The Mighty Peking Man (1980)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Just so...so bad

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Championed by Quentin Tarantino. A Shaw Brothers production (Runme Shaw and Vee King Shaw). Directed by Meng Hua Ho (The Oily Maniac, many others).The back cover write-up on a recent dual format (blu/dvd) release refers to this film as the Shaw Brothers attempted cash-in on Japan's success with Godzilla. True enough, I would think, but the story really has more in common with the original King Kong...okay, with a bit of rampaging Godzilla action as well.Highly entertaining if you're in the right mood. Some of the romantic and other jungle scenes in the first half of the film are downright hilarious. I wasn't expecting the beautifully captured scenic shots in the first half either but that was another plus. And the action in the latter half, when it comes, is pretty entertaining as well. A lot of the practical effects still hold up quite well. A couple of the effects are just plain goofy but it's all part of the film's charm.Not sure why it took me so long to finally see this one but I'm glad I was able to watch the fully restored uncut version on Blu-ray...a very clean print.It's one to kick back and have fun with. I did.

Holy Kong-Knockoff Power! This is bad! But it's also glorious! (and yeah I felt the need for more ape madness after Kong: Skull Island, but that's neither here nor there).So let's address something right out the gate: Evelyne Kraft is a (conventionally) attractive blonde 'hottie' woman... and she and her character are treated to one of those most over the top depictions of sexism I've seen for a movie like this. It's almost to the point that I wondered early on after the movie introduces "Samantha" (yes, it's her name, but I'm using quotes anyway), in her outfit that is so skimpy that it seems to be teasing what is acceptable as a "family" movie if the director was doing a parody of skimpy girl-in-almost-nothing clothing movies. Seriously, if you have a problem with your kid seeing even the tiniest bit of breast, let alone nipple, in your ultra-cheese monster movie knock-offs from the 70's, you've been warned.And yet I'm not sure if it is a parody though, because there is a stretch of film here - oh I'd say about ten minutes, give or take another ten - where the movie practically stops so that our main guy Johnnie Fang (Danny Lee, a Bruce Lee surrogate of sorts, ideal for a Kongsploitation) from literally frolicking, at 60 frames per second, with Samantha along with her 'pets' being the tigers and leopards and elephants. It's almost as if the filmmakers somehow saw the early rushes of the movie ROAR and thought they could do one better - or simply less awkward and more silly - by having it that this woman Samantha, who was a little girl when her parents died in a plane crash (she doesn't scream or yell at all about this as a little girl by the way, she's totally placid) and then 'Mighty Peking' (that's not his real name, don't ask me what it was now) raised her as if she was his own... which included specially made clothing to just barely cover her lady parts.In other words, this director I think means all of this sincerely, and if there is a tongue in cheek it's so firmly planted it's wagging out the side of his mouth (and as realistically as one of the toy cars or tanks that make the toys in the Godzilla movies look like ILM creations). But this isn't a downside; on the contrary, The Mighty Peking Man is a fantastic monster movie when you take it on its ridiculously stupid terms. It's no wonder that Tarantino was involved in its re-release - though I recall, from owning the VHS years back of the Rolling Thunder release, that he didn't do an intro to this like the other films, for shame Quentin! - as it certainly appeals to what he (as well as I) want in a ridiculous Asian monster movie that sometimes is in India and sometimes is in Hong Kong.There's an affection I can't shake off for this kind of movie-making, for all of its dopeyness and all of the bad dubbing and all of the nonsense from the villain of the film (who sometimes wears some amazingly sparkly t-shirts as he plots his 'we must get to Hong Kong or else' and 'we must fill up the stadium' and 'oh, I must rape you now' moments... yeah, that happens) and how completely wild the climax of the movie gets, which seems to last for about 20 minutes. This is cinema that involves mattes and rear-screen projection and those shots where it's clearly processed to where you can see the black lines separating parts of the screen from the foreground and the background, and you can see the man inside the ape suit's skin around his eyes. And with all of this, there's some work and skill put into this cheese... at points.Sure, there are times, especially early on, shots don't cut well together, and the animal actors look probably doped up to the gills. And through it all, every actor plays it completely straight, and so every irresistibly nutty beat is sold all the more. On top of all of this, the ending gets surprisingly dramatic and tragic, as if Meng Hua-Ho has to top how sad and tragic it got at the end of King Kong (or the 76 King Kong too, can't forget that, which I could bet this is as much a rip-off of, probably more, since that was a fresh blockbuster at the time). Like, the poster that you see for this movie, it's one of those times that's NOT a reaction, there really IS a leopard or cheetah or whichever that the lady of the movie just has around her shoulders and back like it's a pet, and there's nothing at all seen unusual about this by Mr. Johnnie.(oh, and there's also a teary subplot involving Johnnie being cheated on by his long time girlfriend and then he goes away and comes back with the blonde white lady and then his ex is jealous and sad and oh neverf****ingmind).

Word of a monster ape ten stories tall living in the Himalayas reaches fortune hunters in Hong Kong. They travel to India to capture it, but wild animals and quicksand dissuade all but Johnny, an adventurer with a broken heart.Unbelievably, Roger Ebert gave this one a positive review, writing, "Mighty Peking Man is very funny, although a shade off the high mark of Infra-Man, which was made a year earlier, and is my favorite Hong Kong monster film." And to think Ebert never would have seen it if Quentin Tarantino had not picked it up for distribution twenty years after it came out.Can you beat these amazing punches and that amazing costume? No, you cannot.

Re-marketed by Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures,Might Peking Man could be considered Hong KOng's answer to such iconic creature features as King Kong and Mighty Joe Young. As such,this is a slightly more adult(the love scenes in this movie are somewhat less chaste and hopeful than any seen in the other two movies mentioned)and far more obscure.A B-Movie legend that was all but lost to the archive rooms of the Chinese Film Ministry,This is the kind of title that may easily float by your awareness if you're not looking for it. I say,if you like silly,high camp movies,you can't miss this.Very similar to Kong, a group of city boys(led by DAnny Lee)looking for adventure and money for big game,travel to a remote PAcific island in search of the eponymous legend. Soon enough,the hunting party is winnowed down to Lee's JOhnnie Feng,who runs across the giant Ape man(who actually kind of saves him)and his lovely,blonde,blue-eyed lady friend(Evelyn Kraft)and Feng falls in love with the lady and comes to see the beauty and sanctity of this hunting ground he'd been so readily trying to exploit.PLenty of quick cuts of bad stunts and action fakes(one scene,where a group of the party falls off a cliff,presumably to their deaths in the rocky crag below,it's plainly evident that piles of something or other is used to be thrown of the edge,used to look like bodies)and sort of a Disco-esquire music treatment make this MST-like laughable,but there's something almost reassuring about that. It's clearly an action movie,with little need for concern over authentic action sequences or technical accuracy,and in their haste to create something fast and interesting,they've made something that's fun. A staple of any film festival or movie party where people enjoy campy 70s entertainment.