A Chinese Odyssey

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Not to be confused with Chinese Odyssey 2002.
A Chinese Odyssey Part 1 & 2
Directed by Jeffrey Lau
Stephen Chow
Produced by Jeffrey Lau
Written by Jeffrey Lau
Starring Stephen Chow
Athena Chu
Ng Man Tat
Law Kar-Ying
Jeffrey Lau
Cinematography Hang-Seng Poon
Distributed by Mega Star
Media Asia
Release date(s) Flag of Hong Kong 1994
Running time Part 1: 98 min.
Part 2: 95 min.
Country Flag of Hong Kong (1959–1997) Hong Kong
Language Cantonese
Mandarin
IMDb profile

A Chinese Odyssey (Chinese: 大話西遊) is a 1994 duology, directed by Jeffrey Lau. They are among actor Stephen Chow's most famous movies, the first one being A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box (西遊記第壹佰零壹回之月光寶盒) and the second one being A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella (西遊記大結局之仙履奇緣). The two films together can be called a "sad comedy" showcasing Stephen Chow's comic genius while telling a sad love story. The movie is based on the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West and boasted a host of famous Hong Kong stars in it. Although filmed in Cantonese, it has become a cult classic among young Mandarin-speaking adults in most Chinese cities today.

Contents

[edit] Story

The two films start off with an introductory scene based somewhere in the midst of the classic Journey to the West. On the journey to find holy scriptures, the Monkey King, Sun Wukong (Stephen Chow), finding his master, the Longevity Monk (Law Kar-Ying), too talkative and annoying, rebels and tries to get rid of him by giving him to the Bull King in exchange for marrying the Bull King's sister. As punishment, Guanyin captures and decides to lock unrepentant Wukong away for eternity. Yet, she is stopped by Sun Wukong's master, who maintains that he should receive some of the blame for his disciple's faults. He willingly takes Wukong's place by sacrificing himself to give Wukong a second chance – a life for a life.

The film properly starts 500 years later, when Wukong has been reincarnated as the leader of a troupe of desert bandits named Joker, who has no memories about is previous live as Wukong. Joker gets involved with different demons and women. Through the course of the movie, Joker is in love with a demon woman, Pak Gwut-Jing (Karen Mok), who also loves him in return. Joker while having a quarrel with her sister, the Spider Woman (Lam Kit Ying), accidentally locks himself in a cave. He tries to dig a tunnel to get out, but instead he finds Pandora's Box. He was also teleported to the Water Curtain Cave, where he saw Sun Wukong's gold ring and golden rod. When he opens up a scroll beside the ring, Guanyin speaks through the scroll to tell Joker of his fate as Sun Wukong; he won't become the Monkey King however, until he meets the person who'll give him the three dots on the sole of his feet. Meanwhile Jing returns to find that her partner just gave birth to a child which was fathered by Joker's assistant, but she says it was by Joker to spite her, and because of this, Jing commits suicide. Joker returns to find her dead. Thinking someone has killed her, he uses Pandora's Box to try to find the killer, but he is one step too late. Thus he repeats this process for a few times until he manages to find the truth and stop Jing by explaining to her. Meanwhile, the Bull King arrives and engages in combat with the two sisters. In the fight, Jing is killed in the process of protecting Joker. Using Pandora's Box, Joker goes back in time to save her again, but accidentally transports himself 500 years into the past, the time that Sun Wukong came from.

In this time period, Joker meets a female spirit named Lin Zixia (Athena Chu) who confiscates Pandora's Box and gives Joker the three dots on the sole, thus enabling him to become Sun Wukong. She and her sister where punished by Buddha for being too quarrelsome and are now cursed to share the same body; one of them has control during the day, the other during the night. However, neither sister knows about this; they both assume that the other sister is somewhere else in the world. To get back Pandora's Box, Joker agrees to help Zixia convince her sister that she is dead, so she hands over her magical sword to him as proof. This sword can only be drawn from its scabbard by her true love, which Joker easily does and Zixia quickly falls for Joker.

In the night, Joker stumbles upon a curious scene. This is in fact the scene that begins the movie, where Wukong is arguing with Guanyin. It seems that Wukong has swiped Pandora's Box from Zixia and was planning to use it to escape from his master. Yet, he was caught by Guanyin before he had the opportunity. Guanyin proceeds to capture him – as in the beginning, however, due to Joker's interference this time, the Pandora's Box accidentally transports the Longevity Monk – instead of Wukong or Joker – before he could sacrifice himself.

Continuing on, Joker encounters the Bull King. In the Bull King's residence he meets the Longevity Monk, Pigsy (Ng Man Tat) and Sandy. They all (including the Bull King) recognize Joker as Wukong. Joker doesn't believe it, but somewhat plays along. The Bull King has captured the Longevity Monk and wishes to eat him to obtain eternal life; he now holds Pandora's Box. He has also captured Zixia to become his newest concubine.

Just before the wedding, the Bull King's wife Princess Iron Fan shows up and stops it. She also recognizes Joker as Wukong, but, interestingly enough, she came to see Wukong and not the Bull King. She recounts the past romantic affairs that she and Wukong had. Escaping from her, Joker finds an angry Zixia. Joker convinces Zixia with a lie that he loves her. Together, they plan to steal Pandora's Box and escape.

At night, Joker looks for Zixia. She, however, has been stabbed by the Bull King's sister who is jealous that Joker "loves" her instead. Joker manages to escape with an unconscious Zixia. He meets up with Pigsy and Sandy. They are pursued separately by the Bull King and the Bull King's sister. In a three-way fight, several bodies are accidentally exchanged through the body change technique of the Bull King's sister. Pigsy now shares the body with Zixia. Meanwhile, Zixia's sister has been moved into Pigsy's body. The Bull King's sister has changed bodies with Sandy. Everybody, except Zixia/Pigsy, manages to escape from the Bull King. However, the Bull king's Wife manages to find Joker. He tries to escape by pretending to fall off a cliff, but when the Bull King's wife sees him and tries to approach, he falls off for real. She then returns to her home in Flaming Mountain, thinking that Joker would rather jump off then to be with her.

Joker's fall manages to kill several officers and save three robbers who were about to be executed. They carry the unconscious Joker back to the cave where he first found Pandora's Box and met Zixia. One of them reports to him that he muttered the name of "Jing Jing" 98 times in his sleep. Joker happily replies that she is the person he loves. Nonetheless, the robber mentions that he muttered the name of "Zixia" 784 times. Joker is stunned and confused.

Jing Jing arrives at the cave and meets Joker. Since she is of the past, she knows nothing of their romance. Joker, with the help of the robbers, reenacts the whole story of what happened and convince her that their love is true. She agrees to marry him. However, she changes her mind just before the wedding, leaving him with a letter imploring him to go save Zixia. Another demon woman, Spider Woman (Lam Kit Ying), shows up and slaughters the robbers and Joker.

The dead Joker's spirit is now reformed; he understands that he is Sun Wukong and he understands the importance of the Longevity Monk's journey to help spread wisdom to the suffering people. After a short conversation with Guanyin, he accepts the position to become Sun Wukong once again and help the Longevity Monk by wearing the gold ring. In doing so, however, he must let go of all wordly desires, including love.

Meanwhile, the Bull King's sister and Sandy are trying to save the Longevity Monk and Pigsy while restoring everyone to their original bodies. They succeed in restoring everyone except for the Bull King's sister – she gets trapped into a dog. Zixia's sister is placed into the Bull King's sister's body. Zixia and her sister also make amends when they both try to save each other (Zixia from letting her sister get killed, and her sister from letting Zixia get married).

All try to fight against the Bull King, but he is simply too powerful. As all seems hopeless, Joker, who is now Sun Wukong, appears and fights the Bull King. Wukong is clearly holding the upper hand. Zixia is sure that he is Joker, but Wukong tries to pretend that he is not. Furthermore, he acts spiteful towards her since he is not allowed to love.

In the middle of the fight, the Bull King decides to destroy the whole place in desperation. While trying to hold the place together, Wukong is left vulnerable. Zixia sacrifices herself to protect Wukong from the Bull King's attack. Unable to save Zixia, Wukong kills the Bull King in a fit of rage. Zixia's sister decides to go back to Heaven, now that there is no point in her fighting her sister anymore. Wukong, Pigsy, Sandy, and the Longevity Monk use the recovered Pandora's Box to escape destruction.

They turn up 500 years later and renew their journey. Upon leaving the city, Wukong notices the reincarnations of Joker and Zixia. Apparently, both have been standing on top of the city wall for days, locked in a lover's quarrel. Unwilling to accept this display, Wukong possesses Joker's body temporarily and kisses Zixia, promising to never leave her anytime in this life. He leaves Joker's body satisfied, and continues with his companions into the distance, toward the west.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Box Office

It grossed HK $25,093,380 in Hong Kong.

[edit] Cast and roles include

[edit] DVD

A restored and remastered DVD version (NTSC) was released, integrating both Part 1 and 2 together. It supports Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1, Cantonese and Mandarin language tracks and removable English and Chinese subtitles, and includes a director's interview and a 64 page photo album as extras.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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