History Film / AChineseOdyssey

* ''A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box'' (西遊記第壹佰零壹回之月光寶盒, ''Journey to the West: Chapter 101: Moonlight Treasure Box''): Some point during the pilgrimage to India, the Monkey King rebelled against Tripitaka for the monk's constant nagging. The goddess Guanyin subdued and sealed him as a result of his actions against his master, and Tripitaka pleaded for mercy and sacrificed himself to atone for Monkey's crimes. 500 years later, Monkey is reincarnated as Joker, leader of a bandit gang. When two mysterious women show up at Joker's bandit hideout, who are actually demons in disguise thinking that Joker holds the clue to Tripitaka's whereabouts, HilarityEnsues for Joker and his gang. But not before a saint shows up as a bunch of grapes and an old archnemesis of the Monkey King returns, and that's when Joker discovers his past life and true destiny...

* ''A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella'' (西遊記大結局之仙履奇緣, ''Journey to the West Grand Finale: Cinderella''[[note]]Chinese dub title for {{WesternAnimation/Cinderella}}. Go figure[[/note]]): Having travelled back in time 500 years thanks to the Moonlight Treasure Box, Joker encounters a woman with the split personalities of Zixia and Qingxia Fairies, and enters an unwilling relationship with her. He then reunites with Tripitaka and his other two disciples, but the Bull Demon King shows up and captures Tripitaka, with the intention of making a banquet out of the monk's flesh and forcibly making Zixia/Qingxia his concubine. Now, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing must find a way to rescue their master from Bull, while Joker has to contend with whether to continue the relationship between him and Zixia/Qingxia, or take up his true destiny as the Monkey King.

** This film marks Karen Mok's first collaboration with Stephen Chow.

This film marks Karen Mok's first collaboration with Stephen Chow.

* IronicEcho: The speech Joker gives Zixia to trick her into believing he loves her so she wouldn't kill him with her sword. [[spoiler: The second time was sincere but her was already dead. At the very end, he finally manages to say "I love you" to her but only by possessing the reincarnated Joker and he can no longer be with her]]. Zixia describes her ideal fated lover as someone who was larger than life and will walk on seven coloured clouds to marry her. [[spoiler: As she says herself, she got the beginning description right but not the ending.]]

-->[-'''Joker: '''"Shit, who tied this knot?"-]

''A Chinese Odyssey'' (大话西游) started as a two-part 1995 Hong Kong fantasy-comedy film directed by Jeffrey Lau, and starring Creator/StephenChow. The first part is titled ''A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box'' (西遊記第壹佰零壹回之月光寶盒) while the second one is called ''A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella'' (西遊記大結局之仙履奇緣).

The franchise is very loosely based on the Wu Cheng'en novel ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''.

* TheChewToy: Joker and his crew sneak into a dinner between Jingjing and the Spider Demoness, then accidentally cause a fire, which the guys helpfully stomp out. Then some guy's clothes catch fire. Cue stomping. Then Joker's ''pants catch fire.'' Yes, right ''[[GroinAttack there]]''. '''[[RuleOfThree Three times.]]'''

** Thinking that Joker could not retrieve the antidote for the Spider Demoness' venom, Jingjing commits suicide than to die from the venom. [[spoiler: Bull Demon King found her body and resurrected her under his control.]]

** Played for laughs with one the Bull Demon King's guards committing suicide out of irritation of Tripitaka's ramblings!

* InvisibilityCloak: The invisibility talismans provided by Grandpa Buddha makes the holder invisible to demons. So Joker and his gang try to sneak up on the two demons... by [[InvisibleStreaker wearing nothing]] but the talismans around their crotches (while Joker's second-in-command [[FanDisservice wears the talismans like a hula dancer).]]

* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: The MagicMirror given by Grandpa Buddha can reveal demons disguised as humans, as shown by Jingjing's [[GameFace demonic face]] being shown on the mirror when Joker takes a peek of her reflection. It also reveals what a person was in his past life, with the Joker's second-in-command being revealed to be Bajie in his past life. The Monkey King's face does not appear when Joker looks into the mirror until he travelled back 500 years.

* VisibleInvisibility: We can see Joker and his goons naked in nothing but invisibility talismans when they attempt to sneak up on the two demons having dinner, but the two demons are unaware of the goons' unseen presence.

* TheChewToy: Joker and his crew sneak into the White Bone cave, then accidentally cause a fire, which the guys helpfully stomp out. Then some guy's clothes catch fire. Cue stomping. Then Joker's ''pants catch fire.'' Yes, right ''[[GroinAttack there]]''.
* DrivenToSuicide: Played for laughs. Tripitaka ramblings actually causes one the the Bull Demon's guards to commit suicide out of irritation!

** One of the few cases where this trope is weaponized [[PlayedForHorror somewhat horrifically]]: Xiangxiang attempts to uses this technique to [[FateWorseThanDeath imprison Wujing's soul inside a rock]], but Wujing managed to grab Xiangxiang just in time to swap minds with each other.

* MuggingTheMonster: Joker and his bandit gang takes on the Spider Demon and Jingjing. The results are [[DoNotTauntCthulhu predictable]].

** For a given value of 'gag', every time Joker uses the Moonlight Box to jump back in time to save Jingjing always leads to him reaching her a second too late. Every. Single. Time. Alongside his second-in-command's reaction to him using the Moonlight Box. [[spoiler: Until an unexplained hiccup causes the Moonlight Box to send him back ''500 years'' instead of the ten or so minutes he was aiming for.]]

* TheToothHurts: Joker had to knock out one of his teeth with a rock when it gets stuck to the sticky threads of the Spider Demon.

-->[-"Shit, who tied this knot?"-]

* StableTimeLoop: The first two films are self-contained - Joker goes back 500 years to save his girlfriend Bai Jingjing, only to fall in love with Zixia Fairy, go through a lot more shenanigans involving the rest of the team and then have an epic showdown with the Bull Demon King to save Zixia and his master.
* TimeTravel: The Moonlight Treasure Box forms the crux of the plot, which combines approximately 500 years of separation from two different points of events. Yeah, time-travel shenanigans.

** For a given value of 'gag', every time Joker uses the Moonlight Box to jump back in time to save Jingjing always leads to him reaching her a second too late. Every. Single. Time. [[spoiler: Until an unexplained hiccup causes the Moonlight Box to send him back ''500 years'' instead of the ten or so minutes he was aiming for.]]

** TropeMaker: started the trend of playing whenever something really epic in a JourneyToTheWest film happens.

** TropeMaker: AChineseOdyssey started the trend of playing this whenever something really epic in a JourneyToTheWest film happens.

* AutobotsRockOut: "Dagger Group Prelude". TropeMaker: started the trend of playing whenever something really epic in a JourneyToTheWest film happens.

* InfoDump: When Joker finally finds Jingjing in the past, and winds up spilling ''everything'' about her future all at once.

** TropeMaker: AChineseOdyssey started the trend of playing whenever something really epic in a JourneyToTheWest film happens.

** For a given value of 'gag', every time Joker uses the Moonlight Box to jump back in time to save Jingjing always leads to him reaching her a second too late. Every. Single. Time. [[spoiler:Until an unexplained hiccup causes the Moonlight box to send him back ''500 years'' instead of the ten or so minutes he was aiming for.]]

-->"Shit, who tied this knot?"

* OverlyLongGag: For a given value of 'gag', every time Joker uses the Moonlight Box to jump back in time to save Jingjing always leads to him reaching her a second too late. Every. Single. Time. [[spoiler:Until an unexplained hiccup causes the Moonlight box to send him back ''500 years'' instead of the ten or so minutes he was aiming for.]]

The franchise is very loosely based on the Wu Cheng'en novel JourneyToTheWest.

* AwesomeMusic:
** "Dagger Group Prelude"
** The theme song, ''Love of a Lifetime'' - which also plays in Creator/StephenChow 's JourneyToTheWestConqueringTheDemons and JourneyToTheWestTheDemonsStrikeBack.
* CompletelyDifferentTitle: Unless you count Joker's unwitting trip 500 years into the past, nobody is embarking on a terrible odyssey to find their family.

''Film/AChineseOdyssey'' (大话西游) started as a two-part 1995 Hong Kong fantasy-comedy film directed by Jeffrey Lau, and starring Creator/StephenChow. The first part is titled ''A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box'' (西遊記第壹佰零壹回之月光寶盒) while the second one is called ''A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella'' (西遊記大結局之仙履奇緣).