharmaceutical, classified the berries there during an expedition to the Solomon Islands, taking his findings and an a quantity of the berries back to Japan for research. Pacific Pharmaceutical mounted an expedition with Tokyo Television to the island, to seek out the berries to obtain a large enough amount to bring back to Japan for further study, as well as document and later obtain the island's giant kaiju to use as the company's mascot, although the island's tribe were initially unwilling to cooperate until they were given cigarettes. After an expedition into the island yielded almost no sightings of the plant, and an encounter with a Giant Lizard, the expedition force chose to remain with the tribe, where they witnessed an attack from a Giant Octopus, who tried to steal the Farolactone juice from a hut in the village. As the expedition team and the islanders tried to fight the creature off, Kong emerged from the jungle and defeated the Giant Octopus, forcing it to retreat. Afterward, Kong drank several jars of the Farolactone juice before falling unconscious, allowing him to be tied to a raft and transported back to Japan.
Later, when Kong had escaped captivity and climbed to the top of the National Diet Building, the JSDF loaded Farolactone juice into several rockets and fired them into the air above Kong, causing him to fall asleep once again and allow his human captive, Fumiko Sakurai, to be rescued.
Gallery
Eric Carter holding a jar of the fruit
Faro Islanders juicing the Farolactone fruit
Enormous reservoirs of Farolactone juice
King Kong drinking Farolactone juice after defeating the Giant Octopus
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