Rating: 
Summary: So atrocious its an instant classic
Review: Mighty Peking Man is literally a Hong Kong rip off of Dino DeLaurentis' own 76' remake of King Kong, making it a rip off of a rip off! It actually steals entire scenes from the movie! But who cares! The Sheena-like jungle girl is Playboy material HOT! And she is in danger the entire movie of losing her skimpy top! The Peking Man costume is bad, but certainly no worse than the multimillion dollar 40 foot tall Kong used in the 76' remake for all of 4 seconds, and the Peking man costume was made at a fraction of the cost. The fake helicopters and tanks, buildings, ect are no worse than anything in a Toho Godzilla flick. And the movie has a cheesy/sleazy 70's groove to it if you can dig, man. Worth the price of the DVD is the scene where "Sheena" and Johnny are falling in love in slow motion to a horrible "Mellow Gold" love song. If you though "Plan 9 from Outer Space" was the worst film ever, or the best of the "So bad they're great" watch the Peking Man with a bunch of intoxicated friends, and you will not be disappointed!
Rating: 
Summary: "Everybody on Earth will pay to see it!"
Review: The Mighty Peking Man (1977), aka Colossus of the Congo, aka Goliathon has to be one of the worst Chinese giant ape run amok in the big city films I've ever seen...okay, it's the only one I've ever seen, but still...back in the mid 90's, after great successes at the box office, Quentin Tarantino founded Rolling Thunders Pictures, with the notion of bringing to light rare and independent films that might not have gotten the attention they deserved within the American public, highlighting on exploitation films. Mighty Peking Man was one of a handful of releases before Rolling Thunder closed shop in 1997.So what about the movie? Okay, here it goes...the film starts off in Hong Kong, and shows some Chinese guys talking over a newspaper reporting on a giant footprint found in the Himalayas. They seem awful excited, as they have dreams of fame, fortune, and pennywhistles dancing in their heads if they could ever capture the creature that made this footprint, and bring it back to Hong Kong. Cutting to what I am assuming is some sort of flashback, we see a primitive jungle village (okay, a cheesy looking miniature of a primitive jungle village), all peaceful and calm, suddenly torn apart by a violent earthquake. The quake not only shakes up the villagers and such, but awakens Mighty Peking Man, who happened to be sleeping, or frozen into, a nearby mountainside. He proceeds to trash the village, and we get to see a whole lot of crummy blue screen work as natives run to and fro, shrieking and getting squashed by flying debris, as they're oft to do...after cutting back to the Chinese men, they decide to mount an expedition to capture the monster, and enlist the aid of Johnny, another Chinese man, one who agrees readily to lead them as he just had a falling out with his girlfriend, told through a tedious and particularly nauseating flashback later in the film, and is willing to risk life and limb just to get out of town. As the men travel to where they think the Mighty Peking Man might be, they encounter all kinds of jungle dangers, stuck carts in shallow rivers, stampeding herds of elephants (yeah, keep shooting that .38 revolver at them, I am sure that will do the trick), man hungry leopards, quicksand, and precarious cliffs. Just to give you an idea how 'professional' this expedition actually is, the men scale the particularly steep cliff using a grappling hook. Needless to say, various pack-bearing natives are lost through all these encounters. After finding some giant footy prints, they decide to follow them, and then set up camp. During the night, the remaining members decide to leave, all the bad stuff that has happened up until this point has them discouraged, I guess, so they sneak out and leave Johnny, who awakes the next morning to find himself alone. While wandering around, looking for the rest of his party, he gets scooped up by Mighty Peking Man (Johnny seems painfully disconnected to his surroundings, or Mighty Peking Man is awful stealthy, given that he's like 60 some feet tall) and also meets a blonde jungle girl named Samantha, who seems to have control over Mighty Peking Man, along with many other jungle creatures. The Johnny and the jungle girl, who is sporting barely there animal skins, develop a relationship, and Johnny convinces her to get Mighty Peking Man to take them to civilization. This sets up for one of the men, the greedy capitalist and leader of the group who was on the expedition originally, to make Johnny adhere to the deal and Mighty Peking Man is soon chained on the forward deck of a steamship. On arriving at Hong Kong, Mighty Peking Man is put on display at what appears to be a monster truck rally, and Samantha is beginning to regret her decision about leaving the jungle. Oh yeah, she continues to run around in her skimpy animal skins. The evil capitalist exploits Mighty Peking Man in rather cruel fashion, and even attacks the blonde in a lusty manner (yuck) which cause Mighty Peking Man to go insane in the membrane, breaking free of his chains and cage and run amok in Hong Kong, which seems rather scarcely populated...maybe it's the off season. He smashes empty buildings and stomps on cars filled with jet fuel, based on the explosive reaction after said cars get stomped on...he also squishes a number of fleeing pedestrians, in less than realistic fashion. This sets up the final climatic fight scene with Mighty Peking Man on top of a tall building, battling helicopters (I know I've seen this somewhere before), and his eventual flaming, crashing, demise (big surprise). I really loved how the authorities dealt with the creature, and how little regard they had for the surrounding public they were trying to protect. Yeah, The Mighty Peking Man is an obvious rip-off of King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949), one that lacks even the most basic shred of likeability of those two films. The monkey suit looks about as good as costumes donned in a Toho Godzilla release. The dubbing is exceptional bad throughout the film, and the miniatures are all that great, either. The extra poor treatment of Mighty Peking Man by his captors, beating his feet with bamboo sticks and such, meant to make us feel sorry for him, was so obviously blatant as all it did was illuminated the stupidity of the makers of this film, and their incredibly lame efforts to try and garner emotion from the audience. Given the unresponsive nature of the man in the rubber monkey suit, this was certainly a difficult task The wide screen print does look pretty good, and special features include a theatrical trailer for The Mighty Peking Man along with trailers for Switchblade Sisters (1975) and From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (2000). Cookieman108
Rating:
Summary: mighty peking man
Review: This is the big one. It's fun, romance, and adventure. Plus a great monster-in-the-city fick! It's so cheezy, it'll warm your heart, or clog it up! Requires many viewings. Add this to your collection. It may only have the depth of a moonbeam; but this is what to watch when Bergman, Kubrick or even Polanski can't satisfy the evening.
Rating:
Summary: mighty peking man
Review: This is the big one. It's fun, romance, and adventure. Plus a great monster-in-the-city fick! It's so cheezy, it'll warm your heart, or clog it up! Requires many viewings. Add this to your collection. It may only have the depth of a moonbeam; but this is what to watch when Bergman, Kubrick or even Polanski can't satisfy the evening.
Rating: 
Summary: Kill The Peking Man By Any Means You Can
Review: This movie really sucks. On the whole, I found it to be a waste of time. I guess it's not as bad as a Pauly Shore movie, but it's close. It's basically a really, really bad re-telling of the King Kong story. The blonde seemed to be based on the character Rima from the novel "Green Mansions". My favorite part of this stinker was watching for her to fall out of her animal skin bra. It is good for a few laughs, though, so keep this one in the closet unless you are doing some good drugs. Even then, you may want to stay clear of this piece.
Rating:
Summary: a Hong Kong-style Kaiju movie
Review: When I bought this movie, I was surprised to see that this was actually a Shaw Brothers movie produced by the legendary, Runme Shaw. The Shaw Brothers produced some of the greatest martial art flicks of all time such as "Chinese Super Ninja," "5 Deadly Venoms," "The Crippled Avengers," etc. So I repeat, I was very surprised to see them fund a movie about a giant monster. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what kind of movie this really is. You could really just say this is a very bad rip-off of "King Kong." And it's a really bizarre movie to say the least. But since it features a giant monster, I'll grade it as a giant monster movie. As a giant monster flick, I can't give this movie a good grade, because the Monster scenes are very bad compared to a Toho film like "Godzilla." Yes, the monster scenes are hilarious, but if I were to compare the monster scenes to any other monster flick, this would probably be the worst of the lot. I'm going to say this primarily because of the filming techniques - and yes, I'm well-aware that Toho movies aren't exactly perfect examples of movie-making, but they do set the standard of movie-making when it comes to giant monsters. The biggest problems with the monster scenes is that the camera is constantly cutting back-and-forth at incredible speeds to show a single action. In a "Godzilla" movie, a lot of action is filmed without cutting to a new angle: for example, if Godzilla were to crush a building, the camera would show the Big G swinging into the edifice and crushing it all in a single take. But in "The Mighty Peking Man," the camera would first show the Peking Man's face, then cut to his arms going in the air, then cut to a new angle of the building, then cut back to show Peking Man crashing into the building. All of the cutting seems to be a little disorienting and detracts from the monster scene's impact. Another problem is that there are many scenes where human characters are looking at Peking Man, but the method used to show the humans and monster together is very bad. It looks like they're screaming at a t.v projection. FYI - The monster action featured here consists of Monster-Human Bonding, Monster Vs. Military, and of course, Monster Trashing City. Now for the Human Scenes - there is so much fun stuff happening here! You've got your horrible editing, horrendous voice-actors, over-acting galore, exploitation camera shots of Samantha, and other bizarre situations that totally defy all logic...you just have to see this movie to believe it! Let me just say that I really like the dubbing - very typical Shaw stuff here. My favourite part of the dubbing is when a character has a lot to say. It seems as if he takes one long breath, then spews out 2-3 lines without pausing between sentences. For example, Johnny is talking to his brother on the phone, and this is what the brother says: "You sound great right now I'm recording a t.v show listen it'll take another hour why don't you come right now." (notice there are no pauses in there) Oh, and about that monster... The title monster (Peking Man) is a giant ape who is infatuated with a bodacious blonde in animal skin, Samantha. It's funny that they call him the "Peking Man" since the real Peking Man (of the REAL world) probably looked more like a human than an ape, and he was probably around 5ft tall. In this movie, the Peking Man is an straight-out ape showing no physical similarities to a modern-day human (except that it stands upright like the 'Homo Erectus' should), and well, it's several stories tall. I'm no anthropologist, but I definitely know that this is no Peking Man! But he's certainly great fun! And as for that costume, it's probably worse than the King Kong suit worn in "King Kong vs. Godzilla" which makes things even more fun whenever the apeman makes an appearance. In any case, here are some hilarious situations that I remembered from the movie: SITUATION 1
While the Peking Man is trashing a village, the local militia start pelting the monster with a plethora of rocks. The Peking Man stands there for a minute or so getting hit by rocks, but soon enough, he decides to retaliate by picking up an incredibly huge boulder and flinging it towards the villagers. (yeah, they should've saw that coming) SITUATION 2
When the expeditionary team is paving its way through the jungle, a bengal tiger bites the leg off of one of the native escorts. As the native is crying in agony, the Chinese man in charge mysteriously shoots the man in the head just before they can administer aid. When Johnny questions him about it, the guy replies that he simply ended the native's suffering. He also mutters something about saving the medicine until they really need it (I suppose death wasn't a real emergency). SITUATION 3
This isn't really a situation, but a whole series of them. Ok, Samantha is a blonde bombshell, and she looks great! The director obviously exploited this to full-effect throughout the movie. During the movie, you'll see many shots of her rear, a nipple, and even a scene where this dude pours wine down her chest. And throughout the movie, Samantha sports her animal-skin attire which is very flattering for her figure. Overall, this wasn't a great monster movie due to the weak Monster Scenes. But don't get me wrong, I was totally entertained - just not in a Godzilla-kinda way. And that's why this movie doesn't get topmarks. But do yourself a favor, and watch this movie - you'll have a great time! MISCELLANEOUS INFO
- Some of the instrumental music they play is recycled from previous Shaw movies (such as "Chinese Super Ninja").
Rating:
Summary: a Hong Kong-style Kaiju movie
Review: When I bought this movie, I was surprised to see that this was actually a Shaw Brothers movie produced by the legendary, Runme Shaw. The Shaw Brothers produced some of the greatest martial art flicks of all time such as "Chinese Super Ninja," "5 Deadly Venoms," "The Crippled Avengers," etc. So I repeat, I was very surprised to see them fund a movie about a giant monster. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what kind of movie this really is. You could really just say this is a very bad rip-off of "King Kong." And it's a really bizarre movie to say the least. But since it features a giant monster, I'll grade it as a giant monster movie. As a giant monster flick, I can't give this movie a good grade, because the Monster scenes are very bad compared to a Toho film like "Godzilla." Yes, the monster scenes are hilarious, but if I were to compare the monster scenes to any other monster flick, this would probably be the worst of the lot. I'm going to say this primarily because of the filming techniques - and yes, I'm well-aware that Toho movies aren't exactly perfect examples of movie-making, but they do set the standard of movie-making when it comes to giant monsters. The biggest problems with the monster scenes is that the camera is constantly cutting back-and-forth at incredible speeds to show a single action. In a "Godzilla" movie, a lot of action is filmed without cutting to a new angle: for example, if Godzilla were to crush a building, the camera would show the Big G swinging into the edifice and crushing it all in a single take. But in "The Mighty Peking Man," the camera would first show the Peking Man's face, then cut to his arms going in the air, then cut to a new angle of the building, then cut back to show Peking Man crashing into the building. All of the cutting seems to be a little disorienting and detracts from the monster scene's impact. Another problem is that there are many scenes where human characters are looking at Peking Man, but the method used to show the humans and monster together is very bad. It looks like they're screaming at a t.v projection. FYI - The monster action featured here consists of Monster-Human Bonding, Monster Vs. Military, and of course, Monster Trashing City. Now for the Human Scenes - there is so much fun stuff happening here! You've got your horrible editing, horrendous voice-actors, over-acting galore, exploitation camera shots of Samantha, and other bizarre situations that totally defy all logic...you just have to see this movie to believe it! Let me just say that I really like the dubbing - very typical Shaw stuff here. My favourite part of the dubbing is when a character has a lot to say. It seems as if he takes one long breath, then spews out 2-3 lines without pausing between sentences. For example, Johnny is talking to his brother on the phone, and this is what the brother says: "You sound great right now I'm recording a t.v show listen it'll take another hour why don't you come right now." (notice there are no pauses in there) Oh, and about that monster... The title monster (Peking Man) is a giant ape who is infatuated with a bodacious blonde in animal skin, Samantha. It's funny that they call him the "Peking Man" since the real Peking Man (of the REAL world) probably looked more like a human than an ape, and he was probably around 5ft tall. In this movie, the Peking Man is an straight-out ape showing no physical similarities to a modern-day human (except that it stands upright like the 'Homo Erectus' should), and well, it's several stories tall. I'm no anthropologist, but I definitely know that this is no Peking Man! But he's certainly great fun! And as for that costume, it's probably worse than the King Kong suit worn in "King Kong vs. Godzilla" which makes things even more fun whenever the apeman makes an appearance. In any case, here are some hilarious situations that I remembered from the movie: SITUATION 1
While the Peking Man is trashing a village, the local militia start pelting the monster with a plethora of rocks. The Peking Man stands there for a minute or so getting hit by rocks, but soon enough, he decides to retaliate by picking up an incredibly huge boulder and flinging it towards the villagers. (yeah, they should've saw that coming) SITUATION 2
When the expeditionary team is paving its way through the jungle, a bengal tiger bites the leg off of one of the native escorts. As the native is crying in agony, the Chinese man in charge mysteriously shoots the man in the head just before they can administer aid. When Johnny questions him about it, the guy replies that he simply ended the native's suffering. He also mutters something about saving the medicine until they really need it (I suppose death wasn't a real emergency). SITUATION 3
This isn't really a situation, but a whole series of them. Ok, Samantha is a blonde bombshell, and she looks great! The director obviously exploited this to full-effect throughout the movie. During the movie, you'll see many shots of her rear, a nipple, and even a scene where this dude pours wine down her chest. And throughout the movie, Samantha sports her animal-skin attire which is very flattering for her figure. Overall, this wasn't a great monster movie due to the weak Monster Scenes. But don't get me wrong, I was totally entertained - just not in a Godzilla-kinda way. And that's why this movie doesn't get topmarks. But do yourself a favor, and watch this movie - you'll have a great time! MISCELLANEOUS INFO
- Some of the instrumental music they play is recycled from previous Shaw movies (such as "Chinese Super Ninja").
|
