The film marks the beginning of Stephen Chow's filmmaking career without an acting role.
This was the highest grossing film of 2013 in China, making 1.247 billion yuan.
This was the first Stephen Chow movie since CJ7 (2008).
At the end of the film, the way that Sun Wu Kong (The Monkey King) carries his rod, behind his back and over his shoulders with his hands on both ends, is a homage to the 1995 two-part film A Chinese Odyssey, in which Sun Wu Kong carries the rod in the same manner as the companions travel westward.
Stephen Chow, one of the co-directors of the film, played Joker (the Monkey King) in the 1995 two-part film A Chinese Odyssey, which drew on and also loosely adapted parts of the ancient book Journey to the West.