| 西遊記 Saiyuki |
|
|---|---|
| Also known as |
Monkey (UK) Monkey Magic (Aus) |
| Genre | Fantasy Action Adventure Comedy |
| Created by | Wu Cheng'en |
| Written by | Motomu Furuta Hiroichi Fuse Hirokazu Fuse James Miki Moto Nagai Yooichi Onaka Mamoru Sasaki Eizaburo Shiba Yu Tagami Kei Tasaka Mutsuo Yamashita |
| Directed by | Toshi Aoki Jun Fukuda Kazuo Ikehiro Yusuke Watanabe Daisuke Yamazaki |
| Starring | Masaaki Sakai Masako Natsume Shiro Kishibe Toshiyuki Nishida Tonpei Hidari Shunji Fujimura |
| Voices of | UK dub: David Collings Maria Warburg Peter Woodthorpe Gareth Armstrong Miriam Margoyles Andrew Sachs |
| Theme music composer | Mickie Yoshino |
| Opening theme | "Monkey Magic" by Godiego |
| Ending theme | "Gandhara" by Godiego (s1) "Holy and Bright" by Godiego (s2) |
| Country of origin | Japan |
| Language(s) | Japanese |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Teisho Arikawa Tsuneo Hayakawa Yoji Katori Ken Kumagaya Kazuo Morikawa Tadahiro Nagatomi Muneo Yamada |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NTV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original run | 1 October 1978 – 4 May 1980 |
Monkey is the dubbed English language version of the Japanese television series Saiyūki (西遊記), based on the classic sixteenth century Chinese novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en.[1] It was originally produced by Nippon Television (NTV) and International Television Films in association with NHK.
The series ran for two seasons of 26 episodes each. The first season ran from October 1978 to April 1979. The second season ran from November 1979 to May 1980. Both seasons had footage shot on location in north-west China and Inner Mongolia.
The show is unusual in that it was performed by Japanese actors in China and then dubbed into English. The English language version was produced by the BBC and broadcast in the United Kingdom in November 1979, and in Australia (on ABC Television) in 1980. The script for the dubbed dialogue was written by David Weir. It ran for only 39 episodes, because at the discretion of the BBC select episodes were not dubbed for the original run. These remaining episodes were dubbed by Fabulous Films Ltd in early 2004 by the original actors following a successful release of the English dubbed series on VHS and DVD. The missing 13 episodes were shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2004.
Besides Australia and the UK, Monkey has also aired in New Zealand and is available on DVD. The show aired in Uruguay (dubbed into Spanish) in the early 1980s. Monkey has not been screened in the United States, although Saiyūki was screened on a local Japanese-language TV station in California during the early 1980s. Saiyuki also aired in Hawaii around the same time, although the version that was aired was neither dubbed nor subtitled.
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Monkey, the title character, is described in the theme song as being "born from an egg on a mountain top"; a stone egg and thus he is a stone monkey, a skilled fighter who becomes a brash king of a monkey tribe, who, the song goes on to claim, was "the funkiest monkey that ever popped". He achieved a little enlightenment, and proclaimed himself "Great Sage, Equal of Heaven".[2] After demanding the "gift" of a magical staff from a powerful Dragon king, and to quiet the din of his rough antics on Earth, Monkey is approached by Heaven to join their host, first in the lowly position of Master of the Stable (manure disposal), and then - after his riotous complaints - as "Keeper of the Peach Garden of Immortality". Monkey eats many of the peaches, which have taken centuries and millennia to ripen, becomes immortal and runs amok. Having earned the ire of Heaven and being beaten in a challenge by an omniscient, mighty, but benevolent, cloud-dwelling Buddha, Monkey is imprisoned for 500 years under a mountain in order to learn patience.
Eventually Monkey is released by the monk Tripitaka in 630 CE, who has been tasked by the Boddhisatva Guan Yin to undertake a pilgrimage from China to India to fetch holy scriptures. The pair soon recruits two former members of the Heavenly Host who were cast out and turned from angels to "monsters", as a result of Monkey's transgressions: Sandy, the water monster and ex-cannibal, expelled from Heaven after his interference caused Heaven's Jade Emperor's precious jade cup to be broken, and Pigsy, a pig monster consumed with lust and gluttony, who was expelled from Heaven after harassing the Star Princess Vega—the Jade Emperor's mistress—for a kiss. A dragon, Yu Lung, who was set free by Guan Yin after being sentenced to death, eats Tripitaka's horse. On discovering that the horse was tasked with carrying Tripitaka, it assumes the horse's shape to carry the monk on his journey. Later in the story he occasionally assumes human form to assist his new master, although he is still always referred to as 'Horse'. Monkey can also change form, for instance into a Hornet. In Episode 3, The Great Journey Begins, Monkey transforms into a girl to trick Pigsy. Monkey's other magic powers include summoning a cloud upon which he can fly, his use of the magic wishing staff which he can shrink and grow at will and with which Monkey fights and the ability to conjure monkey warriors by blowing on hairs plucked from his chest.
The pilgrims face many perils and antagonists both human and supernatural. Monkey, Sandy, and Pigsy are often called upon to battle demons, monsters and bandits, despite Tripitaka's constant call for peace. Many episodes also feature some moral lesson, usually based upon Buddhist and/or Taoist philosophies, which are spoken by the narrator at the end of various scenes.
The songs in the series were performed by the five-piece Japanese band Godiego. In Japan, the first series' ending theme "Gandhara" (ガンダーラ Gandāra), which was named after the ancient kingdom of Gandhara, was released by Columbia Music Entertainment on October 1, 1978, backed with "Celebration". This was followed by the release of the opening theme "Monkey Magic" on December 25, 1978, with "A Fool" on the B-side. Godiego also released the Magic Monkey album on October 25, 1978, comprising all of the songs that the band had composed for the first series. The album became one of the groups highest charting releases, staying at #1 on the Oricon chart for a total of eight weeks. For the second series, the ending theme of "Gandhara" was replaced with "Holy and Bright", which was released on October 1, 1979 (the two sides of the single featured a Japanese language version on one side and an English language version on the other).
In the UK, BBC Records released "Gandhara" as a single in 1979 (RESL 66), with "The Birth of the Odyssey" and "Monkey Magic" on the B-side.[3] The single reached #56 on the UK Singles Chart, eventually spending a total of seven weeks on the chart.[4] A second BBC single was released in 1980 (RESL 81), this time featuring an edited version of "Monkey Magic", along with "Gandhara" and "Thank You Baby", but this single failed to chart.[5] The BBC releases of "Gandhara" have one verse sung in Japanese and the other in English. BBC Records also released the Magic Monkey album under the simplified title of Monkey (REB 384) in 1980 but it failed to chart.
Masaaki Sakai, who plays Monkey in the series, also performed several of the songs for the series: "SONGOKU", "Ima de wa Oso Sugiru" (今では遅すぎる, "It's Too Late"), "Kono Michi no Hatemademo" (この道の果てまでも, "To the End of the Road"), a Japanese version of Godiego's "Thank You Baby", and "20 Oku Nen no Kurayami" (20億年の暗闇, "Two Billion Years of Darkness").
Monkey is considered a cult classic in countries where it has been shown, especially in Australia, where its immediate widespread popularity surpassed that of both Japan and the UK.
Among the features that have contributed to its cult appeal are the theme song, the dubbed dialogue spoken in a variety of over-the-top "Oriental" accents, (except for Sandy who inexplicably speaks with an English accent), the reasonably good synchronization of dubbing to the actors' original dialogue, the fact that the young priest Tripitaka was played by a woman and the fact that Guan yin, who is usually depicted in statues and paintings as a female, is portrayed by a male.
Australian contemporary youth programs like alternative music show Recovery and radio station Triple J often made references to Monkey. Triple J interviewed the original voice actors on several occasions.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation frequently repeated, at 5pm or 6pm on weeknights, the 39 episodes dubbed by the BBC. Recovery aired an episode of Monkey weekly from 1997-2000. When Recovery was put on hiatus, it was replaced with three hours of Monkey.
A stage show, based on the book Journey to the West, was produced by the Young Vic in 2001. Written by Dublin born playwright, Colin Teevan, Following the play's successful outing in London's West End it toured England to great acclaim. The musical score was composed by Ireland's Kíla.
| Character | Actor | Dub actor | Original Chinese name | Japanese name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tripitaka | Masako Natsume | Maria Warburg | Xuanzang | Sanzō hōshi (Genjō Sanzō) |
| Monkey | Masaaki Sakai | David Collings | Sun Wukong | Son Gokū |
| Pigsy | s1: Toshiyuki Nishida s2: Tonpei Hidari |
Peter Woodthorpe | Zhu Bajie | Cho Hakkai |
| Sandy | Shiro Kishibe | Gareth Armstrong | Sha Wujing | Sha Gojyo |
| "Horse" | Shunji Fujimura | Andrew Sachs | Bai Long Ma | Gyokuryū |