10 Lost Horror Movies You Can't Watch
2. King Kong Appears In Edo
RKO’s King Kong was one of the most important monster movies of its time. Blending live-action and stop-motion animation, King Kong was visually stunning for 1933 and its legacy lives on to this day. However, after its release, King Kong became so popular in Japan that there were numerous King Kong movies made solely in Japan, and all of them are lost today.
The most recognized out of all the Japanese King Kong films was 1938’s King Kong Appears In Edo, which was a two-part silent period drama where King Kong is ordered to kidnap a woman, and he goes berserk when people come to rescue her. King Kong Appears In Edo was the first serious attempt at the King Kong franchise, and it marks Japan’s first monster movie, or ‘Kaiju’ movie, as it was made 16 years before Godzilla.
The actor who created the Godzilla suit – Ryunosuke Kabayama - also made the special effects for King Kong Appears In Edo. In 1988, Kabayama stated: “The first model making to be counted as ‘special art direction’ in Japanese cinema was a giant gorilla which I did for the movie King Kong Appears In Edo fifty years ago”.