|
Cast:
Yueh
Hua
Ho
Fan
Paang
Paang
Diana
Chang
Fan
Mei Sheng
Kao
Pao Shu
Producer:
Run
Run Shaw
Director:
Ho
Meng Hua
Score:
  
|
THE
MONKEY GOES WEST
AKA:
The Monkey
Year:
1966 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
'The
Monkey Goes West' has to be one of the earliest film
adaptations of the classic 'Journey To The West' novel and as
such, takes a lot of it's queues from the original stage
productions. This is evident in the inclusion of the
occasional outburst of classical Chinese singing and some
noticeably over rehearsed action but this doesn't mean that
this is a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination.
Monk
Tang (Ho Fan) is a legendary holy man charged with the quest
of retrieving the ancient Buddhist scriptures which are
located in the West. The journey ahead of him is fraught
with many dangers which could halt him at every turn but
luckily he encounters a couple of companions along the way
that could prove helpful. The first of these is Monkey (Hua),
who was imprisoned within a mountain after he made a nuisance
of himself up in heaven. Tang instantly recognises the
good within Monkey and decides to free him in the hope that he
can turn over a new leaf. Luckily, Monkey does indeed
repay the Monk's faith in him and chooses to join Tang and
travel with him to the West. As the two newly found
friends continue on their path to righteousness, they come
across the second member of their happy band who manifests
himself as a Pig (Paang). After a few simple tricks from
Monkey, Pig also agrees to join their band and so it is
written that the three travellers will join together in this
sacred expedition. Of course, there are still quite a
few pitfalls along the way but with Monkey and Pig along for
the ride, what could possibly go wrong?
For
those of you with fond nostalgic memories of the television
series 'Monkey!', you will know exactly what to expect from
'The Monkey Goes West'. If however, you are yet to see
that classic small-screen gem, then this is best described as
a fun adventure packed with fascinating characters, lavish
locations and some humourous special effects. This could
of course be said about any of the movie adaptations of this
notorious book but what sets this one apart in particular are
the superb leading actors and the obvious effort put into
making it look as realistic as possible. Shaw stars Hua
and Paang as the infamous folk heroes are hugely enjoyable,
capturing the essence of the original characters to
near-perfection with the aid of minimal make-up. Their
outstanding performances are complemented by the luscious
scenery and the well crafted sets that all help to maintain
the required atmosphere. Sadly though, the film does
fall short of the four star mark, mainly because of the holes
that exist within the story. Even though the script
writers have come up with several cleverly devised scenarios,
they seem to have been devoid of ideas when it came to linking
them together. This has the effect of forcing the
director to drag out certain scenes for far too long and make
them overly tedious when they shouldn't be.
'The
Monkey Goes West', despite my last criticism, is still a fun
film that will appeal to all the family. The amusing
antics of the Monkey and his sidekick Pig always seem to make
for a good film and I am happy to report that this one is no
exception.
|
