Movie Review: The Mighty Peking Man

The Mighty Peking Man (Xing xing wang) (a.k.a. Goliathon a.k.a. Colossus of Kongo) 

Starring: Evelyne Kraft, Danny Lee, Feng Ku, Wei Tu Lin, Norman Chu, Hang-Sheng Wu, Ted Thomas, Steve Nicholson, Yao Hsiao, Ping Chen, Yi-Hsiung Chi, Chuen Chiang, Szu-Ying Chien, Chun Chin, Tien-Chu Chin, Alexander Grand, Kung-Wu Huang, Pei Chi Huang, Jim James, Sau Kei Lee, Ying Tan, Tung Ting, Fat Tsui, Han Chen Wang, Chi Yang, Corey Yuen 

Director: Meng Hua Ho 

Shaw Brothers, Hong Kong, 1977.

Scientists try to find giant gorilla in Himalayas. Chen Zheng Feng (Danny Lee) leads the expedition. Chen is not quite all right because his girlfriend cheated on him. The quest is dangerous with killer elephants, tigers and quicksand. There is also a Tarzan-girl (Evelyne Kraft) hopping around in the jungle. She wears a highly unpractical gravity-defying leather bikini. The rest of the expeditioners get enough of the unfruitful trip and abandon Chen. 

Ah Wang, The Mighty Peking Man

Chen Zheng Feng

Ah Wei

When giant gorilla Ah Wang attacks Chen, jungle girl rescues him. Gorilla is actually jungle girl's friend. Ah Wei's parents were killed in airplane crash and she was raised by the gorilla. She is friend of all animals... except snakes. So when snake bites her thigh, Chen must suck out the poison! Syrupy jungle romance follows. 

Let's give a big hand to Ah Wei

Awwwww

Chen decides to take Ah Wei and Ah Wang to Hong Kong. This saddens the jungle animals. Chen's evil colleague Lu Tien (Feng Ku) wants to earn millions by showing off the gorilla. There is a triangular drama when Chen meets his ex-girlfriend Huang Tsui Hua (Siu Yiu). Ah Wei is disappointed in Chen and she runs away. Ah Wei sees Ah Wang being humiliated in the show. Ah Wang gets angry when Lu Tien tries to abuse Ah Wei. Ah Wang tries to save her and wrecks the city. Army is sent to kill the gorilla with tragic results.  

Lu Tien

Huang Tsui Hua

Strong Peking Man

The movie is a shameless rip-off of "King Kong." It has some ingeniously silly twists, especially the jungle scenes are just hilarious.  It is adorably campy and trashy. The first half of the movie is silly fun, but the second half gets more serious. The monster rampage special effects look good, although the face of the Peking Man looks silly in close-ups. Special effects supervisor was the veteran of Godzilla-films, Sadamasa Arikawa. Surprising for a Shaw Brothers film, the kung fu scenes are missing completely. The soundtrack with sappy love songs is obviously 1970s style. Some of the destruction footage was taken from "The Super Inframan." 

I think I once had a toy car like that

There goes the neighbourhood

Rating: Very Good