Le Roi singe 2 : Cendrillon

What an insane thing this is! The story of cinema has been written from a predominantly Western point of view this first hundred years. Were it to be evenly told somehow, this would be in a short list of cult classics you have to see, for sheer bonkers imagination.

It's rooted in a Chinese classic about the Buddhist monk who brought back the first scriptures from India but that's just the springboard that supplies the context and characters of legend, it has as much actual history as the Pythons' Holy Grail does about medieval times.

Everything at first takes place in some remote outpost where a mysterious woman walks into the company of a petty thief and his gang. That night characters are revealed to be Devils, the woman changes into a giant spider. Immortals and supernatural beings show up through both films. The "hero" is a scoundrel who gets beaten all the time and set on fire, in that marvelous way Hong Kong has of mocking cool.

There's time travel and a story about being incarnated as the "Monkey King" of legend, meanwhile the famed Buddhist monk is shown to nag everyone with legalistic obtuseness. Illusory magic puts characters in each other's bodies. Half of it makes no sense at all but strangely it somehow does. A Bull King with his army comes stomping into the scene. Now and then it erupts in flying wuxia, remarkable gliding and leaping through colored smoke. A battle takes place inside someone's body, slashing through arteries!

It's all as crazy as anything the Pythons and Abrahams/Zucker did, as devilish as Army of Darkness. It's drawing from its own Chinese folk tradition of course about ghosts, immortals and magical belief. It begins with Guanyin, this is the boddhisatva of compassion in Buddhism, facing off with Monkey because Monkey can't stand the monk's nagging and wants out from the mission.

How revealing to watch it with a Marvel comparison in mind (who have many of the same stuff, mythic beings, gods and demigods) where everything has to be laboriously explained. Everything here just springs from air, shapeshifts in and out of illusion. Characters come and go with no obligation to some overarching purpose, or feels like it. Self is malleable, a matter of illusory disguise, a foolish invention the story gives rise to; so proper in a Buddhist context.

Another context sees the women in control, the men as dufuses. Men and women change bodies, changing the social dynamics. Self being illusory, anyone can be anything, a devil of vast powers turn into just a girl in love. Yet the central tenet in the story is the pining for deep love.

I could barely make sense of it but what I could hold onto is sweet and layered. The hero travels through time to save his loved one, until he loses himself. But it seems that was someone he started to love out of duty to a story he made up, because he said he was who she was waiting for, Monkey. Being lost, he meets another girl who is his true love and "turns him" into that person. There's body swapping at this point and she becomes possibly a Pigheaded henchman. His being torn between dutiful and true love is surreally transmuted in a scene with dual marriages supposed to take place.

By the end we have veered off into a cosmic showdown where the sun is tethered close and burns everything up. And then we return to normative reality. The "Monkey King" has to resume his place dutifully in the journey of fantastic mythadventure while his mortal self stays behind with the love of his life. Parting illusory from real.

This is taking whimsical nonsense as your dharma teacher.

When you know you're in love with someone, but you can't tell them, when you decide to tell them, they're no longer there. Life breaks up love (three sounds). When Goku wakes up, he finds that it's time to go to work again, and everything is normal again. When I watched the excitement before, I didn't think it had anything to do with me, but when I saw this pair of hypocritical men and women today, Wukong felt that he should be hypocritical, so he temporarily went out of his body and had a mind. Then I went to work. If we stay the course, will we be able to end up married? If we give up, we will meet.

Introduction:

This two part movie, is easily deserving on a 10/10 rating. And if you twisted my arm enough into choosing which is better, I would say it's the second part. The comedy is funnier, and the story is able to rap up in a satisfying way.

The Good:

Stephen Chow is hilarious in his role as the Joker, or Monkey King. Given a lot of funny lines and moments to shine in his talent as a slapstick comedian. This is probably his best film. The musical score by Lowell Lo is spectacular, probably better than his work on the first film. The action is also entertaining and always funny to watch, and the movie as a whole is just a blast. The ending of the film was touching and satisfied me. Really making these two films worth the watch.

The film has a real sense of adventure, it's a great action movie, it's a great comedy, it's a great romance, it's an awesome movie. And a movie I will always come back to.

The Bad:

The sets and costumes are not convincing in this film. And that technically qualifies as a flaw. However, I think the costumes and sets were terrible for the sake of adding to the film's comedy. So it qualifies as a criticism, but I don't fault the film.

Conclusion:

A Chinese Odyssey Part Two is an excellent second chapter to a great story. And a crash course in how to execute good slapstick comedy, and just comedy in general. The action is fun to watch, the comedy work, the romance is interesting, the characters are likable, and the movie is great and worth a 10/10 rating.

This movie has two parts. I suggest you watch them both in one sitting. This is based on the famous Chinese story "Journey to the West." Joker aka reincarnation of the Monkey King(Stephen Chow) delivers a lot of laughter. He get's involved in a demon women(Jing Jing, played by Karen Mok) and makes a mistake while traveling back(500 years too far). He eventually falls in love with the Zixia(Athena Chu). From there they ensure on a crazy journey fill with laughter, and love. The first part is more of a comedy with the plot leading into the second part. The second has more to do with the adventure itself. I must say the ending was touching. Sure there is lots of laughter in the movie, but the underlying love story was good. I wen't in watching and expecting all out funny, but got much more. The movie itself is very memorable. Music wise, it's spectacular. However, in the end I was kind of left in the air. I didn't have the full details as I would like. Which leaves room for a third one(unfortunately there is none) that would show conclusive ending and giving all the details.

One the whole, this movie work's for all kinds of people. It's got comedy, romance, and fighting. One of my favorites.

More Chinese Odyssey - at least according to the english title of the movie. Recently and after 20 years of the first two another movie has come out that has been titled A Chinese Odyssey Part 3. I haven't seen that one yet, so I can only talk about this and a little bit about the very first one. Yes this is a sequel and it begins without any callback or flashback to the previous movie.

Having said all that the movie starts off pretty "normal". Now that is for the first minute or so and then fighting ensues. After that it is a bit of romance and the first character callback from the first movie. He knows things that the woman he's talking to has no idea about. So "comedy" ensues. And a lot of physical pain and beating up (mostly to make audiences laugh, but there are also real fights with death and blood and violence and all).

There is also a moment where the male individual (our main hero of the story I guess you could call him), retells events from the first movie ... by using random characters who play or rather replay characters from the first part - including someone watching who ... Oh boy I don't even know how to describe this. It's kind of epic as are the fights, if you don't mind people flying around and kicking others while doing so. Also Magic, Demons, Lovers, Body switch comedy and so much more ... it's insane. Will you like it? Depends on your taste, but it really never lets up and it never changes its tune