Mini Film Review – King Kong Escapes

Yesterday I watched King Kong Escapes; and it was very enjoyable! Directed by Ishirō Honda, and starring Rhodes Reason, Linda Miller, and Akira Takarada; King Kong Escapes is a Japanese monster movie, about a mad scientist’s attempt to mine a a radioactive element using a mechanical version of King Kong; and when that doesn’t work, he tries using the actual King Kong instead! King Kong Escapes has some pretty good ideas in it, and does try to be different to the 1933 film. Virtually every King Kong film since the original, copies it in some fashion, and this is no different, as it still includes the doomed relationship between Kong and a human female. Although in fairness to Escape, there’s very little kindling, and just a few small suggestive spots instead. And Kong does fight a dinosaur (Gorosaurus), much like the original, although the fight is a lot more animated, and brutal. But like mentioned before, it does try to do different things too, like including a plot about a mad scientist’s (Hideyo Amamoto) attempt to build a robotic Kong, plus the drama between him, and his mysterious financial backer (Mie Hama). Although I do think it’s a bit weird that the scientist chooses to wear a Count Dracula like cape, as if he is trying too hard to point out that he is genuinley the villain.

The film does have it’s short-comings however. Many scenes are repeated over and over again, like the fight sequences for instance. It’s like the producers were desperately trying to increase the film’s run time. They didn’t need to do that though, given how much of a drag the very middle of the film is. It drags on for so long, you desperately want to yell: “GET ON WITH IT”! Mechani-Kong has this annoying whirring/beeping sound which gets very irritating, very quickly. But compared to the design of Kong, both Mechani-Kong, and Gorosaurus look far more detailed, whilst Kong can look pathetic in design (especially when he runs). Also, most of the film is dubbed over when the Japanese cast are speaking, but the two American cast members sound like they have been dubbed over too, given the quality of sound whenever they talk, it sounds like a post recording. But, despite a few widely detailed short-comings, King Kong Escapes was genuinley a very enjoyable movie. And whilst the monster effects had their ups and downs, the more detailed miniature effects/animations, are just so pleasing to the eye!