The Adventures of A Chinese Tarzan

Hello and welcome to the Mockbuster Club! Today’s subject is a really forgettable movie loosely based upon the authorised Tarzan books, via a 1930s radio drama. 

The very adult Mandarin film is known as The Adventures of a Chinese Tarzan, a Mainland Chinese-Hong Kong-Singaporean coproduction filmed partly on a rural part of Singapore. Released on the 3rd of December 1939, near the 1940s’ very beginning, it was about a much different Tarzan, likely raised by many animals on the island of Samosir, which is in Sumatra’s own Lake Toba. 

The film starred the late Pang Fei (born 30 November 1902-?) as the first Chinese Tarzan and Zhu Zhou as the first Chinese Jane.

Is it a crap remake of the first two Weissmuller Tarzan films? The film surely is more of a cash in on its own equally lost Japanese competitors featuring Tokusatsu veteran Fuminori Ohashi (1915-89). 

The story began at the middle of WW1, where an explorer couple and their teammates were killed during an overseas expedition into western Indonesia. Their young son was stranded on a small lacustrine island and was likely raised by a community of elephants and orangutans as a result. 

Twenty years later, the first Chinese Tarzan became an agile young man, who accidentally saved a young woman named Jane. Although Tarzan could not speak human language, he tried his best to protect the woman, which moved her very much. Later, Jane’s father and master also drifted to the island and received help from him. However, the woman's father eventually died of his injuries, and her pimp of a master took advantage of the danger and coerced the woman into having sex with him. After the woman recognised her master’s identity, she ran away to find Tarzan and lived happily with him. But her master couldn’t let the hero go by trying to kill him. After a fierce battle, the hero finally defeated Jane’s master and started a new happy life with her. 

This adults only slop of a Hong Kong-Chinese-Singaporean movie preceded its more successful Bollywood counterpart (and partial remake) The Adventures of Tarzan by about 46 years and ten days. Frankly, due to being of considerably lousier status (which includes writing quality) than the latter or even the adults only Tarzan the Apeman reboot with Bo Derek, it is also less remembered internationally, not to mention being a disaster in the making. What makes its downfall even bigger is its own inevitable fate as the most cursed of unofficial Tarzan movies. 

Thanks to flopping so hard at the Hong Kong box office (which is partly thanks to its risky production schedule) and its own director-screenwriter passing away during WW2, it is still so full of bad luck that it’s now mostly unavailable media, except for its posters. Thus, it’s clearly the most cursed Tarzan movie in history, although the lost script is now (technically) public domain everywhere, so anyone can look at the otherwise fair use/fair dealing posters but cannot find the destroyed movie masters otherwise. 

Boner Raja Tarzan

Hello Jungle B Movie Freaks. Today’s subject is a tame Bangladeshi remake of Hugh Hudson’s Greystoke film. 

The 1995 springtime film is known as Boner Raja Tarzan, aka Tarzan, King of the Forest. Directed by the little known Iftekhar Jahan, Boner Raja Tarzan takes some elements from both the Tarzan books and the Zimbo movies, as well as Bollywood’s own Adventures of Tarzan and Tollywood’s Adavi Donga. 

The main stars are actor-politician Danny Sidak as the first Bangla Tarzan and veteran actress Nuton (Nutan) as Bangla Jane Porter. Famed actors Bapparaj (born 1963) and the late Jumbo (1944-2004) starred as recurring characters too. 

Is it a ripoff of Greystoke? Not quite a full on ripoff, but it is ballsy enough to feature a Tarzan vs leopard fight more faithfully accurate to the books than the latter film has to offer. Frankly, it also has some elements of Shotaro Ishinomori’s Ryu the Cave Boy telephoned in! 

The story supposedly began in 1951, when two scientists and their son were on an adventurous Bangla jungle expedition for a few months, only to be driven off by the first natives they’ve seen because they violated their village’s rules, resulting in the poor toddler finding out the hard way that his mother was a war veteran like his father, while a notorious bandit apeman whom I dubbed Bangla Kerchak kidnapped him away. Meanwhile, a bunch of local elephants found him crying alone and took him into their jungle, becoming a found family in the process. 

Years later, a young Bangla Tarzan learned how to do a wild yell with the help of the first Bangla Tantor’s own mother. She sweetly rewarded him with a big hug, knowing that he’ll become a grown man within over a decade. 

Let’s flash forward into Bangla Tarzan’s own adulthood in 1971, starting with him swinging into his own childhood treehouse with a sloppy old MGM Tarzan yell! A bunch of explorers, including the Bangla Jane Porter and her dad, see him for the first time. 

Despite their disapproval, Bangla Jane steadily becomes his own girlfriend while living with him in a cooler treehouse nearby. Meanwhile, a bunch of stereotypical village misfits led by a notorious Nemone expy plan a battle against both the hero and the explorers. Otherwise, the first Bangla Tarzan finally revisits the city of his birth, as he unexpectedly meets a mob of cool looking gangsters looking for a worthy opponent. Meanwhile, A lonely explorer was harassed by stereotypical Safari natives aided by the Nemone expy, while Bangla Kerchak comes back to kidnap a local dude out of nowhere. 

Finally, Bangla Tarzan reunites with his own birth mummy despite the legal Rut. Now Knowing that Bangla Jane Porter will try to defend herself from the Apeman who kidnapped him decades back, he has to hijack a helicopter and punches him to smithereens, resulting in him and his birth mother parting their own ways peacefully while on the process of becoming a husband to his own Jane. 

This film is so narmy and janky, it’s more like a morbid comedy of manners which will make a few foreign nerds laugh out loud! It’s also a more modest non-PR0N alternative to the rather bodacious league of fellow adults only Bollywood Tarzan mockbusters from the previous decades and beyond. 

Jungle King Saro

Hello Kipling guys and girls! This is a South Korean Jungle Book spoof which is pretty much considered a forgotten show outside of its native South Korea. Unfortunately, fellow non-South Korean Gen Zeds just do not know much about it at all.

The show is named Jungle King Saro, which likely has the unfortunate distinction of featuring the palest Mowgli expy and variant known to mankind. Geez, what about the village natives? 

Is it a cash in on Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go? It surely was a cashgrab, but it totally ain’t a ripoff of both for legal reasons. Because of how much unintended colourism it contained, the show was filled with stereotypes galore. Also not helping matters is that, though it’s supposed to be a spoof, it is still more Disneyfied than even the Disney Jungle Book franchise, which itself partially inspired it! In order to make a fandom of nostalgia-driven Baby Boomer and Gen X parents, the show’s art style was inspired by those of both the Flintstones and Scooby Doo. 

The story began when two explorers and a toddler named Mir (later given the name of Saro) were in the jungles of northeast India. Unfortunately, the little boy was stranded because the parents forgot about him too fast. After being found by a pack of wolves, he joined them in their journey. 

A decade later, Saro becomes a preteen boy, helping out the chores with the show’s own expies of Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the bear, Manesh and Bogle. As Belial the Shere Khan expy is trying to eat him out, he’ll run for his life, along with Manesh and his mentor Bogle. They also embark on small adventures along the way, by making friends and rivals with local villagers, monkeys and the like. 

Seriously, the show’s a cringeworthy knockout which likely has seen a dvd release of both its own seasons in its native country. Then again, the series was a national hit, even if it’s otherwise a forgettable spoof of the Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling. 

Nepali Tarzan

Hello and Welcome Martial Arts Freaks. Today’s subject is a very weird, so bad it's good Nepalese film.

The strange film is known as Nepali Tarzan, which was first released for a single premiere on the 8th of November 2013, after about four years of development hell. As its name suggests, it's a retelling set in Nepal's stake of the Himalayan foothills rather than a fantasised take on the African hinterland like in the Disney variants.  

Written and produced by low budget grandmaster Nischal Shrestha, the movie stars Prajwal Giri, Shyam Katuwal, Shailesh Pahari, Lucky Shrestha, Dil Krishna Shrestha, Bibash Dutaraj, Mala Thakuri, Shyam Shrestha, Saku Thapa Magar, Urmila Shrestha, Subash Tamang, Madan Dahal, Kishor Puri, and Rista Rajbhandari as various characters. 

Is it a ripoff? It's more like an unofficial live action localisation of the Disney Tarzan films, albeit set in late 2000s-early 2010s Nepal for the most part. The three films named Tarzan the Apeman, the other Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan films, Greystoke and Babbar Subhash's Adventures of Tarzan are amongst the film's other influences. Thanks to being inspired partially by headline grabbing Nepali crimes and other social issues which disaffect the country, the director Yadab Silwal and fellow creator Nischal Shrestha are brave enough to have filmed this movie with a crap ton of important reveals on how messed up their society still is even in the decade after its release. 

The story had begun when a near-toddling Tarzan was abandoned by his mother, because she knew that he was her illegitimate kid, so she had to abandon him in the woods for work in a city. Sabor the tigress found him because her cubs were eaten by a male tiger. A few years later, the little one could stride through the Himalayan woods looking out for food.

The hero's childhood saga continued when the preteen school aged Tarzan had to go through various hard events such as leaving behind his wolf mother and tiger mentor, while also befriending Cheeta the Macaque and a crow who happens to be a Gooney Bird expy. Little Cheeta taught him to climb on a bunch of vines next to the cliffs, and he later learnt how to swim. He also howled like a wolf.

Over a decade later, a Ruby Shetty expy becomes the subject of ridicule by her own perverse college aged fellows and teacher, who visit the Sunkoshi River. But when she sunbaths near Sunkoshi, she falls down onto it and can drown at any minute until the Nepali Tarzan rescues her. The fellows will ask her about the wild man in confusion. Thinking about having a future husband is a complicated thing, but the wild man starts to know about it. Even as she annoys and nags him so much, he remains nice to her, and the Gooney Crow agrees with him!

Meanwhile, some of the college brats are basically mobsters on the run. Three of them, Shrawan and his sidekicks, are looking for a gamble by balling through the billboards. Tarzan doesn't care much about it until someone gets killed by a mobster. Even as he survives various horrid gang beatings by attacking some of them, he gets hurt many times when he goes back into his nest, thus Cheeta licks his face in a dirty manner! Later on, the misguided Mr. Shetty expy meets his more popular lackeys, only to tell them off about his own daughter. The police and Nepali Ruby's own brother meet each other in the woods and think about the consequences. 

Otherwise, Nepali Ruby finds out that one of the mobsters is a warped mess who waits until he calls quits when retiring via seppuku. His retirement is so profound, that even her dad has realised that he's an old man, who startlingly can't stand his own more dangerous lackeys anymore. He then flees the scene while Tarzan could kill them all later. The story ends when Mr. Shetty finally told his nagging daughter that she could no longer be with him for the rest of her life. Nepali Tarzan is incredibly joyful about the crazy situation surrounding Ruby ending out in his eyes. Thus, he and she live in their nest as a happy brotherly-boyfriend and sisterly-girlfriend, soon to be married years later.

Hoo boy, the movie had a really risky production schedule and it showed! Being edgier and more gruesome than its more popular Bollywood predecessor, it has its place not only in Nepalese cinematic history, but also in the history of cinema as a whole, as one of the world's riskiest jungle movies to date. It is also a rising jewel amongst unofficial Tarzan adaptations which are so bad they’re good, even in spite of being rather heavy handed about environmental issues. 

King of the Gorillas: The Mexican Kaanga Movie

Hello Mexican B Movie freaks! Today’s subject is a not so bizarre Mexican take of its American predecessor Kaanga, which it is unofficially based on. 

The cheapish 1977 film is known as King of the Gorillas (El Rey de Los Gorilas) and is available on Tubi. It is also one of Schlock Maestro Rene Cardona Jr’s lesser known films.

The six main stars are Peggy Bass as Eva, Martin Espinoza as young Kim/Simio (aka Ape Boy), Hugo Stiglitz (Stieglitz) as adult Kim/Simio (aka Ape Man), Aurelio Fernandez Sparrow as young Notoku, Jorge Graham as Toro/Junior and Edith Gonzalez as Betty. Carlos Camacho, Carlos East and Sonia Cavazos all starred as minor characters.

Is it a Tarzan ripoff? Not quite a ripoff of the Tarzan books, even though it is more likely inspired unofficially by the Kaanga comics. 

The film’s own story began in 1883 (or more erroneously 1836-38 like in the original Spanish language version) when a toddler named Kim and his parents, from a rather wealthy American family (not quite aristocratic, but still..), were on a tropical expedition into Uganda to write about animals and look out for which stuff to loot from. However, the little boy lost his parents to a cultural conflict between them and the Plant Men, aka seemingly stereotypical village natives, part time cannibals who were hypnotised by their really corrupt chief. 

But then he was chased by a nasty bunch of sneering crocodilians, who would try to eat him until a pair of young chimpanzee friends found him crying alone in a rowboat. They told their gorilla neighbour Kira about whatever happened to his own birth parents, but she was busy looking out for crocs and other predators. Later on, she finally adopted the little boy by taking him into her nest, to the chagrin of both her Silverback mate and female friend.  

When he became a twelve-year-old (turning thirteen), Kim/Simio the boy finally realised that he was different from the nurturing (but still sometimes dangerous) mountain gorillas who raised him. He made friends with a native boy who happened to be the miserly son of a well meant but nagging (Plant Woman) village housewife and a dead Plant Man, who was killed by a lion. They made a lot of adventures together. Otherwise, most of the Plant Men weren’t amused and just kicked him out. 

The hero’s learning growth continued when Kim/Simio rediscovered parts of his own birth society when a bunch of explorers met him. Later on, he found the love of his own life, a young British woman named Eva, who survived another Plant Men conflict! A year later, they birthed a son named Toro/Junior, who is still their beloved only child. 

A decade later, Toro/Junior grows into a preteen ready to forage for food while his own feral parents are taking care of him until he becomes an adult. Meanwhile, Kim/Simio finds out about the new logging explorers coming into his adoptive jungle home and isn’t amused about it at all. It’s fair to say that, by visually telling his son about them, he clearly shows off his own anger while barking out loud about their dastardly antics. Many poachers, loggers and circus men taunt poor Toro/Junior and his dad. But Kim/Simio surely finds a way, even as he meets another youngster named Betty and becomes her mentor figure.

Fortunately, the small wild family of three persists through deadly situations and various other kinds of bad luck. The story ends when they’re all back together, safe and sound, as Betty leaves the jungle with her misguided dad in their own terms. 

The film is a loveably barmy example of an old Mexican Mockbuster. It helps that, while it’s spiritually a Tarzan story without the Tarzan name slapped upon it (for legal reasons), it’s technically inspired more by a famous Fiction House comic known for its shitty writing quality, and it shows!