The Monkey King 

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 ... See full summary »

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 Siu 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:

Journey to a world where kingdoms fall and heroes rise.

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Unrated

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 Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

User Reviews

Typical tv-movie fare

I watched this because of the previews, which showed a kind of Matrix/Crouching Tiger/Raiders cash-in, but I was very disappointed. All the rip-offs were there, but very poorly done (even the CGI effects looked cheap). This might be what Sid and Marty Krofft would do if they were still making Saturday-morning fare.

The plot was obviously padded, the wind-ups (it seemed like there were about 30 of them) were anti-climactic, and the worst thing was the mish-mash of American and Chinese pseudo-mythology that has people saying things like "For Buddhaaaaa" while jumping off cliffs towards battle and painting Confucious as an ass-kissing bad guy.

Along the way we have things like an American bookworm achieving God-level martial arts skill with only 3 days of practice, and a random globbing together of events in Chinese history that took place anywhere from 3000 to 30 years ago.

All-in-all this was an insult to anyone that knows anything at all about Eastern history and philosophy, and a destruction (ie: more than a waste) of 4 hours for everyone else.

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