Chihiro Kameyama
R4 DVD
Madman /Eastern Eye
Reviewer:
Jeremy Kong
Monkey
is the story by Wu Ch'êng-ên based on the ancient Chinese legend tracing the
origins of Buddhism. It follows the adventures of the priest (Tripitaka if
you know the old cult favourite) and disciples Pigsy, Sandy and Goku
(Monkey). The movie deals with one of the adventures that they fall into,
during their journey from China to India in search of the holy sutras
(writings) which will save the world.
It
starts as usual with the group trekking their way towards India, fighting with
each other and complaining about lack of food. They end up in the city of
the fierce sounding Tiger People where they discover that there is a prophecy
about "the priest" saving the local rulers. Two evil
goblins, Silver Horn and Gold Horn, have turned the once fertile Tiger Kingdom
into a barren desert, and have turned the King and Queen into turtles.
Princess Rei enlists the help of the travellers to go to the lair of the two
goblins and help return her parents to human form.
What
ensues is a typical Monkey adventure, with all the usual fights, bad jokes, and
bawdy humour - but sadly not as much as was in the 1978 TV series,
Monkey, that we older generation grew up with. As a fan of the TV series, I
came to view this movie with much anticipation, and expectations of a
nostalgic fun-filled couple of hours. Unfortunately, the 2007
"Monkey Magic" just didn't quite get there for me.It started poorly
for me when the opening titles were so dismally boring compared to the 1978
song that you couldn't get out of your head (you are all starting to sing
"funkiest Monkey that ever popped" I bet).
Then, I
found it hard to watch Monkey with bleached blonde hair (OK, so he's the king
of the monkeys and I guess he can colour his hair whatever he wants, but
really). It also really grated on my nerves to hear monkey scream
just about every line he had in the whole movie - there was very little light
and shade to his characterisation.
On
the opposite end of the spectrum, Pigsy turned in a lacklustre
performance. He didn't chase women, he was hardly bawdy at all, and he
never inhaled his food! The Pigsy character is actually supposed to
resemble a pig - he's supposed to be a base, carnal creature. The
director needed to turn down Monkey, and turn up the pig!
The
other characters just didn't seem quite right, either. Sandy just didn't
do anything at all that would indicate he was a river spirit; and the
priest (he is not named Tripitaka in this version) has no opportunity other
than to be colourless. Not only that, these "legendary
fighters" seemed to lack fighting ability, which made for fairly dull
fight scenes, and made me ponder why anyone would seek their help.
Probably
most disappointing of all was that Monkey didn't use his cool "whistle
manoeuvre" to call up his cloud, and when his cloud showed up it was a
wacky coloured LEAF (what the?!) that looked strangely like a surf board during
the flying scenes. Meanwhile, the goblin got a menacingly dark grey cloud
with glowing blue lights (one of the better special effects) - poor Monkey
looked a bit pathetic by comparison!
Other
areas where the movie fell short were the cartoon like sound effects, appalling
green screen special effects (oddly mixed with some reasonable CGI efforts),
and some rather dubious subtitles such as the Silver Goblin saying "What a
schlep" and "Drat" (mind you, at least the sub-titles made me
laugh, as opposed to the rest of the movie). The screenplay had a few
holes, and there were a few characters who were introduced without any
real reason, including one whose sole role was seemingly to provide bodily
noises in an attempt at humour.
I
understand that the director may have wanted to differentiate this movie from
previous versions of the story, but there is differentiation and then
there is also missing the mark completely! I also think the director was
confused about his target market and about what style to use. He's ended up
with an uncomfortable mix of unsophisticated slap-stick, unsubtle humour,
cartoonish features and cartoonish characterisation of Monkey; along with
subdued acting from the rest of the cast.
Despite
its flaws, it was a reasonably enjoyable movie, but fans of the 1978 "Monkey
Magic" series will probably be disappointed. There were none of
the old classic moments, nor any classic-worthy moments, in this movie.
It is probably better suited to 12-14 year olds rather than mature fans.