KINGUKONGU TAI GOJIRA (King Kong Vs. Godzilla, 1962) *** In which it is revealed that Godzilla is most likely the result of a sexual union between a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Stegasaurus, I mean this has to be someone's idea of a perfect film. Incredibly glorious scenes abound, my personal favourite has to be the one where King Kong deals out an ass-kicking on a giant octopus that tried to steal his narcotic berry juice (which KK drinks out of enormous ceramic pots). Takes a lot of cojones to try and lift Kong's stash, but isn't advisable. The sets and props are genre-brilliant: electric train sets, plastic submarines stuck in ice-cubes, and toy tanks set on fire, but couldn't possibly have achieved their full glory without the perfectly swollen editing of Ishirô Honda. He cuts back and forth from the action to news anchormen casually standing by their desks, government ministers indifferently suggesting the atomic bomb to the press as a possible means of suppressing Godzilla, bewildered scientific experts from the United Nations; Ed Wood himself would have been flabbergasted with admiration. The Japanese answer to The Three Stooges, naturally involved in advertising, do their bit by rigging up a raft set with dynamite-Ichirô Arishima (Mr. Tako) establishes himself as a comedic genius along the magnitude of Jerry Lewis or Don Knotts, absolutely hysterical in every single scene. Any high school kid in the world should be able to get at least a "C" by claiming that this film is a western at heart-and so is dependent on the final showdown between the twin tower leads as the UN, world governments, and Japanese navy scatter like frightened townfolk. The grand finale does not let you down: starting with the scene where Kong, suspended in the air by balloons with a helicopter escort and tranquilized by voodoo music, is dropped down a mountain whereupon he awakens at impact, and at the bottom of which he knocks over Godzilla, and one of the stooges gets excited and starts filming, as if nothing noteworthy had happened earlier. This film is an unparalelled inspiration for any 12 year-old kid with a hand-held.