1977 monkey movieRating: 15/20 (Dylan: 8/20)
Plot: A expert hunter is called upon to find a giant ape that flattened a jungle village in the Himalayas. They travel to his supposed location, and after the group encounters a lot of problems, the hunter is abandoned. Oh, snap! Luckily for him, there's a scantily-clad jungle woman nice enough to help him out. And she just happens to be the Mighty Peking Man's girlfriend. To make a long story short--King Kong.
There are a lot of things about this movie that nearly convinced me it's the greatest movie ever made:
1) It's really a great telling of the King Kong story, much better than the dismal 70s version or that Peter Jackson masturbationathon.
2) The hero! He's savvy and brave, but he's also very human. The love triangle (actually, I guess it's a square) is realistic.
3) The giant ape! Like the brothers in War of the Gargantua, it's a guy in a velvety-fur suit. He stomps around, beats his chest, climbs buildings, throws rocks, squashes bystanders, swats at helicopters. He does everything that King Kong can do but in Chinese!
4) Watching the wild jungle girl climbing up and down a tree. It's likely the best tree-climbing scene in the history of cinema.
5) The miniatures. Does anybody use toy Tonka trucks and plastic tanks better than the Shaw brothers do in this? Loved watching the mayhem unleashed upon the big city once Peking Man escapes.
6) The dubbing. It's fairly enthusiastic, and I love how one very minor character pronounces it as PAY-king man. I don't know what nonsensical grunts sound like in Mandarin, but the English actress who dubs the jungle girl's in does a fantastic job.
7) Tiger vs. Man wrestling matches! And something you learn from The Mighty Peking Man: When a tiger bites a man's leg off, it's accompanied by a "ching" sound effect like you'd hear in a kung-fu movie. There's also a bitchin' elephant stampede. Jungle madness!
8) The music! The score's fantastic!
9) Possible wardrobe malfunctions.
10) I can't think of a tenth reason.
11) I can't think of an eleventh one either.
I've seen this movie twice now. Next time, I'm watching it with my pants off!
2 comments:
Wow. Wow. This is one of the worst films I have ever seen. There is bad... no, horrible acting, goofy costumes, terrible dubbing, cheesy plot. This has it all. Until they get on the boat, I would give this a 17. I have never seen a film where there is an elephant stampede, a tiger attack, a man dying in quicksand, and a man having his leg bitten off in a single bite, forcing his leader to kill him to put him out of his misery and save medicine, all in the span of 4 minutes. Then there is Samantha. I honestly missed parts of the next 15 minutes because I was so distracted waiting for her left boob to fall out. I would recommend the first 45minutes of "MPM" to anyone who loves goofy-bad movies.
Then it gets mean. MPM is chained and tortured. Johnnie kisses his ex (movie rule: any movie that has a Johnnie with an nie is bad), Samantha is raped, or very close to it, MPM is tortured some more. I can handle the incredibly blatant "King Kong" rip-off, and the million flaws and plot holes, as long as it is in good fun. The last half-hour was not entertaining, which really kind of pissed me off since it ruined something I usually love; a rampaging man in a monster suit trashing a fake city while fake tanks shoot at him.
I'm very glad I watched this, but am bummed that the ending brings this down to a 13 (an objective grade would be a 4).
The "mean" thing never crossed my mind until you mentioned it. And it's odd to me that this sort of meanness comes from Japan. I'm not sure why exactly, but it does.
I would have figured that you would love the extended rampaging. Ah, well. I'm glad you liked part of it at least.
I don't think you need a replacement, do you? Let me know when you do.
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