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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a Hong Kong-style Kaiju movie, February 25, 2004
When I bought this movie, I was surprised to see that this was actually a Shaw Brothers movie produced by the legendary, Runme Shaw. The Shaw Brothers produced some of the greatest martial art flicks of all time such as "Chinese Super Ninja," "5 Deadly Venoms," "The Crippled Avengers," etc. So I repeat, I was very surprised to see them fund a movie about a giant monster. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what kind of movie this really is. You could really just say this is a very bad rip-off of "King Kong." And it's a really bizarre movie to say the least. But since it features a giant monster, I'll grade it as a giant monster movie. As a giant monster flick, I can't give this movie a good grade, because the Monster scenes are very bad compared to a Toho film like "Godzilla." Yes, the monster scenes are hilarious, but if I were to compare the monster scenes to any other monster flick, this would probably be the worst of the lot. I'm going to say this primarily because of the filming techniques - and yes, I'm well-aware that Toho movies aren't exactly perfect examples of movie-making, but they do set the standard of movie-making when it comes to giant monsters. The biggest problems with the monster scenes is that the camera is constantly cutting back-and-forth at incredible speeds to show a single action. In a "Godzilla" movie, a lot of action is filmed without cutting to a new angle: for example, if Godzilla were to crush a building, the camera would show the Big G swinging into the edifice and crushing it all in a single take. But in "The Mighty Peking Man," the camera would first show the Peking Man's face, then cut to his arms going in the air, then cut to a new angle of the building, then cut back to show Peking Man crashing into the building. All of the cutting seems to be a little disorienting and detracts from the monster scene's impact. Another problem is that there are many scenes where human characters are looking at Peking Man, but the method used to show the humans and monster together is very bad. It looks like they're screaming at a t.v projection. FYI - The monster action featured here consists of Monster-Human Bonding, Monster Vs. Military, and of course, Monster Trashing City. Now for the Human Scenes - there is so much fun stuff happening here! You've got your horrible editing, horrendous voice-actors, over-acting galore, exploitation camera shots of Samantha, and other bizarre situations that totally defy all logic...you just have to see this movie to believe it! Let me just say that I really like the dubbing - very typical Shaw stuff here. My favourite part of the dubbing is when a character has a lot to say. It seems as if he takes one long breath, then spews out 2-3 lines without pausing between sentences. For example, Johnny is talking to his brother on the phone, and this is what the brother says: "You sound great right now I'm recording a t.v show listen it'll take another hour why don't you come right now." (notice there are no pauses in there) Oh, and about that monster... The title monster (Peking Man) is a giant ape who is infatuated with a bodacious blonde in animal skin, Samantha. It's funny that they call him the "Peking Man" since the real Peking Man (of the REAL world) probably looked more like a human than an ape, and he was probably around 5ft tall. In this movie, the Peking Man is an straight-out ape showing no physical similarities to a modern-day human (except that it stands upright like the 'Homo Erectus' should), and well, it's several stories tall. I'm no anthropologist, but I definitely know that this is no Peking Man! But he's certainly great fun! And as for that costume, it's probably worse than the King Kong suit worn in "King Kong vs. Godzilla" which makes things even more fun whenever the apeman makes an appearance. In any case, here are some hilarious situations that I remembered from the movie: SITUATION 1
While the Peking Man is trashing a village, the local militia start pelting the monster with a plethora of rocks. The Peking Man stands there for a minute or so getting hit by rocks, but soon enough, he decides to retaliate by picking up an incredibly huge boulder and flinging it towards the villagers. (yeah, they should've saw that coming) SITUATION 2
When the expeditionary team is paving its way through the jungle, a bengal tiger bites the leg off of one of the native escorts. As the native is crying in agony, the Chinese man in charge mysteriously shoots the man in the head just before they can administer aid. When Johnny questions him about it, the guy replies that he simply ended the native's suffering. He also mutters something about saving the medicine until they really need it (I suppose death wasn't a real emergency). SITUATION 3
This isn't really a situation, but a whole series of them. Ok, Samantha is a blonde bombshell, and she looks great! The director obviously exploited this to full-effect throughout the movie. During the movie, you'll see many shots of her rear, a nipple, and even a scene where this dude pours wine down her chest. And throughout the movie, Samantha sports her animal-skin attire which is very flattering for her figure. Overall, this wasn't a great monster movie due to the weak Monster Scenes. But don't get me wrong, I was totally entertained - just not in a Godzilla-kinda way. And that's why this movie doesn't get topmarks. But do yourself a favor, and watch this movie - you'll have a great time! MISCELLANEOUS INFO
- Some of the instrumental music they play is recycled from previous Shaw movies (such as "Chinese Super Ninja").
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