Review: Journey to the West

When a local village appears to be terrorised by a bloodthirsty monster, Chen Xuan Zang (Wen Zhang) arrives on the scene, claiming to be a successful demon hunter (He’s also a Buddhist monk). His attempts at slaying this watery demon don’t go so well, because Chen Xuan Zang is a teeny bit crap, and possibly a charlatan. Thankfully, a much more accomplished demon hunter Miss Duan (Shu Qi) turns up and quickly brings the demon to an end. She laughs at her male counterparts tactics, which may or may not come from a nursery rhyme book. Later the two meet when set upon by a pig demon, who eventually escapes. Somewhere in all of this, Miss Duan bizarrely finds herself attracted to Chen Xuang Zang, who appears frightened by her advances. Instead, he flees to his Master, ashamed at his inadequate demon-hunting skills. The Master, however thinks that all he needs is to find the imprisoned The Monkey King (Huang Bo) and seek his help. The Monkey King, however, isn’t always a team player, and is in fact, a bit of a dick. Along the way, he bumps into Miss Duan again, who hasn’t given up on winning him over just yet, and won’t take no for an answer.

 

Meanwhile, several other demon hunters attempt to help fight the pig demon, including an old guy with a giant foot, and the rather effete Prince Important (Show Lo).

 

Like most films from director/co-writer Stephen Chow (“Shaolin Soccer”, “Kung Fu Hustle”), this 2013 fantasy co-written and co-directed by Derek Kwok (along with at least six other writers!), is crazy as hell and certainly flawed. Fans of the classic TV series “Monkey Magic” (which I didn’t like as a kid, but the 2008 film version was fun) will get a lot more out of this than most, I think, but I actually kinda enjoyed it. It’s loosely based on the 16^th Century story that inspired “Monkey”, as well as the Jackie Chan/Jet Li fantasy “The Forbidden Kingdom”, among many other films and TV shows.

 

The film starts out as a mixture of monster movie, Chinese epic, and comedy, and surprisingly it works. I’m not normally a fan of the Jackie Chan-style slapstick and face-pulling, but aside from lead actor Wen Zhang’s occasionally annoyingly rubbery face, I found it amusing. In fact, hammy performance or not, the character of Chen Xuan Zang is comically pathetic and entertaining. Meanwhile, the monster here is just as much of an arsehole as the one in “The Host”, even attacking kids. Call me sick, but that had me grinning from ear to ear. The CGI is merely OK (better than some films with more $$ I could name, though), but creature design itself is really interesting, like a giant goldfish with teeth. But before you find yourself settling in for a tongue-in-cheek monster movie, the film reveals that this is no ordinary monster we’re seeing. No, the film gives us ‘demons’ that used to be humans, but were turned by something going wrong in their personal circumstances. That’s actually a really interesting idea, and I would’ve been happy if the film just dealt with this situation for 90 minutes, even with Wen Zhang mugging like crazy.

 

But then Shu Qi turns up as a more ‘legit’ demon hunter and is very funny, very cool, and steals the damn film. I seem to remember her being far more attractive in “So Close” than she appears here, so I actually didn’t recognise her at first. Nonetheless, she’s terrific in a film full of colourful and weird characters, some more enjoyable than others. The film is almost worth seeing just for one scene with a guy who has a malfunctioning special FX prop that won’t stop spurting fake blood, and no one wants to get close enough to help him. Meanwhile, I have no idea what the character of Prince Important is about, and I’m not sure I want to know. Also, this film seems to suggest that Buddha has his own sex manual. I have a feeling it’s all about masturbation techniques, though. Think about it.

 

I personally think the film gets a bit bogged down with the not particularly entertaining Monkey King (more sinister here than on “Monkey”, that’s for sure), though he’s more fun when taking on his animal guise. The makeup job on him is really quite good. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a Monkey King take on a bearded old man with a giant foot.

 

This is ultimately a crazily entertaining film, and clearly one of Chow’s better efforts at the helm. Just prepare to be weirded out. It’s a very strange film, and more in line with a less violent “The Seventh Curse” than say a wuxia epic.

 

Rating: B-