The Mighty Peking Man belongs among the last of Shaw Brothers spectacles. It is an indefinable martial arts film. Based on the 1933 RKO ‘monster’ film King Kong, Japan’s Toho inc. made a series of its own monster films. The name of the monster was, of course, Godzilla. And in Hong Kong, the monster was given the name The Mighty Peking Man by Shaw Brothers. Although the story itself is based on King Kong, Shaw Brothers introduces a blond female Tarzan as the Mighty Peking Man’s Madonna. And in this way this hybrid film - mixing King Kong and Tarzan - pleased the viewer with its cheap use of blue screen analogue special effects. The first half of the film is about how in the jungle, The Mighty Peking Man and the ‘white girl Tarzan’ meet, and the second half is about how ‘Godzilla’ completely demolishes Hong Kong. The film was made with the Japanese Godzilla staff, but the reproduction of the city and the buildings is not convincing. However, what is amazing is that the scene in which the King Kong destroys the city is over 30 minutes long - one third of the film! Although at first one can watch this scene with a smile, the destruction takes over half and hour, and one cannot but feel tired at the scenes of destruction. Perhaps this was Shaw Brother’s vision of the slow decay and destruction of Hong Kong. If so, it is truly a dark and disgusted vision. As if to prove this point, The Mighty Peking Man and the white girl get shot at by the Hong Kong police, and the film ends with the Mighty Peking Man (Danny Lee) holding the dead body of the white girl, overlooking the neon-dominated city of Hong Kong. Although by no means a masterpiece, The Mighty Peking Man shows Shaw Brothers trying to benchmark Hollywood and rejuvenate itself during the late 1970s. It also shows their reluctant need to change and accept spectacle films as their means of survival. If you’re ready to mourn over the death of Shaw Brothers, you should definitely catch this film. One last postscript: among the joys of watching The Mighty Peking Man is seeing the young Danny Lee, many fans who still remember him from the final scene in The Killer where he has a shootout with CHOW Yun Fat at a cathedral. (CHUNG Sung-ill)