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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: icy on January 09, 2014, 10:08:42 AM
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A new film on the legendary Monkey King is coming soon.
Director: Pou-Soi Cheang
Screenwriter: Kam-Yuen Szeto, Edmond Wong
Starring: Donnie Yen, Chow Yun-Fat, Aaron Kwok, Joe Chen, Kelly Chen, Gigi Leung, Zilin Zhang
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: The MonkeyKingmovie.com
Plot Summary: Sun Wukong (The Monkey King) is a monkey born from a heavenly stone who acquires supernatural powers. After rebelling against heaven and being imprisoned under a mountain for 500 years, he later accompanies the monk Xuanzang on a journey to India. Thus, according to legend, Buddhism is brought to ancient China.
The film is the origin story -- beginning with the birth of Sun Wukong and ending with his imprisonment for his crimes under the Five-Peaked Mountain. Along the way he acquires incredible powers, battling the armies of the gods and the armies of the demons to find his rightful place in the Heavens. It is a classic story of the scorned underdog who acquires great abilities but uses them recklessly and ultimately must pay a huge price to find redemption. "The Monkey King" captures the drama, beauty, humor and fantastic action of the folk legend and brings it to the screen in a way never before possible.
This much beloved story, is as much a part of Asian culture as "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" or "The Wizard of Oz" are to the West. This first installment in a trilogy of live action 3D movies is actually a prequel to "The Journey to the West," the much told story of the Monkey Kings adventures on the road to India.
???? (The Monkey King) (2014) Trailer #2 - Donnie Yen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHRbCTWDKGE#ws)
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I wikipedia-ed this and found out a great deal about this incredible folk story. It seems that it was based loosely on a real monk's travels to India but of course sans the animal headed characters. As a Chinese, I have heard and watch various versions of this tale.
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Journey to the West is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. In English-speaking countries, the work is widely known as Monkey, the title of Arthur Waley's popular abridged translation.
The novel is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to the "Western Regions", that is, India, to obtain sacred texts (s?tras) and returned after many trials and much suffering. It retains the broad outline of Xuanzang's own account, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions but the Ming dynasty novel adds elements from folk tales and the author's invention, that is, that the Buddha gave this task to the monk and provided him with three protectors who agree to help him as an atonement for their sins. These disciples are Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing, together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuanzang's steed, a white horse.
Journey to the West has strong roots in Chinese folk religion, Chinese mythology, Daoist and Buddhist philosophy, and the pantheon of Taoist immortals and Buddhist bodhisattvas, which are still reflective of Chinese religious attitudes today. Enduringly popular, the tale is at once a comic adventure story, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeys towards enlightenment which each of them can achieve only with the help of all of the others.
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Well I watched the trailer and can say for sure that this is one movie that I'm not going to miss watching. The legend is actually well known in Europe due to the once popular "Monkey", the Chinese television show that graced our TV screens in horrendously dubbed English (with subtitles in the appropriate languages for those who couldn't understanding English). I can still fondly remember watching it with my family, as the story had something that everyone could enjoy, as portrayed in the TV series.
However, I had no idea that the story was loosely based on a real monk's travels. Now I need to do some more research into it and share this with my family.
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This sounds interesting. And i really hope that this movie comes with English subtitles. This is the 1st time I hear about this. I have always like to hear about stories like this. I read that the lead actor is quite good in acting so I can be sure that its going to be a good movie. It would be great to be able to show them all around the world and show them to people who have yet to hear about it and let them know about the great deeds.
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Haha... I remember when I was a teenager, my parents brought back a vcd set (yes there wasn't dvds then....) from Singapore that's about the monkey king. I found it very interesting although it is quite childish... I'm sure the new release here would be much better than the one I saw in the past lol!
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The monkey king also known as Sun Wakong is a legendary trickster figure from Chinese mythology is based on a true story of a famous monk,Xuang Zang of the Chinese Tang Dynasty.
The monkey king is rebellious,extremely intelligent and fearless.He learned all the magic tricks and martial arts from an immortal Taoist master.
The new movie release will be very interesting with modern technology and sound effects compared to the past productions.
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The new movie release will be very interesting with modern technology and sound effects compared to the past productions.
Yes this is true, together with all the big time actors like Donnie Yen and Chow Yun-Fat, certainly this movie will become a big hit. What will be good is that the story line will create a positive imprint for non-Buddhist movie goers to pick up and understand Buddhism thus generating faith. This movie will reach out millions of unsuspecting people through fantasy and mythology. I would surely love to go back to my childhood fantasy and adventure with the Monkey King. ;D
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I've watched "Journey to the West" many times since young,& will still watch it again &again .I love the part that Sun Wukong can take 72 transformations, which allows him to transform into various animals and objects & every hairs of his possess magical powers.If humans have such powers and use it for good, will be very beneficial but it's also very dangerous if misuse for own beneficial gain
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Sun Wukong (???) is known/pronounced as Suen Ng Hung in Cantonese, Son Oh Gong in Korean, Tôn Ng? Không in Vietnamese, Son Gok? in Japanese (also the name of the character inspired by Sun Wukong, Son Goku from the Dragon Ball franchise), and Sun Go Kong in Indonesian.
"Victorious Fighting Buddha". Wukong was given this name once he ascended to buddhahood at the end of the Journey to the West. This name is also mentioned during the traditional Chinese Buddhist evening services, specifically during the eighty-eight Buddhas repentance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Xiyou.PNG/338px-Xiyou.PNG)
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I watched the 'Monkey King' in my childhood and I remember it was full of drama and adventure, involving many dangers and calamities encountered by Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy along the journey. It will be a whole new experience watching on 3D, read that it's the first Chinese 3D blockbuster!
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(http://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/monkeyking.jpg?w=640&h=360&crop=1)
Film Review of The Monkey King by Maggie Lee:
Chinese viewers will be compelled to compare “The Monkey King” with Stephen Chow’s recent “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons”; while that film filled in the gaps of Xuanzang’s early life, this one traces the path that led Monkey to become the monk’s disciple. Admittedly, Chow’s humor and brilliantly subversive instincts are inimitable, but the collaboration of four scribes here has nevertheless produced a shallow, juvenile screenplay that plays like “Journey to the West for Beginners,” with borderline-cardboard characters.
The pic kicks off in high gear with an apocalyptic turf war between the deities and demons, rendered in six minutes of nonstop, “Transformers”-style mayhem during which both sides seem less intent on defeating each other than simply smashing the surrounding celestial architecture to smithereens. The deities prevail, led by Jade Emperor (Chow Yun-fat), whose sister, Princess Iron Fan (Joe Chen), pleads for the life of rebel leader Bull Demon King (Aaron Kwok), whom she loves. The couple is banished, along with the whole demon tribe, to Flaming Mountain.
The task of postwar reconstruction falls on the shoulders of goddess Nuwa (Zhang Zilin), who gives up her own body to fill the cracks in the firmament (don’t ask how). What’s left of her afterward is a pink, Kryptonite-ish substance that falls to Earth and enables the genesis of a primate embryo. And so Monkey is born.
While living inside his bubble, the infant Monkey is befriended by a snowy fox. When he grows up (now by Donnie Yen), he re-encounters the fox in the form of a pretty, fur-clad girl, Ruxue (Xia Zitong). They fall in love, entwining tails like in an old Disney cartoon, blissfully unaware that Bull has other plans for them in his scheme to retake the Heavenly Palace. Meanwhile, the Goddess of Mercy (Kelly Chen) sends Taoist master Puti (Hai Yitian) to be Monkey’s mentor and teach him magic. Unfortunately, Puti is not much of a disciplinarian, and his pupil, now called Sun Wukong, becomes naughtier than ever.
For more than 100 minutes, Wukong goes on a series of adventures, which invariably involve him vandalizing deity property like the Eastern Sea Palace, Jade Emperor’s celestial stable, or the fairy peach grove. Most Chinese kids know these chapters by heart, and there’s no new take here; the only novelty is that the effects are splashier in such a movie adaptation, with CGI so pervasive that one sometimes forgets they’re watching a live-action film.
“Journey to the West” was one of the few ancient classics not branded “revisionist” when the Chinese Communist Party took power: During the Cultural Revolution, in such propaganda films as the animated “Uproar in Heaven,” the Monkey King was celebrated as a role model for Red Guards — an anarchic force of nature that rose up against the ruling elite. In Jeff Lau’s “Chinese Odyssey” series, made on the eve of Hong Kong’s handover to China, the Monkey King was portrayed as an Everyman at the mercy of history, grappling with existential questions.
This current blockbuster incarnation, by contrast, is arguably the most vanilla of the bunch, portraying Monkey/Wukong as playful rather than rebellious, and only a threat to the social order when treacherously provoked. All of which makes him friendlier to a tyke audience, but it provides Yen with little room to flex his acting muscles or otherwise emote effectively; in fact, the thesp looks unrecognizable in his hairy suit and heavy makeup.
Jade Emperor is as majestic and magnanimous as any absolute ruler can get, but it’s a dull role, and Chow’s attempts to enliven it through occasional banter with Wukong come to naught. Kwow looks sexier than one might expect for a man with horns jutting out of his forehead, but his vengeful Bull is one of the flattest roles he’s played. Bull’s accomplice, the three-eyed celestial gatekeeper Erlangshen (Peter Ho), proves the most intriguing and psychologically persuasive character here, essentially a disgruntled employee who’s been denied a promotion or pay rise for several centuries.
Yang Tao and Cheung Man-po’s compositions and the computer illustrations (by more than a dozen vfx companies) boast a geometry inspired by traditional Chinese art, notably in a scene where a pack of flying horses form a beautiful symmetrical pattern in the sky. However, many of the visuals are oversaturated and simply sub-standard, resembling cheap computer-game fare; most annoyingly, the fight scenes are often obscured by scattered debris. The creature design ranges from magnificent to kitschy.
With so much animation crowding the background, the terrific high-wire action (directed by Yen) is frequently upstaged. Production design is sumptuous when it comes to the various heavenly and underwater habitats, but inexcusably slack in its evocation of the hellish Flaming Mountain, which consists of only two sets: a dreary, charred cave interior and a sooty pit.
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A Chinese Epic About a Magical Monkey Is the Most Popular Movie in the World.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the most popular film in the world last weekend, taking in $46 million, was The Monkey King, a 3-D epic based on a Chinese legend about a “monkey born from a heavenly stone who acquires supernatural powers.” The story is a prequel to the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, about the introduction of Buddhism to China, which was itself adapted into a highly successful action comedy last year.
The Monkey King’s big weekend comes almost entirely from Chinese audiences. The beginning of the Lunar New Year is generally one of the biggest box office weekends of the year for the Chinese film market, which became the second-largest in the world over the least decade. Where Are We Going, Dad?,a Chinese documentary based on a reality show about celebrity fathers, was the world’s second-most-successful film over the weekend. The U.S. animated feature Frozen was No. 3.
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Well... I haven't seen it yet. But a friend of mine who was able to see it while abroad told me not to bother with the movie. It doesn;t really compare in storyline with the previous on-screen versions, it's only the visual effects that are stunning.
Still.....curiosity is sure to get a hold of me, so i'm gonna fork out for the cinema ticket!
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I wonder if the Monkey King is for real, he will be from the demi god realm? What do you guys think?
The Asuras are more powerful physically and are more intelligent mentally than human beings. Yet they suffer because of jealousy and conflict. Mythologically, it is said that the Asuras and the gods share a celestial tree. While the gods enjoy the fruits of this celestial tree, the Asuras are custodians of the roots of the tree. The Asuras are envious of the gods and constantly attempt to take the fruits of the tree from the gods. As a result of this, they fight with the gods, and are defeated by the gods and suffer greatly as a consequence. Because of this constant jealousy, envy and conflict, existence amongst the Asuras is unhappy and unfortunate. As with the other realms, there is a cause of rebirth amongst the demigods. On the positive side, the cause is generosity. On the negative side, the causes are anger, envy and jealousy.
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The story of journey from China (east) to India (west) to retrieve the sutras has been the legend story of Chinese for many centuries. In the story, XuanZang has 3 disciples: Sun WuKong (monkey king), Zu BaJie (pig) and Sha WuJing. There are a lot of obstacles during the journey.
When I was young, I was always fascinated by the stories, but after I grow up and learn about Dharma, I strongly felt that the stories are indeed very much related to Buddhism. For example, I felt the 3 disciples represents the 3 poison: ignorance, attachment and hatred; also, the journey to retrieve the sutra represents our intention/goal to become enlightenment but there are many distractions who stop us from reaching our goals.
I wish this story can continue to be passed down to the next generation, and wish the buddhism teaching in the story can plant seeds of buddhism into many...
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This monkey king fable sure sounds interesting enough for me to take a look at... was wondering if there are any English version to it... It is good to see such movies being depicted to promote Buddhism too :)
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I recently had a discussion with some friends on importance of harmony of any groups, companies or organizations in achieving its goals.
Interestingly, someone then quoted the story Chinese story of "Journey to the West" which I was not familiar with. He said that monk which is based on the Chinese monk Tsuan Chang's mission to journey to the west ie India to collect Buddhist scriptures and in the story he had 3 disciples and a horse (who is considered a disciple). The 3 disciple consisted of the "Monkey King" who is the most senior and most powerful, a pig demon and a shark demon. The monkey king who is very powerful, is sometimes disrespectful to the monk/Guru and he can be controlled by the monk by a metal headband that the Buddha Kuan Yin put on the monkey king. By chanting a mantra the monk can cause the head band to shrink and the monkey king will experience unbearable pain. Anyhow, the point is that the monkey king and the pig demon will always argue and even fight sometimes but in the end there never lose their focus on their Guru's mission to "journey to the west". In the end, there succeeded.
So the moral of the story is that to argue and fight with the intention to fulfill the mission is ok. In any organizations there are bound to be people who disagree. What is important is that there settle on these disagreement and move on to fulfill the goal. Not giving up, work against each other and have the maturity to move on towards the goal is the trait of successful people and organizations.
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Actually this is a good story to depict the three main enemies of samsara. Hatred, Attachment and Ignorance all depicted in the three students of the monk who went all the way to India to obtain the Sutra for the benefit of many. Would be good to have similar storyline for protectors eh?
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"So the moral of the story is that to argue and fight with the intention to fulfill the mission is ok. In any organizations there are bound to be people who disagree. What is important is that there settle on these disagreement and move on to fulfill the goal. Not giving up, work against each other and have the maturity to move on towards the goal is the trait of successful people and organizations."
The Monkey King story and the Journey to the West has been a legend for so many Asians since we were young. I did not relate watching the Monkey King to our self until I learned Buddhism. Then I can now relate to the "monkey" mind that we have in us. Always in defiance to get what we want in selfish and manipulative ways.
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Just by watching the trailer, I’m sure I wouldn’t want to spend my money on this movie for sure! Nothing beats reading the story from book (Chinese version) and let your imagination takes over to create the scene.
The author’s knowledge in Buddhism that intrigue me was the parts on how Sun WoKong being challenge by the Buddha to leap over the Five-peak mountain he manifested within his palm but ended up being trapped under it.
Here the attitude of Su Wukong represents our arrogant and ego and our five-aggregates symbolize by Five-peak Mountain.
To me, it teaches that without the true path, we might achieve some achievement such as having miraculous power and wealth but still risk of being taken rebirth as an animal in samsara.
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The Journey to the West is my favorite show when I was a kid, really reminds me a lot when I was a kid. I really like it when Sun Wukong do so much to protect the monk Xuanzang, I admire how much effort he put to do that and he really respect Xuanzang. After watching this trailer, I think I still prefer the old version. This version looks fake with all the special effects. But this is just my opinion. People nowadays prefer movies with a lot of special effect that's why this movie Monkey King will be here today. I have to give them a thumbs up for a job well done, Sun Wukong in the movie looks really cool.
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This is interesting. The travels of a monk with animal pilgrims. Reminds me if the story 'Animal Farm' where animals are depicted instead of humans. Whatever it is, seems that the group of uncommon personalities triumph over all their petty quarrels and disagreements and tricks and whatever to achieve their aim of seeing their long suffering monk arrive at his destination. They emerge at the end of the 'tunnel' to be better than when they started as they did helped each other along the way.
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The Journey to the West was written by Wu Chen-En and is considered to be one of the great classic novels. The story is about a monk, Xuanzang together with the Monkey King, his guardians Sandy and Pigsy who travel all the way to India to seek Buddha’s scriptures to bring back to China. The principle story consists of all obstacles, various temptations, dangerous paths and passages they have to overcome throughout the whole long journey . Despite background differences within themselves, however somehow or rather, they managed to pull things together. The Journey to the West is regarded as one of the ever green favorite story of all time.