44 years ago, in the Hong Kong version of "King Kong" written by Ni Kuang, the monster turned out to be the king of Chinese kung fu movies

Two days ago, Hollywood's annual monster blockbuster "Godzilla vs. Kong" released a new trailer.

In the trailer, the battle between the two monster kings of the East and the West has officially begun. Although it is only a glimpse, it is quite exciting.

Godzilla is a famous monster IP owned by Japan's Toho Company. It was born in 1954 and has a history of 67 years.

King Kong is a national-level monster image in Hollywood. It was born in 1933 and has a history of 88 years.

As early as 1962, Japanese special effects film director Inoshiro Honda filmed "King Kong vs. Godzilla", which brought the idea of ??two monsters from the East and the West fighting on the same stage to reality on the screen. Now, after half a century, Hollywood has once again staged a showdown between the two kings of monsters.

Among them, the image of King Kong is the most successful monster image in film history.

Since King Kong climbed the Empire State Building, he and his followers have invaded every corner of pop culture.

Not only has Hollywood remade this IP many times, but even Chinese film history has been deeply influenced by this gorilla.

Just like the Japanese idea of ??combining East and West, there are also mash-up ideas such as "Guan Gong vs. Aliens" in the history of Hong Kong and Taiwan films.

Hollywood's King Kong has a more down-to-earth name in Hong Kong: "The Orangutan King."

As early as 1959, Hong Kong filmmakers created a movie called "The Orangutan King Havoc in Heaven".

The following year, the once-grossing Once Upon a Time movie series in the Hong Kong film industry staged a screen showdown with King Kong, which led to the release of "Once Upon a Time vs. the Orangutan King" starring Kwan Tak-hing, with several large characters printed directly on the promotional poster. :

Starring King Kong, the American gorilla king.

The plot tells the story of Huang Feihong, his apprentice Liang Kuan and others passing through a small town and heard that there was a gorilla king making trouble in the town. It turns out that the orangutan king was disguised by a villain in order to rob the people. The county magistrate asked Master Huang to help, so Master Huang commanded his troops to deploy on the mountain.

Unexpectedly, he met the real gorilla king. Master Huang chased it to the lair and saw the gorilla king strangling the villain to death, and the two sides started a big melee. In the final fight with the orangutan king, Master Huang sprinkled pepper powder on the orangutan king, and then stabbed it to death, eliminating harm for the people.

Unexpectedly, Master Huang back then would sometimes engage in sneak attacks without respecting martial ethics!

However, the above two works can only be regarded as small efforts. The first genuine King Kong movie in Hong Kong film history was born in 1977.

The film was written by Ni Kuang and starred by Lee Xiuxian, a popular star in the 1970s. It was the monster movie with the largest investment in Hong Kong at that time.

In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let us relive the Hong Kong version of "King Kong" 44 years ago!

"The Mighty Peking Man"

The Mighty Peking Man

The film was released in 1977 and was produced by Shaw Brothers Film Company.

Director He Menghua is a famous special-photography director of Shaw Brothers. As early as the 1960s, he had filmed the Shaw Brothers version of "Journey to the West".

In the 1970s, the Hollywood science fiction wave began to sweep across Asia, and Shaw Brothers was also actively testing the field of science fiction themes. However, compared to the film industry standards required to maintain Hollywood's special effects technology, Shaw Brothers at that time The ideal target for the company to imitate is Japanese tokusatsu films.

As early as 1975, Shaw Brothers filmed a special science fiction film "Chinese Superman". As the name suggests, the film imitated DC's "Superman", but its own shooting techniques were completely In the style of a Japanese special photo film, the local superhero played by Lee Xiuxian fights an army of monsters in Hong Kong.

The screenwriter of "Chinese Superman" is Ni Kuang. He combines his best martial arts film plot with fantasy imagination. Although the plot is a bit unorthodox today, the special photography technology in the film It was extremely shocking to Hong Kong and Taiwan audiences at the time. Shaw Brothers even promoted it as: China's first Superman movie.

In 1976, Hollywood remake "King Kong: The Legend Reborn". Inspired by this, Shaw Brothers decided to remake a local version of "King Kong", still starring Lee Xiuxian and screenwriter Ni Kuang. The production budget was as high as 6 million Hong Kong dollars, making it a rare luxury blockbuster produced by Shaw Brothers at the time.

Ni Kuang also used his borrowing style as a screenwriter again, not only copying the setting of "King Kong", but also borrowing the plot from Hollywood's "Tarzan", so this movie was created. "The Orangutan King" is a combination of Chinese and Western styles.

By the way, director Quentin Tarantino is a fan of the film and he once pushed for the film to be re-released in the United States.

The story takes place in the 1970s, and the scene begins in the library.

The wealthy businessman Lu Tian, ??together with several scholars and explorers, discovered files in the library that he had been looking for for many years.

According to archives: 15 years ago, an Indian village near the Himalayas was attacked by a mysterious giant beast.

Survivors at the time said that the village was attacked by a huge orangutan monster, which the locals called:

"The Orangutan King".

Legend has it that it was huge, violent and murderous, and had caused great panic and disaster in the local area.

Lu Tian plans to organize an expedition to capture the orangutan king and transport it back to Hong Kong to organize an exhibition for profit.

One of the young explorers, Aqiang, is played by Xu Shaoqiang.

Aqiang believes that the orangutan king is a violent behemoth after all, and catching it is not easy.

However, Lu Tian, ??as a black-hearted businessman, has always used any means to achieve his goals and is determined to capture the Orangutan King at all costs.

In his opinion, the living orangutan king can be locked up and exhibited, and the dead orangutan king can be made into a specimen and sold to collectors, which can be said to be a huge profit.

In this way, under the introduction of Aqiang, Lu Tian found the former famous explorer Chen Zhengfeng.

According to records, the orangutan king was last discovered in northern India. So the expedition team led by Chen Zhengfeng set off for India, and hired some local explorers and natives as guides to set off deep into the jungle.

The first stop on the trip was an ancient village that was attacked by the orangutan king 15 years ago and is now abandoned.

The expedition team wanted to stop and rest here, but unexpectedly they were attacked by a nearby elephant herd as soon as they arrived.

These wild elephants were ferocious and caused a lot of casualties to the expedition team. In the chaos, Chen Zhengfeng and others shot to disperse the elephants.

After experiencing this setback, the expedition team could only spend the night in the nearby jungle.

Everyone was chatting around the torch at night. His friend Aqiang asked Chen Zhengfeng why he had been so depressed since he came to India.

Chen Zhengfeng told the reason for his frustration:

It turned out that he had just been cheated on by his girlfriend, but the person cheating on him was his younger brother.

Chen Zhengfeng, who was brutally raped, chose to take another adventure with the expedition team, hoping to paralyze himself with the dangers of the journey.

His friend Aqiang comforted him and said:

After all, the most important thing in life is to be happy. Maybe there will be an affair during this adventure!

The expedition continued on the road the next day, and this time they were chased by jungle tigers again.

The members of the expedition team were chased by a tiger, and in their panic, some of them strayed into the swamp.

In the end, Chen Zhengfeng showed off his prowess and fought hand-to-hand with the tiger, killing the rare protected animal with his bare hands.

A tiger bit a member of the expedition. Lu Tian believed that the injured native was worthless and shot him immediately.

Chen Zhengfeng couldn't stand Lu Tian's cruel approach, and the two sides had differences.

The road after that became increasingly dangerous. When the expedition team climbed a cliff, several members fell off the cliff and died tragically.

Seeing the casualties increasing, the members of the expedition team retreated one after another.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Chen Zhengfeng found a huge footprint in the jungle and deduced:

This big footprint should be left by the orangutan king .

However, after experiencing a series of dangers, the businessman Lu Tian, ??who was greedy for life and feared death, decided to give up the adventure.

Seeing that Chen Zhengfeng was determined to continue searching, he left him and sneaked away that night.

Chen woke up and found that he was alone, but he still insisted on continuing the adventure.

Chen Zhengfeng continued to search along the trail, and the Orangutan King actually appeared and grabbed Chen Zhengfeng with a pair of giant palms.

At the critical moment, a wild beauty jumped out of the jungle on a tree vine and came to the orangutan king.

This "Female Taishan" seemed to be able to communicate with the orangutan king. She comforted the orangutan king and took Chen Zhengfeng to her cave on the cliff.

Nv Taishan seems to have lived in the jungle since she was a child. After strenuous communication, Chen Zhengfeng learned about her life experience.

It turns out that her name is Avi, and her parents are both explorers.

Avi flew a plane with his parents when he was a child, but encountered a thunderstorm and the plane crashed. Avi's parents died tragically as a result.

Young Avi could not survive alone in the jungle, but he unexpectedly met the orangutan king.

Instead of killing Avi, the cruel monster began to take care of her and raised her to adulthood.

Hearing what happened to Avi, Zhengfeng couldn't help but feel pity for him.

Avi grew up in the jungle. All the animals in the forest are her friends, but her friends do not include poisonous snakes.

While looking for food in the jungle that day, Avi was bitten by a poisonous snake and his life was in danger.

Although Chen Zhengfeng sucked out the poisonous blood immediately, Awei was still unconscious.

At this time, the orangutan king who was guarding outside the cave suddenly brought some herbs and threw them at the entrance of the cave.

Chen Zhengfeng saw the intention of the orangutan king and quickly crushed the leaves and applied them to the wound, which actually cured Awei.

After experiencing this accident, feelings gradually developed between Chen Zhengfeng and the Awei people, and they soon fell in love with each other in the cave.

All this was seen by the orangutan king, who was obviously irritable, but could not control Avi's feelings.

After staying in the jungle for many days, Chen Zhengfeng planned to return to Hong Kong and persuaded Avi to leave the jungle with the orangutan king.

So, the Orangutan King brought Awei and Chen Zhengfeng to the city.

The giant beast suddenly appeared on the street, causing a riot, but Avi was able to calm the orangutan king.

Lu Tian, ??who had been staying in the city, saw this scene and thought that an opportunity to make a fortune had come!

He took the initiative to turn enemies into friends with Chen Zhengfeng, and took Avi and the Orangutan King on a ship bound for Hong Kong.

The orangutan king was put in a thick chain on the boat. Awei did not want the orangutan king to suffer and kept praying to Chen Zhengfeng to release the orangutan king.

But Chen said: The orangutan king is wild and untamable. Once he goes crazy, it will cause the ship to sink and people to die.

During the voyage, the ship encountered a hurricane. The captain thought it was best to dock in Singapore to avoid the hurricane before returning to port.

However, Lu Tian's company has announced to the public that it will exhibit the Orangutan King in three days.

All the tickets were sold and I was unwilling to delay, so I insisted on sailing.

As expected, the ship encountered a hurricane during the voyage and was trapped in the whirlpool, about to hit the rocks.

At the critical moment, Avi asked the orangutan king to push the boat out of the rocks, thus saving the lives of everyone on board.

After the storm, the ship carrying the Orangutan King finally arrived in Hong Kong. People rushed to watch, and the news quickly spread throughout Hong Kong.

Chen Zhengfeng became famous for capturing the Orangutan King, and even TV stations and media flocked to interview him.

At this time, the ex-girlfriend came to Chen Zhengfeng to cry because she was cheated on by her brother again.

Chen Zhengfeng still had lingering feelings for his ex-girlfriend, and he couldn't help but rekindled their relationship.

What’s so damning is that this scene happened to be seen by Chen Zhengfeng’s current girlfriend Awei.

Avi was so shocked that she escaped from the apartment and saw the news about the Orangutan King while walking on the street.

The orangutan king is being locked up in the stadium at this time, using chains to pull more than a dozen trucks to compete in strength for people to watch.

Avi looked at the orangutan king who had been abused in various ways, but she was unable to save it and could only cry sadly alone.

At this time, Lu Tian, ??who has always coveted Avi's beauty, secretly tricked Avi into the room, drugged him, and wanted to violate Avi.

Unexpectedly, the orangutan king happened to be seen in the distance. In order to protect Avi, it went crazy and broke through the iron cage.

Lu Tian hurriedly drove away with Avi. In order to save Avi, the orangutan king rushed out of the stadium and ran rampant in the city.

In the end, the Orangutan King successfully caught the evil-doing Lu Tian and trampled him to death.

However, due to the destruction that the Orangutan King had caused in the city, it attracted a large number of troops to pursue, intercept and attack.

The military planned to lure the orangutan king to an uninhabited area and then kill him with a bomb, but there was no way to lure the orangutan king away.

At this time, Chen Zhengfeng found the general in charge of commanding the operation and persuaded the army to stop the attack:

As long as Avi is found, the orangutan king can be appeased.

But just like the common plot of all "King Kong" movies, King Kong's fate was destined to be tragic from the beginning.

At the climax of the story, driven by fate, the Orangutan King came to the "Yi Wo Building", the tallest building in Hong Kong at the time.

The military planned to kill the orangutan king by filling the pipes in the building with gasoline and then detonating the building with explosives.

At the same time, Chen Zhengfeng found Avi and persuaded the military to allow Avi to enter the building to appease the orangutan king.

Unexpectedly, during the negotiation process, the despicable foreign officer actually tore up the agreement and wanted to blow up the building and the Orangutan King together.

In the melee, Avi was unfortunately knocked unconscious by a stray bullet, which made the orangutan king completely furious.

In the end, the police activated the bomb in the building, and the huge explosion caused the entire building to collapse.

The orangutan king tried his best to protect Avi's body during the fall, but he fell to his death.

However, due to the shock wave generated by the explosion and Avi's excessive blood loss, Avi died tragically in the end.

The final scene of the film is frozen in -

Chen Zhengfeng is standing in the ruins holding Awei's body, while in the distance is a brightly lit downtown.

As a commercial movie in the 1970s, "King of the Orangutans" written by Ni Kuang can be said to have gathered the most popular elements of Shaw Brothers movies at that time, integrating monsters, beauties, action, adventure, and conspiracy. There are even disaster scenes and Ni Kuang-style fantasy elements and spectacle scenes that are rare in Hong Kong movies, which are quite impressive purely from an entertainment perspective.

The biggest gimmick of the film is undoubtedly the giant orangutan that is more than ten meters high. The film adopts the common method of Japanese special effects films, using miniature models to set off the huge body of the orangutan king, and at the same time using "optical synthesis" "The method combines the real scene where the real actors are with the stage scenery where the monster exists, so that the audience is brought into the movie spectacle of the giant monster.

Of course, this kind of presentation effect was a commonly used technique in the 1960s and 1970s. Although it seems fake now, at the time it was a rare disaster scene in Hong Kong movies. In addition, Shaw Brothers spared no expense in creating the film, and some of the thrilling scenes in the film are quite shocking, such as the elephants rushing into the village, the protagonist fighting with a tiger and other thrilling scenes, which are quite shocking.

"King of Orangutans" was the film with the largest investment by Shaw Brothers at that time. Not only did it invite a first-class stunt director from Japan, but it also specially invited the female star Evelenka from Germany. The purchase of the front-screen camera system machine cost HK$5 million. Adding in the other HK$6 million spent on film, venue rentals, remuneration, etc., the production cost of the film exceeded HK$10 million.

It is worth mentioning that Yuan Heping plays the role of the Orangutan King in the movie. At that time, Yuen Woo-Ping was not yet a famous action director, but just a dragon and tiger martial artist on the Shaw Brothers studio. He had to perform the entire movie with a headgear from beginning to end. It was not until a few years later that Yuen Woo-Ping was discovered by director Wu Siyuan to direct Jackie Chan's "Snake" that he became famous and has since become a legend in the history of Chinese kung fu films.

Later, the famous director Li Hanxiang once ridiculed Yuan Heping's experience in a book:

Before Wu Siyuan asked him to be the director, he also acted as a gorilla in "The King of Orangutans". Woolen cloth! I finally became the protagonist.

Shaw Brothers attaches great importance to this film and intends to enter the European and American markets. Therefore, the theme of the film is exactly the same as the Hollywood movie "King Kong", criticizing profit-seeking businessmen and condemning those who are scheming. Hypocritical people portray the virgin forest as the pure land of mankind and the last pure and beautiful home that can be inhabited.

Compared to the greedy and sinister modern humans, the orangutan king, who is regarded as a savage monster, appears to be kind, gentle, and much more "human". The last scene of the movie is very ironic. The monster that left the primitive jungle was eventually killed by humans. This shows the cruelty of modern civilization.

Of course, from the current perspective, the shortcomings of the movie are that the plot is relatively simple and the story is very thin. The screenwriter Ni Kuang almost completely copied the plot of the Hollywood movie lazily, only adding some details to the plot. Elements of a bloody love triangle.

However, for commercial films of that year, the film basically completed the task in a satisfactory manner.