With an almost Pixarian flair that marries perfectly with an Miyazaki-type of emotional twist, "Monkey King, hero is back" is an uproar in a usually quiet Chinese animation market. Cheap tearjerker, well some of those who have had enough of Hollywood stuff might grumble, but it was wrong to juxtapose "Monkey King, hero is back" to other mainstream American animations, at least not in a Chinese scenario. For the adaptation of the classic Chinese Novel "To the West" this film is a bold departure from the old word- by-word translation that nobody really cares anymore. Monkey King, portrayed as an outcast was only able to pick himself up from words of a little monk. In some way, this was significant as it applies powerfully to the real world. What we are afraid of is nothing but figments of our own fears. The movie deals courageously with the theme of lost. Donned with a old cloth, nothing suggests even a remote element of kingness except his occasional up-hands on small monsters. To put it another way, he was a loser, a pariah who has lost faith in himself. There are a couple of close-up scenes which presented an unusually meticulous and delicate approach to the portrayal of Monkey King's mentality. Few words were being said and yet the emotion rocked us powerfully.
For me personally, the story of Monkey King has always held a special place in my mind since I was young, which I believe applies to many other people who were born in the twenties century China where American and Japanese popular culture had yet made their strides into the quiet and sometimes monotonous Chinese entertainment market. Since all the way back, there has always been Monkey King and the story of "Journey to the West" where fable-like interplays between pigsy, Monkey King, Liuer (who in the book was called tang sen) serve as lessons to Chinese kids, where moral creeds like respecting the elder and knowing thy place insinuate into people heads and ultimately define us as Chinese. Whereas in the movie "Monkey King: hero is back" the Monkey King was the indisputable protagonist, the novel written in Ming Dynasty China focused more on the interplays between different characters where Monkey King was always portrayed as irrational. This definition would carry on in modern Chinese history till now.
There's a sense of powerlessness in the otherwise almighty character. After being locked up under a huge mountain for five hundred years, Monkey King has certainly lost his edge. Worn-out and beaten, his weariness and regret are evermore powerful to Chinese viewers just like American viewers seeing Captain America getting beaten up and driven away. Yet this powerlessness draws us ever closer to the once sacrosanct image. Gone was the Monkey King who were once inscrutable, manically irrational. What appears in front of us instead is an individual swept away in a current he was not longer able to ride on, a person just like us. I could never fail to connect Monkey King with the rest of us, swept away in a social current we had no control of. Beaten up by the mounting expectations and pressures society demand upon us. May not we haven't been locked up under mountains for five hundred years, but we were just as beaten-up and as tired. Then what could we do. Was there a way we could find our younger selves lost during our journey in life?
In the movie, the bracelet that kept Monkey King's power was a metaphor of our inner feeling of lost and powerlessness. The bracelet was shattered not by spells or powerful magics. It was shattered rather by a renewed sense of hope and drive, an edge that most of us have only when we were young, when we were carefree and fearless. The climax seems to resonate well with a sometimes cliché but nevertheless true statement: we are never normal and we have nothing to fear.
I was almost driven to tears during the movie and I rank it the best Chinese animation I've ever seen in my life. Good news is that it will come to US soon, which I anticipate a great deal of. It makes me proud to be able to introduce to my friends something that is not only Chinese but also sheer pleasure.
For me personally, the story of Monkey King has always held a special place in my mind since I was young, which I believe applies to many other people who were born in the twenties century China where American and Japanese popular culture had yet made their strides into the quiet and sometimes monotonous Chinese entertainment market. Since all the way back, there has always been Monkey King and the story of "Journey to the West" where fable-like interplays between pigsy, Monkey King, Liuer (who in the book was called tang sen) serve as lessons to Chinese kids, where moral creeds like respecting the elder and knowing thy place insinuate into people heads and ultimately define us as Chinese. Whereas in the movie "Monkey King: hero is back" the Monkey King was the indisputable protagonist, the novel written in Ming Dynasty China focused more on the interplays between different characters where Monkey King was always portrayed as irrational. This definition would carry on in modern Chinese history till now.
There's a sense of powerlessness in the otherwise almighty character. After being locked up under a huge mountain for five hundred years, Monkey King has certainly lost his edge. Worn-out and beaten, his weariness and regret are evermore powerful to Chinese viewers just like American viewers seeing Captain America getting beaten up and driven away. Yet this powerlessness draws us ever closer to the once sacrosanct image. Gone was the Monkey King who were once inscrutable, manically irrational. What appears in front of us instead is an individual swept away in a current he was not longer able to ride on, a person just like us. I could never fail to connect Monkey King with the rest of us, swept away in a social current we had no control of. Beaten up by the mounting expectations and pressures society demand upon us. May not we haven't been locked up under mountains for five hundred years, but we were just as beaten-up and as tired. Then what could we do. Was there a way we could find our younger selves lost during our journey in life?
In the movie, the bracelet that kept Monkey King's power was a metaphor of our inner feeling of lost and powerlessness. The bracelet was shattered not by spells or powerful magics. It was shattered rather by a renewed sense of hope and drive, an edge that most of us have only when we were young, when we were carefree and fearless. The climax seems to resonate well with a sometimes cliché but nevertheless true statement: we are never normal and we have nothing to fear.
I was almost driven to tears during the movie and I rank it the best Chinese animation I've ever seen in my life. Good news is that it will come to US soon, which I anticipate a great deal of. It makes me proud to be able to introduce to my friends something that is not only Chinese but also sheer pleasure.