Sai yau gei: Yut gwong bou haap

Intro: A Chinese Odyssey Part One is a weird, but enjoyable and hilarious movie. Known as the movie that put Stephen Chow on the map, I appreciate the film for this. But, this film wasn't my introduction to him. My introduction was Kung Fu Hustle. But I later watched this one, and I think it's even better than Kung Fu Hustle. Now, I still love that film. But this's one of the best film to come out of China, one of the favorite comedy films, and a great film.

The Story & Characters: The film centers around a the Monkey King, who after trying to gain immortality, was banished out of Heaven by the goddess of happiness, and he was reincarnated as the Joker. And the events are some of the most over the top, funny and most insane things to happen in any movie.

First off, the comedic writing is on point. Perfect timing, perfect delivery, and really funny dialogue. Such as, the fact that this film was made in a time that the crotch gag was getting old, and they still made it work several times in this film. The film's comedy is just always perfect.

I also enjoyed the characters as well, all of them have their own brand of funny to them. And have very funny lines. To cut this short, the characters were all unique and entertaining to watch.

And the film as a whole is just a completely chaotic and ride. And I loved every second of that crazy ride. The film's literally impossible to predict. I couldn't predict the events of the film.

The Visuals: The visual style of this film is not all that impressive. But I don't think it's supposed to look very good. I think having the fake sets and bad costumes adds to the comedy value. Granted, it made me laugh a few times.

Conclusion: A Chinese Odyssey Part One is a great example of Chinese film making, and just a good comedy film. It might be one my favorite films, and it's a movie I can always come back to and re-watch.

There is no doubt in my mind that Stephen Chow is a true master of mixing surreal comedy, romance and drama in most of his films that he has written and directed. But hold on, he didn't write or direct this film that was made way back in the mid 90s! But it sure feels like a Chow directed film. In fact, Jeffrey Lau wrote and directed and this is my first introduction to his films. It seems to me that Stephen Chow may have learnt much from Lau when directing his later movies and indeed style of comedy. Its just so similar but even the deserved global success of Chow's Kung Fu Hustler and Shaolin Soccer can't topple Lau's crowning achievement of this glorious comedy fantasy epic.

But you do have to attune yourself to their style of comedy. At times the comedy is rather Naked Gun style but the BIG difference is that with a Naked Gun/Airplane style movie you are never emotionally involved with the character's journey/fates. This is a real epic Chinese fantasy adventure chock full of side splitting comedy, drama, time travel, love triangles, deceit, tragedy and old school wire-work martial arts. Not many movies can boast such a varied concoction and even fewer can pull it off in such a knockout cocktail. Close comparisons for me are Zu Warriors and A Chinese Ghost Story.

The story actually moves at a breakneck speed despite the fact it is drawn out into a 2 part epic saga. Chow is at his very best in his dead pan (Buster Keatonesque) comic timing and furthermore gives an emotional underlining subtext in his performance much akin to the great Charlie Chaplin classics.

The comedy is inventively laugh out loud but always rooted to the storyline and never stooping low for a cheap laugh. The storyline is set firmly in the Chineses mythological realm of gods and demons and apparently extracting a chapter from a famous Chinese story called Journey to the West, putting its own spin on things.

Its not a flawless movie though, and one cannot expect it to be with such an ambitious premise and so much elements thrown in. While the first part of this epic is the more comedic, the second part begins with a somewhat convoluted progression of the storyline and becomes quite confusing with too many women involved in a long multiple women juggling segment. It is my only gripe, however.

I personally would also have loved to see more of the arrogant, fun and cool Monkey King persona but I can understand that more of him may not have served the story pacing well. Pity though, as the Monkey King is a really fun character here than I've seen elsewhere including the fun Monkey Magic television series.

My review covers both parts of this film as a whole. So in a nutshell, this is a vastly entertaining, side-splittingly funny, fast moving, emotionally driven Chinese fantasy epic. And I will now be seeking to watch more Jeffery Lau films as well as Stephen Chow's early movies.

This is the first of a two part movie series adapted from the classic Chinese novel,Journey To The West.I would consider this as the more comedic one,while the second is more action-packed,with a little sense of art-house in it(if you watch the two together it forms a perfect balance).In this movie,Stephen Chow's character had not yet transformed into the all invincible Monkey King,hence not much action here.It was also extremely loosely based on the novel,so fans of the book might not really like this.The comedy level in this movie is so extreme...you can't even stop laughing for a minute,so if necessary,watch it bit by bit to catch some breath.Watch this solely for the humor,and you'll see a masterpiece.Sing-yeh's best film of the nineties.

Rate:****

This is one crazy movie, with martial arts monkeys, ladies who become giant spiders, and all sorts of devils and other supernatural characters wandering around causing trouble. It's fun, funny, and wacky.

One interesting thing is that it's a movie full of strong women and weak men. You don't see that too often. True, love slows the women up, but outside of that they are tough as can be.

I saw this movie with badly-done subtitles I downloaded off the Internet, so I was sometimes a little unclear as to what was going on, but the movie is such crazy fun that I barely minded.

best chinese film till now. about 80% university student have seen more than 3 times. the quotes in it have been quote everywhere by young men. it becomes a magic culture deep in the life of young men

nowadays.