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6.2/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.2/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Wasei Kingu Kongu remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have any interest in movie history, Wasei Kingu Kongu is the kind of oddity that demands your attention. If you are just looking for a coherent story to watch on a Sunday, stay far, far away.
It’s essentially a silent-era slapstick comedy that uses the hype around the original King Kong as a backdrop. Santa is basically the quintessential broke guy trope, stumbling around Tokyo looking for coins, which is a surprisingly relatable way to kick off a movie.
The whole theater promotion angle is genius in a desperate, sad kind of way. Watching him stomp around on miniature sets is charming, but then the movie takes a hard left turn.
The moment he sees Omitsu with her new boyfriend, the "performance" stops being a performance. He just goes full-blown rage mode. It’s honestly kind of shocking how fast it escalates from a goofy theater gig to a genuine street fight.
The audience in the movie cheering him on while he's actually beating someone up? That bit is darker than I think the director intended. It’s like, oh, he’s not acting anymore, but the crowd is too dense to notice the difference.
There is something about the way Takeshi Sakamoto moves in that suit that just feels off. It’s not graceful, it’s not scary, it’s just frantic. He looks like a guy who is genuinely having the worst day of his life while trapped in fur.
The pacing is all over the place, which is fine, but some of the scenes involving the father, Seizo, feel like they were cut from a completely different film. The transition between the theater antics and the domestic drama is non-existent.
It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in You Said a Mouthful, where the absurdity just piles up until you stop trying to keep track of the logic. You just have to sit back and watch the chaos unfold.
I wouldn't call this a masterpiece. I wouldn't even call it 'good' by modern standards. But it’s got this weird, jagged soul to it that you just don't find in polished studio stuff. Sometimes you watch a movie and you can just feel the exhaustion of the crew through the screen.
It’s definitely a relic. Go into it expecting a weird, broken little comedy and you might actually have a decent time. Just don't go looking for a serious take on the King Kong legend, because you will be disappointed.
The ending feels rushed, like they ran out of film or money, or maybe just interest. It just stops. It’s perfectly imperfect.
IMDb 6.9
1932
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