Hello!
Today I’m writing up my thoughts and analysis on this one, which I saw the other day!
Spoilers ahead
Starting with the trailer.
As you can tell from the trailer, the film opens right after the end of the Vietnam War,
and the mission is to survey an unidentified island — Skull Island — before the Soviets get there. Which turns out to be an insanely dangerous place absolutely crawling with monsters lol
Right, Skull Island.
The point of it, I suppose, is that it isn’t all that skull-ish?
The island is pretty big — it felt like it might be about the size of Shikoku.
The ecosystem here is enormously varied. Deer and birds, then pterosaurs and gigantic mammals, and finally lizard monsters (Skullcrawlers).
Survival of the fittest, in the most literal sense.
There really are monsters in every corner of that island, and there was no telling when something would kill you.
That tension was irresistible lol
The only humans on the island.
That’s them.
East Asian in appearance and never speaking a word, they felt tremendously mysterious.
But in the end I never did find out anything concrete about why they’re there or what their culture is lol
King Kong himself has a long history behind him, starting with the American black-and-white film from 1933.
After that he even shared the screen with his fellow tokusatsu star Godzilla.
The concept of Skull Island in this film has been around since 1933 as well.
Let me also strongly recommend the film King Kong (2005).
It pulled off the feat of winning three Academy Awards.
It’s a remake of the 1933 King Kong, so it teaches you the history of King Kong and all the homages — well worth it.
As for the King Kong in this film.
Strong, and a good-looking guy!
A gorilla, after all. Gentle towards humans (and merciless with anyone who attacks him).
And the weakness for a beautiful woman is there as always lol
This film is actually connected to Godzilla (2014).
They really should advertise that a lot harder lol
The two of them are part of a project called the MonsterVerse, and
Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019
Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020
are on the schedule.
At the end of this film there are cave paintings of Mothra, King Ghidorah, Godzilla, Rodan and other Toho kaiju, so they will surely be showing up later on.
My personal image of a King Kong film was the emotional route the 2005 one took, but a pure monster-panic movie? Never saw that coming…
Caught me completely off guard.
Excitement level? Ridiculously high.
The story isn’t difficult either, so I’d recommend it to anyone who simply wants a rush.
Even though King Kong started out as an American film, the respect for Japan in it was enormous!!!
A katana gets pulled out.
There’s fan service for Godzilla.
Japanese soldiers turn up.
I think it’s been ages since I ran into a film this hot!
On this island, humans are nothing but insects
On July 24, 202…