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☠It's Odd⛩️ °5.5° °mixed bag°
What a mixed bag.We open to The Monkey King's thrashing. He's in trouble. He doesn't seem like the trustworthy sort. He's stolen Pandora's Box, afterall! Then we jump forward 500 years.
ACOPB is a 1995 97-minute release that is rated 7.4 on MAL. The more I learn about Journey to the West, the novel on which these movies are based, the more monstrous and peyote-induced it seems.
The next thing we see is an encampment of scallywags isolated in the desert. A woman visits them one day. They threaten her, but she ends up intimidating all of them. They failed to timely recognize that she's a demo!. She's beautiful and she has a beautiful cherry blossom tattoo on her shoulder. She won't leave until she meets the person she's looking for. They can't beat her. They don't realize it yet, but this woman can transform into a huge, extremely dangerous spider. They try to go after her when she's in the tub. She knocks one guy in, launches off of his head into an airborne pirouette and kicks them all in the face. She's looking for the guy with 3 birth marks on the soles of his feet. If they help her, maybe she'll leave sooner. (That's all only if they're not able to r@pe and kill her, their Plan-A 😨).
Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle) is Chi Juen Bo, the Monkey King. He does a nice job. Ng Man Tat (Yangtze Town's Springtime, The Coming and Going) portrays "Piggy". Yammie Lam (Battle of the Heart) is Chun Sansiniang, the spider goblin. Karen Mok (The Road Less Traveled) plays Pak “Jing,” a zombie goblin and sister to the spider. The Monkey King broke her heart. She's looking for him. The Monkey King has three birthmarks on the sole of his foot. Chi Juen Bo does not. Yet.
The screenwriter & director is Jeff Lau (Love and the City, Mahjong Dragon), and the original creator is Wu Cheng En (c. 1500–1582). Per Wiki, he “was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty and is considered by many to be the author of "Journey to the West", one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.” He's movie-credited as the original creator for anything to do with any Journey to the West or Monkey King tales. That includes the strange but wonderful A Korean Odyssey-7.2.
The scallywags and worthless layouts don't know it, but demons are congregating in the area because they all want to get a bite out of the longevity monk, who's supposed to make an appearance soon. Jing suspects Chi is the Monkey King, which means he would know all about the monk's whereabouts, but Chi doesn't have the birthmarks, and he seems to genuinely know nothing about The Monkey King.
Things get more crazy than usuaal… strike that… the whole film is an acid trip… and Chi & Jing end up a pair (🤷 “It would be better if she wasn't a demon,” he muses to himself with a shrug). Tragedy strikes. He uses Pandora's box to go back through time and save her.
It sounds fun, right? Unfortunately, ACOPB is disjointed and sort of a mess. The characters are all like wild animals. There isn't much of a plot. It's just tantrums and fighting and tossing people around, for the most part. The 2nd half does improve and a bit of a plot takes shape.
What concerns me most about a production like this is that it might turn a person off from what's otherwise amazing Chinese fantasy. The first few Chinese fantasy features I saw absolutely blew me away. They are capable of doing the best in the world. I've also seen a few that aren't as good, liken his one, which is about 25% good and 75% nonsense. At least it has some good. Shows such as Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9; Douluo Continent 9.4; Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6; Love and Redemption 10, Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9(Kung-fu!) are exceptional, and historical pieces such as Overlord 8.4, Story of Yanxi Palace-10, Under the Power 8.6, The Rebel Princess 9.1, The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style), and The Rise of Phoenixes 9 are transcendent.
There's a steady stream of humor. It's frequently funny and the timing is snappy. Special effects are dated, but the spider is truly creepy. Sure, there's a romance, but it's more for the guys. Every woman wants the Monkey King, it seems🙄.
All I can say is that I didn't hate it enough to not watch the sequel (A Chinese Odyssey 2: Cinderella-5.5), which is just the conclusion. The two movies together are a 2-part single film with A Chinese Odyssey 2: Cinderella-5.5 picking up where this one stops. It's more of the same. My recommendation, unless one is a film student, is to skip this.
QUOTE🗣
See, this guy keeps talking all the time. We don't know what he's talking about. It's just like a fly hanging around. Sorry, not a fly! A swarm of flies flying near your ears. Flying into your brain!
IMHO〰🖍
📣6 📝5 🎭7.5 💓6 🦋3 🎨7 🎵/🔊5.5 🔚? 🤗4 ▪ 🌞2⚡6 😅3.5 😭2 😱4 😯1 🤢3.5 🤔3.5 💤0
Age 14+ - there's PG-13 language
Re-📺? Nope
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