Le Roi singe 2 : Cendrillon

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.

Opening with the beautiful Athena Chu entering an abandoned desert village, we are treated to a quick but fun fight when a gang of Heaven's guards attack her, in true Ching Siu Tung style of course!

This leads us back to the end scene of part one, where she meets Joker (Chow) and makes him her slave, as well as stealing his Pandora's Box. His attempt at trying to open the cave door to retrieve it is hilarious, and once in, does what he has to in an attempt to get the box and save Jing Jing back in his own time.

They set off soon after, from towns (where we see the hilarious Ng Man Tat back as Pigsy) to the desert, where one night, Chow witnesses the Monkey King arguing with a Goddess; a return to the very first opening scene of part one...

And then it all comes together. Chow, who has now seen via the magic mirror that he is the Monkey King reincarnate, gets an insight to who he is going to become. Seeing that his former self has the Pandora's Box he attempts once again to get it from them, of course, with hilarious results that shake the storyline up in crazy ways!

Cinderella cranks the comedy and madness up to 11, with more demons (the soul sucking scene is just too funny), more Bull King, and of course, more Monkey... But it also has heart that seems to blend flawlessly with the ridiculousness of it all - one of those scenes has Longevity Monk, Law Kar Ying, giving a painful rendition of the Platters song 'Only You'.

That's followed by a crazy body swap which leads to more hilarity, from a fight with the Bull King, to a botched fake suicide attempt that results in a rescue mission. Then the return of Karen Mok's character Jing Jing, spins Chow into a comedic flashback as he very quickly goes over their story in part one, to try and convince her who he really is!

Madness!!

The last 20 minutes is a total delight as Chow takes full Monkey King form, facing off against the Bull King and his army with his own team of monkeys in an all out battle of weapons and wire-fu, big set pieces and stunt work, while breaking the heart of his beloved and suffering the pain of love lost. All of that, while the piece of earth they are fighting on is flying into the sun... and then some.

A Chinese Odyssey 2 is something else - and both films are well worth seeing. All in all, this is a fantasy love story which delivers in every department and is one of the legends finest adaptations. It's beautiful, hilarious, touching, action packed, and well worth seeing!

Overall: I only wish Chow had stuck around to continue the story, but nonetheless has helped give us another amazing piece of Hong Kong cinema!

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.

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..

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.