jimboduck I saw the trailer for THE MONKEY KING on videocassette three years ago and have been meaning to rent this movie ever since. Though the first ten minutes reveal an interesting concept, the next thirty minutes or so are terrible, at which point you are free to hit the stop button. I was planning to write about the TV-Esq low quality production of this movie, but once realizing that this was originally for TV, I thought of something else to talk about. No, even if I found this "film" on TV, I would definitely not tune in for another episode.After watching the trailer, which is of course all in voice-over narration, I had assumed that THE MONKEY KING was an extravagant high-wire Hong Kong circus act. Popping in the DVD, I was hoping to see extravagantly costumed characters flying through the air and doing wild martial arts. "Maybe it's like an extremely silly Once Upon a Time in China," I thought, "where the Monkey King spits streams of blood and the pig man makes a million golden rings appear out of nowhere!"I was heartbroken when the Monkey King, played by Russel Wong, appears on screen and speaks perfect taxi-driver English. Nope, the whole movie is in English, there's not a trace of any Asian language or authentic culture, and obviously no one from the Hong Kong movie industry was involved in this production. It's more a parody of Asian folklore than anything else, and all the props are made of cardboard. The martial arts and dialog are both ridiculous (there are more moves and more coherent dialog in a Jane Fonda aerobics video), and I couldn't help from cutting THE MONKEY KING halfway short. It was unbearable.I think the movie was originally aiming at a Neverending Story type fantasy, where all the Chinese stuff would add "extra value" to the fantasy -- kind of like a paper umbrella or a fortune cookie. The production for this movie is at the same abysmal level as those bleak British dramas broadcast on PBS. The MONKEY KING's sets, special effects, costumes, and dialog would make for a very nice Sunday flea market but definitely not a two hour production. Instead of watching THE MONKEY KING, I highly recommend searching for a four hour made-for-TV Alice in Wonderland which featured Sammy Davis Junior as the Catepillar and Scott Baio as a cat, as well as a myriad other 80's TV stars. That was cheap production, but it was cheap production done well with care. I don't know if it's on DVD, but I highly recommend that if you're looking for fantasy with lots of color.Oh, and if you're looking for cool martial arts, you're better off visiting your local day care center when the kids miss nap-time.Avoid the MONKEY KING at all costs. It really shouldn't be commercially available and is only a sneaky, albeit clever, ploy to lure video rental customers who are into the Hong Kong high-wire genre.JYJimboduck-dot-com

f-society I've watched this mini-series hoping it will bring some excitements, art and culture of the traditional Chinese "Journey to the West" story. Of course the most important thing I'm looking at for in this movie is to have best visual effects. However, the effects are so bad and no realistic (Not even close).Aside from bad acting and visuals, the problem with this story is that Qua Yinn being fall in love with the human! It's the most insulting story for the Buddhist people and religion! And Friar Sand wearing human skulls (Maybe when he was Cannibal but no anymore!)?? What about the Monkey King? He doesn't look like Monkey, instead look like human. Also Monkey King wasn't put under the mountain by the demons. Monkey King was so powerful, nobody (even the most powerful good or evil) can defeat or control it. Eventually Monkey King was punished by Buddha by putting it under the mountain. This movie is totally going on the wrong way.This mini-series is nothing compared to the original Chinese version (25 episodes) of "Journey to the West" released in 1986. If you are looking for the "real" story (with better visual effects), then go for the chinese version! It has got English caption in the whole series.This movie is just worthless. Acting, music, visual effects, story.....none of them are good.I'll rate this movie 1.

Observer-2 Some other commentators have bemoaned the historical faults, others the romantic interest. To which I say this - first off, it was a made for TV movie. What is the first role of such a movie? To entertain. Perhaps the History Channel will do a more accurate documentary, if that's what people want. As for the romance, where would the movie "Titanic" have been without the love story? Similarly, this movie needs the romantic interest to move the very 21st Century "Scholar" into a position to want to get involved with people that are more the stuff of Myth, Legend, and to a great degree, Hope. Otherwise, why should he bother? "The Journey West" is a story I'd not heard of. Now, even with this fanciful introduction, I think I'll go look it up and read it. To bring me to do this, both the movie, and other comments here, have thus been successful. Microwave up the popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show. Just don't take it too seriously, just enjoy it for the entertainment that it is.

michalis_j This movie is an insult to the beautiful historical classic work from Wu Cheng'en. It brutally involves theme's that do not fit at all with the story line. Such as a Caucasian man falling in love the Goddess of Mercy and she falling in love with him. Even though, in order to make one movie out a of a 3 volume work, selecting only parts from the book is necessary. This movie has misunderstood the meaning of the book and used elements to make it a sad abstract of the novel. He has gone past the key element of the book: the enlightenment, the search for the Way from five totally different characters, each representing an element of human nature. The Tang priest, Sun Wukong the monkey, lazy and clumsy Pig, hideous Friar Sand and the Dragon sun, changed into a white horse. It has wiped out every Buddhist element from the story, while that's the backbone of this book. How he ridiculed key figures from Chinese history and culture (Quan Yin, Confucius) and not even in a adult and serious way.This movie does by no means represent the wonderful Chinese Classic `Journey to the West', or literally `Notes of a Journey to the West' and you may have already figured out that I was sadly disappointed with it.