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Journey to the west

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Journey To The West

Journey to the West, also known as ‘Monkey’ or ‘The Monkey King,’ is a celebrated Chinese literary masterpiece written by Wu Cheng’en during the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century. This epic novel is part of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature and is widely regarded as a cultural treasure. At its core, the story narrates the arduous pilgrimage of a mischievous and powerful monkey deity named Sun Wukong, who accompanies the Tang Dynasty monk, Xuanzang (Tang Sanzang), on his journey to India to retrieve sacred Buddhist scriptures.

The narrative of Journey to the West seamlessly weaves elements of mythology, folklore, adventure, and religious allegory. As the group travels westward, they encounter a myriad of supernatural challenges and adversaries, including demons, gods, and other mythical creatures. These encounters serve as allegorical lessons on Buddhism’s principles, emphasizing themes like self-discovery, redemption, and the path to enlightenment.

The characters in the story, including the Monkey King, Pigsy, and Sandy, each possess their own unique personalities and abilities, adding depth and humor to the narrative. Journey to the West is not only a gripping adventure but also a profound exploration of spirituality, morality, and the human condition. It has left an indelible mark on Chinese culture and continues to captivate readers and inspire adaptations in various forms of media worldwide.

The novel tells the epic tale of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (also known as Tripitaka) and his journey to obtain sacred Buddhist scriptures from India. Here’s a brief summary of the plot:

Xuanzang, a devoted Buddhist monk, embarks on a perilous pilgrimage to India, seeking to obtain the Buddhist scriptures that are believed to bring salvation and enlightenment to China. Along his journey, he is accompanied by three disciples, each with their unique abilities and characteristics:

• Sun Wukong (Monkey King): A mischievous and powerful monkey born from a stone, Sun Wukong possesses incredible strength, magical abilities, and the power of transformation. However, he is also known for his rebellious nature and can be quite arrogant.
• Zhu Bajie (Pigsy): A gluttonous and lustful pig demon who was once a heavenly general but was banished to the mortal realm due to his misbehavior. Despite his flaws, he is loyal to Xuanzang.
• Sha Wujing (Sandy): A former heavenly sand demon who was also punished and transformed into a grotesque appearance. He is the most obedient and least troublesome of Xuanzang’s disciples.

Throughout their journey, the group faces numerous challenges and encounters various mythical creatures, demons, and gods. They navigate treacherous landscapes, battle fierce adversaries, and strive to overcome their own flaws and desires. Xuanzang’s ultimate goal is to obtain the sacred scriptures and bring them back to China, which will lead to the propagation of Buddhism and the salvation of countless souls.

“Journey to the West” is a richly symbolic and allegorical work, blending elements of adventure, fantasy, and spirituality. It explores themes of self-discovery, redemption, and the path to enlightenment, making it one of the most beloved and enduring classics of Chinese literature.

• Xuanzang, also known as Tripitaka, is the central character of the novel. He is a devout Buddhist monk on a mission to obtain sacred Buddhist scriptures from India. Xuanzang is depicted as kind-hearted, pious, and dedicated to his faith. He serves as a symbol of religious devotion and perseverance.
• Despite his sincere and virtuous nature, Xuanzang often finds himself in dangerous situations along the journey. He relies on his disciples, particularly Sun Wukong, to protect and guide him.
• Xuanzang’s character embodies the quest for enlightenment and the idea that spiritual growth comes through facing challenges and overcoming obstacles.
• Sun Wukong is one of the most iconic characters in Chinese literature. He is a mischievous and powerful monkey born from a stone, and he possesses a wide array of supernatural abilities.
• Some of Sun Wukong’s abilities include shapeshifting, the power to summon clouds to fly, and the ability to wield a magic staff that can change its size. He is nearly immortal and cannot be killed by conventional means.
• While Sun Wukong initially rebels against authority and causes trouble, he eventually becomes a loyal and devoted disciple of Xuanzang. His journey is one of self-discovery and transformation, as he learns humility and seeks redemption.
• Zhu Bajie, often referred to simply as Pigsy, is a gluttonous and lustful pig demon who was once a heavenly general. However, his misbehavior led to his banishment to the mortal realm.
• Despite his flaws, Zhu Bajie is loyal to Xuanzang and provides comic relief throughout the story. He often struggles with his desires for food and beautiful women, which frequently get him into trouble.
• Like Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie also seeks redemption on the journey and learns valuable lessons about self-control and devotion.
• Sha Wujing, also known as Sandy, is the third disciple of Xuanzang. He was once a heavenly sand demon but was transformed into a grotesque appearance as punishment for his actions.
• Sandy is the most obedient and least troublesome of Xuanzang’s disciples. He is known for his calm and composed nature, often serving as a voice of reason within the group.
• While he may not have the flashy abilities of Sun Wukong or the comedic traits of Zhu Bajie, Sandy contributes to the team’s success through his steadfastness and wisdom.

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• User reviews

Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back

A monk and his three disciples continue on their journey to battle demons. A monk and his three disciples continue on their journey to battle demons. A monk and his three disciples continue on their journey to battle demons.

• Stephen Chow
• Si-Cheun Lee
• 25 User reviews
• 21 Critic reviews
• 59 Metascore
• 2 wins & 7 nominations

• Monk Tang Sanzang

• The Monkey King, Sun Wukong
• (as Gengxin Lin)

• (as Jelly Lin)
• Pigsy (Zhu Ba Jie)

• Sandy (Sha Wujing)

• Spider (Qi Qin)
• (as Claudia Wang)

• Taoist exorcist
• (as Peng Da)
• Monk Tang's master (in Liliput dream)
• Exorcist's junior disciple

• Exorcist's senior disciple
• Midget (circus boss)
• Mother (haunted house)
• Fat lady (circus)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia There are two actors from the first film to play in this movie. Chen Si Hang as Nameless Master and Shu Qi as Miss Duan.
• Crazy credits There is post credit scene.
• Connections Follows Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013)
• Soundtracks Good Kid Performed by Kris Wu and Jing Tan

User reviews 25

• OllieSuave-007
• Nov 3, 2017
• How long is Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back? Powered by Alexa
• February 3, 2017 (United States)
• Official site (Japan)
• Official Weibo [CountryCode]
• Tây Du Ký: Mối Tình Ngoại Truyện 2
• Film Workshop
• Star Overseas
• Alibaba Pictures Group
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $63,300,000 (estimated)
• Feb 5, 2017
• $247,585,244

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, journey to the west.

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By turns daffy and dazzling, awkward and artful, "Journey to the West" takes an ancient tale and gives it contemporary flair.

In adapting one of the Four Great Classical Novels of 16th-century Chinese literature, co-directors Stephen Chow and Derek Kwok have crafted a rollicking fantasy—a crazy fable that ultimately reaffirms the power of faith. Their giant martial-arts set pieces are nothing short of extraordinary; lively and lovely, they're filled with both great intricacy and innovation.

These scenes, which can be both wildly slapsticky and minutely graceful, provide the film with a winning, driving energy. And then when they're over, the characters unfortunately have to talk.

"Journey to the West" follows a goofy but sincere Buddhist monk named Xuan Zang ( Zhang Wen ), a young demon hunter who must vanquish a series of foes en route to his ultimate showdown with the notorious, shape-shifting Monkey King ( Bo Huang ). When we first see him, in the film's lengthy, tour-de-force opening sequence, he's helping a bunch of frightened villagers take down a giant, hungry fish that's leaping from the water and wreaking havoc. The comedy has a Mel Brooks-like sensibility about it that's appealing; it's playful in a deadly-serious situation. (Chow also directed the pleasingly cartoonish " Shaolin Soccer " and " Kung Fu Hustle .") But the choreography is undeniable: a breathtaking series of near misses and tricky balancing acts.

Xuan's preferred, absurd method of attack, per his mentor, is to tame the beasts by singing lullabies to them from a book called "300 Nursery Rhymes." The sweetness and innocence within Zhang's performance feels very Keanu Reeves circa "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," complete with a mop of wild hair. This is actually a compliment.

The rival demon hunter he keeps running into, a catlike creature known as Miss Duan ( Qi Shu ), favors a more direct strategy: She takes them on through balletic physical battles with the help of a magical golden bracelet—"The Infinite Flying Ring"—which she can duplicate countless times. As she flings the circles through the air like lethal boomerangs, her targets explode in a burst of dust. It's an awesome sight to behold.

But then "Journey to the West" has an episodic structure that saps it of much of the momentum it gains during those thrilling set pieces. Xuan and Duan have one adventure, then another, than another. They meet one eccentric character, then another, then another. There's a tiger demon and a pig demon. There's a preening royal known as Prince Important (clearly a friend of President Business from " The Lego Movie ") and an elderly man known as the Almighty Foot, whose shriveled limb expands to an enormous size when the time comes for him to stomp on his enemies. (He might have the best catch phrase ever: "Today, you will die by my almighty foot!")

Along the way, Xuan and Duan trade some stilted and truly cringe-worthy dialogue—initially about their conflicting strategies, eventually about the half-hearted romance that develops between them. Out of nowhere, Duan finds herself falling hard for her unlikely companion and throwing herself at him in increasingly elaborate ways.

Maybe it's written that way on the page, but on the screen—especially in a film that benefits from such a strong and fearless female—the sudden need to have a man define her is a disheartening cliché. Also, some of the interactions between the male characters carry more than a whiff of homophobia which seems archaic. Again, maybe that's from the source material. But a film that clearly went out of its way to appeal to modern audiences perhaps could have gone just a tiny bit further.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

Journey to the West (2014)

Rated PG-13

110 minutes

Zhang Wen as Xuan Zang

Qi Shu as MIss Duan

Bo Huang as Monkey King

• Stephen Chow
• Derek Kwok Chi-Kin

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Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back

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Product Description

The Monkey King is back in this sequel to the 2013 Stephen Chow film JOURNEY TO THE WEST: CONQUERING THE DEMONS. Now tamed by Tang Sanzang, Monkey King has become one of Tang's disciples. Tang, Monkey King, Sandy and Pigsy band together to fight demons as they continue their journey west.

Product details

• Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.85:1
• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 ounces
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ D50154D
• Director ‏ : ‎ Hark Tsui
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Subtitled
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 49 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ June 6, 2017
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Kris Wu, Kenny Lin, Chen Yao
• Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ Thai, English
• Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ Thai, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, English, French
• Producers ‏ : ‎ Stephen Chow
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06XV9VG1L
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #2,558 in Action & Adventure DVDs

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Journey to the west.

Directed by Dashan Kong

Tang Zhijun, an editor of a science fiction magazine, attempts to find signs of an alien civilisation. When a strange young man claims to have received instructions from aliens, Tang and his team follow him in search of extraterrestrial creatures.

Yang Haoyu Ai Liya Wang Yitong Frant Gwo Jiang Qiming Sheng Chen Chen Gong Geer

Director Director

Dashan Kong

Producers Producers

Gong Geer Rao Xiaozhi Zheng Zhihao Jie Li Xiangjin Yin

Writers Writers

Dashan Kong Wang Yitong

Casting Casting

Zhao Yilong

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Matthias Delvaux

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Wang Hongwei Frant Gwo

Composer Composer

China Film Group Corporation Wanda Pictures Huayi Brothers Pictures Alibaba Pictures Group G!FILM Rao Xiaozhi Film Studio

Alternative Titles

Universe Exploration Editorial Department, Space Exploration Editorial Department, Journey.to.the.West, UFO를 찾아서, 宇宙探索編輯部

Science Fiction Comedy Adventure Drama

Releases by Date

17 oct 2021, 01 apr 2023, releases by country.

• Premiere Pingyao International Film Festival

117 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by universzero ★★★★★ 1

🙃 Comedy — 💎 Gem #123 ( 2021 ) 🏅 Top 100

"So it's like what I said before, on the surface, it looks like the television is broken. But actually, there's nothing wrong with the television. There is something wrong with the universe."

If I had to pick one film this year that came out of nowhere, surprised me completely, and is as close to perfect as matters, I’d pick Journey to the West, a witty and poignant comedy about a man who has devoted his life to finding extraterrestrial life.

I have watched this film at least three times this year, and it would be vying for top place in my 2023 ranked list, except it was nominally released in 2021…

Review by garza ★★★★ 3

“When the poem is long enough, one day we will understand the meaning.”

To go all the way to the outer reaches of the universe in search for an absolute truth to act as a balm for our broken soul, just to realize it has always lied within our own mechanism of self-deceit to steer clear of the intolerable pain.

Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★★

I know UFOs are real, not because of congressional hearings, but because I watched this -- a delight

Review by AlittleBored ★★½

总体来说还可以。但是这种晃动镜头的风格拍90分钟以内差不多了，2小时太长了，没必要忍受漫长的不舒适的观影体验。 概括来说是民哲拍民科，套堂吉诃德和西游记的壳，裹上西南风土民情方言，佐以娄烨式摇晃镜头的假科幻。前半部分荒诞里蕴含现实在国产片里算不错，后半部分掉入男性自恋和人类中心主义，实际上是科学/哲学/艺术水平不够以至于无着落点。 很不喜欢父女故事线，以及有股自恋民科loser男气息，扣半星。郭帆出现，再扣半星。 我现实中知道的这种民科男既没有探索真知的灵气，也没有关心家人的体贴，只是自恋又不讲道理，拖累家人而已。 结尾看到镜头从探索宇宙到DNA双螺旋，到此想说，男编剧不要把自己看得太重要了。 It's ok but too long for this shaky camera style, should be under 90 minutes. And I don't like that this kind of self-opinionated male crank is portrayed as someone with true insight and someone who cares about their family, since in reality they are far from that. Also the ending seems anthropocentric perspective. These male creators should realize that they don't matter to the universe and stop making these narcissistic fictions where they explore the truth while they are not understood by ordinary people. Minus half star for Guo Fan showing up.

Review by Jack Russo ★★★½

Be it a UFO in the sky or the lamplight across the street, the truth often appears to be a star shining in the distance and yet to search those great lengths is to also look back and realise not how far you've travelled but rather how close you have always been; mockumentary as the telescope; humanity as the vessel; so often as routine as it is transcendent, like mere grains of sand existing before an impossibly vast ocean.

Review by holly hindsight ★★★★★ 3

WOOOOOOOOOOOOW HOLY FUCKING SHIT i loved this so much. super weird and philosophical and practically perfect for me. somehow all chinese films ive watched are so so great

ik this is not for everyone but it hits all the right spots for me. the premise. the pace. the characterisation. the acting. the batshit crazy plot. the classical score. the hand held shots and jump cuts (i usually despise them). the poetry. the gradual transition from being a mockumentary to a philosophical sci-fi. the cold open. the ending. THE ENDING

(also took me way too long to figure out the pieces used. i could identify shostakovich’s waltz no2 and bach’s prelude (arranged for cello and harp or something), but i still cant name the other symphonic piece used, im so frustrated)

31 aug, 1900, elements

hkiff 46 ranked

Review by jonni

Crazy fucking good .... High recommend. Watched here: www.iyf.tv/play/GhLmvyxgEzy0

Review by eli ★★★★★ 2

this was pretty incredible. so unexpected. so human, so funny, so inventive, so so so good. a weird, beautiful take on life and connection. extremely fun and heartwarming. and the music! the poetry! this is an INSANE directorial AND writing debut feature from dashan kong (who is just barely 30!) who deserves his work to be seen the world over.

narcoleptic spinning cooking pot boy is the best character in cinema of the 20th century

recommended for fans of: one cut of the dead , the taste of tea , arrival , everything everywhere all at once , road movies

Review by Zinc Hyacinthe ★★★★½

Direct translation of the title: Space Exploration Editorial Department What is the purpose of the universe? This movie defines my existence. 诗歌只是人类情感沟通的工具，但是，数学是整个宇宙都通用的语言。Poetry is just a tool for human emotional communication, but mathematics is the common language of the entire universe.

Review by Leesir ★★★★★

上班的人看不得这些啊，边看边哭。影片的核心就是多组矛盾的对立与统一，确定/不确定，数学/语文，科学/迷信，现实/理想，个人/宇宙，最后用“每个人的存在都是谜题，又同时是谜题的答案”来实现意义的统一。公路片的部分戏仿了《西游记》，你说西游记中的磨难是不是徒劳的，可以说是也不是，但是行走的这个过程本身就是意义。片中的主人公其实也想用宏大的超越自身的话题，来掩盖生活本身的伤痛与困顿，但是接受它需要花一辈子的时间，这也正是生活的意义。诗意与哲学发散的部分略显做作，不过我喜欢装得到位却不沾沾自喜的自我剖析。

Review by Wynand Olivier ★★★★ 1

Loved this from start to finish although I probably loved the start just a little bit more because I live in Beijing and it felt so authentic and familiar seeing the main character Tang in his dingy apartment, his messy office (complete with Hello Kitty air-purifier) and scooting around the city while the CCTV-building looms ever-threateningly in the background. The opening space suit scene is peak comedy, expertly set up and executed through smart editing and sharp acting. But it also has the perfect portion of pathos, for dear Tang, who having to impress the reps from a visiting company and needing to close the much-needed advertising deal to save his fledgling space-exploration magazine (an actual magazine in China in…

Review by 🅺🅴🅽🅿🅱🅾🆆🅴🆂 ★★★★½

Normally when I have no idea where to go with any review, there’s much safety for me using the trusty Beefcake as a starting point - & yes, it works too … just not for this movie.

I still have no idea, so WTF … maybe try & unscramble this backgrounding;

. a mockumentary with an out-of-nowhere poignant philosophical (scientific) finale . wobbly hand-held cams accentuating the multi-angled jump cuts (which when randomly occasionally swung 180 captured the actors in the background laughing) - & which in turn accentuated the VHS aesthetic, thus highlighting the real VHS scenes; . an unexpected classical music (Bach?) score . genuinely freezing (but not hostile, so cost-saving?) climate

That’s for starters - the opening Space…

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IMP Awards / Intl > China > 2013 Movie Poster Gallery / Journey to the West Poster (#2 of 2)

Journey to the West ( 2013 )

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