Actually, Wong Fei Hung battles two gorillas, one fake and one ‘real’.

A rejected suitor in league with that master evildoer Shek Kin, kidnaps Siu Ping (Wu Kar) and stashes her in the mountains. Kam Ting Pao (Lam Gau), the fake gorilla, tries to retrieve the treasure box, the spoils of his terror, but is hampered by a real gorilla. Wong Fei Hung and his trusty student (Tso Tat Wah), Ah Foon, vanquish both the gorillas and rescue Siu Ping. The film ends with our heroes attending a Cantonese opera performance, an excuse, I suppose, for a brief song.

For the most part, the film is well made and has decent production values. The exception being Lam Gau’s gorilla costume which made him look like a mangy escapee from a cheap roadshow of ‘Cats’. Unfortunately, the film is really bogged down by too much dialogue. There’s a real lack of anything going on, much less true action, until the final part of the film when the gorillas get their due. Kwan Tak Hing, along the same lines, basically just talks the first two-thirds of the film while Tso Tat Wah gets to run around and investigate the situation and stalk the gorilla’s lair. Chan Lap Ban, my favorite old crone, has a brief wailing scene, as the mother of a gorilla attack victim. Molly Wu Kar, who plays Siu Ping, seems an odd choice to be the heroine of the piece.

The video is quite decentlooking, too bad the film itself is not better.