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The Mighty Peking Man
[Mirimax]
19??; color
Directed by Ho Meng-Hua
Starring: Evelyne Kraft, Danny Lee, Chen Cheng-FengAh Wei & Huang Tsui-Hua
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Mighty Peking Man, the Shaw Brothers take on King Kong, is one of my favorite giant ape movies. Filmed in all the glorious wonder of "ShawScope," this frequently unintentionally hilarious flick gets better with every viewing. (For me at least.) From the opening earthquake sequence, where cameras shake and the rear-screen projected village shimmies as shoe-polish covered natives (read: Chinese people who are supposed to look Polynesian) flee in panic, you just know this is gonna be a real treat all the way through. Of course, word of the giant ape spreads quickly and the inevitable expedition is mounted—complete with a quasi-washed-up explorer (Johnny) up for one final adventure and an evil, exploitation-minded millionaire businessman who underwrites the whole shebang. After a considerable struggle in the jungle that results in the death of most of their party, the businessman gives up, believing the giant ape is nothing more than a myth, and takes the guides and everyone else with him back home in the middle of the night leaving Johnny alone in the wild. Needless to say, once Johnny's on his own, Mighty Peking Man shows himself; and this is also when we're introduced to a white, blond, barely dressed jungle girl named Samantha. She's been in the wild since she was a little girl. (She and her parents were in a plane crash; only she survived.) At some point she was rescued by MPM, who she calls "Utam," and apparently she grew up to be some sort of female Tarzan who has control over all the animals in the wild… (Well, the tigers, cheetahs and apes at least.) She and Johnny begin to have a relationship and after some time he convinces her to go back to civilization with him, bringing Utam in tow for the world to see. Once they arrive in the city (which is apparently right next to the jungle, as Utam manages to walk the whole way carrying Johnny and Samantha in his hand), Johnny contacts the guy who left him for dead in the jungle and in no time flat everyone's on their way to Hong Kong. Once they arrive, the tried and true plot of chained-ape-provoked-to-escape-and-run-amok quickly plays out and we start to barrel headfirst to the also tried and true monkey-up-a-building-battling-with-aircraft-while-trying-to-protect-the-girl-he-loves segment. All the while, Johnny is trying to convince the authorities that Samantha can control Utan and, in turn, save the city. No such luck though, because we all know the unwritten movie law that humans must prevail when fighting giant apes. The final ending is a bit ambiguous, as Johnny cradles a multiply shot but possibly still alive Samantha in his arms as he looks out over the city, but this movie is so much fun that it doesn't even really matter if there are lose ends.
—the Kommandant
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