Although Journey to
the West is possibly the best-known, most important story in Chinese
literature, it’s been open to some seriously broad interpretations over the
years. Stephen Chow’s version, subtitled Conquering
the Demons, is probably the loosest one yet, but thanks to Chow’s epic,
cartoony action set-pieces and his deadpan sense of humor, it’s still a good
time.
Seriously, anyone looking for anything even vaguely related
to the original Journey to the West epic
should just… not download this movie on VOD (it comes out today). Because
instead of focusing Buddhist Tang Sanzang’s journey to India to bring back holy
scriptures, the film is more or less a prequel, where the massively haired
would-be monk Tang runs around trying to reform demons with a book of nursery
rhymes (it works just as poorly as you might think).
Although Tang spends at least much time running from fellow
demon hunter Duan as demon hunting. Duan, played by the extremely funny (and
lovely) Shu Qi, is an infinitely better demon hunter and is determined to win
Tang’s heart, although he doesn’t want love to throw him off his path to
enlightenment. Eventually the two meet a pig demon — named K.L. Hog, seriously
—who’s too tough for them, and Tang sets out to get help from the Monkey King,
who Buddha imprisoned 500 years for being a deceitful asshole. Shockingly, the
Monkey King is still a deceitful asshole, and this provides the film’s third
act.
But there’s a lot of trademark Chow silliness before we get
there, whether Tang is trying to save a baby from a giant fish demon, Duan is
beating up demons whose faces not only cave in but sound like squeaky toys when
they’re punched, or an elaborate trap where Duan tries to trick Tang into
having sex with her in public. It’s a little weird.
Actually, the whole movie is a little weird. Despite all the
physical and conversational comedy, there’s weird moments of darkness in this
film that clash with Chow’s use of sped-up motion, and cartoon sound effects.
It’s not so much that it prevents you from enjoying the movie, but it’s a large
part of the reason Journey to the West doesn’t manage to coalesce, which in
turns prevents it from reaching the greatness of, say, Kung Fu Hustle.
That said, it’s still worth seeing; Shu Qi, Whang Zen (who
plays Tang) and the Monkey King (played with delightful goofiness by Huang Bo)
are at the top of their game, and their conversations together would be
hilarious even without subtitles; that’s how funny they are. And although Chow
relies more on CG and epic scope for his action scenes than in his previous,
there’re still entertaining as hell.
Overall, Journey to
the West: Conquering the Demons is very good, but not great. It’s still
very much worth a watch if you’ve enjoyed Stephen Chow’s previous movies. And
maybe if Chow decides to make a sequel, he can actually include the damn journey
