If you are a Hong Kong film fan from the West, you will eventually bump into the Monkey King and the Journey to the West. And many like me will be confused by it and avoid the whole thing. So I have skipped by the four Shaw Brothers films that tell part of the story of the Journey to the West or the Stephen Chow two-fer or the recent ones. There have been dozens of films going back on the subject plus TV shows. I have not watched any of them because they felt too steeped in Chinese culture for me to really understand. But a cartoon? Sure, why not. And I also read about it on good old Wikipedia which sounded like it knew what it was talking about.


For those who know less than I do  - The Journey to the West was a book written back in the 1500's - even before my time - with the authorship a bit murky. It is 100 chapters long and is a mix of myth, folklore, fantasy, religion and historical fact. At a high level it is about a Buddhist monk named Xuanzang (Tang Sanzang in the novel) who traveled west - in this case that would be Central Asia and India - along with his four traveling companions i.e. disciples.  He was looking for sacred Buddhist texts/sutras to bring back to China. Now that is true. But then the author takes a few liberties and throws in demons, adventures, Gods and creates what is considered one of China's great literary works. One of those companions was the Monkey King aka Sun Wukong - one of the more popular characters in the tale. But the first seven chapters of the book gives the readers an introduction to the Monkey King that has nothing to do with the Journey. And that is what this animation relates.


This was made in two parts - the first in 1961, the second in 1964. It seems that China had a very good animation industry going but the Cultural Revolution put an end to that. The second part turned out to be the last animation for years. It is lovely with stunning colors, lovely designs, great imagination, wonderful Chinese traditional music and a fine story that is actually easy to follow. My only wish is that the dialogue had been in Chinese Opera form. A tiny bit is and it worked great. The two parts are about an hour each with the second part's animation going up a notch.


The Monkey King has his little kingdom going - ruling over playful monkeys and warrior monkeys. Life is good, No threats from anywhere. But in demonstrating his weapon it breaks and so he goes in search of a more powerful one. He stops off at the Demon King who tries to pawn off some cheap weapons but that doesn't work so well. So he cleverly tells Sun Wukong about another weapon under water that weighs a huge amount and is angered when Sun Wukong is able to shrink it and take it with him. This is a cudgel that can get as large or small as the Monkey King wants. I should also mention that the Monkey King has enormous powers - flying, changing size and shape, transforming into other animals and enormous strength. Ok - let's make this short. The Demon King does to the Bog Boss - God - the Jade Emperor who rules heaven - and complains. The Emperor in order to keep Sun Wukong under control offers him a job in heaven. Stable Master. He takes it but lets all the horses go and goes back home.


Later after more trouble he is offered yet another job - tending to the peaches in heaven. But when not invited to the Annual Peach Party he gets pissed and eats all the peaches. He also wants a title that puts him as an equal to the Jade Emperor. They send an army after him. In the end of the film he is back home with his buddies. As far as I can tell, most of it is a fairly authentic telling of the story - except the ending. In the book, a monk is able to lock up the Monkey King at the bottom of a mountain for 500 years. Until Xuanzang comes along and sets him free. Only 93 more chapters to go. Now maybe I can go watch some of those other films that I have put off for so long.