Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Belinda

Super cool that this has been released here, even if I did only have the option of seeing the Cantonese dubbed version. But ultimately, and as a Stephen Chow fan, the film was a little disappointing. It certainly has the cartoonish action, humor and fun of his films though.

Firstly though, what the film is NOT is pretty much anything to do with the Journey to the West story we've all come to know and love in Australia, mainly through the english dubbed Japanese television series Monkey from the late 70's and early 80's. The Monkey King is re-imagined as a demon, and there is a pig demon and a water demon, not exactly in the form you know from the original story. We follow a young and eager demon hunter, who catches the eye of a much more experienced female demon hunter. Cartoonish shenanigans follow.

And they really are wild sequences. The cg effects aren't all the great and unfortunately they take precedence over the physical action, but the small few bits of actual fighting we get are neat. My favourite sequence was actually the opening of the film, where a water demon attacks a small fishing village. It was beautifully staged, the action beats and comedy timing were great and there were one or two moments involving children that you would NEVER get away with in a Hollywood movie. Jeez, they are harsh. Certain bits in this section were very reminiscent of The Host.

The rest of the film doesn't really live up to the promise of that opening. The quirky love story didn't really work for me but I did love that their meet-cute involved a guy with a constant geiser of blood bursting out of his neck. So much hilarious gore for what is supposedly a family film.

The 3D was post converted and not that great.

Some really great moments, a lot of fun times but the whole affair is very uneven. But I did appreciate the end, which establishes where this story is set in amongst the Journey to the West timeline.