“Mighty Peking Man” International Theatrical Poster
AKA: Goliathon
Director: Ho Meng-Hua
Cast: Danny Lee, Evelyne Kraft, Hang-Sheng Wu, Hsu Shao-Chiang, Ku Feng, Lin Wei-Tu, Chen Cheng-Feng, Alexander Grand, Lee Sau Kei, Wong Pau Gei
Running Time: 86 min.
By Gwailo
It’s a must-see oddity from the Shaw Brothers, starring a young Danny Lee, made around the same time as his equally campy Ultraman. A direct rip-off of the King Kong/Godzilla genre gone totally berserk. Now that it’s widely available on Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder label, this should grace every HK cinema collection.
If you need a no subtitle flick to wind down a drunken evening, this is it. Special effects are just that…special. These and the hokey props and locales are beautifully realized, expected, and more than welcome. Listen to the sound a boulder makes as it bounces of The Mighty Peking Man’s chest. Hilarious. See a leopard’s huge scrotum hang over an always scantily clad Evelyn Kraft’s shoulder as she spins (!?) around with him on her back!!! Laugh till you cry at the thought of a 5 passenger plane flying over the Himalayans!
I saw this gem of a movie on the revival circuit a few years back. The hands down best time I have ever had in a movie theater. In a word… wonderful!
Gwailo’s Rating: 9/10
By Alvin George
A Hong KoIn 1977, a year after Paramount released their critically-reviled remake of the classic “King Kong” (featuring a scraggly-looking Jeff Bridges and a young Jessica Lange), the Shaw Brothers put out their own version of the legend, calling the beast “Mighty Peking Man.” Sure, the dubbing is bad. Sure, the special effects are bad. (You can tell it’s a guy in an ape suit, and that the cars Mighty Peking Man stomps on are obviously models.) However, this film is a lot more fun to watch than all those stupid “serious” flicks Jackie Chan made with Lo Wei. Heck, it’s even more fun than “Godzilla 1985,” the movie where a model-animated Godzilla moved a lot more stiffly than the beast in this movie.
How can you go wrong with a movie that prominently features a lovely Daryl Hannah lookalike who runs around wearing nothing but animal skin? The extended scene where she makes out with Danny Lee (complete with a sappy sitar-driven song on the soundtrack) is the most ’70s love-making scene I have seen since Jimmy Wang Yu made love to an Australian cutie pie in “The Man From Hong Kong.” Too bad both the girl and the ape get exploited by some stupid idiot. I got mad when the bastard tried to rape the girl. (She may be a dumb blonde, but she’s not THAT dumb!) Like King Kong, Mighty Peking Man isn’t really an evil creature; he’s just trying to protect the girl, obeying her every command. If you are in the mood for something that won’t tax your brain cells much, then you’ll go ape over “Mighty Peking Man.”
Alvin George’s Rating: 7.5/10
By Mighty Peking Man
Fun. That’s what this movie is. Pure fun. A really, and I mean REALLY, obvious rip-off of “King Kong,” only better. A very young Danny Lee (yep, the same guy from “The Killer”) ventures into the jungle to track down a big ass ape. He captures and befriends it with the help of a sexy amazon chick (Evelyne Kraft). They fall in love (Lee and Kraft that is!) and both return to Hong Kong where all hell breaks loose as the ape runs wild!
This is the only PG-13 (that’s what it’s rated on Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder label) film I’ve ever seen where a female nipple is flashed every 15-minutes or so, not to mention a few butt shots; So kids, this IS the PG-13 film to see if you want some fast nudity!
The most hilarious moment comes during a slow-motion, romantic scene accompanied by a silly love song. I’ll watch this over any “King Kong” or “Godzilla” flick any day!
Mighty Peking Man’s Rating: 8/10
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