“I am the Monkey King. Who in the Seven Hells are you supposed to be?”
That question could apply to everyone in Netflix’s “The New Legends of Monkey,” which has given a significant cosmetic update to the story in the 16th-century Chinese novel “Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en. In the adaptation, the four main characters include two who have been gender-flipped from the original tale and none who are played by Chinese actors at all, which had sparked criticism of whitewashing earlier in production and which this review will address later.
Mainstream American audiences may not be quite as familiar with the original tale as viewers in Australia, whence this new adaptation hails. Aussie kids grew up with a late-‘70s version from Japan, known as “Monkey” or “Monkey Magic” in its BBC dubbed format. The affection for that series Down Under (and in the UK) cannot be overemphasized,...
That question could apply to everyone in Netflix’s “The New Legends of Monkey,” which has given a significant cosmetic update to the story in the 16th-century Chinese novel “Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en. In the adaptation, the four main characters include two who have been gender-flipped from the original tale and none who are played by Chinese actors at all, which had sparked criticism of whitewashing earlier in production and which this review will address later.
Mainstream American audiences may not be quite as familiar with the original tale as viewers in Australia, whence this new adaptation hails. Aussie kids grew up with a late-‘70s version from Japan, known as “Monkey” or “Monkey Magic” in its BBC dubbed format. The affection for that series Down Under (and in the UK) cannot be overemphasized,...
- 4/29/2018
- by Hanh Nguyen
- Indiewire
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