There’s bad cinema, and then there’s The Mighty Peking Man—a movie that manages to make both King Kong and the Shaw Brothers look like they’re slumming it. This 1977 Hong Kong knockoff was designed to cash in on the buzz from the 1976 King Kong remake, but instead of riding the wave, it trips, faceplants, and gets tangled in its own fishing net.
The Premise: Kong Goes on Vacation, Wishes He Hadn’t
The setup is pure B-movie boilerplate: a giant ape emerges from the Indian jungle after an earthquake, a sleazy Hong Kong promoter decides it’ll make a great tourist attraction, and a gullible young adventurer (Danny Lee) signs on to help capture it. Toss in a beautiful blonde jungle girl (Evelyne Kraft) who’s been living in harmony with nature since childhood, and you have all the ingredients for a pulp adventure. Unfortunately, what you actually get is two hours of people yelling, rubber snakes, and a monster suit that looks like it was stitched together in the world’s saddest taxidermy class.
The Ape Suit: Spirit Halloween Reject
Let’s get this out of the way: The Mighty Peking Man’s title creature—known as “Utam” in the English dub—has all the terrifying majesty of a discount mall Santa in a gorilla costume. His face alternates between goofy grin and constipation, his fur looks like it’s been washed with dish soap, and his “rampage” scenes feel like a guy in a suit awkwardly trying not to trip over the set.
The special effects are a fascinating time capsule of pre-CGI monster movies—miniature sets, matte paintings, and rear projection—but they’re undone by laughable scale issues. In one shot, Utam is towering over skyscrapers; in the next, he looks like he could be taken down by a decently motivated housecat.
The Love Story: Jane, This Is Not Tarzan
Evelyne Kraft’s Ah-wei is meant to be the emotional anchor—a wild child who shares a deep bond with Utam. Instead, she’s mostly a walking shampoo commercial with an accent that comes and goes like bad Wi-Fi. Her romance with Danny Lee’s Chen Zhengfeng is rushed, awkward, and about as passionate as a handshake at a PTA meeting. The film tries to sell it as tragic, but the emotional weight is about on par with watching two strangers argue over a parking space.
The Pacing: Death by Travel Montage
Before Utam even shows up, you’re treated to what feels like forty-five minutes of “expedition” footage: hiking, boating, wading through swamps, fending off tigers, elephants, and snakes—basically a Shaw Brothers nature documentary with occasional dialogue. The middle stretch drags so badly you half expect David Attenborough to wander in and start narrating.
The Rampage: Kong Lite with Less Bite
The big set piece—Utam’s inevitable rampage through Hong Kong—should be the payoff. Instead, it’s a clumsy rehash of King Kong’s “ape on a skyscraper” finale, this time with the Connaught Centre standing in for the Empire State Building. Helicopters buzz, soldiers shoot, explosions happen… yet it all feels weirdly bloodless, as if everyone involved was terrified of getting the suit dirty.
Even Utam’s death scene is underwhelming, though it’s hard not to feel for the big guy—after all, he’s spent the whole movie being chained, humiliated, and dragged across continents only to be gunned down in public. It’s less epic tragedy, more bad day at the world’s worst petting zoo.
Final Verdict: For Completists Only
The Mighty Peking Man isn’t so much “so bad it’s good” as “so bad it’s mildly watchable if you’re folding laundry.” It has moments of surreal camp—like the scene where Utam rescues Ah-wei from attempted assault by literally tearing the building apart—but they’re buried under a swamp of flat performances, sloppy editing, and effects that never quite convince you the monster isn’t just a sweaty guy in foam feet.
If you’re a Shaw Brothers completist or a kaiju junkie, you might find some kitsch value here. For everyone else, this is the cinematic equivalent of a rubber spider in your drink: mildly amusing at first, but not something you want to linger over.
