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+---- Thread: Monkey King Reborn (2021) (/showthread.php?tid=6710)
Monkey King Reborn (2021) - Drunk Monk - 12-13-2021
Yet another animated take on Journey to the West. It’s very PRC in its animation style - yes there’s even a cutesy baby demon, like Casper but some kind of fruit spirit called Fruity no less, who pees and farts on Wukong because that’s what babies do and the Chinese find it abnormally funny.
But then it does achieve some moments of visionary magic. Every once in a while, something would work, like how a particular deity was depicted or how a magic qi blast looked. I liked flaming Wukong - that was visually stunning.
I imagine this won’t make a lick of sense to anyone unfamiliar with the mythic figures involved. It just jumps right into the story with no explanations of why Monkey can pull a magic cudgel from his ear, why Pigsy can transform into a bug or why Wujing is like a blueish creature from the black lagoon. At first I did not like how they were characterized but it grew on me as the movie went on. In the end, I did like how Wukong was interpreted - they captured his hubris, his cockiness, and seething viciousness.
There’s a parade of iconic mythical beings - my fav was the foxy 9-tailed Fox. The temple guardians were also quite good. Guanyin was good too but poorly voiced. Unfortunately Hoopla only offered an English dub and I would’ve got more out of it in the original Chinese with subs, I think. The dub was weak.
It culminates in a long magic battle first between the antiheroes and the demon horde then just between Wukong and Yuanqi for the title of King of demons. I honestly don’t know how what happened at the end happened, but I’ll just roll with it. It’s an epic fantasy that’s best not to be dwelt upon too deeply. I didn’t feel they captured the Buddhist morals of the story which is key to it all.
Only D00M recommended if you’re reasonably familiar with the tale and I think that’s just me and cf.
Hoopla
RE: Monkey King Reborn (2021) - thatguy - 12-14-2021
All I know, I learned from anime...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwiUIM9aAxk&t=54m50s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alakazam_the_Great
--tg
RE: Monkey King Reborn (2021) - Drunk Monk - 12-14-2021
That might be sufficient.
Forgot to drop a trailer...
RE: Monkey King Reborn (2021) - Greg - 08-18-2023
As we prepare for The Monkey King on Netflix, I'm beginning to believe that the west thinks that China is only good for one story. And that story is The Monkey King.
RE: Monkey King Reborn (2021) - Drunk Monk - 08-18-2023
It is a great story. I was at odds with it for years, didn’t get all the deus ex machina bits. But it all came together for me later, and then was reinforced when I read it to Tara as a bedtime story (took months).
The other 3 classics are even more complex to translate to film, although an argument could be made that Water Margin was the inspiration for countless Kung Fu flicks. I should really read that again.