A Giant Gorilla Scaled Jardine House in 1977

In 1933, King Kong made a sensation as it climbed the iconic Empire State Building in New York City. Forty-three years later, its remake became highly profitable, earning triple its budget and opening at number one at the box office.

Eager to capitalize on the success of this remake, Shaw Brothers Studio, the largest film production company in Hong Kong at the time, decided to produce The Mighty Peking Man in 1977, which was released under the title Goliathon in the United States in 1980.

Directly inspired by the King Kong franchise, The Mighty Peking Man includes King Kong’s most iconic scene: the scaling of the Empire State Building. However, since the movie is set in Hong Kong, the giant gorilla in The Mighty Peking Man climbed the tallest tower in Hong Kong at the time: the recently completed Jardine House, standing 179 meters (586 feet) tall—less than half the height of New York City’s iconic Empire State Building.

Incidentally, in 1999, The Mighty Peking Man was one of two Hong Kong movies, along with Chungking Express, that was re-released by Quentin Tarantino’s label Rolling Thunder Pictures, which also released the Hong Kong martial arts film Fist of Legend, starring Jet Li, in 1994.