A goofy and great animated film about an anarchic Monkey King -- Sun Wukong -- who spends his days playfully directing millions of monkey children in martial arts training and bouncing around the beautiful waterfall forest they inhabit. After twice being deceptively lured into heaven by the Jade Emperor, so that he may be controlled and watched over, the Monkey King begins dismantling the Confucian hierarchies around (and above) him. Using spontaneous, creative, and subversive magic the Monkey King consistently undermines the Jade Emperor and his many minions and henchmen.
It's full of colorfully wild sequences replete with animal transformations, hilarious caricatures of military/political leaders, and jubilant, drunken rambunctiousness. The version I saw -- with English storytelling-narration leaving the Chinese dialog in its original Mandarin -- goes on forever. And the Chinese-opera styled music is a bit overwhelming at times. But the offbeat comic timing, ponderous caesuras, wavy movements, and truncated ending all make it a bizarrely entertaining experience.
Based on the early sections of the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West", most commentators see the Monkey King in the film as representative of Mao wreaking havoc in China. Yet, with Mao's Cultural Revolution effectively eliminating the creative film industry the very next year, one may alternatively equate Mao with the oppressive Jade Emperor and his advisors desperately trying to destroy the liberated spirit of the Monkey King. Those of us born in the year of Monkey might be able to relate on a more universal level.
