Tag Archives: Hong Kong fantasy film

The Mighty Peking Man (1977)

June 1, 2023 Ken Miller 3 Comments

The lady, the leopard and the leviathan!

Starring Danny (THE SUPER INFRAMAN) Lee, Evelyne (LADY DRACULA) Kraft, Ku (THE WEB OF DEATH) Feng and Lin Wei-Tu, directed by Ho (THE OILY MANIAC) Meng-Hua for Shaw Brothers.

An expedition brings back a gigantic ape-man to Hong Kong, where he (surprise) runs amok. His jungle girl companion (Kraft) tries to help the hairy vandal, but it all ends in tears.

He ain't gonna stay captive for long — He ain’t gonna stay captive for long

C'mon, these Tonka Toys will be no match for our hairy hero! — C’mon, these Tonka Toys will be no match for our hairy hero!

The Peking Man romps around downtown Hong Kong

Shaw Brothers released this fantasy flick, also known as GOLIATHON, in the wake of 1976’s KING KONG remake and did rather a good job. Though the special effects have been ridiculed in such publications as The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, I found the sets and model work to be on par with similar scenes in Toho’s Godzilla movies. The Hong Kong city set is pretty large and decently detailed, with the usual pyrotechnical destruction occurring at the movie’s climax.

Smashin' more stuff! — Smashin’ more stuff!

Though the titular Peking Man is obviously a man in a costume, of a standard far below that of Rick Baker’s simian creation seen in the ‘76 KING KONG, the model face used for close-ups of Peking Man’s visage is up to snuff.

Okay, sometimes the ape-man does look a little goofy

Peking Man plays peeping tom... — Peking Man plays peeping tom…

One of the movie’s plus points is Evelyne Kraft who, as the loincloth-wearing amazon, is a fetching addition to the cast. Other ingredients include an elephant stampede and a man who has his leg bitten off by a tiger!

...who likes playing with her leopard! — …who likes playing with her leopard!

Surprisingly, a certain amount of pathos can be found in Peking Man’s plight because, generally, the ape-man is shown to be friendly, at least in the company of Kraft, thus adding to the tragedy of the finale, as the furry fury and his diminutive dame companion come under fire from buzzing helicopters.

Here are some posters…

Here’s a final shot: the jungle gal sitting in the Peking Man’s hairy paw…

She adored that big ol' ape-dude — She adored that big ol’ ape-dude

Witch from Nepal (1986)

May 15, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

This supernatural dude can turn into a cell-animated panther

Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Emily Chu, Yammie Lam Kit-Ying and Dick Wei.
Directed by Ching Siu-Tung, with action choreography by Ching Siu-Tung and Alan Hsu.

Whilst in Nepal, Joe (Yun-Fat) meets a mysterious girl who follows him back to Hong Kong. He discovers that he now has supernatural powers and, after the death of the attractive witch, has to combat an evil warrior (Wei) who wants the glowing pendant that Joe wears around his neck.

Featuring the blue-lit photography, slow motion and romantic atmosphere found in the best Hong Kong fantasies, this film, also known as The Nepal Affair and A Touch of Love, is for much of its running time simply a tale of a ménage à trois spiced up with some telekinesis and other minor feats of magic. But the film shifts gears towards the end as Joe, his girlfriend and some children are trapped in a graveyard by zombies who’ve just crawled out of the mud. A section of railings then bends towards a car and flies into the side of the vehicle like a series of iron spears!

Joe and the bad dude, who growls like a panther, have a final fight, which sees them knocking each other through buildings, culminating with the villain getting speared on a ceremonial dagger, causing his teeth and eyes to plop out and his skin to fly off his skull!

A decent modern-day Hong Kong whimsy, it is a shame that the evil character’s ability to transform into a cell-animated panther, shown at the very start of the film, isn’t reintroduced during the latter stages of the tale – and the scene where Joe makes sparking electricity cables draw two hearts in the night sky for his love is far, far too twee!

Snail Fairy Vs Kung Fu Killers (1977)

January 28, 2023 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Cheng Fu falls asleep and has a dream — Cheng Fu falls asleep, holding the sea snail shell

Directed by Ling Shang and starring Candice Yu, Tony Wong, Little Unicorn and Tien Ching.

Candice Yu as the snail fairy and Tony Wong as Cheng Fu

Tien Ching plays the hero's extremely obnoxious cousin — Tien Ching plays the hero’s extremely obnoxious cousin

Nice guy Cheng Fu (Wong), who his bullied by his uncle’s family, picks up a sea snail shell, takes it home, and has a dream, in which a small fairy implores him to drip some blood into the shell. Cheng Fu wakes from his dream and does, indeed, dribble some blood from his finger into the snail’s shell.

In Cheng Fu's dream the snail fairy asks for his help — In Cheng Fu’s dream the snail fairy asks for his help

The snail fairy, now in the form of an attractive woman (Yu), falls in love with Cheng Fu, starts providing him with lovely meals, then magically tidies-up and repairs the shack-like home that his mean-spirited uncle has banished him to. The mollusc fairy and Cheng Fu eventually decide to get married. Ah, how sweet!

But the couple must deal with Cheng Fu’s nasty relatives, especially a slimy, obnoxious cousin (Ching), who hires thugs to kidnap the fairy. The pair also come under threat from a snake demon villain (Unicorn), who can take on the form of an actual snake, a larger (puppet) serpent, a frog-eating monk or a snake-human.

When in the guise of a monk, the snake demon gobbles-up a bunch of frogs!

At one point the demon becomes a large, striped snake

The quality of the snake-human's makeup is, ah, less than Oscar standard — The quality of the snake-human’s makeup is, ah, less than Oscar standard

The cheap budget means that the snake-human is basically actor Little Unicorn with face makeup of the standard seen at a children’s birthday party, the trick effects are achieved by such simple methods as double exposure, music is ‘borrowed’ from various movies, including KING KONG (1976) and CARRIE (1976), and the undersea world of the snail fairies is a realism-free set with lots of bubbles floating about in it.

Bubbles float about in the world of the snail fairies — Bubbles float around in the realm of the snail fairies

A moderately interesting moment involves Cheng Fu becoming a skilled fighter when his fairy love’s spirit enters his body, enabling him to beat his adversaries using different styles of kung fu, plus there’s a diverting sequence in a theatrical-looking cavern, where the snail fairy’s two sisters combat several supernatural demon fighters, including a gold dude, a red dude and a ‘wood’ dude, who creaks when he moves and can transform into multiple flying logs.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is screenshot-2023-01-27-at-22.55.45.png
This golden demon-dude actually turns into a large bar of gold during the fight! — This golden demon-dude actually turns into a large bar of gold during the fight!

The wood demon-dude makes creaking sounds when he moves his arms and legs

Money limitations, however, mean that what ends up on-screen usually fails to do justice to the ideas, but the tale is actually quite charming in a fairy tale kind of way, ensuring that you keep watching as the put-upon hero and his snail fairy bride overcome all obstacles and live happily ever after.