Journey to the west: Conquering the demons

Can any earnest Stephen Chow fan be blamed for eagerly anticipating his "Journey to the West"? Aside from the fact that it marks his first movie in four years, it promises a return to the inimitable blend of slapstick comedy, kung fu and romance which Chow had so successfully parlayed into a winning formula in the duology "A Chinese Odyssey: Part One – Pandora's Box" and "A Chinese Odyssey: Part Two – Cinderella" – never mind that Chow does not reprise his role as the "Monkey King" or for that matter have any starring role in this new movie.

Fortunately, Chow's fans can rest easy – despite not having any physical presence in the movie, this "Journey" is classic Chow from the acting to the writing and to the directing, the latter two roles of which he is credited for in addition to producing the movie. And perhaps the best news of it all is that Chow returns to the sheer inspired inanity and hilarity of "Shaolin Soccer" and "Kung Fu Hustle", so be prepared to be rib-tickled silly by the misadventures of Miss Duan (Shu Qi) and Xuan Zang (Zhang Wen) in demon country.

Those familiar with the classic "Journey to the West" novel will know that Xuan Zang is also known as Tripitaka, who would be entrusted by Guanyin with the mission of recovering the sacred texts together with three disciples – Monkey King, Zhu Bajie and Sand Monk. Chow leaves that tale for the inevitable sequel; rather, in this movie, he fashions in essence a prequel, where Xuan Zang is no more than an amateur demon hunter yet to attain enlightenment, Monkey King or Sun Wukong (Huang Bo) is a conniving demon imprisoned in a cave by Buddha, Zhu Bajie is a pig demon called KL Hogg (Chen Bing Qiang) who especially kills women who lust after handsome men, and Sand Monk (Lee Sheung Qing) is a half-fish half-beast water demon who wrecks havoc on fishing communities living near the water.

You'll do well to remember that each demon you see on screen is of significance; otherwise you may be wondering why the screenplay, credited to Chow and seven other writers seems to dwell too excessively on each particular demon-slaying encounter – beginning with Sand Monk, then KL Hogg and finally to Sun Wukong. Indeed, the movie is really made up of these three distinct sequences, with the exception of one more that builds on the budding romance between Xuan Zang and his much more skilled and experienced fellow demon hunter Miss Duan.

Within that narrative structure, Chow constructs four elaborately staged battles that combine his brand of quirky humour, choreographer Ku Huen Chiu's imaginative action and production designer Bruce Yu's richly conceived sets with some truly impressive CGI that rivals anything you have seen so far in Chinese cinema. Thankfully, Chow doesn't get caught up with putting on the best visual effects show; in fact, with an inspired and confident directorial hand, he balances all these elements deftly, never forgetting that his audience is expecting nothing less than his signature brand of laughs.

Right from the start, you'll know that Chow's comedic sensibilities are at his sharpest. He takes his time to set each scene – for instance, in the first sequence, a charlatan is seen tricking the villagers that a giant sting ray he had blasted dead in the water was responsible for one of their own's death, so much so that when the real culprit (i.e. the water demon) appears, that entrance is even more dramatic. Ditto for the appearance of KL Hogg and Sun Wukong, whose appearances in full glory are again preceded by red herrings that make the 'coming-out' more impactful.

Chow again demonstrates an exceptional ability to juggle comedy and tragedy – here, in engineering humour amidst the deaths of others by the respective demons – and it is to his credit again that placing these two elements side by side in every sequence does not make the movie any tonally jarring at any point. And of course, as with all his films, this one features his unique brand of exaggerated slapstick - like the obscenely over-sized woman who comes to save the day (think "Kung Fu Hustle" and "CJ7") or the occasional gross joke that involves some inappropriate kissing – and his cheeky tendencies of confounding genre stereotypes.

In place of his mug, Chow has found his proxy in the form of Mainland actor Zhang Wen. It is said that Chow shows his actors just how he expects them to act in every scene, and in the case of Zhang Wen, we are sure Chow must have showed Zhang the way he would have played the role himself. You can almost see Chow through Zhang's rubber-faced mannerisms - and the same goes for Huang Bo, who plays the mischievous Sun Wukong with more than a hint of Stephen Chow.

Chow also fashions the love story between Zhang and Shu Qi the way he and co-star Athena Chu used to in the 'A Chinese Odyssey' films, and there are certain recognizable shades of similarities in the relationship between Xuan Zhang/ Miss Duan and Monkey King/ Zixia in the latter. Nonetheless, Shu Qi isn't simply a stand-in for Athena Chu – fearsome when fighting demons like an oriental Tomb Raider and yet amorous when it comes to romancing Xuan Zhang, she is thoroughly alluring from start to end in the very sexy and sassy manner we would expect from her.

So really, there's little to worry even though you won't see Stephen Chow in the movie – every bit of it is quintessentially Chow. Like his 'A Chinese Odyssey' movies, this "Journey" has action, comedy, romance and the additional ingredient of CGI to ensure an alternately amusing and suspenseful and thrilling ride from start to finish.

An absolute breakthrough...! From the refreshingly inventive script ("X-MEN Origins" of Pigsy, Sandy etc.), mind-boggling CGI, dazzling Kungfu, beautiful cinematography, belly-aching comedy (look out for the hilarious fish demon purification scene), to the evocative moment when your heart is touched and your eyes streaming wet; which explains why it broke China's box office records, reaching USD$100 million (over RMB$0.6 billion) in 8 days (the fastest ever), and taking in USD$12.5 million (RMB$78 million) on the opening day alone (another first).

Stephen Chow has been honing his skill as a highly specialized film-maker par excellence, notably with Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, CJ7 and now Journey to the West - Conquering the Demons; injecting photo-realistic CGIs, comic innovations and content with a moral thread. Speaking of which, the key message that loving-kindness (Metta / Ci Ai / Universal Love) for all sentient beings is a transcendental quality that ultimately conquers ignorance, ego and hatred is conveyed pretty succinctly.*

Having watched it in both 2D and 3D, I must say that the stereoscopic version certainly heightened the virtual realism that gave James Cameron's Avatar an extra oomph.

The bad thing about this movie is - it leaves you hungry for even more, despite the running time being nearly 2 hours (110 min) in its cinematic version. Hopefully, Stephen Chow decides to produce a sequel, which would almost certainly need to feature a celestial dragon, perhaps like the magnificent one from Sam Neill's The Dragon Pearl.

*See Dhammapada (Ancient Collection of Short Sayings by The Buddha) Verse 5 - Hatred is never appeased by hatred. It is appeased only by loving-kindness. This is a timeless law.

Editing the review after having rewatched the film (in addition to having watched parts 1 and 2).

First, it's important to say that I don't consider it necessary to watch the previous ones to appreciate this masterpiece (but I recommend it if you're interested in the story as a whole).

The leap in quality of script, acting, special effects and message is huge compared to its predecessors and even today (August 2024), the experience is very pleasant and has not been harmed by the "aging" of the film.

This film, unlike the previous ones, finally inserts Buddhist elements into the story in a more precise and non-parodial way, which in my opinion was a great benefit.

Drawing a comparison, it is very common in film production for the protagonist to be driven by hatred and desire for revenge and all the elements in the film justify such conduct.

In this film, on the contrary, the protagonist is driven by the desire to help all beings, including demons. Oh! This practically sounds like heresy to many of us, doesn't it?

Furthermore, the film shows that the greatest power has nothing to do with physical strength or superhuman powers, while delivering great fight scenes and great special effects (taking into account the natural aging of an 11-year-old film).

More than ever, I highly recommend this film to any human being who seeks to be better and to free themselves from suffering and the causes of suffering.

Truth be told, I wasn't quite impressed with the idea that Stephen Chow had to revisit one of his greatest films, and do another version of it. But Chow had proved me wrong, and had some nifty creative ideas behind what he had wanted to do with another Journey to the West tale, hardly rehashing the earlier Jeff Lau effort. He had managed to keep the strengths of what he is well known for in irreverent comedy, and crafted his best in years, while coming up with yet another new spin to keep things engaging even for the most jaded amongst us on the tale of Monkey King. The trailer, while keeping things really short, now on hindsight was a brilliant little piece of a short prologue, while teasing the audience on a Monkey King appearance that's never been portrayed nor seen before in this form, which does take some getting used to.

But this film, co-directed with Derek Kwok, sets its sights on Tripitaka the monk, or Xuan Zang, instead, before he got preordained into monk-hood. In this re-telling, Xuan Zang (Wen Zhang) is a novice demon-hunter, and a hopeless one at that. He believes that every demon should be shown compassion, and is for non-violence as much as possible, in order to rehabilitate demons that he found, using his book of nursery rhymes which his master claims to be one of the best sutras around for subduing of spirits. Xuan Zang embodies all that is benevolent, consistent in spirit (pardon the pun) what you know of the character, except that he has that thick mop of hair. But despite his lack of skills other than a stout heart, help comes in the form of Ms Duan (Shu Qi), the expertly skilled demon hunter, with her own posse to allow some cameo appearances, who has the hots for Xuan Zang (again playing to the tune that he is someone desirable, as any Journey story goes), and pops up almost always at the right time to save his hide.

Elements from Journey stories include the individual encounters with all his disciples and their tweaked back stories, which credit has to be given to the screenwriters for improvements that worked within the confines of this alternate story they wanted to tell. The highlight is of course how Xuan Zang's first meeting with Sun Wukong (Huang Bo) went, which is as comical and witty as can be, which extended to the big battle finale that had as much heart, a key winning element from Chow's A Chinese Odyssey films, to move when themed against the notion of sacrifice. The final twenty minutes was a fitting climax, building up upon a series of very smart episodes, which included, on a higher level, how scriptures are based on love.

And this romance between Xuan Zang and Ms Duan forms the crux of the story, like in A Chinese Odyssey, that drives the narrative forward. Shu Qi plays the much tomboyish demon hunter with aplomb, who has to dig deep to find her femininity in wooing Xuan Zang, and who would have guessed she looked so comfortable and credible in executing many of her martial arts scenes. Wen Zhang like others before him who have played the kind monk, was right at home with his performance, a little bumbling mixed with that tinge of innocence, and sheer determination in wanting to do good despite only having the best of intentions, and none of the skills. And amongst the other characters, all eyes are perhaps on Huang Bo's rendition of the Monkey King, which I can only say it's extremely different to begin with, and I'm sure some find the character design a little bit bewildering.

Then again, it's a retelling, so some decisions made may not sit well with others, but I thought it was a breath of fresh air, especially since it's probably the first time (in a long while maybe) that it took the stance of all the disciples being enemy combatants and demons. I can't rave enough about the finale that dealt with how the Monkey King got that golden headband of his, as it touches on the virtues of love and forgiveness all in one fell swoop, conspicuously making the deities of Journey missing and unnecessary in this story.

Chow as a director has somehow imparted his acting techniques from the many demeanours he had portrayed in the past, to probably each and every character here, so much so that everyone has shades of Chow's easily recognizable persona, especially when dealing with comic timing, and style. And like his recent lavish productions, this one is no different, which is full of CG effects, but polished and more of a tool to tell the story rather than drawing attention to themselves. But that doesn't mean that Chow has lost touch with his more humble beginnings, at times opting for practical gags that had served him well in the past, and low brow humour still ever-reliable in eliciting laughter.

Given a subtitle in this film, one can only hope there's a follow up of sorts, because the baseline has been set, the origins told, and what lies ahead are the countless of episodes in the troupe's perilous journey westwards to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures, which anyone could be taken and given a new narrative spin in similar treatment as this one. Stephen Chow once again showed that he still has that creative flair and streak within him, that even if he doesn't appear in front of the camera, he has what he takes behind it to deliver the best of his hey-days. One of the best films out of this Lunar New Year season!

The style of the movie immediately brings to memory Kung-Fu Hustle, also written and directed by Stephen Chow, but its target is a reinvention of the Journey to the West story.

Unfortunately, much of the symbolism used in the film is lost on me, since I know nothing of Chinese mythology. I am sure much of the characters and word games that I suppose mean a lot to a Chinese person, to me are just wacky and incomprehensible. That being said, the film is very nicely done, combining drama and comedy in a way that is mostly foreign to western cinema, good acting and cool special effects.

I have to admit that the movie makes me want to read some translation of Journey to the West, one of the Four Great Classical Novels, so, if that was Chow's purpose, the film is a success. I also have to admit that I liked the movie, considering whether to keep it for later viewing or not. As such, it is clearly above average, but the nagging feeling that a lot got lost in translation makes me rate it only so: above average.