Mighty Peking Man

Starring:Evelyne Kraft, Danny Lee, Feng Ku, Lin Wei Tu, Shao-Chiang Hsu, Hang-Sheng Wu, Theodore Thomas, Steve Nicholson, Yao Hsiao, Ping Chen, Corey Yuen
Director: Meng-Hwa Ho
Studio: Miramax
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

What makes Mighty Peking Man such a trashy delight? It's not just the absurdly obvious special effects and atrocious dubbing--those are the easy laughs--it's the over-the-top romantic and dramatic moments that really push this movie into camp heaven. When a gigantic ape-man destroys a village in a remote jungle, a fiendish promoter decides to capture this prehistoric creature and put him on display. He hires Johnny (Danny Lee, who resembles current Canto-pop superstar Andy Lau), a heartbroken adventurer, to hunt Peking Man down. Hardly five minutes go by without some life-threatening danger; in just the first half-hour there's an earthquake, a tiger attack, and a fatal mountain-climbing accident, and that's in addition to the rampaging man-ape and bottle-blond jungle queen Samantha (the lovely Evelyne Kraft), who occasionally falls out of her already skimpy jungle attire. It seems that Samantha survived a plane crash that killed her parents and was kept alive by Peking Man--though where she finds her mascara is never explained. After falling in love with Johnny, she helps him bring Peking Man back to civilization. By the time Peking Man is unleashing devastation on downtown Hong Kong, the movie has reached a giddy delirium that defies all logic. Part soap opera, part monster madness, Mighty Peking Man is completely entertaining. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Sure to drive you wild, here's one of the funniest, most hysterically campy movies ever made: MIGHTY PEKING MAN! A powerful earthquake awakens a giant, apelike creature who descends from the mountains into the treacherous jungles of India. Later, an expedition of greedy showmen capture the fearsome beast, bringing him ... and the scantily clad blonde bombshell he protects ... back to civilization! But payback comes when the Mighty Peking Man breaks loose and begins to run amok in the heart of the city! An outrageous adventure that never takes itself too seriously -- treat yourself to a guilty pleasure that has entertained critics and late-night movie audiences everywhere!

Customer Reviews:

Fun.......2007-01-29

This is a really goofy giant ape movie, and after watching both A*P*E and the Mighty Gorga I was well prpared to pull this one to bits as well, but I have to say that although it's not a particularly good film, it does at least have a lot more going for it that those two pitiful efforts. "Mighty Peking Man" barely wanders from the well worn path that most King Kong imitators follow. Suffice to say that a giant ape-man awakens during an earthquake and breifly terrorizes a jungle village before getting hunted and captured by mean and greedy big city people. After being put on display and humiliated, the ape-man escapes and runs amok, causing much destruction before climbing a tall building and is being finally shot down by the armed forces. You have to admire the gall of the makers of this film, they couldn't have slavishly copied the plot of the original much more closely than this!

I'm kind of torn between laughing at this film and actually enjoying it on it's own merits at the same time. So I'll give you my summary of how it works on both levels. First off, as a "so bad it's good" movie, the film scores highly. The film uses A LOT of miniature model sets in the scenes of Peking Man (this is how he is referred to in the movie) rampaging about, and these are nearly always pretty awful. The model village that gets destroyed by earthquake right at the start is dire, it really does look like a load of 6-inch high toy huts that someone is throwing handfuls of dirt over. The shockingly poor rear projection special effects don't help much, either. As for Peking Man himself, well at least the monkey costume is a lot better than the ones in A*P*E (that one didn't even fit properly) and "The Mighty Gorga" (worst ever -and they only showed the top half). In this movie, we see lots of shots of giant ape hands grabbing the cast, and they look quite good, as do his big monkey feet when he stomps on people. There appears to be a model prop head used for extreme close ups of Peking Man snarling or otherwise emoting, and this looks kind of...monsterish. Shame it doesn't really match the costumed actor's gorilla mask, but I quite liked it. OK, next off, the acting is generally pretty poor, plus the English dubbing is appalling. In fact the soundtrack in general is quite bad, most noticably in the noises that Peking Man himself makes - his roar sounds like a woman's scream mixed in with various bird noises and a cement mixer!

So as a spectacular monster show, the film falls a bit flat, due to all the bad special effects. But here's what goes some way to make up for this - the film has definitely got gusto - all the onscreen mayhem is churned out almost non-stop, and it hardly ever lets up. As long as Peking Man is onscreen, there's always something being destroyed or exploding, and although the effects are poor, there are loads and loads of them, so it's hard to complain of boredom, which is one thing that stops most bad films in their tracks. Secondly, the film really does have a heart. Peking Man's love interest in this story is a beautiful blonde girl who has grown up in the jungle after being the sole survivor of a plane crash as a child. He is very attached to her, and actually allows himself to be taken from the jungle and put on display on her request (she has fallen in love with the hunter who came in search of the monster). Now the actress playing Samantha the jungle girl is not great, but she makes an appealing alternative to the usual city dame heroine type, because she starts the film as the ape-man's friend, with his well-being already on her agenda. And even Peking Man himself has character, with the monkey-suit actor actually managing to portray some semblance of emotion without looking totally daft, and the scenes between him and Samantha can be quite sweet, even if the pathos is laid on with a trowel.

The trouble is that so much of the film is such baloney that any good aspects get swamped. There's too much time spent on rubbish special effects and miniature sets which are always totally deserted, or scenes with Samantha running around Hong Kong in her fur bikini and bare feet without attracting the slightest interest, or the awful "love scenes" of Johnny the hunter and his ex - in fact that entire sub-plot is terrible. The list goes on, and these things just disable the film's otherwise commendable efforts at being a good piece of entertainment. Still at least this is one "bad" movie you can watch for laughs and still come away from NOT feeling that you have just totally wasted 90 minutes of your life. I thought it was a lot of fun.

Let's Not Get Crazy.......2006-07-25

I watched this movie on IFC or the Sundance Channel because I wondered why this movie would be on those channels. I guess Quentin Tarantino is a fan or there's a DVD of this movie with "Quentin Tarantino Presents" on it or something.

What does QT see in this? I don't know.

This is a terrible movie. Think of the worst American monster movie made in color on a $1.98 budget and then make it five times worse. Ed Wood would've turned this project down. I grew up loving Godzilla movies and I still didn't like this.

The only thing this movie has going for it is the stunningly-hot blonde running around in a skimpy outfit she can't keep on straight. The only drama, the only tension, the only interest I could maintain in this lame movie was what was going to pop out next on the native girl.

But is this so bad that it's good? I didn't think so. It's definitely not in the big leagues with GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER (the Big G fights a giant booger to the death) or the original HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (mutated salmon chases human women for some strange).
Maybe the folks at "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" could pull a classic episode out of this.

Mighty Entertaining!.......2006-05-03

If you are reviewing this film with a critical mind you are wasting your time and that of your reader. "The Mighty Peking Man" is pure Daikaiju (Giant Monster) fun from start to finish. If you see a "man in a suit" as many do, that's another obvious reason to avoid this film. Of course it's cheap and not as expensive as American films but it has some great moments worth mentioning. Many people tend to lump all Daikaiju films together because they don't get the concept so I can't read those reviews either. These are the same people that see Animae as being cartoons. Need I say more. Gamera & Godzilla are not in the same category as this film....next lesson.

You know the plot from ALL of the other reviews. Giant Ape and jungle girl meet with disaster in modern civilization. Twenty minutes into this film and you can see why The Shaw Brothers were brilliant Grindhouse film makers. It's no wonder Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures got it released. Many reviewers fail to see the connection between modern day cinematic homages to low budget films like this one. There was a style of producing/editing despite the obvious cheapness that makes this a pleasure to view.

Dramatic orchestra scores and funky soulful disco ballads collide with some nice sets and priceless dialog that you will not find in modern movies. I don't care what the Shaw Brothers intended, it's brilliant parody and fun to watch.

Don't be critical and miss the point. Compare this to APE being sold alongside this film. APE is SO BAD it's surrealistic. Who knows where the film producers were going with that movie. Call me crazy but this movie is a guilty pleasure and far more fun than most of modern Hollywood's CGI effect films. It's more fun than the seventies American remake of King Kong too.

Buy it, rent it, love it, it is what it is....entertaining and not to be reviewed as a landmark cinema classic, but rather a look back into the day when when we could go with our familys to drive-ins and not 20 unit stadium seating Cineplexes of doom! We watch these old movies because they remind of happy times...he said turning 40 in a month!

an interesting king kong ripoff.......2006-03-24

after dino de laurentiies scored reasonably well with his remake of king kong in 1976 (still overall box office returns of more than 50 mio. us dollar in north america only) it prompted the shaw brothers to produce a 'chinese' version of the story. what is interesting here is to compare the special effects and the way of acting with the japanese toho produced godzilla movies that we are much more used to. certainly the japanese producer tomuyiki tanaka had a lot more experience in making those films, so in comparison, the mighty peking man does not stand up well. on a passionate view, in the end neither the ape, nor the girl actually make it.
if you do travel to hong kong frequently, you will be amused to see how much this city has changed over the last 3 decades. overall an amusing time killer for 90 minutes.

As for the dvd itselve, sound and picture quality are average only. there are a few specials but nothing really exciting. recommended for collectors and real 'monster buffs'

Horrible...but in a good way.......2006-02-19

A blatant King Kong ripoff, down to the giant ape climbing atop the highest building in Hong Kong.

The best part, though, has to be the cheesy 70s music and the scene in which Johnny and Samantha skip during the jungle, all under the watchful eye of the Mighty Peking Man. Priceless. And how did Samantha manage to get that clasp on her bra without ever leaving the jungle??

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