Le Roi singe 2 : Cendrillon

After watching Part 1, I immediately had to see Part 2. Like the first movie, it is fast, crazy and funny. Unlike the first one, it's also somewhat touching, although reviews on this site that seem to find the last part an overwhelming emotional experience puzzle me.

I did not like Part 2 as much as Part 1, simply because I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on. Part of this was certainly the bad subtitles I downloaded from the Internet. Part of this was that I am somewhat face blind, so that I had difficulty telling two of the principle women apart. But in spite of that, I think a lot of the issues are with the movie itself. Things just suddenly happen without introduction, and there's a body switching bit that seems just designed for confusing people.

In spite of being frequently confused, though, I enjoyed it a great deal.

Yes, it's not just the best movie ever from Stephen Chow but the best movie ever!

You have to watch the first part before fully appreciate all the trivial details in the second part. If we consider the first part as the usual comedy product of Stephen Chow, then surprisingly the second part not only continued the comedy routine but every funny element eventually turn into something much deeper, richer and tragical, which made this movie absolutely cult icon in the next decade in China.

The story is based on the classic Chinese Novel 'Xi You Ji', in which the rebel Monkey was tamed by the Budder and helped a Monk to go to India. Stephen Chow's contemporary adoption of the story is one of his trademarks by mixing the modern elements with the ancient context. It not only added the funny material into the movie, but also the irony and insanity on top of it which younger generation is so addicted to.

At the beginning this movie looks just like another Stephen Chow's typical box office hit but with the stories go on, audience started to feel increasing sadness and later on realised the unavoidable tragical ending.

It's a tough movie for Westerners to understand and appreciate because it requires quite bit Chinese culture knowledge and lots of loss in translation but I would still encourage everyone to give it a go simply for it's such a wonderful and creative movie.

It is unfair that there is no thorough review on this masterpiece: Chinese Odyssey I-II (1994).

Someone would dare to say this is THE BEST movie ever, to me it is certainly clear that there is no other movie can compete with this in making tearing eyes of audience at the end of movie on which they really don't know whether the tears came from too much laughing or from the pathos of epic love story. As many other great cult movies this one also has difficulties to deliver its greatness to audience especially to non-Asian (due to lack of background and missing points in translated caption etc.), however this difficulties can be overcome and I strongly recommend trying this movie since it is worth your time and effort. One simple way to overcome the plot complexity and its hidden meanings is to watch repeatedly, this way will work on this movie just as it does upon the movie like 'Mulholland Drive (2001)'. These two movies belong to completely different genres but they have one thing in common that you have to watch multi-full time to get it.Let's get into the detail of Chinese Odyssey I-II, it has at least four aspects to discuss,

(1) Background story and its twist of Chinese great classic novel 'Journey to the West'; You don't need to read the book thoroughly and you can get information from internet,Or you may only need to know that the novel was written basis of the real event of a Chinese monk Xuanzang (602 – 664) who went to India to get the Buddhist bible and get it to the Chinese King in order to bring justice and peace/love in the world. The author gathered folk tales and even mingled with traditional fantasy mythology into a classic.

The content of novel includes 81 episodes of adventures while the protagonist Son WuKong (Monkey King) guides Xuanzang with two friends. This story generated many modern versions of twist such as the international big hit of Japanese Manga "Dragon Ball" The movie Chinese Odyssey I-II covers Wukong's troubled mind between earthly desires and righteous job (getting the scripture) with nice mixture of romantic love story.

(2) Peculiar sense of humor; The first thing the audience can notice on this movie may be the unusual sense of humor some times goes behind the tolerance of normal people. It is because Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer 2001, Kung Fu Hustle 2004) once you get his sense of humor you will really enjoy it, this is same for Mike Myers, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey. He is as good as these American actors for comedian and romantic hero so it is fair to say that without him this movie would be impossible, but this movie has more than just Stephen Chow.

(3) State of martial art; From the typical Hong Kong martial art style, well known by legendary Woo-ping Yuen (who worked in Matrix and Kill Bill series), you can enjoy fantastic fighting scenes in this movie. Woo-ping Yuen has worked with actors; Jet Li, Stephen Chow and director Hark Tsui (if you don't like Stephen Chow's style it will be worth to check 'Chinese Ghost Story (1987), and The Legend of Zu (2001)). By the way the director covering martial art of this movie is the other legend Xiaodong Cheng.

(4) East-West culture confliction (Christianity vs. Buddhism); One of the reasons that those great Chinese movies such as 'Chinese Ghost Story (1987)', 'The Legend of Zu (2001)' and 'Chinese Odyssey I-II (1994)' don't get right reputation in western world is they have basis of reincarnation which is from Buddhistic or generic eastern idea. As for me I regularly attend church and follow guidance of Jusus, but I have no problem with reincarnation idea in movies. Many American movies also have imposed reincarnation idea such as in 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968), The Big Chill (1983) and The 13th Floor (1999).

(snake legs) : The plot of Chinese Odyssey I-II is very complicated which is different from normal Hollywood movies, I recommend to watch two parts (I and II) straight..

When I first time watch this movie,I am a elementary school student still... ... If you thought it is very absurd,Cannot understand,That is the normal reaction. When I watched for the first time, similarly thought there are some plot which I did not understand (at that time I was ten years old).

This a kind of non- conventional humor, if you wanna understood this story completely ,you should have know something about the "Xi You Ji",(It was awfully translated by someone to Mokey,Mokey King etc )if not, you'd better carefully see this movie, then, you will like it.

In Zhong Guo, the 80's births people have the special sentiment to this movie, the classical dialogue were known very well by each who birth on 80's. Afterwards, appeared many movie which take "Xi You Ji" story as the background , or imitates the style of this movie directly , but they all are unable to surmount it.

Someone may think it is a love story while someone may think it is a comedy.But I think it is a sort of tragedy full of sarcasm.I think it is the best Chinese movie I've ever seen.It is totally worth watching.If you really give it a time to think about this movie,I promise you can gain a lot from it.It is way better than Journey to the West.

Sometimes you will feel lonely even when you are successful.Sometimes you have to accept the fact that you cherished and loved is gone because they didn't belong to you any more.Sometimes when you finally got what you've always wanted but it doesn't matter now because the one you loved is gone,so what's the point of all these efforts?Sometimes in order to succeed,we have to give up something that may seemed unimportant in the first place but after we made it,you would be painful to find out that all things you once gave up has been always important,you just got blind and didn't notice that.

If you really catch the meaning of this movie,well,congratulations. Cuz you are really grown-up .ENJOY IT!!!!It's full of joys and tears.