Product Details

• Actors: Evelyne Kraft, Danny Lee, Feng Ku, Wei Tu Lin, Norman Chu
• Directors: Meng Hua Ho
• Writers: Kuang Ni
• Producers: Runme Shaw, Vee King Shaw
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Miramax
• DVD Release Date: May 23, 2000
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305803811
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,220 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Mighty Peking Man" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

What makes Mighty Peking Man such a trashy delight? It's not just the absurdly obvious special effects and atrocious dubbing--those are the easy laughs--it's the over-the-top romantic and dramatic moments that really push this movie into camp heaven. When a gigantic ape-man destroys a village in a remote jungle, a fiendish promoter decides to capture this prehistoric creature and put him on display. He hires Johnny (Danny Lee, who resembles current Canto-pop superstar Andy Lau), a heartbroken adventurer, to hunt Peking Man down. Hardly five minutes go by without some life-threatening danger; in just the first half-hour there's an earthquake, a tiger attack, and a fatal mountain-climbing accident, and that's in addition to the rampaging man-ape and bottle-blond jungle queen Samantha (the lovely Evelyne Kraft), who occasionally falls out of her already skimpy jungle attire. It seems that Samantha survived a plane crash that killed her parents and was kept alive by Peking Man--though where she finds her mascara is never explained. After falling in love with Johnny, she helps him bring Peking Man back to civilization. By the time Peking Man is unleashing devastation on downtown Hong Kong, the movie has reached a giddy delirium that defies all logic. Part soap opera, part monster madness, Mighty Peking Man is completely entertaining. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

Sure to drive you wild, here's one of the funniest, most hysterically campy movies ever made: MIGHTY PEKING MAN! A powerful earthquake awakens a giant, apelike creature who descends from the mountains into the treacherous jungles of India. Later, an expedition of greedy showmen capture the fearsome beast, bringing him ... and the scantily clad blonde bombshell he protects ... back to civilization! But payback comes when the Mighty Peking Man breaks loose and begins to run amok in the heart of the city! An outrageous adventure that never takes itself too seriously -- treat yourself to a guilty pleasure that has entertained critics and late-night movie audiences everywhere!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So atrocious its an instant classic, August 4, 2001

By 

John Smith (Parts Unknown) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mighty Peking Man (DVD)

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!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "They Put A Chain On Him! He No Like!", June 16, 2010

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mighty Peking Man (DVD)

I'll start by saying that I am generally fond of giant ape camp classics (like "A*P*E") but found "Mighty Peking Man" grating, long, boring, and unfunny. In short, it really tried my patience. I generously gave it two stars for the presence of Evelyne Kraft as the comical blonde jungle nymph who was raised by Mighty Peking Man, and especially the truly bizarre tiger and cheetah encounters (who knew a live cheetah makes such a great stole?)

Apparently Quentin Tarantino likes this movie, as it was released on DVD by Rolling Thunder Pictures under one of its many monikers, "Mighty Peking Man," though I think the original Shaw Brothers title "Xing Xing Wang" is much more entertaining. The film starts right off with an adventurer, Johnnie, discovering his girlfriend having an affair, so on a whim he takes an assignment to go to India to find a giant monkey, Mighty Peking Man. I have to tell you that this film had probably the worst process shots of animals I have ever seen. I especially loved the elephant stampede, though the big cats were great too. Mighty Peking Man himself is a guy is an absolutely terrible ape suit. In the first few minutes of the film the expedition to capture the monkey encounters an earthquake, a tiger attack (note: the way to escape a tiger attack is not to jump in quicksand as it turns out,) an elephant stampede, and a nasty fall from a scary cliff. Johnnie also finds Samantha, the blonde jungle queen, and it's love at first sight. Of course she was raised after surviving a plane crash as a girl by Mighty Peking Man, and they communicate on a deep level and he obeys her commands. Johnnie saves Samantha from a nasty cobra bite with the help of some medicinal leaves Mighty Peking Man brings, cementing their relationship. Please especially enjoy the "frolicking in the jungle" scene while some of the worst 1970's music in existence swells on the soundtrack. Both your eyes and ears will scream for mercy.

Of course Johnnie is still under contract to capture the ape, so even though he has reservations he persuades Samantha to accompany them to Hong Kong where he will be put on display. The lash him to the deck of a boat, sail through a typhoon (don't worry when the ship hits a rock in the middle of the ocean, that's just fine,) set up shop in a stadium, and proceed to mistreat the ape. I was amused that Johnnie bought Samantha a dress to replace her fur loincloth and bikini top. He chose an ultra-comfy form-fitting black latex outfit, which Samantha promptly threw out a porthole. Up to this point the movie was modestly entertaining from a camp perspective, but about halfway through it, I started to lose patience.

The big change involves the mistreatment of Mighty Peking Man, and the unbelievably overblown drama that went along with his escape and battle for existence. There's an unsavory assault complete with wine on bodice ("just like the jungle,") and lots of scenery chewing from both Samantha and the forces allied to kill the ape, though the justice was entertaining when the kidnapper got pulled from a building, flung to the ground and stomped with a very hilarious foot. There's lots of military hardware shooting at Mighty Peking Man, a double-crossing military officer, and of course the final stand atop Hong Kong's tallest building. (I wonder if the filmmakers had ever seen any earlier giant ape movies.... Sigh.) There is much drama (the plot to blow up the building with hardware apparently from a dime store is particularly painful) and much shooting, resulting ultimately in Mighty Peking Man toppling on fire to his death below, where a similar fate awaits Samantha. The film closes full of pathos with Johnnie holding Samantha in the burning building, much to the relief of the audience.

The DVD also features a preview of the film and a couple of other previews too, but no appreciable extras. The first half has the making of a camp classic, but the last half is so overwrought and heavy-handed that it fails as camp, making the film just an uncomfortable melange with occasionally amusing action. Do yourself a favor and just watch the trailer and feel free to discard the DVD. You aren't missing much, and it's 90 minutes of your life you can do something better with.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A CAMP-TRASH CLASSIC!, August 14, 2000

By 

John (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mighty Peking Man (DVD)

As a fan of schlocky, "so bad they're good" films, I have seen quite a few that simply amaze with their ineptness, from classics such as "Plan 9" and "Robot Monster" to more recent howlers such as "Lake Placid". However, nothing - and I mean nothing - could have prepared me fully for the experience of finally seeing "Mighty Peking Man". This film is an absolute camp-trash GOLDMINE; a cinematic abomination so astonishingly bad that it defies rational explanation. It literally must be seen to be believed! This is not a criticism, however; but rather an endorsement: "Mighty Peking Man" is punishingly hilarious; an unintentional laugh-riot of lame acting, atrocious dubbing, and inarguably the worst - the WORST - optical effects I have ever witnessed in a professional (and that's stretching the word to its outer limits) motion picture. The movie goes so far over the top that it borders on the psychedelic; indeed, copious amounts of mind-altering substances are probably required to get the full "Peking Man" experience. The film's grade-Z pleasures are too numerous to list, but would certainly start with Peking Man himself: a moth-eaten, googly-eyed, rubber-mouthed gorilla suit, from all appearances rented from a local costume shop and about as convincing. Then there's Evelyne Kraft, the "heroine", who, despite living in the wild jungle for 20 years, sports a perfect 1970's-era Farrah Fawcett layered hairdo, mascara, and a seemingly endless supply of lip gloss. Throw in a romance between Kraft and "Johnny", the hero (complete with a wretchedly awful - and brutally funny - slow motion "running through the fields" sequence as they "fall in love", while all the while the out-of-tune orchestra warbles on) and the oblogitory final battle between Peking Man and woefully obvious model helicopters (the strings supporting them fully visible) and you have the stuff of which cult midnight-movie dreams are made. Kudos to Quentin Tarantino for resurrecting this trashy gem, in widescreen no less! For those of you out there who relish so-unbelievably-bad-they're-cool films, put "Showgirls" on hold and give this one a go; you won't regret it. Now, Quentin, how about a reissue of "KISS meets the Phantom of the Park"?