Peeking in Peking: A weird, dusty little relic

Is it worth the time?

Honestly, only if you have a very specific itch for vintage, slightly chaotic cinema. If you need a tight, logical plot, stay far away.

Folks who love old, dusty sets and actors who don't know if they're in a drama or a slapstick sketch will have a ball. Everyone else? You’ll probably be bored within ten minutes.

The experience

The whole thing feels like it was put together with glue and good intentions. There's this moment where Slim Summerville walks into a room, and the camera lingers for way too long on his boots. It’s like the cameraman just forgot to cut.

The geography of the sets is absolutely impossible. One door leads to a street, but then you turn around and it’s a living room. It made me feel a little dizzy, but not in a cool, experimental way.

Specific weirdness:

• The extras in the background look like they were told to 'just do something' and forgot how to act like human beings.
• The dialogue sounds like it was written on the back of a napkin during lunch.
• I’m still not sure what the deal with the cat in the third act was.

If you've seen something like Angora Love, you know how hard it is to balance physical comedy with actual narrative flow. Here, they don't even try. It just kind of bumps into walls until the credits roll.

Some thoughts

There's a scene near the middle where two characters are shouting at each other, but the music is so loud it drowns them out completely. I actually liked that part. It felt like the movie was tired of its own dialogue.

It doesn't have the grit of Burning Daylight or the focus of better period pieces. It's just... there. Floating in its own weird little vacuum.

I caught myself looking at my phone around the 40-minute mark. Not because it was bad, but because it was just so aimless. It’s the cinematic equivalent of wandering around a parking lot looking for your car keys. 🤷‍♂️

I guess if you really want to see how they used to do 'exotic' locations back in the day, go for it. Just don't go looking for depth. You’ll only find a lot of dust and some very confused faces.