The Mighty Peking Man

The second half is really nothing special; it's just copying King Kong, even to the point of climbing a skyscraper from which the ape defends itself. Mostly, of course, because his protégé was being harmed. On top of that, American soldiers are speaking Mandarin, which only adds to the feelings of absurdity you'll have by the end of the movie. It's really about nothing at that point, and you find yourself thinking it should have stayed in the jungle, where at least it was somewhat entertaining. The second half is a real shame. (2015-03-15)

The Mighty Peking Man, Hong Kong's answer to King Kong, produced by the legendary Shaw Brothers studio and a cult favourite of Quentin Tarantino. It follows the classic pattern of movies with an overgrown ape: it starts with an expedition into the deep jungle at the foot of the Himalayan mountains, continues with the transport of the ape (here under the name "Peking Man"), then a half-hour inferno in the streets of Hong Kong, when Peking Man demolishes cardboard buildings, tramples civilians and fights with tanks and helicopters, and ends with a tragic climax on the highest building of the city. Surprisingly, I found the first half more entertaining. That's when the last member of the expedition meets Samantha, an attractive savage played by blonde photo-model Evelyne Kraft who has lived her whole life in the wilderness, never takes off her tight leather underwear, is loved and protected by Peking Man, and expresses her harmony with nature by cuddling a tiger, a leopard, and an elephant to the accompaniment of terribly cheesy music; and there is also a kitschy slow-motion love-hopping through the jungle with the sun setting over the horizon. Proper guilty pleasure! Another bright side of the film is that there is always something going on – the elephant attack on the village, the sea storm, Peking Man's tug-of-war with fully loaded trucks in a stadium (with the audience watching in amazement), etc., and the dull dialogue scenes are kept to a minimum. The effects are abysmal, basically they have not improved in any way since the early Toho Godzilla films – there are eye-popping rear projections and an actor dressed in a monkey costume among cardboard models of a city and the jungle, with proportions all over the place, and the only interaction with live actors is a big hairy hand that the actors climb on. (2010-02-27)