The film is a lighter and softer Mainland Chinese-Hong Kong coproduction called The Primal Chinese King, which was released on the 10th of January 1940, just only thirty seven days after its Singaporean-filmed competitor named The Adventures of a Chinese Tarzan.
The movie’s main star was Mainland Chinese born Hong Kong film veteran Fung Fung (1 December 1916-16 February 2000) as the second Chinese Tarzan.
Is it a full on cash in? It was more like a loose Cantonese remake of its two Japanese counterparts, which are themselves unofficial takes on both the first two Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films (and the first two silent Tarzan serials/films ever!), with some elements of the original Tiger Boy thrown in.
The story began when Scientist Cheng Guanghua and his wife Bai Xuemei lived in seclusion in a subtropical jungle to study zoology. One day they were attacked by a ferocious beast and both died. The servant Jiada took away their three-year-old son, but the second Chinese Tarzan was rescued by elephants and raised by them in the Gaoligong mountains of Yunnan.
When the Chinese Tarzan grew up, he became a savage king who conquered all the beasts. Yun, Mei's brother, has no news about his younger sister, so he takes his daughter Jing Na and his student Liu Xiong to explore the mountains. When they are attacked by soldiers, they climb vines on the mountain top and jump to the rescue. Na was attracted by Tarzan’s majestic appearance, but he didn't know how to speak human language.
Jing Na gave him a handkerchief as a thank you, but Xiong, who had always been ogling on Na, fired a gun out of jealousy and accidentally injured Tarzan. That night, Xiong violently expressed his love to Na, and Tarzan showed up to rescue Na in a tree cave. Na recovered from her injuries and went to play with him in the deep mountains.
Even if she encountered tigers and crocodiles, they were all beaten away by the hero. Yun, Xiong and Na were robbed by the natives one after another and were sent to Shizhai. Na was used as a sacrifice to the tiger. When she tamed the wrongfully captured tiger with her singing, the horrid scholar sent poison arrows, and someone rushed to rescue everyone. Yun Congshan found out from the photos of his parents that he was a nephew and persuaded him to return to the civilized world together, but Tarzan somewhat ignored him for reasons related to the horrid state of his mental health. However, because the hero still loves Jing Na, he finally letted her to live with him willingly in the jungle and both will happily stay there permanently.
The Primal Chinese King, even though it’s pretty much lost media now, is likely both an improvement of its Japanese spiritual predecessors and a rather okay story in its own right set in the Gaoligong Mountains. Its missing screenplay is also public domain everywhere, although only a still of it can be found on Alice Fung’s online gossip article, via a Hong Kong news website.
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