Edo ni arawareta Kingu Kongu: Henge no maki |
Japan • 1938 • 50m •
   • Directed by: Sôya Kumagai. • Starring: Eizaburo Matsumoto, Fuminori Ôhashi, Reizaburo Ichikawa, Reiko Mishima, Shojiro Ogata, Yasutarô Yagi, Noboru Takashima, Keinosuke Yashiro, Shotaro Shiba, Shin Taga, Ryutaro Hibiki, Keisuke Matsudaira, Kikutaro Yoshii..  King Kong attacks Edo (now Tokyo) in one of Japan's first giant monster films. The film's innovative special effects, including the ape suit, were created by Fuminori Ohashi, who would go on to work on Godzilla. The movie was not shown in theaters after its initial release, and was likely destroyed by the bombings of Japan during World War II.
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Review:
...was made either in 1934 or 1938, making it the very first kaiju ever filmed. It was a Japanese period piece in which King Kong destroys sections of ancient Tokyo, in former days was called Edo.
Edo being the period from 1603-1867 when Japan was isolated from the outer world in the period of (I believe) the 17th or 18th century. Granted, Kong invaded Japan (in this film at least), but in the Edo timeframe. They threw in some Caligari-esquire, expressionistic structures so's he'd have something to climb...! It sounds very strange!
Kong itself is said to look like a kaiju that Sid & Marty Krofft ("H.R. Pufnstuf") would have designed, a dodgey gorilla, in this movie, that grapples with not only a titan bumble bee, but at one point, ensnared in Moloogra's trap (a 20-story tall ant lion), the over-blown primate is harassed by troublesome mayflies! Sadly, this movie constitutes perhaps the most tragic loss to World Cinema since Disney pulled the plug on SONG OF THE SOUTH, (1946) --- or Cozzi's HERACLES (1983).
Review by Mahatma Fabrizi from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database