Hachigatsu wrote:
I've told you that Toho's English language materials have been wildly, shall we say, "loose" with their synopses and hyperbole (to be kind). If you're not willing to see that this is even a possibility, I can't help you. Should I bother digging through the files and scan or transcribe some of their very "fantastic" interpretations? I don't need to defend myself, but rather to satisfy you? As it stands, you have no way to prove your claims of "backpeddling"--because it's solely based on one English-language synopsis from one Toho sales brochure. What else have you got? PR writers always embelish--it's the Movie Business, afterall! It's all about ballyhoo and exaggeration, no?

For crying out loud, just because the Mothra plot had the prototype name of the fairies in it, doesn't mean you can compare it to getting the ending of a movie wrong. As I already stated you are bound to get some minor plot details or character names wrong in some of these write-ups (as I stated even Stephen Speilberg has gotten info wrong in regards to scenes in Jaws), but you have to draw the line when it comes to the ending. Going from the battle ends in a draw to King Kong is victorious is really a stretch.


For the sake or argument, it could be also extrapolated that it is possible that Toho's PR Department deliberately wrote that King Kong wins, just to appease American/Overseas investors/distributors? Perhaps not, but it is a plausible possibility. Even if it isn't so, it's an interesting thing to factor in -- that Toho might want to appeal to foreign buyers by saying Godzilla lost, no? Just something to ponder..


Come on. You know full well that Toho wasn't trying to sell this movie. John Beck brought the film project to Toho. They gave John Beck the rights to produce his own English Language version of the film and then cut a deal with him and that they gave him exclusive rights to his version of the film and distribution rights in not only the United States but also most of the International markets. Toho would then keep the domestic rights of the film as well as distribution in the Asian markets or the "Far East" if you will (This is all covered in Steve Ryfle's excellent book Japan's Favourite Mon-Star). So what were they trying to sell? It was John Beck that had to find a buyer for his film, NOT Toho. If John Beck was lying then you have an argument, but it was Toho. Who were they trying to lie to (in English no doubt)? They saw no profit from the sale of the English version of the film. That all went to Beck after he cut the deal with Universal for $200,000. Not only that but Toho had a falling out with Beck for stiffing them on the licencing fees for Kong, so they trying to help him sell the film makes even less sense. Furthermore Universal bought the film in April of 1963, while Toho Films Vol. 8 was published in August of 1963, 4 months later. So I don't buy this argument that they lied because it doesn't make any sense.

  

The Catch of the Day!