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Review
by
Doug Red
Film:7
DVD:6
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| An
improbable film from start to finish, The
Mighty Peking Man melds the "giant creature on the
loose" and "jungle goddess" genres with just a
dash of tragic melodramatic romance, gore, destruction, and comedy. |
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The
basic story starts out with Johnny (Danny Lee), tragically betrayed
by his girlfriend, leaving for India to help slimy producer Lu
Tiem (Feng Ku) find and capture the reputedly real gigantic monster
known as the Mighty Peking Man. Johnny survives a stock-footage
elephant stampede and tiger attack only to have his entire team
abandon him on the quest. Persevering, he encounters the Mighty
Peking Man, who roughhouses him around until Samantha the Jungle
Queen (played by the Swiss beauty Evelyne Kraft, of French
Sex Murders) convinces him to stop. It turns out that
the plane carrying her family crashed in the jungle when she was
a child, killing her parents, and Utam — the Mighty Peking Man's
name — rescued and raised her. After a little bit of bonding between
all three (Johnny and Utam save Samantha from a snake bite; Johnny
and Samantha fall in love amid a nice disco musical montage; Samantha
shows she still loves her Peking Pal), Johnny convinces them to
go with him as he returns to civilization. Innocent Samantha and
the great ape agree, and before long the producer winds up chaining
and abusing Utam, Johnny two-times Samantha with his old flame
(mirroring what drove him to the jungle in the first place), and
the greedy producer attempts to sexually assault Samantha in front
of Utam. Reaching the boiling point, the mighty pissed Mighty
Peking Man breaks loose and runs roughshod over Hong Kong while
trying to save Samantha. At this point the military becomes interested
in the situation, and as the army attempts to kill the giant hominid,
Johnny tries to make up with Samantha and save Utam while Samantha
searches for her B.A.F. (best ape friend) in an urban world she
herself is unfamiliar with. |
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Mighty
Peking Man
(AKA Goliathon) is a thoroughly entertaining
romp for B-film lovers. Cashing in on the Dino De Laurentiis King
Kong remake of 1976, the film certainly does solid work
in the effects and location filming (even having the giant ape
climb a distinctive building for his last stand). The back-projection
effects are sometimes woefully deficient, but the excellent framing
and miniatures work helps maintain the illusion. The titular monster
himself is about on the same level as the suit used in the 1976
Kong, though there is a design peculiarity
— occasionally, Utam gives a 'bugged-out eyes' look that's rather
humorous, and every once in a while his mask looks like a Don
Post pull-on rather than a full make-up job. |
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It
is Evelyne Kraft's performance as jungle queen Samantha though
that is the most riveting part of the film. Wearing the briefest
of leather bikinis (and nothing else) for nearly every scene she's
in, she really looks the fantasy idea of the jungle queen character:
blonde, strong, and comfortable in her sense of self. The dubbing
for her character is a little on the funny side, and she wears
full makeup and processed hairstyle in the jungle, but even with
that Kraft delivers a physical performance that conveys her character
quite well, shimmying up a light post as easy as a tree, or trying
to stop Utam's humiliation at the hands of the producer's men
regardless of how outnumbered. |
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Mighty
Peking Man
adds a little twist all its own to the giant-monster-attacking-the-city
subgenre: the big ape is completely innocent. Utam did rampage
many years ago, but since raising Samantha he's been a big pussycat.
By giving this backstory to the character, it makes what happens
to him in the big city all the more horrible. Ultimately Utam
and Samantha are a giant monster movie Adam and Eve, with Johnny
acting as a sly snake in their Garden of Eden offering them a
new world that promises community but instead becomes a paradise
lost for the jungle innocents. |
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The 2000 DVD release of Mighty Peking Man
(still in print, nearly 11 years on) was issued by Miramax under
Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder banner, in its original 2:35:1
aspect ratio and anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 TVs. The film
looks about as good as it probably can, with occasional debris
and grain that are likely defects from the original print. The
English-dubbed mono audio sounds okay. |
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Aside
from the theatrical trailer for Mighty Peking
Man, the disc also has two other Tarantino-related trailers,
one for Switchblade Sisters (also
re-released by Rolling Thunder) and From
Dusk Til Dawn 3. Optional English subtitles exist, but
there is no original Chinese language track. 12/25/10 |
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