King Kong Appears in Edo (Lost 1938 Monster Movie)

King Kong Appears in Edo was a 1938 Japanese monster movie about the character of King Kong terrorizing the city of Edo (The original name for Tokyo) in medieval Japan. The movie was made without the permission of RKO Pictures, who owned the rights to the character of King Kong at the time. In this film, the monster appears to be able to change size, going from human sized to giant proportions. The film was written by Daijo Aoyama and directed by Soya Kumagi. It starred Eizaburo Matsumoto and the King Kong suit and special effects were created by the legendary Fuminori Ohashi who would later go on to create the suit for the film "Godzilla". According to him, this project was "The first film to feature certain kinds of special effects."

The film was released in Japan on March 18th, 1938, and has not been heard from or seen since. It is believed that the film may have been destroyed in the 1945 Allied bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.