It seems as if Hong Kong movies have changed a lot since their hey day, and this film is no exception. The story is great, considering that it is based on 'Journey to the West' which is China's version of 'The Odyssey'. The story is about a character known as the Monkey King who travels to India and brings Buddhism back to China, and it is truly epic in scope. In fact this film, I believe, is the first in a trilogy and deals with only the first seven chapters, ending when Buddha traps the Monkey King under the Five-fingered mountain for his crimes. Basically this is little more than the introduction to the story.
Many of us remember this story as a television series known as Monkey Magic, though from what I can remember the part where the Monkey King is trapped under a mountain was the first episode, however it seems that they have managed to drag this out to an entire movie, though much of the movie involves the Monkey King running around beating people up with his staff and chatting up a fox-woman.
The Monkey King was born after a war between the demons and the other immortals, after the demons had attempted to storm heaven. Though they lost they were shown mercy but told that if they were to try it again then they would be punished severely. When the Monkey King was born it was quite clear that he was very capable, however it was also a 'very naughty boy' and was kicked out of the school that he attended, however during that time had acquired immense power, which is why he gained the title of 'Monkey King'. When he returned to his home he discovered that all of his people had been killed, and the demons tricked him by blaming heaven, so in a fit of rage he stormed heaven and destroyed it. This is why Buddha trapped him under the mountain.
The movie had a lot of potential, and from what I gathered I enjoyed hit, however the huge flaw was not so much the effects – they were good, or the story, but the subtitles. They were appalling. Whoever did the subtitles simply could not speak English and seemed to have pretty much made an incredibly half-hearted attempt at creating them. In fact the subtitles in this film made the subtitles from the China-town videos of my younger days look like a professional job. The only problem was that I was quite tired when I saw the movie, which meant that I ended up dozing off and missing parts of it, which is a shame because I am not that keen on trying to hunt for a copy of it, hoping that the subtitles will be a lot better (but I certainly will keep an eye out for it).
Many of us remember this story as a television series known as Monkey Magic, though from what I can remember the part where the Monkey King is trapped under a mountain was the first episode, however it seems that they have managed to drag this out to an entire movie, though much of the movie involves the Monkey King running around beating people up with his staff and chatting up a fox-woman.
The Monkey King was born after a war between the demons and the other immortals, after the demons had attempted to storm heaven. Though they lost they were shown mercy but told that if they were to try it again then they would be punished severely. When the Monkey King was born it was quite clear that he was very capable, however it was also a 'very naughty boy' and was kicked out of the school that he attended, however during that time had acquired immense power, which is why he gained the title of 'Monkey King'. When he returned to his home he discovered that all of his people had been killed, and the demons tricked him by blaming heaven, so in a fit of rage he stormed heaven and destroyed it. This is why Buddha trapped him under the mountain.
The movie had a lot of potential, and from what I gathered I enjoyed hit, however the huge flaw was not so much the effects – they were good, or the story, but the subtitles. They were appalling. Whoever did the subtitles simply could not speak English and seemed to have pretty much made an incredibly half-hearted attempt at creating them. In fact the subtitles in this film made the subtitles from the China-town videos of my younger days look like a professional job. The only problem was that I was quite tired when I saw the movie, which meant that I ended up dozing off and missing parts of it, which is a shame because I am not that keen on trying to hunt for a copy of it, hoping that the subtitles will be a lot better (but I certainly will keep an eye out for it).