著者

田畑 雅英

出版者

相模女子大学

雑誌

相模女子大学紀要. A, 人文系 (ISSN:18835341)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.77, pp.87-95, 2013

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研究論文(Thesisses)The King Kong character which appeared for the first time in King Kong(1933) has two aspects: first he acts as the symbol of nature frightening human civilization, secondly as the symbol of the wild instinctive impulse within the human mind. Both of these two aspects contradict human civilization, so King Kong must be attacked by flying fighters, the most advanced weapon that human civilization had produced up until that time. He falls down dying from the rooftop of the Empire State Building, the symbol of human civilization. But the licensed Japanese movie King Kong Escapes(1967)described King Kong as a good monster who follows the heroine gently. This relationship of King Kong and the heroine foreshadowed changes in the later King Kong movies. In the first fully remade movie from 1976 King Kong is described as an individual creature living in nature rather than as the symbol of nature. Therefore the heroine is in contact with King Kong on equal terms, tries to communicate with him, feels sympathy and comes to love him. In the next remade movie from 2005 King Kong is described as the symbol of nature again. But the escalated environmental destruction had changed nature from the opponent that humans must struggle against into an object that they must protect. The heroine actively tries to protect King Kong and, in doing so, attempts to protect valuable nature. The change of King Kong movies reflects the change of the view on nature.