The mighty peking man 1977 the mighty peking man 1977. They travel to india to capture it, but wild animals and quicksand dissuade all but johnny, an adventurer with a broken heart. Mighty peking man was another attempt to replicate the success of king kong, a movie often copied and never surpassed. The mighty peking man was made with a budget of around 6 million hkd. However, it was with the mighty peking man in 1977 that the shaw brothers studio cast their own attempt at a megasized monster movie and, for many, this. An energetic, shameless attempt to cash in on the 1976 remake of king kong, mighty peking man varies that movies formula only by having the giant ape or in this case, apelike protohuman come. The music box, chicagos premiere art house theater, featured the film with a midnight showing. Homo erectus is thought to have evolved in africa from h. Mar 01, 2014 the mighty peking man is a 1977 film produced in hong kong by shaw brothers studio to capitalize on the craze surrounding the 1976 remake of king kong. The mighty peking man is a 1977 film produced in hong kong by shaw brothers studio to capitalize on the craze surrounding the 1976 remake of king kong. Nov 01, 20 available on dvd as part of quentin tarantinos rolling thunder pictures triple feature, and also on bluray from japan warning, no english subtitles available with the japanese release, i finally got round to catching the mighty peking man. It is all over the place combining sheena with king kong in a twisted psychotic fusion that follows no rules of logic, space or time whatsoever.
The film was originally released in the united states with the english dub in 1980 as goliathon. It disturbs a giant ape, for example, which lumbers down from its mountain home and heads for the jungles of india. The mighty peking man 1977 what sort of mad genius created the mighty peking man aka goliathon. Mighty peking man is a weird mutant hybrid of king kong and all those 1950s giant bug movies, where whole blocks of downtown hong kong or wherever they are are made of very fragile models and toy vehicles. Our group has watched a lot of bad movies together but very few have given us as much joy as mighty peking man. The grindhouse film festival presents a rare 35mm print of this shaw brothers kaiju movie. Xing xing wang the mighty peking man colossus of congo. Goliathon 1977 movie simple english wikipedia, the free. Despite ticking all the boxes of potential scum greatness seal of approval from tarantino, rare shaw brothers creatureexploitation feature. There is no way on earth you can approach a movie like this seriously, to try to use the same standards of criticism and taste that. Peking man article about peking man by the free dictionary. May 31, 2015 the mighty peking man was made with a budget of around 6 million hkd.
Mighty peking man, made in 1977, is being rereleased by quentin tarantinos rolling thunder pictures, and we can only imagine young qt behind the counter of that legendary video store of his youth, watching this on the. The film was originally released in the us in march 19, 1980 as goliathon. The mighty peking man suit is of poor quality its mouth gapes wide open, allowing us to see the suit actors mouth in a few shots. This movie deals with far more important issues womens liberation. The mighty peking man is a 1977 monster film produced by shaw brothers studio to capitalize on the craze surrounding the 1976 remake of king kong. Peking man homo erectus pekinensis, formerly known by the junior synonym sinanthropus pekinensis is a group of fossil specimens of homo erectus, dated from roughly 750,000 years ago, discovered in 192937 during excavations at zhoukoudian chou koutien near beijing at the time spelled peking, china. Titans of 60s and 70s hong kong cinema, the shaw brothers are bestknown for their many martialarts films, but mighty peking man is an exception.
Mighty peking man is a gem of 1970s filmmaking, especially since its not a japanese monster movie, but a chinese one. King kong comes to hong kong in the mighty peking man, a uniquely shaw brothers spin on the ageless theme of beauty and the beast. Xingxing wang which translates to gorilla king in english is a 1977 monster film produced by shaw brothers studio to capitalize on the craze surrounding the 1976 remake of king kong. After reintroducing the world to italian horror schlockster lucio fulci via the beyond, rolling thunder followed with the newtovideo mighty peking man, a. Available on dvd as part of quentin tarantinos rolling thunder pictures triple feature, and also on bluray from japan warning, no english subtitles available with the japanese release, i finally got round to catching the mighty peking man. Meng hua ho, evelyn kraft, lu tien, danny lee, kuang ni, vee king shaw, chua lam.
The mighty peking man, with its absurd dubbing and man in a suit monster is very similar to the japanese toho films actually, this is better than any toho giant monster pic produced in the 70s. This cheap hong kong king kong ripoff is totally out of. Stories of a ten stories tall monster ape living in the himalayas reaches fortune hunters in hong kong. If judged by conventional viewing standards, the mighty peking man is riddled with problems. Titans of 60s and 70s hong kong cinema, the shaw brothers are bestknown for their many martialarts films, but mighty peking man is an exception, if in content more than quality. Mighty peking man is an over the top retelling of the great ape story in classic hong kong action style.
The beauty is russia starlet evelyne kraft, a sexy blonde tarzanette who is the mighty peking man s best friend. Mighty peking man is an overthetop retelling of the great ape story in classic hong kong action style. Goliathon 1977 opens w the utter destruction of a toy village by an earthquake. However, it still piles on the entertainment value thanks to its howlingly awful dubbing and wacko plot tangents, such as a kitschy romantic montage complete with pop music that should leave the most stonefaced viewer howling for mercy. This is not a mere monstermovie, it is a statement of the attitudes towards women and their. The ape looks good in som e scenes, ridiculous in others, and in some facial closeups, a mechanical head is mysteriously substituted. The mighty peking man 1977 jabootus bad movie dimension. The mighty peking man 1977 updated on september 9, 2002 by ken begg leave a comment plot. Danny lee, evelyne kraft, hangsheng wu, hsu shaochiang, ku feng, lin weitu, chen chengfeng running time.
Its simply an earthquake scene, just as later, there is a quicksand scene, a scene where a python fights a tiger, etc. The magnificent miniatures of the mighty peking man 1977 duration. The film was originally released in the united states with the english dub in 1980 as goliathon the film was directed by ho meng hua and produced by runme shaw. Said catastrophe has released the enormous title creature some poor shlub in a hairy suit to crush some villagers. An energetic, shameless attempt to cash in on the 1976 remake of king. The model work is good, on par with tohos godzilla movies, and there are some clever ideas and bits of good dialog. Review of the king kong knockoff mighty peking man, produced by hong kongs legendary shaw brothers studios. The mighty peking man is actually about evelyne krafts left nipple and the immense struggle it has to try to free itself unto the world. Though its efforts seem to have collapsed and its leader seems to have disappeared, quentin tarantinos rolling thunder imprint spent a couple of years in the late 90s valiantly attempting to revive the allbutvanished midnight movie. A powerful earthquake awakens a giant, apelike creature who descends from the mountains into the treacherous jungles of. Johnny danny lee leads intrepid explorers into the dark indian jungle to find the mysterious, giant apelike creature that lives there the mighty peking man. With evelyne kraft, danny lee, feng ku, wei tu lin.
So mighty peking man finds himself in chains on the deck of a freighter, headed for hong kong. King kong goes hong kong as a giant himalayan beast tries to save a sexy russia tarzanette from a sleazy showbiz promoter. There is an earthquake near the beginning of mighty peking man, but unlike the earthquake in the fondly remembered inframan, it does not unleash the slinkynecked robots and hairy mutant footstools controlled by princess dragon mom. Word of a monster ape ten stories tall living in the himalayas reaches fortune hunters in hong kong. The mighty peking man is a 1977 monster film produced by shaw brothers studio to capitalize on the craze surrounding. May 15, 20 the magnificent miniatures of the mighty peking man 1977 duration. There is not a single scene where it cant be seen trying to pop out with great force to conquer the known world.
Thats how bland and generic it is, there is a slowmotion montage of samantha and johnny doing just that starting off with the hackneyed running sequence the first instance of the nipple adhesive failing and graduating into carefree frolicking with. The peking man changes size a bit, depending on the sets. I have no memory whatsoever of the mighty peking mans american release a few years later march of 1980, even under the title goliathon. The giant apeman costume is as hokey as youd expect, and the films villains are liars, cruel and stupid. But rather than make just a boring imitation by relying entirely on its kong association, the mighty peking man basically says aww screw it and goes to the absolute extreme in every manner possible. Knowing almost nothing about it, other than it was. It moves at a great pace, and theres lots of fun sequences, dialogue, beautifully shot sunsets and of course evelyn kraft in her ultra skimpy jungle bikini which amazingly stays stuck to her body when shes running around. King kong goes hong kong as a giant himalayan beast tries to save a sexy.
May 26, 2016 the movie opens with a group of hong kong businessmen discussing the capturing of the mythical peking man, who is believed to inhabit the himalayan mountains, and television promoter lu tiem tells us, in flashback form, of how the mighty peking man appeared out of an explosive earthquake, devastating a nearby village despite the natives trying to defend themselves with catapults. This campy hong kong version of king kong played at the 1999 sundance film festival in the midnight madness sections, as well as the toronto film festival. Were here to bring back the glory of 70s chopsocky movies, italian crime. The tone veers wildly from kiddieshow goofiness to surprisingly adult sleaziness. It moves at a great pace, and theres lots of fun sequences, nice dialogue, beautifully shot sunsets and of course evelyn kraft in her ultra skimpy jungle bikini which amazingly stays stuck to her body when shes running around. The movie opens with a group of hong kong businessmen discussing the capturing of the mythical peking man, who is believed to inhabit the himalayan mountains, and television promoter lu tiem tells us, in flashback form, of how the mighty peking man appeared out of an explosive earthquake, devastating a nearby village despite the natives trying to defend themselves with catapults. Goliathon 1977 movie simple english wikipedia, the. In the 1970s, shaw brothers studios were the greatest producer of classic martial arts films, but during that time they also dipped into other genres like scifi, horror, comedy and dramas. This greatly displeases mighty peking man, not to mention samantha this is the second time the nipple adhesive fails. Word of a monster ape ten stories tall living in the. Word of a monster ape ten stories tall living in the himalayas reaches fortune. Mighty peking man 1977 was the shaws cover version of king kong and the japanese tohotoei kaiju movies with a dash of tarzan done in their own incredibly entertaining way.
The monkey suit looks about as good as costumes donned in a toho godzilla release. A hong koin 1977, a year after paramount released their criticallyreviled remake of the classic king kong featuring a scragglylooking jeff bridges and a young jessica lange, the shaw brothers put out their own version of the legend, calling the beast mighty peking man. The mighty peking man 1977 shaw brothers official trailer. The beast, seven stories high and hailing from the himalayas, makes his way to the jungles of india in the wake of a violent earthquake. This film really tries to do it all except have a cohesive story, good.
I first saw mighty peking man three or four years ago under almost storybook conditions. However, it was with the mighty peking man in 1977 that. It was not until just a few years ago, when discovering the abundance of bmovie websites on. The giant ape man costume is as hokey as youd expect, and the films villains are liars, cruel and stupid. Mighty peking man, the latest release from rolling thunder, hit the midnight movie circuit last week, reaching excited viewers in markets. It might seem like the movie is about a large ape taken to hong kong who then proceeds to level the city in his search for the blonde lady he is in love. Peking man homo erectus pekinensis, formerly known by the junior synonym sinanthropus pekinensis is a group of fossil specimens of homo erectus, dated from roughly 750,000 years ago, discovered in 192937 during excavations at zhoukoudian chou koutien near beijing at. It didnt get released in the us though until 1980 when it was retitled goliathon and had an attempted rape scene removed, not to mention having. A team, led by johnnie fang danny lee is assembled to find the towering apemonster. While i can clearly remember going to the theater with my dad to see the king kong remake in 1976 the film this movie is so obviously trying to copy i have no memory whatsoever of the mighty peking mans american release a few years later march of 1980, even under the title goliathon. One man s journey down the mighty mississippi full colection.
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