The Lost Empire 

Nick Orton, King of Gladiator is super star from god of humanity has Chinese who gets to serving them, Nick Orton embarks on the rescue mission.

Stars:

Thomas Gibson, Bai Ling, Russell Wong

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 3 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Thomas Gibson	...	Nicholas Orton 2 episodes, 2001
Bai Ling	...	Kwan Ying 2 episodes, 2001
Russell Wong	...	Monkey King 2 episodes, 2001
Ric Young	...	Confucius 2 episodes, 2001
Kabir Bedi	...	Friar Sand 2 episodes, 2001
Eddie Marsan	...	Pigsy 2 episodes, 2001
Randall Duk Kim	...	Shu 2 episodes, 2001
Henry O	...	Wu Chan Yen 2 episodes, 2001
Kay Sui Lim	...	Subodhi 2 episodes, 2001
Burt Kwouk	...	Professor Sheng 2 episodes, 2001
James Faulkner	...	Marcus Harding 2 episodes, 2001
Sai-Kit Yung	...	Jade Emperor 2 episodes, 2001
Kwong Loke	...	Imperial Crier 2 episodes, 2001
Yu Beng Lim	...	Skeleton Demon 2 episodes, 2001
Turbo Kong	...	Big Demon 2 episodes, 2001
Hossan Leong	...	Spectacles Demon 2 episodes, 2001
Hon Ping Tang	...	Nine Inch Nail Demon 2 episodes, 2001
Picasso Tan	...	Pointy Head Demon 2 episodes, 2001
Pik Sen Lim	...	Granny Monkey 2 episodes, 2001
Jacqueline Chan	...	Mother Superior 2 episodes, 2001
Terence Beesley	...	Prince of Confusion 2 episodes, 2001
Inday Ba	...	Elizabeth 2 episodes, 2001
Chia Suan	...	Whitesnake 2 episodes, 2001
Gregory Teo	...	Chef 1 2 episodes, 2001
Ian U'Chong	...	Chef 2 2 episodes, 2001
Annette Badland	...	Confusion's 4th Wife 2 episodes, 2001
Olga Sosnovska	...	Linda 2 episodes, 2001
Richard Ng	...	Communist Official 2 episodes, 2001
Jeremy Zhang	...	Barman / ... 2 episodes, 2001
Nicholas Lee	...	Terracotta Warrior 1 2 episodes, 2001
Stiven Liang	...	Terracotta Warrior 2 2 episodes, 2001
Chester See	...	Terracotta Warrior 3 2 episodes, 2001
Takatsuna Mukai	...	Wolf-Demon General 2 episodes, 2001
Steven Woon	...	Bearded Priest 2 episodes, 2001
Marjorie Ho	...	Old Liang 2 episodes, 2001
Cecil Cheng	...	Monkey 2 episodes, 2001
Teo-Wa Vuong	...	Maiden 1 2 episodes, 2001
Yuka Uto	...	Maiden 2 2 episodes, 2001
Anthony Chinn	...	Citizen 1 2 episodes, 2001
Ozzie Yue	...	Citizen 2 2 episodes, 2001
Simon Bernstein	...	Umbrella King 2 episodes, 2001

Storyline

American journalist Nick Orton is caught up in the world of Chinese gods and monsters while on a search for the long lost manuscript to 'Hsi Yu Chi' (The Journey to the West) by Wu Ch'eng En. He is accompanied on his journey by a humanoid ape with incredible strength and magical powers, a humanoid pig-man, and his brother-in-arms, an ex-cannibal. Based on one of the greatest stories in Chinese history.

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Plot Keywords:

monkey king | chinese | demon | dragon | manuscript | 

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Taglines:

Reluctant hero, beautiful goddess, three days to save the world.

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Czech Republic Germany Singapore USA

Language:

English Chinese

Release Date:

2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Monkey King

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hallmark Entertainment,RTL Television,Babelsberg International Film Produktion

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Loosely based on the story from classical Chinese Literature "Journey to the West".

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Quotes

Nicholas Orton: So I might never get rich, buy my own jet, or even maintain a stock portfolio. But when I look in her eyes, I know that none of these things really matter.

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Connections

References The Fly (1958)

User Reviews

A mixed bag, weak in many key areas

Lost Empire, a VERY strange title for a retelling of the old Chinese classic adventure "Journey to the West", is a mixed bag of a film. David Hwang's screenplay is in many respects a sequel to the original story, as opposed to being a modern rendition of the original story. I regard this as a mistake as I believe Mr. Hwang lost more by giving up on the original characters than he gained by having a modern setting.

Good points: The lovely Ling Bai did a good job as the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Kwan Yin). Some scenes with Monkey and the "Scholar from Above" went well (mainly the scenes when Monkey rescues his subjects on Flower Fruit Island). Some interplay between "Sandy" and the "Scholar from Above" was funny. Some of the art design for the palace of the Jade Emperor was good (but NOT the throne room, yuk!).

Bad points: Too many explosions. A really ugly and totally wrong portrait of Confucius (I could go on for some time but I'll stick with this key point: Confucius was a materialist. He had no interest in religion and spirits. He was only interested in how a good state was run. The depiction of Confucius in this movie is totally at odds with EVERYTHING that Confucius stood for.) The last half-hour of the movie was anti-climactic, over-wrought, and uninteresting.

Deeper problems: Journey to the West is, at its core, at Buddhist story about the quest to attain enlightenment (along with the fun stuff about beating demons). This story (Lost Empire) takes place AFTER Monkey and Sandy have achieved their ultimate state. They are both "supposed" to be enlightened beings. The problem with this is that a) they don't act like enlightened beings, and b) there isn't much drama possible when you are enlightened. You can really tell the weakness in the writing when Kwan Yin has to tell Monkey's old teacher that "Monkey HAS been blessed by the Buddha". If you need a 3rd party (a goddess no less) to convince other people that you have become enlightened and have been blessed by the Buddha, well, its clear to me that the story is saying one thing, but doing another.

In fact, none of the characters behaves "in character". At least not like the characters that you enjoyed when reading "Journey to the West".

Deepest problem: the story (Lost Empire) is trying to both be and not be "Journey to the West" at the same time. Its trying to both be true to original ideas and be "modern" and up-to-date at the same time. Its trying to be a sequel that retells the original story. It is, in short, a total mess at a very deep level. -- Colin Glassey