Human, or Its Native Other? Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005) as Tragic Romance

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Disclosure Statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 The history of the original film’s release and revivals, and the Kong figure’s appropriations across media, is meticulously and comprehensively chronicled and analyzed in Cynthia Erb’s indispensable study, Tracking King Kong (2010).

2 No definitive biography has yet been written about Peter Jackson. The life and career details provided here are taken from Jackson’s authorized biography, Brian Sibley, Peter Jackson: A Film-Maker’s Journey (Harper Collins Entertainment, 2016).

3 The dinosaurs in the film, as explained in Weta Workshop, The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island (2005), evolved from their prehistoric likenesses identified and catalogued by paleontology. Hence, they are given fictionalized species names, such as Vastatosaurus Rex or ‘V-Rex’ (evolved from Tyrannosaurus Rex) and Foetodon (evolved from Notosuchia).

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Glen Mimura

Glen Mimura is an associate professor of film and media studies, and affiliated professor of Asian American studies, at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video (2009), and he is currently writing a book on the films and martial-arts career of Bruce Lee.