King Kong vs. Godzilla

Movie Information:

  • Release Date: August 11, 1962
  • Production Company: Toho
  • Distribution Company: Toho
  • Original Runtime: 97 minutes
  • Atlernate Titles:
    • Japanese: キングコング対ゴジラ
    • Hepburn: Kingu Kongu tai Gojira
    • Literal Translation: King Kong vs. Godzilla

Cast

Tadao Takashima as Osamu Sakurai
Kenji Sahara as Kazuo Fujita
Yu Fujiki as Kinsaburo Furue
Ichiro Arishima as Mr. Tako
Jun Tazaki as General Masami Shinzo
Akihiko Hirata as Doctor Shigesawa
Mie Hama as Fumiko Sakurai
Akiko Wakabayashi as Tamie
Akemi Negishi as Chikiro's Mother, Faro Island Native
Yoshio Kosugi as Faro Island Chief
Yoshifumi Tajima as Yukichi Yamamoto (Captain No. 2 Shinmori-maru)
Ikio Sawamura as Faro Island Prayer Master
Somematsu Matsumoto as Doctor Onuki
Ko Mishima as Maritime Self-Defense Forces Executive
Sachio Sakai as Obayashi, Mr. Takao's Assistant
Tatsuo Matsumura as Doctor Makioka
Senkichi Omura as Konno, TTV Translator
Ren Yamamoto as Self-Defense Forces Blast Manager
Haruya Kato as Obayashi's Assistant
Shin Otomo as Captain Oyasumaru
Nadao Kirino as Eastern Army Division II General
Yasuhisa Tsutsumi as Yukichi Yamamoto, Eastern Army First Division
Yutaka Nakayama as 2nd Shinmori-maru Correspondent
Yoshihiko Furata as Police Officer on Alert
Naoya Kusakawa as News Reporter
Mitsuo Tsuda as JGSDF executive
Haruko Togo as Evacuating Resident
Kenzo Tabu as World Wonder Series Commentator
Jiro Kumagai as Police Officer
Shiro Tsuchiya as Evacuation Man
Yasuzo Ogawa
Kazuo Suzuki
Shintaira Mitsui as News Reporter
Masaaki Tachibana as News Reporter
Haruya Sakamoto as Eastern Military Facility Soldier
Hiromi Meneoka as Express Passenger
Haruo Hirano as Chikiro (Faro Island boy)
Terumi Oka as Pacific Pharmaceutical Employee
Ichiro Chiba as Pacific Pharmaceutical Advertising Department
Mieko Kurenai as Pacific Pharmaceutical Employee
Douglas Fehn as Captain Roberts of the Seahawk
Harold Conway as Scientist on Submarine
Osman Yusef as Scientist on Submarine
Shoichi Hirose as King Kong
Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla, Faro Islander on the Monitoring Platform
Katsumi Tezuka as Godzilla
Toho School of Performing Arts

Crew

Director: Ishiro Honda
Executive Producer: Tomoyuki Tanaka
Screenwriter: Shinichi Sekizawa
Cinematographers: Hajime Koizumi, Kenji Aoki
Art Directors: Takeo Kita, Teruaki Abe
Sound Recording: Masao Fujiyoshi
Lighting: Toshio Takashima
Composer: Akira Ifukube
Voicing: Hisashi Shiimonaga
Assistant Director: Koji Kajita
Editor: Reiko Kaneko
Sound Effects: Sadamasa Nishimoto
Production Liason: Shigeru Nakamura
Special Effects Director: Eiji Tsuburaya
Special Effects Cinematographers: Sadamasa Arikawa, Motoyoshi Tomioka
Optical Effects: Takao Saiwai
Optical Photography: Yukio Manoda
Special Effects Art Director: Akira Watanabe
Special Effects Lighting: Kyuichiro Kishida
Matte Processing: Hiroshi Mukoyama
Special Effects Production Liason: Takashi Narita

Alternate Versions

Japan

International

United States

United Kingdom

Australia

Germany

France

Italy

Spain

Mexico

Gallery

Theatrical title: King Kong vs. Godzilla

  • Release Date: August 11, 1962
  • Runtime: 97 minutes

Iterations

  • Theatrical
    • Release Date: August 11, 1962
    • Notes:
      • The original film negative was cut to conform to either the March 21, 1970 Toho Champion Matsuri (Toho Champion Festival) or to the 1977 reissue.
      • There were two tracks made each for music and effects, a mono mix and a 4.0 surround sound mix. The 4.0 mix contains a fade-out of a music track as a scene of Godzilla walking along the train tracks transitions to an indoor military shot, and contains a sound effect of Godzilla growling as he gets the tree shoved in his throat.
  • Paper Box VHS & Beta
    • Release Date: June 1, 1985
    • Notes:
      • The 1985 VHS and Beta releases feature the first of what would be many reconstructions of the film.
      • This video master uses 16mm elements as a basis, and utilizes 35mm elements when available. As a result of the different film elements used, the aspect ratio is inconsistent.
      • The Toho logo at the beginning of the movie was ported from another Toho film form around the same time, most likely from Mothra (1961).
      • An establishing shot of King Kong entering Tokyo is missing from this version.
      • This release contains a remixed mono track.
      • A scene with Tadao Takashima has music that fades in and out.
      • Two versions of the VHS were released, the original release had a red label, and a later release had a blue label. It is unknown if there are any differences in the content of the video, or if the only difference in the releases is limited to the color of the labels.
  • Misprint LaserDisc
    • Release Date: November 21, 1986
    • Notes:
      • When Toho released King Kong vs. Godzilla onto LaserDisc in 1986, it was supposed to contain a few fixes to correct some mistakes from the previous release. Unfortunately, the initial LaserDisc pressings were misprints, and contained what is likely an in-progress workprint.
      • The Toho logo at the beginning is sourced from 16mm, unlike the VHS and subsequent LaserDisc releases which use a 35mm source for the Toho logo.
      • The opening scene with narration over the spinning globe plays twice.
      • The sound source switches between 16mm and 35mm elements, which causes the audio to go out of sync on several occasions. The sound is also sourced directly from the telecines of the 16mm and 35mm elements used.
      • A brief piece of dialog is missing from the end of the first reel.
      • An establishing shot of King Kong entering Tokyo is missing from this version.
      • The music at the end of reel 4 can still be heard in the beginning of reel 5, which itself starts playing on the B-side of the LaserDisc.
      • There is a lot of audible noise during the transition between reel 6 and reel 7.
  • LaserDisc
    • Notes:
      • Very shortly after the initial printing of LaserDiscs, Toho released a corrected LaserDisc. The version of the film on this LaserDisc is very similar to the 1985 VHS.
      • This version on this LaserDisc contained some color correction when compared to the VHS, which makes the transition between 16mm and 35mm elements less jarring.
      • The previously missing establishing shot of King Kong entering Tokyo was added in this version.
      • A scene at the very beginning of reel 5 featuring Jun Tazaki uses an alternate take, which was used in the trailers, since the 16mm source was damaged.
  • Digital Remaster LaserDisc
    • Release Date: November 1, 1991
    • Notes:
      • Originally intended to be a cost-effective reissue of the 1986 LaserDisc, Toho suddenly found original negatives of the previously lost footage. Additionally, Akira Ifukube’s stereo score was found. As a result, the 1991 LaserDisc release was a completely new restoration of the film.
      • This version uses the music and effects track stems from the 1962 4.0 mix. This mix also contains music during a sequence in the expedition on Faro Island and extended music during a shot with Osamu and Kinsaburo on the boat ferrying Kong to Japan as Mr. Tako’s helicopter lands.
      • An editing mistake resulted in a very brief party scene appearing during the "Wonder World Series" card.
      • During the submarine scenes, the font for the Japanese subtitles is slightly different than the font used in the original theatrical release. Even though the original negatives were found, they did not contain the on-screen subtitles, and the character negative was still missing. The restoration team tried to recreate the subtitles and match them as closely as possible to the original subtitles, but the new font is different, and some of the spacing is different as well.
      • This version corrects the fading music in a scene with Tadao Takashima.
      • This LaserDisc uses the stereo mix throughout most of the film, with the exception of a song at around 40:23 still being mono. Compared to the stereo audio, the mono audio typically has less bass and a muffled treble sound, but the song used here was equalized to raise the bass and treble to make it more consistent with the rest of the film.
      • An editing mistake was introduced in this master during reel 7, which would not be corrected until 2019. As Godzilla fires his breath at Kong towards the end of the movie, there are some alternating shots between Godzilla roaring, and Kong looking at his hands after being hit with Godzilla’s atomic ray. Some footage of Godzilla appears out of sync to the sound effects, which results in Godzilla’s roar being out of sync.
      • The visbile are of the frame is very large, which results in splice marks being visible from scene to scene.
  • DVD
    • Release Date: January 21, 2001
    • Notes:
      • The 2001 DVD was based on the master from the 1991 LaserDisc and uses the same telecine as its source.
      • The "Toho Studios 30th Anniversary Production" logo at the beginning of the film utilizes a digital fade-out, instead of being sourced from film elements.
      • Some black frames in the previous master were digitally recreated and reinserted into this master.
      • The picture has been slightly cropped, which results in the splice marks no longer being visible.
      • This release introduced a 5.1 surround sound track, which uses the 4.0 music track stems and the mono effects track stems. Additionally, the 5.1 mix omits the first few notes of the music when Osamu Sakurai is looking for Fumiko in the apartment at the beginning of the movie and omits a scream during the Seahawk sequence after the captain yells "What?".
  • 2008 Broadcast
    • Release Date: October 27, 2008
    • Notes:
      • King Kong vs. Godzilla was given an HD scan and broadcast on Japanese television in 2008. However, the scenes cut from the Champion Festival version were not scanned in HD, and those scenes fallback on upconverted footage from the DVD master, which is itself sourced from the 1991 LaserDisc master.
      • Due to an editing mistake, the Toho logo in this version was from the Champion Festival edit, and notably lacks the "TOHO SCOPE" text.
      • Several shots in the first reel use the DVD master, even though those shots were partially available in HD. This was done so that the transition between sources would be less jarring.
      • A scene with the Faro Island Chief uses upconverted video sourced from the DVD, even though that scene was included in the Champion Festival edit.
      • A sequence during Godzilla and Kong's final fight, which was used in the highlight intro for the Champion Festival edit, also uses upconverted DVD footage.
      • The broadcast utilized the stereo mix from the 1991 LaserDisc.
  • 2014 Broadcast
    • Release Date: March 15, 2014
    • Notes:
      • The film was broadcast again on Japanese television in 2014. This broadcast was largely similar to the 2008 broadcast, but contains a few fixes.
      • The opening Toho has been corrected. It was likely sourced from another film, but the film used is unknown.
  • Blu-ray
    • Release Date: July 16, 2014
    • Notes:
      • When the 2014 Blu-ray was released, it was rumored that the missing footage in the 2008 and 2014 broadcasts had been recovered, and that this edition of the movie would be fully HD. However, this was not the case, as reel 1 still utilizes the DVD master for several scenes.
      • The "Toho Studios 30th Anniversary Production" logo at the beginning of the film is now fully sourced from film elements.
      • The "Wonder World Series" card animation at the beginning of the movie uses digital animation.
      • Several scenes during the Seahawk submarine sequences actually use Universal's master. New subtitles were digitally generated, but the font used is still different than the font used in the theatrical version or the 1991 LaserDisc master.
      • Due to an editing mistake, there are several missing frames when a reporter is interviewing Dr. Onuki.
      • This release includes a mono mix, which is a bit noisier than the mono mix from the 1986 LaserDisc, the 4.0 mix, and the 2001 5.1 mix.
  • 2016 4K Restoration Broadcast
    • Notes:
      • A 4K restoration was completed in 2016, finally using original film elements for the entirety of the movie, and not relying on any previous master for the video source.
      • Several issues with unstable brightness have been corrected.
      • The original character negative was found, so the subtitles during the Seahawk submarine sequences finally use the correct font and character placement.
      • Inconsistencies in the audio track, such as wow and flutter, have been corrected.
  • 2019 4K Restoration Update
    • Release Date: June 12, 2019
    • Notes:
      • The 4K restoration was rebroadcast in 2019. While mostly similar to the 2016 broadcast, it does contain a minor editing fix during reel 7 in a sequence where Godzilla fires his atomic ray at Kong. Since the 1991 restoration, it appeared that Godzilla's roar was out of sync, but that was fixed in the 2019 broadcast.

Champion Festival title: King Kong vs. Godzilla

  • Release Date: March 21, 1970
  • Runtime: 74 minutes

Iterations

    • Notes:
      • The original film negative was cut to conform to either the March 21, 1970 Toho Champion Matsuri (Toho Champion Festival) or to the 1977 reissue.
      • The 1970 rerelease includes a new intro sequence, featuring re-edited footage from Godzilla and Kong's final duel. The "Toho Studios 30th Anniversary Production" logo has been removed, and the Toho logo has been updated.
      • Scenes throughout the movie have been shortened or removed.