Journey to the West (Saiyuki or Hsi yu qhi) Discussion Topic

I've just finished watching the 2011 Zhang Jizong production of Xi You Ji (Journey to the West), which has been kindly uploaded by Colonel Angus in its entirety with reasonably good English subs on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to8g89Mn3TE .

This version is in 66 episodes of about 45 minutes each, the longest so far of any Xi You Ji television production. It also must be, I'm guessing, the most expensive to produce for television so far, it's loaded with high cost production values like cranes, NASA style body twisting anti gravity equipment and incredible pyrotechnics. This TVS production is the second major production done in and for mainland China sponsored television; the first was the CCTV 1986 production starring Liu Shao Ling Tong in the title role of Sun Wukung. The 2010 version was done for China satellite television and is about ten episodes shorter.

Three things turned me off this production at first — the 'Harry Potter' style title in the opening sequence, the lack of Chinese BGM overall and the 'Planet of the Apes' masks that cover the mouths of the Monkey King Sun Wukung and the pig Bajie. There were also a couple of CG effects that any Harry Potter fan like myself could see were lifted right from the films like the 'Immobilus' freezing spell and the 'Patronus' animal imaged positivity spell.

But I stuck with it and ended up very impressed, though I still have to say that the 1986 CCTV production, with its 1998 additional episodes, and the 1996 Hong Kong TVB production, rule beyond a doubt. Which proves it ain't all down to CG or big budgets, it's down to the writers' knowledge and love of the original book and their skill in adapting it to television, along with the skills and story knowledge of the actors.

So here's what I LIKED about the Zhang Jizhong 2011 adaptation:

The length of the series. They actually could have used more episodes, as the original book has 100 chapters for a good reason, but they did well to make it in 66. Time is needed to grow with the characters and feel the physical and emotional toughness of the journey.

The writing. If you don't know the original story you will be asking some continuity questions, but not major ones, and you will be excited and thrilled with each adventure. If you DO know the original story, you will sometimes feel as if you haven't read it at all since Zhang put some real twists and surprises in there. Things don't go at all as you'd expect in a lot of cases. Very thrilling and surprising, obviously adapted by writers who know the story back and forth with lots of love.

In particular, I loved the rants. Bajie had the best one that really had me on the floor laughing, in the 'Doctor Wukung' story arc where he goes on and on about the 808 kinds of medicine he had to round up for the king. Wukung had loads of great rants that you could really identify with if you've ever worked for a dunderheaded boss, but his best one was in the Kingdom of No Rain for Three Years arc, where he slams into the Jade Emperor for being the big baby on the throne that he really is. The body language and eye contact in these scenes were spot on and hilarious.

The Three Rhinoceroses arc had a real shocking ending that I didn't expect at all. It was a totally new twist by Zhang and the writers that would not have been possible in the original book due to the strict laws during those days 500 years ago. But, if the author, Wu Cheng'en had seen this ending I'll bet he would've approved, it was the kind of situation that put the brakes on Wukung's wildness and humbled him far beyond any amount of band tightening chanting The Tang monk could ever do. I think this arc carries a deep message for the people of China and also for the rest of the world. That became my favorite arc in this production, it is extremely well created and well acted.

The acting. Wu Yue plays the part of Sun Wukong, a VERY tough job considering all that hot, sticky, itchy face/body makeup. He lacks real Kung Fu ability but has enough plus sufficient flexibility to allow him to make it believable. The CG helps him out a lot. Zang Jinsheng plays the pig Zhu Bajie, an even tougher part since his whole head and torso had to be completely covered in face / body masking. These two actors really put their characters through all that makeup and made some fantastic moments. The Tang monk Xuanzang, played by Nie Yuan, and the Sand Demon Sha Wujing played by Elvis Tsui, were also excellent and gave you a few surprises here and there. Xuanzang taking a long sleeved swing at his captors and Sha Wujing teaching his student how to parry were delightful moments not to be missed.

The opening theme, closing theme and incidental music for the sad / reflection scenes. The opening theme uses parts of the famous Heart Sutra in Mandarin, and is done in a Buddhist chant style set to a slow, reflective song. The closing theme is sung by Dao Lang, based on the 1986 original production closing song performed by Jiang Dawei. Dao's version is crisp and modern with lots of great accenting and a great modern instrumental accompaniment. Dao's voice is great. The original Chinese incidental piece that is played during moments of sadness or awakening is remarkable. It is sad that it is so hard to find all of this music on a legal downloadable site or in CD format.

Now for what I DIDN'T like.

The whole face makeup for Sun Wukung and Zhu Bajie. That was unnecessary. Though I understand about the noses, the mouth should have been left natural to allow for more emotional expression. By 2011, the technique of using CG to change facial features was already standard as seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean films for the octopus faced Davey Jones and in the Harry Potter movies for Lord Voldemort in particular. I wonder if Zhang had access to that technique then, or maybe it was just too expensive for Chinese production teams at the time.

The western style BGM. I don't know, I guess I'm just a purist here but I say why waste making a production appear to have happened 500 years ago and then put modern, 'John Williams-ish' music scoring in the BGM? It needed more Chinese sounding scoring. The great Chinese scoring it did have was nearly ruined by overplaying every time something major happened. By the way, lots of great Chinese music scoring for the Hong Kong '96 version was composed not just by Chinese artists but by composers from all over the world such as Canada and Japan.

The inadequate length. If you're going to really go for including everything, you need to just do however many episodes it takes. Yes 66 episodes is long, but since we've seen in the great successes of all previous adaptations that there is indeed a huge audience for Xi You Ji, producers need to stop worrying about who's gonna tune out and just go for doing this thing in its entirety. If you read some of the comments on the You Tube upload, you can see so many people were tuning in time after time, like with a soap opera, never tiring of the great adventure that it represents — life. Don't cut anything, it's all good, people love it. It should have been over 70 episodes at least.

I don't want to include the lack of sufficient Kung Fu in my 'hating on' list since in this day and age it is VERY hard to find people who are skilled actors as well as skilled martial artists. That would require people who've specialized in one part since birth, like Liu Shao Ling Tong, and these guys are getting fewer and fewer. BUT. Kung Fu IS important, no amount of CG can substitute for fast action with a halberd, rake or cudgel. A stand in can do it, but it's always impressive if the main actors have the skill. Just saying.

So all in all, I'd say why not give this version a try. I just found out the 2010 version is now on You Tube with English subs, so I'll try rewatching that version in a bit. The movie The Monkey King starring Donnie Yen as Sun Wukung came out on Chinese New Year's Day (1/31) to rave reviews and had a big blockbuster weekend in Hong Kong it seems. Watch out though, there are TWO versions of this, one in English for American slash western audiences who don't know the story and another for Chinese audiences in Mandarin. Apparently the story line for the American version differs, the reviews for this one don't look so good.

And for those asking WHY there have been so many versions of this Chinese Classic these past few years, please note that it all really started with Japan in 1978. Then, Japan was the up-and-coming economic powerhouse and was the first to do a big budget TV production of Journey to the West with modern, upbeat pesudo-Chinese / Indian music scoring and a great Japanese all star cast.

That got mainland China and then British owned Hong Kong really envious, so China responded with their power packed 1986 CCTV production. Hong Kong followed in 1996 with Dicky Cheung as Sun Wukung and wowed people yet again. The race was on. Mainland China followed with additional episodes to add to its '86 production in 1998, and Hong Kong TVB raced to find another star, Benny Chan, to do their '98 sequel. Low budget animations and loosely based animes like Dragon Ball were going on from the '80s onward. Mini versions in 2001, 2005 followed, and then the Chinese government decided to project a beautiful image of Sun Wukung flying on his cloud over the Olympic stadium at the opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Games, and THAT got this classic story renewed attention all over the world. That resulted in the race to do a really good version of Xi You Ji intensifying, with one American guy attempting to introduce it to more Americans via a film loosely based on the story called The Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

And then, well, you know right? The race to do a really good production of Xi You Ji, one of the four great classic works of China and one of the greatest works in the world, continues with the 3D movie production The Monkey King.

edited 18th Feb '14 10:54:07 PM by Karrenola

Cool @Knightof NASA! You can read the Chinese in the book you have, that is awesome. I really need to get going with my Chinese lessons.

But remember the Waley version is a fast, great read, get it on Kindle or some ebook format and take it on the go when you're traveling. You may find it's hard to put down!

- Karen

edited 18th Feb '14 11:12:10 PM by Karrenola

WHAT? I need to see that.

Another anime adaption is slated to come out in 2015. This adaption will take a lot of liberties with the material.

edited 20th Feb '14 11:27:41 PM by KnightofNASA

Hey @Knightof NASA,

WOW they're actually coming out with a new anime. Thanks for the link, what, Sun Wukong's got a cigarette stuck in his face?! WTF?! How do they explain that? The others are looking kinda wild too, including Xuanzhang, sheesh. Well, let's see what they do with it.

Meanwhile I just found a guy who uploaded the whole Journey to the West 2010 series of 52 episodes on You Tube with English subs just last month. My last review was on what I saw in Mandarin, which I can't handle beyond a few words. BOY do the English subs ever put the power into this thing, I had NO idea how much I was missing.

I have to remember that modern producers / writers are having a ball adapting / changing some classic chapters to make them more of a 21st century challenge for people who already love the story. It's not enough to know the story anymore, you need to either NOT know it and enjoy from the git-go or REALLY know it and revel in all the glorious changes and deliberate twists in the dialogue. I'll do another review of this one when I get done rewatching.

I have just finished rewatching all 52 episodes of the 2010 mainland China version of Journey to the West, in this version uploaded by The Duke of Mount Deer with reasonably good English subtitles. This upload with English subs is very recent, within the last two months as of this writing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOzaG-z04rs&list=PLPqpVKCXUi5mQxgcftBsVqydoUU9YTDh4

The English made all the difference for me storywise, I could get more into the philosophy and see better reasons for why some things not in the original book were happening.

Still, I hold to all I said in my original review (see page one).

Also, some results are in for the newest IMAX 3D movie production called The Monkey King, which hit Imax screens in Hong Kong, Taiwan and several areas in mainland China on Chinese New Year's Day, 31 January 2014. The release of this film was delayed lots of times over a couple of years, so I'm sure the release this year was very much anticipated. Not only is this film IMAX's most successful film in the world so far, it took the number 1 movie in the WORLD spot during that opening weekend of January 31st, February 1st & 2nd. As of this writing, it is STILL in the top five worldwide, grossing over 160 million US dollars in the third spot behind Lego Movie and one other.

This film is, as I mentioned before, the dreamchild of Hollywood writer/director/producer/martial arts enthusiast Michael Wehrhahn, who enlisted the help of a couple of major Hollywood CG experts and combined them with a savvy Chinese crew NOT of the Shaw Brothers variety with the goal of REALLY doing modern day justice to this almighty classic from nearly 500 years ago. Wehrhahn's plan has been to release two versions of the first film, one for those in Asia who grew up with the story, and another for most Americans and other nationalities who are not familiar with the tale. The language used for the first version is Mandarin, and is still playing in Chinese theaters now. The adjusted version will have some minor cuts / additional scenes along with English subs (or dubbing, maybe? I prefer subs) and in his latest interview Wehrhahn says he is planning on release this September, October or November. I'm assuming this includes some kind of release in selected UK countries. No word yet on release in Japan, where I am, probably due to all the recent tensions between Japan and China. These 'tensions' need to be resolved quickly so we can all move back to business. The Japanese are the first to come up with a really good production of Journey to the West for TV, they are familiar with the story via this production and the CCTV 1986 version despite all the Dragonball kinds of knockoffs. I think they would love to see the original Mandarin version with Japanese or English subs, I sure would.

You can bet the only thing driving Hollywood more nuts than not being able to put Americans in the lead in the Harry Potter films is not having ANY part in the development / profits of the world's THIRD largest grossing film of 2014 so far. They know that there've been plenty of Chinese movies debuting at Chinese New Year that, despite all those billions of people, have not even come CLOSE to doing what The Monkey King has done this year. I can only imagine the serious talks going on right now with Wehrhahn in preparation for this autumn. I sure hope I don't have to wait till then to see this.

Well it's the beginning of 2017, nearly three years since my last post up in here! Why? Because the film I was SO anticipating, The Monkey King 2014, which I finally saw in 2015 was not nearly as good as I'd hoped.

Yes it broke incredible world records for a China-based film, yes it beat out ALL Hollywood productions when it debuted on January 31st, Chinese New Year's Day in 2014 and stayed #1 for two whole weeks following. And yes it had Donny Yen in the lead role as Sun Wukong and heartthrob Aaron Kwok as the Bull Demon. It had good CG and okay acting. In particular, it had VERY impressive CG when Wukong transformed himself into thousands of clones to defeat all the forces of the Heavenly Emperor. BUT. It added parts and characters that didn't need to be there and cut parts that DID need to be in the story.

Donnie Yen focused too much on the stunts and not enough on the character. He didn't have enough of that 'monkey feel' as lots of fans say it takes to click with the audience. Twists in the story are fine as long as the spirit of the tale is maintained, which in my opinion wasn't done well enough. One of the biggest turnoffs for me when I see a Hsi Yu Qhi production is writers putting female characters in to make a love / sex issue for Wukong. I say if people want to see more love and sex they should see productions of Dream of the Red Chamber. Hsi Yu Qhi is not that kind of story, it's a story of how people are, a journey towards enlightenment and paying that enlightenment forward. I understand the time limitations of a film and the hardships of modernizing the story for today's audiences, but even still I came away pretty disappointed. That turned me off from considering the second film, even though last year somebody told me that one was much better.

I finally watched the second film last week since the Chinese New Year celebrations were starting and I happened to see it available for rent on Apple TV.

WOW is THIS film GREAT! Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. No major character changes and the storyline changes that were made updated the film nicely while getting the spirit of the tale through loud and clear. This time Aaron Kwok is playing Sun Wukong, a guy much more devoted to the character though he also could use a bit more personality. The design is very good and the wardrobes are STUNNING, especially that of the Tang Priest (beautiful shades of robin's egg blue, first time I've ever seen that idea) and the White Bone Demoness. Gong Li did an EXCELLENT job in that demoness role. Hard to believe she and Kwok are both 51 years old, they come off as twenty to early thirty-somethings. Feng Shaofeng as the Tang Priest - fabulous acting full of personality, Shao Shenyang as the pig Bajie VERY well done though he was somewhat underused, and Him Law as the river demon She Wujing was precious as a gullible dimwitted guy.

Really a mystery as to why the second installment is SO much better than the first, maybe they replaced the writers. That's a butt-kicking story though, really good adaptation. I highly recommend seeing this one, which is available on DVD, Blu-ray or digital buy or rent.

All main cast from the second film will be in the 3rd installment, debuting in Hong Kong and other parts of China next week on February 16th. Rumor has it the story of the Women's Kingdom will be covered. Really looking forward to seeing this when it comes either to a theater in Tokyo where I am, or debuts digitally.

edited 5th Feb '17 5:37:58 AM by Karrenola

I just thought it would be interesting to note there is a Osomatsu-kun version of the story, which can be watched here.

I never completed the episodes though, I only got around to watching maybe around half of part 1. (shrug)

I like the thing.

Edited by JTTWlover on Aug 14th 2020 at 4:35:12 PM

I only read an abridged version of the early chapters, up till the point the Buddhist monk/Sanzang comes up to the mountain Wukong is stuck under, frees Wukong on the condition of Wukong coming along to fetch the holy scripts, and gets the headband of headaches on Wukong's head. I found it a pretty entertaining read, and Wukong himself to be a shiny example of a pretty much all-powerful character done very well and very entertainingly.

As an aside, am I the only one who thinks Inuyasha was pretty inspired by this story too? Inuyasha having a necklace which punishes him as per orders by Kagome, Miroku being lecherous like Pigsy/Zhu Bajie...