Writer(s): Stephen Chow, Chi-kin Kwok
MPAA rating: PG-13
Runtime: 1h 50m
Viewed in Mandarin with English subtitles.
STARRING
Zhang Wen and Qi Shu
PREMISE
An absurdist comedy adaptation of China's 16th-century "Journey to the West" novel. At least, I think it's an adaptation, but it might actually be intended as a prequel to it. I don't know the story at all. Anyway, to be more specific, a young good-hearted man in ancient China is training to be a demon hunter, but never seems to succeed in his hunt. His method is very unorthodox: he aims defeat demons with love. That is, the goal isn't to destroy them but to heal them of evil. His master, seeing that he lacks enlightenment about love, sends our hero off on a quest to gain enlightenment, one that brings him into the wicked maw of the Demon King himself, the Monkey King. Much Chinese hilarity ensues.
THEMES
As a Westerner so used to the same-old false or at least dangerous themes of Hollywood, the themes of this film are a breath of fresh air. They're mostly fantastic. I mean, the movie pushes Buddhism pretty hard, but I can hardly disagree as a Christian with most of the messages!
The primary theme of this film is that the only way to truly defeat evil is to consume it with love. This is our Lord's own ultimate strategy for final victory over evil. Yeshua the Messiah's death on our behalf, or rather his true selflessness, is the love of God that conquers all evil. God's Law merely contains evil, but it doesn't make it go away. God's Law is comparable in this film with those who seek to destroy demons rather than heal them, but those hunters are all depicted as arrogant and uncaring despite their successes. Our hero, a man destined for the path of love, never has any success, but he's the only truly praiseworthy demon hunter in the film.
Another theme is that suffering is the pathway to maturity and its enlightenment. We face our suffering and overcome it with desire for virtue rather than being consumed by it and becoming a demon. This is definitely a true teaching.
A third theme is that all people are basically good and that we must always seek to nurture that goodness despite whatever evil is present. This is one theme that I can't fully get behind since God teaches us that all people are actually evil in nature at the end of the day. Whatever good is in us comes from God, not ourselves. It's his goodness, not ours. However, that said, I do believe there is some degree of God, i.e. true goodness, in all of us. We are called by our Lord to love sinners while hating only their sin. God desires us all to be his vessels.
A fourth theme is that romantic love is not a lesser love compared to the greater love that is the Truth, but is in fact one equal part of the Truth. I can very much get behind this. Our hero discovers love through the romantic dimension of it, but realizes that this form of love is not the whole Big Picture. There are other equally valuable and needed things in life. Hollywood, please take notes! Less Cinderella, more Frozen. Please.
A fifth but relatively minor theme in this film is aimed at women, and it would never, ever appear in a Hollywood movie. It is this: if you want to be a wife and mother then ditch the masculine approach to life. Embrace femininity. You're a woman, not a man. Understand that there's a difference which goes deeper than breasts and plumbing.
The last but not least theme of this movie is that Buddhism is the Truth, and indeed for the whole film our hero's quest is referred to by him as a quest for "buddhahood." This theme gets louder as the film progresses, and by the end it's not even remotely ambiguous. Obviously I can't get behind this. While Buddhism and the Bible share some basic teachings, the journey is ultimately a very different one with very different destinations.
LIKES
The themes. Dear Lord in Heaven, the themes. See above.
I was pleased to see a female protagonist in a movie who outspokenly wants to be a wife and mother. Rock on, China.
It's always interesting to see stuff that you'd never see in Hollywood movies but isn't offensive (to me, anyway). This film sports a handful of such things, but I can't really say what they are (aside from the wife and motherhood thing above) without spoiling things.
The humor didn't really work for me since it was designed for a very different culture than my own, but I still found it charming. "Amusing" might not be "hilarious," but it's still something.
I love peeking into other cultures and societies and seeing how the rest of the world thinks and lives. It's so refreshing and eye-opening.
Lots of pretty landscape visuals.
DISLIKES
Buddhism taught as the path to Truth. It's not, folks.
I'm all for exaggeration of reality for the sake of humor when it works, but it didn't work too well for me in this movie. I could have done with (much?) less of it.
The humor was all disappointingly low-brow. No subtlety or sophistication here.
I could have done without the few musical numbers.
I could have done without the few musical numbers.
S-L-V CONTENT
I don't recall any profanity in the film, but that doesn't mean there wasn't any. Even so, there obviously wasn't enough to remember!
The violence is all very comical in presentation, but there's still a lot of the red stuff in some scenes.
There was more sexuality here than I'm used to seeing in Chinese movies. No real nudity of course (nudity being a Chinese no-no), but there was a lot of sexual humor, a handful of it about male homosexuality. It was all relatively tame, but it's still what it is. Some of it was rather drawn out. There was also one scene in which a very attractive and sensually dressed woman dances in an explicitly sexual fashion. The scene was comical in nature, and her clothing would be considered modest by Hollywood standards, but she was still pretty hot.
ROB'S FINAL OPINION
3 out of 4 stars - I liked it.
Despite the fantastic themes that seem to beg a higher score from me, 3 out of 4 stars just feels right. The dislikes were comparatively few, but they served as a heavy enough weight.
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