Synopsis: King Kong goes Hong Kong as a giant Himalayan beast tries to save a sexy Russian Tarzanette from a sleazy show-biz promoter. The action, locations set in India, and interracial romance made Variety reach this verdict: 'High camp, Chinese style'. (90 Mins)

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Views: Runme Shaw's attempt at to cash in on King Kong and the Japanese kaiju craze, helped deliver an incredibly bizarre Hong Kong film – yet one that has gone on to make quite the impression with fans and film-lovers around the world. Blending the original King Kong story with the classic Tarzan tale, albeit swapping the role to that of a woman, Mighty Peking Man rattles along at a great pace and has enough going on to keep viewers glued – regardless if the entertainment on-screen was intentional or not. After show-biz promoter Lu Tien gets wind of a mythical giant gorilla somewhere in India, he hires Johnny Chen to help him find it; a man who is depressed after catching his girlfriend sleeping with his brother. Soon, the team of explorers head out across the wildest regions of India in search of the monster which, in a strange turn of events, ends up finding them first. As the giant animal chases Johnny through the jungle, he unknowingly finds himself rescued by a wild and beautiful jungle lady known as Ah Wei – who is able to communicate with the beast having been raised by him since she was a child. Of course, it doesn't take long for Chen and Ah Wei to fall for each other and soon, everyone is on their way back to Hong Kong with the Mighty Peking Man in chains. Before they've even reached home, Lu Tien announces to Johnny that they have already sold out (in regards to putting it on show) and it doesn't take long before he has the titular creature in front of thousands. But when Ah Wei sees Lu's real intentions and the abuse her hairy friend is going through, she tries to free him. Unfortunately, this results in an attempted rape on her by Lu Tien which infuriates the Mighty Peking Man who breaks free and goes on an explosive and bloody rampage through the city – destroying everything in its path to save the girl he loves!

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While my parents were kept busy with the arrival of myself in 1977, Runme Shaw put them to shame by busying himself as the producer of 15 feature films including titles such as Executioners From Shaolin, Clans Of Intrigue, Death Duel, The Brave Archer, and Mighty Peking Man of course (not to mention what the other Shaw brothers were dishing out). This project in particular would highlight the multi-racial productions the Shaw Brothers had become quite keen on, bringing in South Korean and Japanese filmmakers over the years as cameramen, directors, and composers, as well as co-producing many Western titles including Ridley Scott's highly regarded Blade Runner with Harrison Ford. With Mighty Peking Man, the focus was on the special effects and model building – something of which the Japanese film world had been dealing with for some time already and is known as 'tokusatsu', the Japanese term for movies or television shows that make heavy use of SFX. This was definitely a highlight of the production, with many great scenes that involve some incredible set-pieces and model work from the mountain regions of India, to the city streets of Hong Kong. Japanese effects wizard Keizo Murase, who worked on productions of many Godzilla, Mothra, and Gamera movies – including the original King Kong vs. Godzilla – does a fantastic job in helping bring Peking Man to life. This was a job that went through a couple of designs, with the final piece using real human hair that was donated by around 300 Hong Kong citizens. Murase started work with the Shaw Brothers just a year before working on Lo Chen's fantasy The Snake Prince with Ti Lung, and would return to work in Hong Kong almost a decade after this on the brilliant Seventh Curse, directed by Lam Ngai Choi and starring Chow Yun Fat, Chin Siu Ho, and Maggie Cheung – coming back a couple of years later for Sun Chung's underrated City War, once again with Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung. Perhaps if I was to compare the work to that of Hollywood's King Kong, it would be fair to say that the giant ape suit (and more so the face) wasn't perfect, with the human eyes and body language making things a little less convincing. That said, it was to be expected of the time and certainly didn't distract too much from what was going on, but the miniature sets of the mountain areas in India and of Hong Kong were incredibly well done and highly detailed that took over 50 people around 4 months to complete. At the time, the Jardine House Building (formerly known as the Connaught Centre Building) was one of the tallest in Hong Kong at the time, and would only make sense to be used for the climactic finale that would have the giant gorilla climb up it using its uniquely circular windows.

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Director Ho Meng Hua started his career in the film industry in the early 1950s as a writer and assistant director with titles such as The Valiant Dog and Orchid Of The Valley. After assisting on 5 films, Ho got the chance to make his directorial debut in 58 with An Appointment After Dark for the Shaw Brothers studio. This would secure his spot with them as an in-house director, with Ho going on to direct almost 60 titles over the course of his career. Many of these would go on to become some of the Shaw Brothers' most memorable titles including The Monkey Goes West and Princess Iron Fan, The Human Goddess, The Flying Guillotine, Black Magic 1 & 2, Dragon Missile, Oily Maniac, Vengeful Beauty, and Shaolin Hand Lock (many of which were early Shaw Brothers Blu-ray releases from 88 Films). Aside from his Japanese counterparts and some assistance from Koichi Kawakita, Ho Meng Hua would have no less than 4 Hong Kong-based assistant directors with him which included Wen Yao Hua who went on to direct his own flick called, Crack Shadow Boxers. Hung Hak, who assisted Ho on the majority of his productions from the early 70s, also joins the team as does Tong Yuen – a script supervisor and assistant director who worked on many great titles including The Pirate, The Condemned, Executioners From Shaolin, 36th Chamber Of Shaolin, Shaolin Mantis, and Heroes Of The East, to name but a few. And finally, there's Wu Shih, a jack-of-all-trades who has acted in films such as City On Fire, Tiger On The Beat, and Skinny Tiger Fatty Dragon, as well as having worked as an assistant director on almost 40 titles since the late 60s including A Man Called Tiger, When Taekwondo Strikes, Games Gamblers Play, Broken Oath, My Lucky Stars, Mr. Vampire, A Better Tomorrow 3, and the aforementioned Skinny Tiger Fatty Dragon, again with Sammo Hung. Wu would also deliver two of his own directed pieces with 1973's Bruce Lee, The Man & The Legend and The Smart Guys alongside co-director Richard Yeung Kuen. The wonderful Yuen Cheung Yan, who also cameos with Corey Yuen Kwai towards the end as an army bomb officer, gets credited as the action-choreographer of Mighty Peking Man – but there's definitely no kung-fu going on here and offers scenes of action that could have been delivered by anyone. That said, the tiger attack and wrestling was very well done – although I'm sure if it was done today, the big cats would surely be created with CGI – as were the scenes of Evelyn Kraft just toying with them like they were teddy bears. I'm surprised she didn't get bitten or have her face clawed off, to be honest...

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Swiss-born actress, Evelyn Kraft, looks beautiful as Ah Wei – the wild woman with the Tarzan-inspired backstory, who ended up in the jungle after her parent's plane crashed during a storm. Orphaned as a young girl and alone, Ah Wei was able to survive by being looked after by Ah Wang, the Mighty Peking Man himself. I must admit, I did love how the non-talking giant was able to teach her how to speak Cantonese – something I'm sure the filmmakers didn't really think about when they were making it. Kraft started her acting career in the early 70s starring in the Italian Giallo film The French Sex Murders before going on to star in Superbug 3, a German take on the family car movie Herbie which was incredibly popular at the time. Mighty Peking Man would be one of two productions Kraft would star in that year for Shaw Brothers, with the other being the Charlie's Angels/James Bond-inspired Deadly Angels for director Pao Hsueh Li. It's fair to say that she seems to be having a great time here (confirmed in the super 8 BTS footage available on this Blu-ray release) as she runs around in strips of material, or completely naked at times, swinging from vines, cuddling wild cats, and climbing trees and buildings as cinematographer Wu Cho Hua catches plenty of up-skirt shots (which I'm sure he thoroughly enjoyed). She also gets to have sex with Danny Lee – a scene that quickly became hilarious as the giant ape started perving on them doing it. This would be around the 30th title Lee would have starred in for Shaw Brothers and had already worked with directed Ho Meng Hua on films such as Killer Darts and Oily Maniac (which was also choreographed by Yuen Cheung Yan). The wonderful Ku Feng stars as sleazy show-biz man Lu Tien, and does a great job in the role. Shaw Brothers legend Norman Tsui Siu Keung starts off in the movie as if he is a big part of things, but falls to his death about 15 or 20 minutes in once the adventure begins. Perhaps he was just lending his star power to the production at the time before going off to work on one of his other films that year such as Clans Of Intrigue, Death Duel, Jade Tiger, or The Battle Wizard, which would see him star alongside Lee once again.

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While not perfect and incredibly campy, Mighty Peking Man still proves to be a hell of a lot of fun and puts its own stamp on a classic tale – which saves it from being a complete write-off. It's clear that the Shaw Brothers had a plan to cash in on the success of its western counterpart and with their live-in screenwriter, Ni Kuang, behind the script – did a decent job in providing an entertaining piece. Although released previously on Blu-ray in the UK by 88 Films, this version I watched was part of the first gorgeous box set by Arrow Video known as Shawscope Vol. 1 – a collection of Shaw Brothers movies restored and compiled, with a ton of extras and more. The disc also includes the unrestored English dub of the film and when you watch them side-by-side for a comparison, you would think this new version was only made last week – it's a stunning presentation. Because of that, I think I enjoyed Mighty Peking Man even more and look forward to going back to it soon enough for more campy, Hong Kong monster fun!

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Overall: A fun and camp adventure, Mighty Peking Man may not have the polish of Hollywood's King Kong, but it probably proves to be a bit more entertaining if I'm honest!

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Arrow Video Blu-ray Extras: Unrestored Standard-Definition Version, Audio Commentary with Travis Crawford, Interview with Suit Designer Keizo Murase, Interview with Ho Meng Hua, Interview with Ku Feng, Behind The Scenes Super-8 Footage, Alternate Opening Credits, Trailers, Image Gallery

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Watch my unboxing video of this Arrow Video release HERE