The first of four Shaw movies adapting the classic JOURNEY TO THE WEST novel for the screen. This one has Yueh Hua playing the irrepressible Sun Wudong, tasked with accompanying Tripitaka to India to retrieve some Buddhist scrolls. It's a film that adopts a journey narrative with episodic plotting and action, mostly focused around the introduction of supporting characters like the horse and Pigsy. It has some slow spots with Chinese Opera singing and is about 20 minutes too long, but other than that it's probably the best of this series. Watch out for a cheeky Mars at the climax.
Review of The Monkey Goes West
