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The Monkey King
西遊記之大鬧天宮
2014 119 min China, Hong Kong PG-13 12+
★5.5
Action, Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Director: Soi Cheang
🎭 Based on
«Journey to the West»
byWu Cheng'en
Trailers
Description
Sun Wukong is a monkey born from a heavenly stone who acquires supernatural powers. After rebelling against heaven and being imprisoned under a mountain for 500 years, he later accompanies the monk Xuanzang on a journey to India. Thus, according to legend, Buddhism is brought to ancient China.
Budget:
$82M
Worldwide:
$182.21M
Starring
Donnie Yen
Actor
Chow Yun-Fat
Actor
Aaron Kwok
Actor
Awards
1 win & 6 nominations total
Key opinion
The Monkey King: The Legend Begins is a visually ambitious attempt at a large-scale Chinese blockbuster that struggles to balance its technical aspirations with narrative coherence. While the film is recognized for its unique attempt to dramatize the iconic origin story, it is widely hampered by primitive visual effects and a screenplay that alienates traditionalists with its departures from the source material.
| Production | The computer-generated imagery suffers from a cheap, artificial appearance that fails to match the production's ambitious scope. | |
| Adaptation | The screenplay fundamentally undermines the core essence of the original legend by turning the protagonist into a naive puppet and introducing alien thematic concepts. | |
| Acting | Donnie Yen's exaggerated physicality receives mixed reactions; some find his performance an effective capture of the trickster's non-human nature, while others label the overall casting a critical failure. |