Starring Stephen Chow, Ng Man-Tat, Athena Chu, Ada Choi, Yammie Lam Kit-Ying and Karen Mok. Directed by Jeffrey Lau for Color Star Films and Xi’an Film Studio.
Monkey King returns!
Stephen Chow (as Joker) and Athena Chu
Stephen Chow as Monkey King
In this sequel to A CHINESE ODYSSEY PART ONE: PANDORA’S BOX we follow the comedic adventures of Joker/Monkey King (Chow) after he is sent 500 years into the past. Here he once more encounters characters like Longevity Monk and King Bull.
Nice Chinese artwork
In this Hong Kong action-comedy-fantasy flick our hero is torn between two loves in a story that relies on a lot of body-swapping humour, such as when a female character switches bodies with Pigsy (Man-Tat). There’s also a running joke concerning Longevity Monk, who is portrayed as such an insufferably irritating chatterbox that bovine warriors would rather kill themselves than listen to him!
Longevity Monk natters so much this bull guard stabs himself to death!
This time around we’re introduced to Princess Iron Fan (Choi), a bat-eared villain called Old Black Mountain Devil that can sniff away a person’s life, and King Bull’s many minions, who have visages resembling dogs, lizards and birds.
Here are some of King Bull’s animal-faced minions
Old Black Mountain Devil is on the prowl…
…and he tries to sniff Joker’s life-force from his body
With Joker finally becoming Monkey King, he battles King Bull, who uses a magic fan to cause earthquakes and winds, sending the city and everyone within it hurtling towards the sun! Monkey King saves the day, helps the new incarnations of Joker and his lover Zixia find romance, then heads off across the desert with his master.
King Bull!
DVD sleeve
Part two, directed by Jeffrey Lau, who also made OPERATION PINK SQUAD II and SAVIOUR OF THE SOUL, is certainly a mad ride, but A CHINESE ODYSSEY PART ONE: PANDORA’S BOX (also directed by Lau) is funnier, with better-handled set pieces compared to this follow-up.
Directed by Jeffrey Lau, this fantasy-action-comedy stars Stephen Chow, Man-Tat Ng, Yammie Lam, Karen Mok and Kar-Ying Law.
The gang put out the fire by repeatedly stomping on their leader’s groin! Ouch!The soles of Joker’s feet are very hairy!Karen Mok, Stephen Chow and Yammie Lam
Joker (Chow), the rather inept leader of a gang of robbers, is oblivious to the fact that he is actually the Monkey King, who was punished for his bad behaviour and turned into a human 500 years earlier.
Chow appears briefly as the Monkey King at the very start of the movie
The movie begins rather abruptly, as if some of the introduction to this sequence got trimmed down too much, showing the Monkey King disobeying his master, Longevity Monk, and being swiftly chastised for his misdeeds by Guanyin, the Goddess of Happiness. The narrative briskly zips forward hundreds of years and focuses on Joker’s comedic, slapstick encounters with a couple of she-demons, who take over his motley crew of incompetent thieves as they await the arrival of Longevity Monk. You see, these monstrous (and attractive) femmes want to eat some of Longevity Monk’s flesh, which will make them eternal.
One of the she-demons can change into a spider-creature!
Even though the characters are taken from the classic novel ‘Journey to the West’ by WuCheng’en, A CHINESE ODYSSEY PART 1: PANDORA’S BOX has nothing to do with that story.
The late Yammie Lam plays Spider Devil
The earlier portion of the movie is crammed with Chow’s usual blend of earthy humour, pratfalls and slapstick, and is followed by loads of enjoyable fantasy-action situations. These include the woman-demon known as Spider Devil (Yammie Lam) going on a well-mounted rampage after transforming into a long-legged arachnid-monster, Joker inexplicably zooming around the place using his hands instead of his feet, and encounters with King Bull (Luk Shu-Ming), who is a huge, bull-headed dude who can also shrink down to human-size.
The woman-headed spider-demon……she can spit web from her mouth!
Joker gets trapped in a big spiderweb…
…and the arachnid-monster closes-in!Joker escapes from the spiderweb, but the multi-legged demon continues to pursue himKing Bull!
Spider Devil (Yammie Lam) accidentally uses her ‘seductive magic’ on the buffoonish Assistant Master (Man-Tat Ng)
Once the main characters reach the Spider Web Cave, the filmmakers seem to depend too much on the opening and closing of sliding rock doors as a device to propel the plot forward but, on the plus side, we get some fun, oddball moments, such as a fight inside King Bull’s guts, a time loop sequence and an on-off romance between Joker and the demoness Pak Jing-Jing (also known as Boney M), who can turn from a human-looking female into a robed, strange-faced, white-haired being.
Boney M!
Spider Devil shrinks down and enters King Bull’s guts!
A battle amongst the huge intestines!Joker’s head becomes trapped under a sliding door Water gushes from King Bull’s mouth!Red-eyed Boney M!
The film ends just as abruptly as it starts, finishing with some action-packed footage from the second part, A CHINESE ODYSSEY 2: CINDERELLA.
DVD sleeve
When King Bull’s minions are struck with a sword they discharge clouds of smokeAssistant Master and King BullHair-raising antics!Monkey’s servants are encountered in a cave
Okay, let’s have one more look at the cool spider-critter…
The spider-demon is brought to the screen via a full-scale marionette
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