Monkey King: The Hero Is Back

So I just finished watching this on Netflix and have to say I am greatly disappointed. After doing a little research I can see why, obviously the version available on Netflix is the worse possible version to watch as it is neither the original or the US version. It is in fact an American dubbed version where not only is the script terrible for the dubbing but the voice acting is equally as bad. It's frustrating because the animation itself is impressive but honestly if you were thinking of giving this film a go don't watch it on Netflix you would be better off watching the original with English subtitles.

I don't know if it was because I'm too sentimental or what, but I was literally tearing when I was watching the trailer with the moving song by Kit Chan. I went to the cinema with hesitation actually,thinking that I might have too much expectation on it, and was kind of afraid that it would let me down. After watching it, I would say it absolutely deserves my expectation and infinite applause. It is probably the first Chinese animation for adolescent and adult audience, comparing to childish Pleasant Goat& Big Big Wolf and Bonnie Bears. The latter actually made nearly 300 million RMB in China. The plot of Monkey King is quite common, especially in western movies: the fallen hero's rebirth, but this kind of themes still attracts large portion of audience and wins lots of tears, including those of the two little boys who sat next to me during the movie. The animations and features are just impressive, maybe not as good as many of the western masterpieces, but definitely good enough to describe it as unprecedented in China's animation history. The bad thing is that, because they almost used up all their budget on the film's creation and modification, they literally didn't do anything on marketing and advertising. Something even worse is that, although I admire the crew's courage and resolution, they chose to compete with extremely fan-based Tiny Times 4.0 and Forever Young, which are acted by a bunch of idols with tons of fans in China. The two I mentioned already made more than 100 million RMB on their first day respectively, but only about 20 million for Monkey King due to the lack of exposure and coverage. However, I always believes that one cannot evaluate a movie only by looking at how much it makes, neither an actor nor a director.

Storytelling is boring and simply misses the point. The main event was not written at all, so it was not a passing plot at all. This film is a great, international-quality picture. Fail because of the plot.

Animated version, equally cute, but little attracted me as much as the two previous films, but it's cute, the little ones will like it, I'm just not in the vibe...

Vibrant. Colorful and fast, with some amazingly innovative, original animated images. Characters include an orphan taken in by an aged monk, an ugly obnoxious shape-changing pig, an enemy lord with his armies of kidnapping trolls, and the disgraced Monkey King who must defeat the evil lord to atone for past sins.