Monkey King Reborn (Chinese: 西游记之再世妖王) is a 2021 animated Chinese film directed by Yunfei Wang and written by both Yunfei Wang and Xiaoyu Wu.
It is based on and retells part of the 16th century novel Journey to the West. When the ill-tempered trickster Sun Wukong is insulted while visiting a temple with his master Tang Monk, he retaliates by destroying a magical tree. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the tree served as a prison for an ancient king of demons, who proceeds to kidnap Tang Monk to take revenge for his long imprisonment. Now the Monkey King and his fellow disciples have three days to free their master and re-seal the demon king, before he regains his full power and uses his armies to lay waste to the world.
The film was released in China on April 2, 2021.
A trailer for an English dub was put up on youtube, but there is no release date for the English version as of yet.
No relation to New Gods: Nezha Reborn, another Chinese animated film released in 2021 (even though both of them do feature the Monkey King).
Monkey King Reborn contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Monkey is a lot more despondent and self-conscious in this adaptation, even carrying enormous self-hatred for being a demon and stone-born, without a mother or father.
- Adaptational Badass: A very downplayed example with Tang Monk. When confronted with the fact that all of his disciples have been beaten by Yuandi and that he will be killed alongside them, he remains serene and calm, fully accepting the situation and even telling the demon king that he does not believe in death, either for him or for his disciples. His book-counterpart probably would have fainted ten times over at that point.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- This version of Monkey is a fair bit more easy to anger than his book-counterpart, while also being a whole lot more pessimistic and plagued with self-loathing about his identity as a demon.
- Zenyhuan's disciples are a lot more rude and condescending in this movie than they were in the original book. Where in the book they were fully willing to give Xuanzang the ginseng fruit their master had prepared for him and only grew violent toward him and his disciples after Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy stole fruits for themselves as well, in the movie they look down on the pilgrims form the start and even plan on keeping the ginseng fruit to eat it themselves, simply because they don't like the idea of someone who looks as poor as Xuanzang getting to have it.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Qi Energy tells Wukong that his name is horrible, Wukong snaps back that it doesn't matter, as long as he knows who he is. To which Qi Energy innocently responds: "Do you know who you are?" It takes Wukong a few moments to answer.
- Big Bad: Yuandi, the first demon who came into existence after the universe was created and the de facto Monster Progenitor of demons on Earth. He was sealed away by Golden Cicada, a past life of Xuanzang's, and kept under the ginseng tree in Zenyhuan's temple. When Wukong inadvertently frees him, he kidnaps Xuanzang and prepares to take over the world as soon as his body is fully regenerated.
- Big Brother Bully: Baije acts like this towards Wujing, mocking him for his interest in history and playing keep-away with his brochure.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: Invoked with Wukong, Pigsy and Sandy. Pigsy is a big Pig Man who loves eating, Sandy is a tall, gangly river demon while Wukong is a comparatively short monkey.
- Bittersweet Ending: More sweet than bitter, really. Wukong has managed to defeat Yuandi, but Qi Energy had to give his life to give him the power needed to make it happen. Due to Yuandi's defeat, Wukong's fellow disciples and his master Xuanzang have been restored to life, leaving the pilgrims free to continue their journey.
- Carnivore Confusion: At one point Qi Energy digs into a fruit stand. Wukong comments that it seems cruel for a fruit spirit to eat other fruits.
- The Cutie: Qi Energy, the personification of the energy that sealed the demon king. He's a small, pink, humanoid spirit wearing nothing but a leave and has an optimistic and loving demeanor, contrasting nicely with the more jaded Wukong.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Discussed several times in the movie. Xuanzang questions at the very start what defines a demon, as there are thousands upon thousands of different life-forms roaming the realms. It later on becomes an on-going discussion between Qi Energy and Wukong. While Wukong thinks all demons, including himself, are evil from the moment they come into the world and can never be redeemed, Qi Energy argues that there are thousands of demons all over the world and that several of them do good things, meaning being a demon doesn't automatically make you evil.
- Distressed Dude: Tang Monk, as in the original epic. Yuandi kidnaps him due to him being the reincarnation of Golden Cicada, the Buddha's disciple. One of Wukong's main goals in the film (besides sealing the demon king away again), is rescuing his master.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Pure Wind and Bright Moon have a very feminine appearance, to the point Pigsy thinks they're girls at first. He's very disappointed when they start speaking and reveal themselves to be boys.
- Dynamic Entry: Wukong enters the movie by performing a bombastic Three-Point Landing a few feet behind his master. Xuanzang lampshades this, dryly commenting that Wukong is "subtle as always".
- Fantastic Racism: Demons are viewed with immense disdain in this world, with some immortals believing them to be Always Chaotic Evil and wholly unworthy of a chance to redeem themselves.
- Fatal Flaw: Wukong's is wrath. He has a very volatile temper and is quick to use violence when anything sets him off. It's his inability to control his anger that causes the main conflict of the movie, as he is incapable of letting the insults made to him by the temple disciples slide and lets his anger out on the one tree that is currently sealing away a powerful, evil entity.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Qi Energy allows himself to get absorbed by Wukong, to give Wukong the power-boost he needs to defeat Yuandi.
- Hypocrite: Pure Wind and Bright Moon were planning on eating the ginseng fruit prepared for Xuanzang themselves, despite Zhenyuan's clear orders, out of little more than classism. But they react shocked, appalled and angry when they find out the pilgrims have taken and eaten three fruits without permission.
- Innocently Insensitive: During their nightly talk, Qi Energy tells Wukong that he thinks his name is horrible. The same name that was given to Wukong by his beloved master who is currently being held hostage by the Big Bad.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Wukong might snap, lash out and make mean-spirited comments, but he does care for his fellow disciples, his master and, eventually, Qi Energy. Shown the most with the latter, as even when Qi Energy keeps making a nuisance of himself and doing things like peeing on Wukong's head, Wukong yells at him but never does anything beyond that.
- Karma Houdini: Pure Wind and Bright Moon never face any consequences for their own selfish actions in the movie, neither for their classism towards Xuanzang and his disciples, nor for planning to eat the ginseng fruit meant for him themselves. Justified, as Zhenyuan never finds out about either and the pilgrims are busy with other things the whole plot.
- Manly Tears:
- Wukong breaks into tears when Yuandi absorbs his master's life energy before his eyes.
- He does this again, together with the other disciples, when they realize Xuanzang has been brought back to life after Yuandi's defeat just like they have.
- Meaningful Echo: At the start of the movie, Xuanzang muses whether one can truly define demons as strictly evil, as there are thousands of different demons living all over the realms. Qi Energy later repeats this almost word for word when Wukong asserts that demons are always evil.
- Moral Myopia: Apparently eating a ginseng fruit that was not meant for you is completely fine when Pure Wind and Bright Moon do it, but a heinous crime when Wukong and his friends do the same.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pretty much every major conflict in the movie comes back to Wukong deciding to destroy a magical tree as payback for being insulted.
- Rich Bitch: Zhenyuan's disciples act snobbish and aloof toward the pilgrims from the moment they meet, obviously viewing them as Lower-Class Louts not worthy of entering their temple. They even make fun of Xuanzang behind his back, despite him being nothing but polite and respectful to them, and plan on eating the ginseng-fruit their master prepared for the monk themselves, because they think someone who looks as poor as Xuanzang should not have it.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Wukong acts snarky and standoffish most of the time and secretly hates himself for being a demon, because he believes a demon can only be evil and do bad things.
