journey to the west 1990

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/JourneyToTheWest1996

Series / Journey to the West (1996)

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Journey to the West is a Hong Kong television series adapted from the novel of the same title . Starring Dicky Cheung as Sun Wukong, Kwong Wah as Tang Sanzang, Wayne Lai as Zhu Bajie, and Evergreen Mak as Sha Wujing. The series was produced by TVB and was first broadcast on TVB Jade in Hong Kong in November 1996. A sequel, Journey to the West II, was broadcast in 1998, but the role of Sun Wukong was played by Benny Chan instead, due to contract problems between Dicky Cheung and TVB.

This adaptation is rather loosely based on the novel and has some differences. It contains several new characters from good and bad guys alike which are not present in the novel. While some argue it's not best adaptation due to having few similarities with the novel, it has its own fanbases. Mostly because the series is Lighter and Softer (some hostile characters even go on Adaptational Heroism ), more family-friendly (there are many fans who note this is their favorite tv series in their "childhood"), and contains many Rule of Funny played in most episodes. Though some of which are Black Comedy (such as treated violence as comedy and sometimes in the form of Amusing Injuries suffered by certain characters), it is still favorable.

This series is generally regarded as Dicky Cheung's breakout role .

This series is NOT to be mistaken with Monkey King: Quest for The Sutra , a remake where Dicky reprises his role as Sun Wukong.

This series provides examples of:

Abduction Is Love / And Now You Must Marry Me : White Bone Demon makes an entrance in the series by abducting a human prince and force him to marry her (which he reluctantly complied).
Adaptational Angst Upgrade : The moment when Honghaier atone for his crimes and become Guanyin's companion has more angst because Bull Demon and Princess Iron Fan are present along the time to company their son for some time.
Adaptational Attractiveness : In the novel, Sun Wukong was consistently described as an ugly demon not unlike Lei Gong (Thunder Duke) in facial features. In the adaptation, while he's far from normal-looking by human standards, he doesn't really look frightening. That is, he simply looks like a human covered with long fur.
In the novel when Sha Wujing was first encountered, Sanzang was cowering in a corner while the disciples tried subduing Wujing. In this adaptation, Sanzang was captured by Wujing and was threatened to be eaten by the latter, but Sanzang used his words and knowledge of the Buddhist scriptures to rebuke Wujing, guilt-tripping the demon into surrendering to him without force .
Sanzang with the help of his three disciples subdued the Dream Demon through chanting of the Buddhist scriptures, reverting him back to his Sleep-Mode Size .
Sanzang had a hand in defeating Long Armed Monkey the first time. During the first fight with Sun Wukong, Long Armed Ape Monkey was tricked into destroying Wukong's golden headband which was actually a fake. What really happened was that Wukong and Sanzang collaborated to temporarily remove the real golden headband from Wukong and transfer it to Long Armed Ape Monkey. Sanzang effectively subdued Long Armed Ape Monkey by reciting the curse to cause intense headaches.
The Python Demoness easily overwhelmed Wukong with her magical stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires, because Wukong displayed the sin of anger. Sanzang arrived in time to see Wukong incapacitated. She tried doing the same with Sanzang but it backfired because Sanzang had none of the sins that the magical stone had power over and she was forced to retreat.
This adaptation of the White Bone Demoness is a Composite Character of the novel White Bone Demon and the Yellow Robe Demon. As a result, this version of the White Bone Demoness still survived Wukong's deadly blow by the time Wukong is temporarily banished from the group. And just like the Yellow Robe Demon in the novel, she demonstrated that she can overwhelm both Bajie and Wujing together in a fight, as opposed to the novel's White Bone Demoness who dared not (and never did) fight Sanzang's disciples head on.
While already dangerous in the novel, the Centipede Demon is now able to absorb demonic essence and mimic the appearances and powers of other beings. By the time he openly confronts Wukong, he becomes powerful enough to transform into heavenly deities like Erlang Shen, Guanyin, and even Buddha.
Adaptational Dumbass : Sha Wujing. The novel's Sha Wujing may not be the wittiest of the team of protagonists, but this version portray him as even less intelligent than Zhu Bajie, a character whose vices often overwhelm his thought processes.
The best examples of this trope is Bull Demon King and Princess Iron Fan. In this adaptation they are a bickering married couple with good intentions, who had over the centuries spoiled their son Red Boy. They are apparently Buddhists too (Clearly half-hearted ones, especially for Bull Demon King given his philandering).
The Spider Demonesses in the original are typical monsters seeking to eat Sanzang. In the adaptation, not all of the Spider Demonesses are evil, in particular those who are the focus of the story.
Six-Eared Macaque, who is highly mischievous but innocent and well-intentioned little monkey. After some nasty shit that happens to him, he gets better much later on.
Black Bear Demon, Who becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist .
Sun Wukong during his "stints" in Heaven. This version is friends with various minor deities and is portrayed slightly more sympathetically, willing to shoulder all the punishment by the heavenly courts in exchange for sparing his fellow monkeys.
Zhu Bajie. The novel version is a despicable villain by today's standards. It was implied that Bajie raped his own wife, and also used to eat humans until he was subdued by Wukong and converted to the Buddhist faith. This adaptation portrayed Bajie in a loving relationship with his wife (albeit Bajie was under a fake identity) and completely omitted his cannibalistic past.
White Dragon Horse never eats Sanzang's original (and mortal) horse. Said mortal horse is freed willingly by Sanzang before he met Wukong.
Sun Wukong (After he joined the pilgrimage). Whoever read the original novel will realize that the adaptation omitted many killings that the original Wukong did. In the novel, after Wukong was (temporarily) sent away by Sanzang, he returned home and killed the hunters who had killed his fellow monkeys. Not to mention at the other times during the pilgrimage, he had no qualms killing other demons. As for this version, Wukong had already relatively mellowed out early on. Unlike the novel who only showed mercy when commanded to by higher deities, this version of Wukong had more than once shown mercy or restraint of his own accord.
Zhu Bajie (After he joined the pilgrimage). In the novel, even after conversion to the Buddhist faith, he remained a lustful demon where for instance he intentionally molested the naked Spider Demonesses before attempting to kill them. This adaptation portrayed him as a Casanova Wannabe and played down his encounter with the Spider Demonesses.
Tang Sanzang. He is more noble and less cowardly in this adaptation as compared to the novel's version, and more likable as a character too.
In fact, most of the deities be it from the Taoist or Buddhist pantheon are subjected to this. In the novel, they don't particularly raise more an eyebrow when they see Wukong, Bajie, or practically any other deity freely killing demons without care, justified as the novel portrays demons as Always Chaotic Evil .
Downplayed with this series' White Bone Demoness, who is a Composite Character of the novel's White Bone Demoness and Yellow Robe Demon. Unlike the novel's White Bone Demoness whose goals are unquestionably self-serving, this version had a misguided motivation - To gain a real human form so that she can "love" her husband properly. And for this reason she never (couldn't) raped the kidnapped person who was forced to marry her - An atrocity which the novel's Yellow Robe Demon did commit. Despite this change in personality and motivation, she remained a vicious character, and actually slaughtered more people onscreen as compared to either of the novel's characters.
The actress portraying Princess Iron Fan wasn't ugly by conventional beauty standards, but the character is treated as unattractive by her husband Bull Demon King, giving him an excuse to go out philandering. In the novel, the Princess Iron Fan character is described as a beauty.
Long Armed Ape Monkey in the sequel is derived from Chinese mythological figure who is heroic. While this is present as his backstory, he later becomes Rival Turned Evil .
The Black Bear Demon is one of the few, if not the only Arc Villain from the novel who has been written into a (relatively) bigger threat. This show's Black Bear Demon is an idiot misled by Jin Chi into performing deeds which he had no idea were atrocities . The novel's Black Bear Demon on the other hand was completely uninvolved in any plot to harm anyone. In fact, his original intention when he dropped by the burning monastery was to see if there's anyone he could rescue. His one and only crime was stealing and keeping Sanzang's kasaya for himself after his greed was triggered by its sight.
The Three Kings of Lion Camel Cave. Their goals, motivations, and the general plot were completely altered. In the original novel, they are crafty and greatly feared villains seeking to eat Tang Sanzang, whom Wukong can't defeat by himself. In the 1998 Hong Kong TVB Adaptation, they are a trio of cowardly glory hounds, and are barely a match for Bajie even when fighting together. In fact, other than usage of the characters, none of their personalities and nothing of the story came from the novel .
Yellow Brows Great King, whose role was completely altered and became the de facto subordinate of the Long Armed Ape Monkey, nothing more .
Zhu Bajie himself. In the novel, he can at least put up a fight against many demons. In fact, Sun Wukong teamed up with Bajie more than once to fight their opponents. In this adaptation, Bajie became close to a complete pushover the likes of Wujing. Outside of his original Tianpeng incarnation, Bajie only had ONE notably good fight in the entire series, and that was his first encounter with Wukong (and he still lost anyway).
In the novel, the Bull Demon King is more or less Sun Wukong's equal and is capable of matching Wukong's own game of impersonation. In this adaptation, Wukong defeats him handily.
Guanyin is shown to have had far more influence on Wukong's life than in other adaptations, to the point where she could be considered to be Wukong's surrogate mother throughout his childhood.
In the novel, Long Armed Ape Monkey was just a name listed out by Buddha as one of the four Spiritual Primates, of which Sun Wukong and the Six Ear Macaque are part of. In this series, he made an actual appearance and is the main antagonist of a particularly long story arc in Season 2.
The merging of the Ginsengfruit story arc with the Golden and Silver Horned Kings story arc resulted in the Ginsengfruit demons becoming the new Golden and Silver Horned Kings in this series. These Ginsengfruit demons directly originated from Ginsengfruits and so logically speaking they don't have parents. However, the scene involving the Golden and Silver Horned Kings' mother was still retained in this adaptation, which doesn't make sense.
Wukong, Bull Demon King, and Princess Iron Fan are childhood friends who studied under the same master. Many of the skills Wukong would have, including invisibility were secretly taught to him by his fellow classmates, who would also grow up to become major demigods or servants of Heaven that later help out the protagonists.
Bajie turns out to be indirectly responsible for Wukong's Adaptational Heroism . As a result, the high reverence he achieved for his deed would eventually lead to his fall from grace and transformation into a pig monster.
Wujing and Yulong were found and recruited together.
In the first arc of second season, there's a character who is loose adaptation of Six-Eared Macaque and nicknamed as "Little Monkey" who suffers Involuntary Shapeshifting into a Great Ape Demon, and if someone trying to drown him into water, instead of drown to his demise, he will transform into a Demonic Dragon who looks nothing like a Chinese Dragon and more resembles a Western Dragon.
In the same arc, while inspecting said dragon, Bajie inexplicably used telescope , which didn't exist until 1600s. Although being Bajie, this is played for comedy in an otherwise tense situation.
Also in the same arc, the Eagle Immortal's daughter sings Odoru Ponpokorin - the Chibi Maruko-chan OP - to lure Six-Ear Macaque's monstrous form into the seas.
Angel Unaware : Guanyin loves disguising herself as a human to give Secret Test of Character to other characters.
Antagonistic Offspring : Snow Demoness was a fairy who is also Jade Emperor's second daughter.
Apologetic Attacker : In any (few) instances when Sha Wujing gets to kick ass againt much weaker demons, he'll offer prayers as an apology for the lives he's taking. Notably when Bajie (empowered by Gods sent by Wukong) is fighting the White Bone Demon, with Wujing leading a raid on the Demon's lair to find Sanzang, praying while he kills his way past lesser demons.
Artifact of Doom : Season 2 has a set of cursed Golden Bracelets as the main antagonist of a chapter, found by a benevolent porcupine demoness and her boyfriend, an equally-lawful lion demon, in the ruins of a destroyed village. The bracelet managed to corrupt the lion demon when he puts it on, turning him into an evil, unstoppable villain until Wukong and Bajie managed to trick him into removing the bracelet, but then the bracelet corrupts Wukong instead. Eventually Guanyin descends from the heavens to intervene, where she reveals said bracelet is a cursed artifact that once destroyed a neighboring kingdom by corrupting it's king and prince.
Ash Face : What Bajie and Wujing had gotten in the last story arc of the first season. Wukong found an explosive meant to kill him and the rest of the protagonists. He casually put up a magic shield to cover himself and also protect the very vulnerable Sanzang, but did not bother to do so for Bajie and Wujing . This trope was justified given that Bajie and Wujing are demons who are far more durable than any normal human.
Asleep, Not Meditating : Basically what triggered the Journey to the West. Tang Sanzang's previous incarnation, the Golden Cicada had shown disrespect in a Buddhist congregation with Buddha by falling asleep. Buddha was especially displeased since the Golden Cicada is his disciple, and thus punished him by sending him to be reincarnated for the pilgrimage.
The Assimilator : Long Armed Ape swallowed a demonic pill that gave him the ability to swallow someone and obtain their powers. If the person isn't regurgitated in time, they would perish and be digested.
Attack the Injury : The Long Armed Ape, in his final, most powerful form after ingesting the Crow Demon's pet sacred elephant, only has a single weak spot - a scar on the sole of his foot. Unfortunately, the Ape decides to plant his foot into the ground while Sun Wukong, the Bull Demon, the Crow Demon and Princess Iron Fan concentrate all their attacks, to no avail. Wukong managed to exploit the Long Armed Ape's weak spot by tunneling underground and attacking the scar .
The Atoner : In the final saga, the heroes meet six demons from previous sagas who attempt to atone themselves.... with limited success, as they're still misguided somehow. They are two Spider Demonesses (En En and her mother, who aren't really evil to begin with), White Bone Demoness (genuine evil threat in the first season), Black Bear Demon (who is still misguided even after becoming Guanyin's disciple), and Elephant Demon/Yellow Toothed Elephant and Lion Demon/Azure Lion (two Ineffectual Sympathetic Villains from second season's first saga). In the climax, Python Demon Queen brainwashed three of them (En En, White Bone, and Black Bear) to make them attack the protagonists and other unbrainwashed demons, so Wukong is forced to kill them.
Bad with the Bone : The White Bone Demoness fights using a three-sectioned nunchuck made from femurs.
Big Brother Bully : Wukong to Bajie, but this grew to become Vitriolic Best Buds eventually. Also Bajie to Wujing, although this is mostly Played for Laughs with Bajie constantly scolds Wujing's stupidity and Fearless Fool persona.
Big Brother Mentor : Wukong to Little Monkey.
Big Eater : SUPPOSED to be Zhu Bajie's defining trait but downplayed for this adaptation. This adaptation focuses on his Casanova Wannabe personality, merely making passing references to Bajie's big appetite.
Big Fun : Bajie.
Bird-Poop Gag : In the first episode, when the defeated Wukong is sentenced to be trapped under the Five Fingers Mountain for several years... at one point he tries sticking his tongue out to catch some rainwater, but then an eagle flies pass and drops a doodoo.
Tianpeng (who later became Zhu Bajie) was punished by Heaven, and was forced to experience 1000 reincarnations of ill-fated love. He quickly grew sick and tired of these experiences. He was in his 500th or so reincarnation before he was rescued and recruited into Sanzang's team, but before that, his tragic lives shown on-screen were mostly played as a form of black comedy. For instance, his first reincarnation ended abruptly, when he was dropped on the floor as a baby - his aunt carrying him was shocked that the baby was able to talk (he complimented her on her beauty).
Bodyguard Babes : Python Demon Queen has several female demons as bodyguards/handmaidens.
Book Ends : The Spider Demonesses story arc. Spider Demoness Shishi was sentenced to death via fire but her scholar husband Yushu refused to accept it, and carried her to perish in the fire together, although Shishi inadvertently survived. The arc ended with a reincarnated Yushu (as a Centipede Demon) sentenced to death via fire, but Shishi carried Yushu to perish in the fire together, this time killing both for real.
Boomerang Bigot : Sun Wukong towards most fellow demons he came cross. Interestingly, this adaptation does focus on this aspect of his character throughout the first season, especially the Spider Demonesses' saga. Even after his Character Development , traces of his bigotry remains throughout the series.
Bowdlerise : It was strongly implied that the Spider Demonesses (with the possible exception of the Matriarch, En En, and Si Si) lured young men into having sex with them, stealing their youth in the process note This is pretty consistent with the Chinese traditional belief that sex drains the male's "Yang" . For obvious reasons it can't be shown on-screen, but there seemed to be further executive meddling on the dialogue itself, since the Spider Demoness' agenda were never directly referenced. What was only shown were scenes of them attempting to seduce Sanzang, as well as scenes of old men claiming to be young men walking about the villages. This is in some ways odd especially considering Zhu Bajie's overt lust is more obvious but yet his scenes avoided the cut from censors.
After the intense arc with the White Bone Demon, a cunning adversary who nearly tore the heroes apart from within, the following chapter is a two-parter in the Kingdom of Chechi where the villains - the Tiger, Deer and Goat Demons - are a bumbling Terrible Trio constantly outwitted by Wukong, and gets taken out one at a time in the second part.
The arc with Yu-Shu, the Centipede Demon who actually handed Wukong a Curb-Stomp Battle with a depressing Bittersweet Ending (with En-En and Shi-Shi, two good Spider-Demons on the side of the heroes tragically dying, though En-En got better as Season 2 reveals) is followed by the mostly dramatic and light-hearted chapter in the Land of Many Perfumes.
Fighting the Golden and Silver Horned Kings who uses their magical weapons, among which is the Magical Gourd. This story's Bookends comes from the Ginsengfruits story arc though.
Crossing the river where the Fish Demon (Who demands yearly human sacrifices) resides
Fighting Tai Sui, who wields magical bells as a weapon, in the Kingdom of Zhuzi
The 10-episode arc with the Long Armed-Ape Monkey is easily the most perilious chapter in both seasons, with Wukong actually defeated and stripped of his powers, the gods refusing to intervene, and Wukong forced to regain his powers in order to save his master and friends after a Humiliation Conga . The next chapter on the other hand is a 4-episode arc dealing with Jin-Chi the charlatan monk and his bumbling attempts at stealing Sanzhang's Holy Robes, with the main threat, the Bear Demon, nowhere as powerful or as dangerous.
Brilliant, but Lazy : Bajie, even after undergoes many impressive Character Development , he is still infamously lazy. Other than this, he is also Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass and Cowardly Lion / Lovable Coward .
Brought Down to Badass : The beginning of Season 1 featuring the birth of the Stone Monkey (who later became Sun Wukong). The Stone Monkey started as a giant ape causing destruction but Tianpeng subdued him by cutting off part of his tail, sharply reducing his aggressiveness (and his power too). Not that its a bad thing, because while Wukong as a giant ape is utterly near unstoppable, he's also completely wild, unintelligent, and cannot be reasoned with.
Wukong loses his powers and his confidence for a period after he was defeated by Long Armed Ape, but recovered them in time for a final rematch.
Erlang temporarily gave up his power (and Third Eye ) to save his mother.
Zhu Bajie throughout the entire 2 seasons, either be it his own misfortune or from Wukong's antics. It's difficult to say that he doesn't deserve most of the show's abuse though, one can argue its karma at work.
Earth Deity is repeatedly abused for laughs. It's only until Long Armed Ape Monkey starts abusing him as well that it stops being funny.
Camp Straight : Though he remains Casanova Wannabe , Bajie increasingly becomes more flamboyant in the second season. He even at one point wore pink clothing.
Canine Companion : Celestial Hound for Erlang.
Canon Foreigner : There are some original characters, namely Dream Demon, Crow Demon, Snow Demon, etc. Dream Demon is argubly a Freddy Krueger ripoff .
Casanova Wannabe : This adaptation emphasizes on this trope for Bajie, even more so than his Big Eater and Lovable Coward personality.
Dicky Cheung's portrayal of Wukong has a habit of boastfully bragging, "What's there to be scared of?"
Bajie often melodramatically recites an excerpt from a favorite poem of his. As part of a Black Comedy , his heaven-mandated reincarnations always recite the same catch phrase just before they passed on.
Honghaier arc with Bull Demon arc
White Bone Demoness with Yellow Robe Demon arc. White Bone Demoness is also a composite of the original White Bone Demoness and the Yellow Robe Demon.
Ginsengfruit arc with Golden and Silver Horned Kings arc.
Sanzang's origin story with the Kingdom of Wuji story arc, with a pair of Rhino demons in place of the original lion demon as antagonist.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute : If not being composed, then there are new characters who assume novel characters' role. For example, Immortal Ruyi, Bull Demon's brother from the novel, is not present. He is replaced by Bull Demon's niece who is called as "Bull Girl".
Cool Old Guy : Earth Deity, who is also resident Butt-Monkey . There's also Jiang Ziya, Erlang's mentor, who takes a pity on Erlang's mother.
Queen Mother of the West is more of a Reasonable Authority Figure than her son, Jade Emperor, for the most part.
Spider Demoness Matriarch is also a kind and harmless old lady who befriends the protagonists.
Crosscast Role : Nezha and Red Boy are supposed to look like preteen boys but in this series they are portrayed rather unconvincingly by female actors in their early twenties!
The series' first arc depicting Sun Wukong's rampage across heaven ends with Wukong confronting Rulai the great Buddha, who defeats Wukong in an instant. Leading to Wukong's Break the Haughty moment before his Character Development to become a better person.
Sun Wukong battling the Red Boy, who earns a power upgrade turning his flames into Samadhi Fire, Wukong's greatest weakness. Cue Wukong getting incinerated alive to the point he gets reverted to Sleep-Mode Size . In the novel it happens a little differently, in that Wukong's weakness is the smoke from the fire and by escaping into the water, his powers were reduced and thus nearly killed him.
The Centipede Demon near the end of the first season, who can transform into a variety of forms, including Rulai. Cue a repeat of the curb-stomping from the first season.
In season 2, the second battle between Wukong and the Long Armed Ape, after the latter had absorbed the powers of the Bull Demon, the Crow Demoness, Princess Iron Fan, and the Crow's immortal elephant pet, which ends badly for Wukong.
The White Bone Demoness adaptation is the arc where the team of protagonists deteriorated to their worst state. Wukong was sent away by Sanzang while Bajie also left the team in favour of settling down. Under the White Bone Demoness' machinations, Bajie accidentally killed Wujing while Sanzang was imprisoned and tortured. At this stage, it was revealed the White Bone Demoness has slaughtered almost all the humans involved in the story including the princess. Dragon Horse sacrificed his own life to buy time for Bajie to seek help on rescuing their master. Bajie's last resort was to ask Wukong for help but it seemed that even Wukong was killed in that rescue attempt note As if the writers would really do that , leaving Bajie alone......
Demoted to Dragon : Dream Demon, who becomes one of Python Demon Queen's dragons in the second season. He's also the only male, as the Queen's other dragons are female .
Divine Date : Erlang's father is a human while his mother is a fairy (who disguise herself as a human). We learn about their love story in one story arc in the second season.
Divine Parentage : Erlang is demigod from his mother's side.
Dumb Muscle : The Black Bear Demon, a pretty strong antagonist (Bajie and Wujing together are no match for him) but a complete idiot who gets easily misled by his master Jinchi on Buddhist concepts. Basically, try to imagine Sun Wukong with the naivety and intelligence (or lack thereof) of this TV version of Sha Wujing.
Engineered Heroics : In the second season, this is the entire schtick of Jin-Chi the Monk and the Bear Demon, who turns out to be Jin-Chi's apprentice and loyal follower. In order to maintain a noble image, Jin-Chi will have the Bear Demon attacking villages before coming to the rescue, using his Holy Powers to drive the Demon away and then be rewarded with alms and offerings from the grateful villagers. The worst thing is that the Bear Demon, being deceived by the Monk, actually believes he's doing a good deed by spreading the holy words of enlightenment.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas : Ginsengfruit Demon Siblings really care about their mother. They hate Wukong for killing their mother.
Ginsengfruit Demon Siblings really care for each other. There are also Long Armed Ape Monkey and Python Demon Queen who undergo Unholy Matrimony . Much of the Snake Demoness' vendetta towards Wukong and the pilgrims is driven by her vengeance after Wukong killed the Long-Armed Ape, and in the final season, upon realizing the Long-Armed Ape had reformed, the Snake Demoness decide to turn over a new leaf as well .
The Rhino Demon who condemned the Kingdom of Wuji to a never-ending drought was eventually subdued by Wukong and punished by the Gods, sentenced to menial labor where he must dig a river with his bare hands for 30 years to atone for his sins. However the Rhino's son - himself a demon - pleads for the gods to punish him instead, saying his father is too old and volunteers to take his father's place. The gods obliged, saying they can take turns and dig 15 years each.
Evil Aunt : Snow Demon, who was once Second Fairy Xueyao Bingqing, sister of Erlang's mother. He easily curb-stomped her when they fought.
Evil Counterpart : In this adaptation, its not Six Eared Macaque that is Wukong's evil counterpart but Long Armed Ape instead (Both of their storyline also takes up significant portions of the second season). Long Armed Ape even deliberately replicate some of the actions that Wukong did in his earlier days in an effort to prove that he is better .
Evil Is Deathly Cold : Snow Demoness is actually a subversion. She's more misguided by her anger towards her father, Jade Emperor.
Evil Laugh : The antagonists in the series often do this.
Face of a Thug : Wujing.
Fallen Hero : Long Armed Ape Monkey in the second season. His lover, Python Demon Queen, counts as well, since she was once a Sparrow Fairy who helped many people.
Fantastic Racism : Sun Wukong is wary of most demons he encounters in the pilgrimage, and even for those that don't pose a threat he's still a JerkAss to them. Contrast this with his reactions when he encounter any random human on the road, and this trope becomes obvious. Of course, there's various exceptions where he's friendly with demons and he's a jerk to humans but those are in the minority: These demons were ones he personally knew and the humans he's a jerk to are antagonizing him.
"Fantastic Voyage" Plot : There's one instance in each season, with Sun Wukong shrinking himself microscopic-sized to enter Princess Iron Fan's stomach and co-erce her into giving up her titular fan (lifted from the novels and a few prior adaptations), and later on Wukong and Bajie doing the same to help a king who's long-suffering from constipation (an original plotline made up for the series).
Faux Action Girls : Two sisters of Ginsengfruit Demon siblings. Even Bajie overwhelms them easily and they need their brother's rescue to defeat Bajie.
Fearless Fool : Sha Wujing, and he realizes it, too.
Fireball Eyeballs : Wukong sports fiery cornea when he gains his iconic "Fire-Eye" abilities in the first season, and whenever he activates said ability his eyeballs will become fiery orbs. The same thing happens in the second season when Wukong lose all his powers to the Long Armed Ape.
Flying Saucer : Sun Wukong was caught in a set of Golden Cymbals in the second season, but managed to summon his flying cloud from inside (by sweating a lot and using his evaporated sweat as steam - long story) and escape, Golden Cymbals and all. According to the narrator, Wukong's escape in the cymbals is mistaken as an alien saucer, and the source of the flying saucer mythos .
Forced Transformation : Happens to Sanzang into a black bear, courtesy of White Bone Demoness.
Foreshadowing : Wukong and Sanzang reminiscence the past about their initial meeting, where Sanzang recites the headband curse to get Wukong to submit to him. This happens right before the first battle between Sun Wukong and Long Armed Ape Monkey, with retrospect it hints of how Long Armed Ape Monkey would be initially defeated.
Freeze-Frame Bonus : Only noticeable if one focuses his attention on a select few characters in the crowd - During the group march to the Leiyin Temple in the finale there's a couple of brief shots of the repentant Python Demoness, whose head was shaven like that of a nun, accompanying the protagonists. The actress was clearly wearing a cheap bald cap though.
Frontline General : Erlang for Heaven, and Wukong for his own people.
Gaia's Vengeance : Invoked in the Spider Demonesses story arc. When Wukong seek advice from Guan Yin on how to deal with the Centipede Demon (who had grown to a power level that he might not be a match for), she essentially replied that nature will take care of business. Indeed, just when the protagonists are overwhelmed, a vengeful Chicken Demon brought his chickens along to attack. The Centipede Demon easily knocked out the Chicken Demon but had problems fighting off the ordinary chickens. The chickens proved to be the demon's true weakness, hindering him just enough for Wukong to deal him a mortal blow.
Gender Bender : Guanyin, in her backstory, was a male human, who was even married to a human woman.
Giant Foot of Stomping : The first story arc in second season is about how Sanzang has a dream where he's stomped and crushed to death by Great Ape Demon. Since he's a holy man, most if not all of his dreams are Prophetic Dream , so it will eventually happen. Thankfully, in reality when it did happen, Wukong interrupts and saves him.
God Is Inept : The Taoist pantheon, as par for the course for an adaptation of a novel with anti-Taoist leanings. The show proposes that Buddhism offers the best solution to alleviate suffering, with the Taoist pantheon portrayed as indifferent to mankind while the Buddhist pantheon is portrayed with far better dignity. And of course, Wukong treats almost every member of the Buddhist pantheon with utmost respect and is subservient to them, while for the Taoist pantheon, even at his most respectful moments he still puts himself as their equal.
God's Hands Are Tied : In Season 2, after Wukong suffered a Curb-Stomp Battle in the hands of the Long Armed-Ape Monkey who then traps the main characters in a hellish wasteland, demanding them to surrender, Wujing tries getting assistance from the gods, only to be turned down - they have relied on the help of Gods like Guanyin and Rulai far too many times throughout the series, now they must rely on themselves.
God Save Us from the Queen! : Demon Realm is led by Python Demon Queen.
Gold and White Are Divine : Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. Whenever she appears as a deity, she's illuminated by a powerful golden aura while serene Buddhist music (her Leitmotif ) plays in the background.
The Good King : For all his faults, Wukong genuinely cares about the safety of his subjects, and requests that they be returned home and spared while he faces his punishment.
Green-Eyed Monster : Long Armed Ape was originally a heroic monkey demon whose jealousy of Sun Wukong turned him into Wukong's evil counterpart.
Harmless Freezing : Snow Demoness abducts Sanzang by non-lethally freezing him before taking him away.
Honorary Uncle : Due to being childhood friends in this version, Bull Demon King introduces Wukong to his son as one. Honghaier is incredulous over having a monkey as his uncle.
Hypocrite : Bull Demon King, known for his adultery, was pretty angry when he mistakenly believed his wife cheat on him.
Impostor-Exposing Test : When an absurdly powerful Centipede Demon takes on the form of Sanzang, resulting in having two identical Sanzangs much to the confusion of his disciples, Wukong, Bajie and Wujing. After Wukong's X-Ray visions failed to expose the fake Sanzang from the real one (a trick which worked 99 out of 100 times in the past - the Centipede Demon is just that good of a shapeshifter) the trio decides to quiz the two Sanzangs on their past adventures, leading to a nice Continuity Cavalcade that Call Backs on the previous chapters, with questions like, "Who is my (Wukong) brother-in-arms in my training days?" note Answer : The Bull Demon. "Where did we first met when I (Bajie) pretended to be a rich nobleman?" note Answer : The Ko's Residence "What did you write in the palm of my (Wujing) hands in the bottom of the River of Sands?" note Answer : The word "Buddha" "Who defeated me (Wukong) in battle and reverted me back to monkey form?" note Answer : The Red Boy "In which country did I (Bajie) become a prince?" note Answer : The Kingdom of the Sacred Elephant "What is my (Wujing) occupation in my previous life, a hundred years ago, before my exile from heaven?" note Answer : The Jade General … to the horror of Wukong, Bajie and Wujing, BOTH Sanzangs answered all twenty or so of their questions correctly , making them realize the Centipede Demon is likely a mind reader and far more powerful enemy than they've previously faced.
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain : In this adaptation, the Three Kings of Lion Camel Cave are thoroughly portrayed as a trio of cowardly jerkasses who could barely fight back Bajie physically. Their quest for power, wealth and fame repeatedly suffered miserable failures, be it easily defeated by Wukong and sent packing, or having their plans going out of control and forcing them to run away yet again.
Notably, as the Long Armed Ape saga drags on, it no longer has anything to do with the original Fake Leiyin Temple plot other than the Yellow Brows Great King character who is a mere grunt in this adaptation.
The Real/Fake Sun Wukong saga had absolutely nothing to do with any impersonator of Sun Wukong, the closest it gets are brief misunderstandings at the beginning due to Sanzang's prophetic nightmares (Sanzang dreamt that a Giant Ape demon that resembles Wukong will kill him). The "Fake Sun Wukong" was Six Eared Macaque, who didn't even impersonate anyone in this adaptation.
The final saga for the protagonists in the second season isn't even part of the novel at all, they are merely lifting story ideas from various sources such as The Monkey's Paw and Stephen Chow's Journey to the West movie (The 1990s version).
Erlang's parents. His father is a human, his mother is a fairy / goddess.
Long Armed Ape and Python Demon Queen.
Bull Demon King and Crow Demoness (the only among Bull King's mistresses that Princess Iron Fan accepts as his second wife).
Involuntary Shapeshifting : Wukong in his birth in first season. In second season, we have Little Monkey who undergoes this after eating a poisoned food, which not actually hurt him, but instead make him REALLY ANGRY. It is his anger who involuntarily shapeshifts him into a Great Ape Demon.
Sun Wukong, until character development by the end of the Spider Demonesses' story arc where he becomes more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold .
Red Boy the son of Bull Demon King and Iron Fan Princess, is arguably the most annoying character in the first season.
Kill and Replace : Golden and Silver Horned Kings are present, but never met the protagonists. It is because they are killed by Ginsengfruit Demon Siblings, and then two of the oldest siblings replace them as new Golden and Silver Horned Kings.
Lady Land : The Woman Country. Interestingly, most of them seem to be asexual (and if one, such as Flying Tiger General, falls in love with a man, it's portrayed to be an unusual case, although not necessarily forbidden) and they can procreate by drinking water from a magical well to be a Truly Single Parent .
Lemony Narrator : The narrator often passionately describes the events as if he's part of the audience rooting for the protagonists.
Wukong sparing the hunters who killed his followers, as opposed to the original who wiped them out in revenge
The novel's part where Wukong killed the robbers that represent his six senses was completely omitted
Stories involving genocide were either reduced in intensity or completely omitted
A few characters who were originally antagonists became either comedic nuisances or eventually befriended the 4 protagonists, notably the Spider Demonesses and the Black Bear demon.
Some (but not all) of the antagonists who seek to eat Sanzang had their original motivations changed to something much less darker. The Spider Demonesses are the earliest example in this series, where not all of them are evil, and even the ones that are evil don't eat humans but steal the youth from young men who were successfully lured into having sex with them. Also later on, the Three Kings of Lion Camel Cave applies too, who were reduced into incompetent glory hounds from their novel version of man-eating demons.
The ending of the White Bone Demoness story arc. Bajie swore to serve his master faithfully for the remainder of the journey, effectively and forever abandoning his "Hero" fake identity and lover Princess. He took one last sorrowful look at the Wanted posters of his fake identity before cheerfully exposing his real face to the public and moving on to catch up with his teammates .
Loophole Abuse : In the second season's Darkest Hour ; Sun Wukong decides to surrender himself to the Long Armed Ape and sacrifice all his powers, and in return the Long Armed Ape will regurgitate every sentient being he swallowed. The villain agrees, and releases the Bull Demon, Crow Demon and Princess Iron Fan... but kept his most powerful victim, the Sacred Elephant Ting-di, inside himself. His reasoning? The Long Armed Ape agrees to release sentient beings, and the elephant, while sacred, doesn't count.
Bajie's unrequited love for Chang'e. This also gets him to be punished by experiencing many lives as mortal to suffer any kind of Love Hurts , including but not limited to unrequited loves, forbidden loves (one of them is even incestuous love!), adulteries, and many others.
En En's unrequited love for Wukong.
Flying Tiger General's (the general of Woman Country) unrequited love for Sanzang. She got over it, eventually.
Little Sparrow's unrequited love for Wukong. She got over it, eventually.
Long Armed Ape Monkey and Python Demon Queen after the former's death (and reincarnation into a monk, who rejects her advance when she wants them to reunite).
Guanyin was a male human, whose wife loves him and is deeply saddened once Guanyin seemingly died when s/he actually has ascended to a higher plane of existence and become the Guanyin we know today.
Losing Your Head : The second challenge of Chechi country requires Sun Wukong and the Deer Demon to be decapitated , and survive as long as needed. As magical beings turns out both Wukong and the Demon can continue moving around sans a cranium, until Wukong sneakily turns one of his clones into a dog and steal the Demon's severed head. Which ends up killing the Demon, who then turns into a headless deer. Deer Demon : Reattach head. Reattach head. I said reattach head ! What's going on? Sun Wukong : [ whispering to Bajie ] His head's not coming back. I just turned a copy of myself into a dog and stole it. Deer Demon : Reattach... aaaargh!!!! [ transforms into a headless deer carcass ]
The story arc in Woman Country. Was it real or just a dream ?
Sanzang's teaching/prayers can sometimes feel like this. Literally how did that giant spider appear before Wujing's eyes and how did painting a word on it also caused that same word to appear on Wujing's stomach? An illusion or some special "Buddha magic" that Sanzang knew? On a similar vein, Sanzang's praying managed to subdue the Dream Demon early in Season 1 and also deflect the mind-control spell cast by the Python Demoness in the season 2 finale.
Mistaken for Cheating : Due to Crow Demoness' manipulation, Bajie is set up to sleep with her note They never actually had sex, the Crow Demoness just made it look like as if they did because she finds Bajie too repulsive to sleep with , who disguise herself as Princess Iron Fan, so Bull Demon King will think his wife cheat on him.
Mister Seahorse : Happened to the four protagonists in Woman Country after they accidentally drank from a magical well that is usually used by people of Woman Country to procreate. In the original novel, only Sanzang and Bajie became this.
Ms. Fanservice : Some female demons. Most notably are spider demons (exclude the matriarch, who is elderly, and En En, who is considered a child by other characters) who are introduced via Furo Scene .
Morality Pet : Erlang's is his mother. The first time audiences can see that Erlang is really a good guy is when we learn about his mother.
Wujing is not exactly happy to realize he only had himself to blame for his cannibalism.
Bajie attempted suicide after he accidentally killed Wujing. He felt just as bad when the Dragon Horse revealed to him that the Black Bear who Bajie beaten up and tried to kill was actually his own master .
My Species Doth Protest Too Much : Most of the Spider Demonesses regularly seduce young men to steal their youth during the trysts. The trio who accompanies the protagonists during that story arc are apparently the exception: The Mother Spider Demoness, elder sister Si Si and younger sister En En. The Mother Spider is only concerned about family and unity, Si Si is faithful only to Yushu and searches for his reincarnation, and En En is merely bratty.
Mystical White Hair : Snow Demoness is white-haired.
Never My Fault : Long Armed Ape exhibits this trope, even in his death.
Obliviously Evil : The Black Bear Demon, due to his own idiocy as well as poor guidance from the elder monk Jinchi, had an atrocious interpretation of Buddhist concepts/parables such that his deeds are well-intentioned but wrong and at times even harmful. To the protagonists he was initially a mere comedic nuisance who continually pester them in order to get Sanzang's beautiful kasaya. However, when Jinchi decided to self-immolate out of shame (for being exposed as a greedy man hankering after Sanzang's kasaya), the Black Bear Demon concluded that he must bring in more spectators (innocent ones) and set them on fire together with Jinchi, the rationale being that killing these folks would end their suffering quicker and bring them closer to Buddha. These turn of events alarmed the protagonists enough to call for Guan Yin's help to stop him.
Obstructive Bureaucrat : The Heavenly Court, but most notably Erlang Shen.
Our Dragons Are Different / Dragons Are Divine : Some characters can transform into a Chinese Dragon. Notable examples are the Dragon Kings, Subhuti, and Xueliang (Erlang's mother, who is also a fairy). Subhuti also has a golden-colored Chinese Dragon as a pet.
After Bajie guilt-trip him, Nezha allows himself to be defeated by Wukong and Bajie so they can protect depowered Erlang and his mother from being captured by Li Jing (Nezha's father).
Princess Iron Fan, known for her Clingy Jealous Girl and Yandere personality, eventually accepts Crow Demoness to be her husband's second wife.
The Phoenix : Peng Demon/Golden Winged Great Peng's ancestor in the second season is a Fenghuang who once rescued Queen Mother of the West with Heroic Sacrifice . This Heroic Lineage makes him arrogant.
Psychopathic Man- and Womanchild : Ginsengfruit Demon siblings.
Race-Name Basis : For most of the demons. The only demons given a non-indicative name are the protagonists (Wukong, Bajie, Wujing) and the three spider demonesses who temporarily accompanied them in the first season.
The adaptation of Sun Wukong's three attempts in attacking the White Bone Demoness, which was surprisingly faithful to the original.
In the first attempt, he was defeated by Wukong, albeit with the help of Sanzang and Bull Demon King. Sanzang temporarily transferred the golden headband to Long Armed Ape Monkey's head and incapacitated him with the magical curse, allowing Bull Demon King to tie him up.
In the second attempt, he obtained power absorbing magic but was too hasty in re-challenging Wukong. He suffered Power Incontinence from swallowing too many victims in too short a time and Wukong took opportunity of his moment of weakness to beat him to within an inch of his life and forced him to regurgitate his victims in time.
In the third attempt, he had recovered from near-death and also fully mastered his new absorbing powers with the help of the Python Demoness. The additional powers he stolen made him practically invincible and Wukong was forced to surrender.
Satire : Very downplayed when compared to the novel note The novel has strong anti-Taoist/pro-Buddhist themes and can be interpreted as a satire of the contemporary corruption in ancient China . For the most part the series either interpreted the satirical scenes unironically or omitted them altogether. The only satirical scene faithfully adapted was that of the Chechi story arc: It involved Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing disrespecting the Taoists' worship altars by making a mess and eating their offerings. When the demon Taoist Priests believed that the gods have responded at last and pleaded for an elixir of immortality, the protagonists pranked the Priests by passing off their own urine as the elixir before running away.
Screw Destiny : This is basically the reason for the four protagonist to backtrack as far as Chang'an (read: Sanzang's starting point in his journey) to rescue Tang Dynasty from their ill-fated destruction by Great Ape Demon as a punishment for them being arrogant with their superiority. Even Guanyin told them it's not the heroes' duty to stop the demon because even she thought Tang Dynasty was beyond saving, which says something when even the Goddess of Mercy herself said that. The protagonists' other reason is because the Great Ape Demon is really just an innocent Little Monkey and they don't want him to be a murderous monster.
Secret Test of Character : One that failed for Jin Chi when Guan Yin was assessing him as a possible candidate for the titled pilgrimage. In a flashback, Guan Yin disguised herself as a little girl and approached Jin Chi to ask him a question on the value of possessions. Jin Chi showed that he cared more about appearances and status, and sent the little girl on her way.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy : Discussed in season 2 when Tang Sanzhang narrates the story of Buddha's past teahings, where Buddha as Siddharta has a disciple named Ajatsharu who can predict the future. Ajatsharu managed to divulge to a paranoid King that he will be someday usurped by the prince, leading to the King attempting an Offing the Offspring when the prince is a baby (if not for the queen's intervention) and abusing his son throughout most of the prince's childhood, eventually framing his own son for attempted murder, sentencing the concubine which the prince had fallen in love with to death, and throwing the prince into a dungeon. Alas, the prince has allies outside prison loyal to him, who then poisons the King until the King is reduced to a state of madness; as the Prince is an only child he's immediately granted the throne, where the Prince then gleefully abuses his own father who mistreated him most of his life leading to the King suffering a slow, agonizing death. Ajatsharu predicted his own demise where he's Eaten Alive by wolves, too; Siddharta tries a Screw Destiny by restraining Ajataharu the night he's propecized to die, only for Ajatsharu to free himself and allow hungry wolves to do him in, gaining enlightenment as a God and revealing his divine form eventually to Siddharta as part of his self-sacrifice.
Shapeshifter Showdown : Season 2's battle between Sun Wukong the Monkey King against his direct Evil Counterpart , the Long Armed-Ape Monkey, both of them dueling with a myriad of shapeshifting abilities (thanks to some 90s' CG-effects), firstly turning into animals, and then sentient flying weapons, and culminating with the Long Armed-Ape turning into a dragon to swallow Wukong, which Wukong retaliates by turning into a fly and buzzing out his opponent's nostrils.
Sheltered Aristocrat : Before becoming the Buddha, Siddharta Gautama was a human prince who's raised and spoiled by his family. He's genuinely shocked when he learned the world outside his palace is not as pretty as he thought they would be.
Shout-Out : During Tianpeng's confrontation with a then-demonic Sun Wukong in the first episode, the former confronts him first by using Ultraman 's Specium Ray stance, before attacking it with a Rider Kick (which he appropriately named the "Tianpeng Magical Kick").
Silly Walk : Since he's a monkey, Wukong's earlier attempt to walk casually like a human is pretty silly.
Sinister Minister : Three Fiends Of Cheda (Tiger Power Great Hermit, Stag Power Great Hermit, and Goat Power Great Hermit) take the guise of Taoist Priests. They also seem possessing actual Taoist powers, since other Heavenly gods, including two Dragon Kings, obey their commands.
The story arcs across the two seasons hover between Pragmatic Adaptation , Adaptation Inspiration , and In Name Only . The Pragmatic Adaptation arcs often amalgamated two or three stories in the original novel with the corresponding composite characters too, and some further expansion on their characters or personalities. The most faithful adaptation is actually the 1st season's Breather Episode 's Kingdom of Chechi arc where Sanzang and his team faces off against the Three Demon Taoist Priests - other than the insertion of comedy and the interchangeable antagonists, most of the scenes are reproduced from the same story in the novel. The Adaptation Inspiration often removed most of the plot from the original novel and write their own preferred plot in place of it, the Spider Demonesses and also the Fake Leiyin Temple story arcs being two very good examples. The In Name Only adaptation doesn't adapt anything from the novel besides the usage of the characters, 2nd season's first and final story arcs being the two offenders.
Snow Means Death : There are at least two occassions where Sanzang is abducted by demons when there's a snowfall. There's also one occasion when Wukong is almost frozen to death during another snowfall after he's mortally wounded by Long Armed Ape.
Sore Loser : The three Demon Taoist Priests in the Kingdom of Chechi repeatedly seek re-matches with Sanzang and his team defeat after defeat, and this trope is part of the reason for their eventual deaths, when from the third match onwards Wukong began picking them off one by one. It could be argued that Wukong agitated them into making those re-matches so that he would find a way to kill them and expose their true animal forms to the King of Chechi and making him realize that he had been used.
Specifically in the White Bone Demoness arc when it was barely even half a season, Wukong left the team while Wujing and the Dragon Horse were killed off. Anyone familiar with the novel or with the characters in general will know that the three of them will return to continue the journey at some point in time, and indeed by the end of the arc, Wukong rejoined the team while the other two were resurrected by Guan Yin.
Overall, Zhu Bajie never seemed to get any major Character Development despite one crisis after another targeting his nature. By the end of the White Bone Demoness arc he cheerfully abandoned his lover and vowed not to be lecherous again. But in the future story arcs it was apparent he regressed back to his Casanova Wannabe nature. To his credit though, Bajie never left the team again like he did in the White Bone Demoness arc.
Supernaturally Young Parent : Erlang's mother. For good reason, since she's pure-blooded fairy while Erlang is half-human.
The Bull Demon King was shown doing this more than once, first time to capture his son Red Boy to discipline him, and second time to restrain Long Armed Ape Monkey. This weapon presumably only works well against opponents caught off-guard since he wasn't using this in any other fights.
Sun Wukong in Season 2 tries using an artefact that binds the Silver Horned King, and it backfired because his opponent know the magic spell to unbind himself and uses it against Wukong instead.
Superpowered Evil Side : This seems to be what Great Ape Demon is to Little Monkey. Great Ape Demon is merciless and monstrous; while Little Monkey is innocent, even if mischievous.
Talking the Monster to Death : Not really to the death, but basically that is how Sanzang subdued Sha Wujing.
Third Eye : As in the mythology, Erlang has third eye. He notably lost it when he temporarily gave up his powers to his mentor to save his mother.
This Was His True Form : Most of the demons assume a human disguise, but will revert into their original forms upon being killed. This even applies to Sun Wukong when suffering a defeat by Hong Hai-er's flames and turning back to his juvenile monkey form ( though he gets better thanks to Guanyin ). This even forms a plot point in the Chechi Country chapter - the Emperor is convinced his advisors are humans until they're defeated, transofrming back to their tiger, deer and goat forms.
Too Dumb to Live : There's Great Ape Demon advancing towards Chang'an. So what does Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty do? Capturing him alive to prove Tang Dynasty's superiority, of course. He does realize the errors of his ways enough to want to step down from his position though, despite others refusing to let him .
Toppled Statue : The second season has the Long Armed Ape's statue being toppled when citizens decides to worship Sun Wukong instead, erecting a whole different statue in it's place. The Long Armed Ape is not amused, and after descending from heaven and threatening the citizens, destroys Wukong's statue as well.
Truly Single Parent : Effectively, all mothers in Woman Country are truly single mothers as they can procreate without male mate by drinking water from a magical well. This includes their Queen, who has adult daughter as a Princess.
Unexplained Recovery : In the final story arc, the heroes re-encounter six demons from past story arcs who attempted to atone themselves. Of the six, the only characters who were previously seen alive and well is the Mother Spider Demoness and the Black Bear Demon. As for the remaining four: the Lion and Elephant Demon were supposedly reincarnated as different and ordinary animals as punishment, En En the young Spider Demoness was reverted back into an ordinary spider (effectively killing off the character), and the White Bone Demoness was supposedly killed by Wukong. While one can come up with head canon explanations, the show itself did not bother with explaining how they fully recovered.
Unholy Matrimony : Long Armed Ape Monkey and Python Demon Queen in second season.
Unstoppable Rage : this is what triggers the Six-Eared Macaque to transform into a Great Ape Demon in second season. In first season, there's also Bajie who does this to a black bear whom he mistook eating Sanzang. Said black bear IS actually Sanzang being polymorphed by White Bone Demoness.
Vitriolic Best Buds : Wukong and Bajie.
The Emperor's fascination with the Long-Eared Macaque, and dedication to transport the great beast into the capital city (despite advice from his courtiers) is blatantly based on the original King Kong .
The Long Armed Ape's backstory is a rather blatant one to The Happy Prince ; when the heroic Long Armed Ape eventually dies in battle, the citizens decide to erect a golden statue in his honor, only for a terrible winter to follow. The Long Armed Ape somehow managed to possess his statue after death and communicate with a lark (yeah, it's NOT a swallow, so this is totally not a ripoff ) to help the citizens by plucking the golden flakes from his statue to save the village, ending with the statue's jewel eyes removed. His noble deed earns him a spot in heaven in the aftermath.
Younger Than They Look : Erlang in his backstory, due to him being demigod. He already has body of an adult when he's still an underaged child .
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Journey To The West - Season 2 (1998) (TVB)

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Uploaded by kovexo on March 25, 2022

Journey to the West

Adventure time in Southwest China…

In recent years, deep exploration of genres such as film noir or thriller took contemporary China’s art cinema to a new place, bending and questioning the boundaries between mainstream and niche. Young Chinese filmmakers are especially versatile in subverting genre narratives and playing with the history of cinema. In her full-length directorial debut, Summer Blur , Han Shuai uses the conventions and tradition of film noir to reflect on the horror of puberty narrated from the perspective of a teenage girl. While Summer Blur focuses on girlhood and gender, on the other side of the spectrum there is Kong Dashan’s directorial debut – Journey to the West – an exciting dive into science fiction and adventure films, but also an exploration of boyhood and interplay between fiction and reality. Screening as part of this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam title, Journey to the West , took me on the most exciting quest through Sichuan and made me recall hopping on a train heading to China’s Western regions which now, from the perspective of 2 years into the pandemic, seems almost utopian.

Kong Dashan interview: “I rarely went to class for three years in high school”

Tang Zhijun, editor-in-chief of Space Exploration magazine, is struggling to keep the magazine afloat. 50-something Tang firmly believes we are not alone in the universe, but his dreams constantly clash with reality. When he reads the news about one peasant’s encounter with an alien in rural Sichuan, he goes on a quest together with his friends to investigate the case. The statue of a stone lion seems to hold the key to the mystery. Tang Zhijun soon meets a local young man, Sun Yitong, who writes poems and claims that he received instructions from aliens. Tang and his friends follow Sun on a journey deep into the Southwest.

Journey to the West begins with a short throwback to the year 1990 and VHS aesthetics. The opening scene sets the tone for the whole film which combines self-conscious nostalgia with a sense of wonderment that arises from unrestrained exploration of the world still perceived as full of unknowns only waiting to be discovered. While watching the film I kept asking myself: what triggers this awe? Journey to the West revives a certain childhood experience shared by many Millennials: the fascination with old media such as analogue television, radio broadcasting and print newspapers which at the time seemed to be a source of some kind of transgression that bore a promise of limitless knowledge, pleasure and mystery. Although the feeling is obviously long gone, seeing the main character, Tang Zhijun, saying that electronic appliances are means of communication with UFOs brings back some memories. For 7-year-old me, it was hours spent resetting the control panel on my grandparents’ old TV set (Soviet “Rubin”) to find an unknown channel amidst the static noise. Although the story is set in the 2020s, contemporary technology plays a minor role in Journey to the West , because of Tang’s obsession with old media. It made me wonder if contemporary 7-year-olds feel the same sense of wonderment while using various apps on smartphones.

Kong Dashan uses elements known from various modes of filmmaking connected with different forms of media. “Talking heads” interviews, rapid zoom-ins, and hand-held footage is reminiscent of content made for television (news, reality TV) but taps into the tradition of documentary filmmaking and its specific place in the history of Chinese cinema [1] . The visual style of Journey to the West is also marked by the aesthetic of old media: the texture of VHS recording, blurred images captured on early digital cameras. Music featured in Journey to the West also is reminiscent of late 1990s till mid-2000s, from the soundtrack featuring songs such as《从头再来》and《爱的奉献》till mobile phone ringtone set to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. However, the term now sounds paradoxically old-fashioned, extremely outdated and largely forgotten in the discourse on contemporary cinema, there is something very postmodern about Journey to the West . And it is fun (regardless of how bad the escapism is now perceived).

The story is largely driven by the actions of Tang Zhijun. He is seen by his friends either as pseudoscientist ( minke 民科 which literally means “scientist from among the people”) or a father figure to the younger characters. The archival TV program proves that in the 1990s – the early days of capitalism in China when any entrepreneurial initiative had a chance to achieve great success – Tang was thriving. The disconnection between Tang and contemporary reality produces a well-balanced combination of drama and comedy. After three decades marked by a family tragedy, he earns money giving lectures at a psychiatric hospital and sells off the props stored at the Space Exploration magazine office. Tang resembles a modern-day Don Quixote, an idealist, a dreamer, an anti-consumerist disconnected from the increasingly excessive capitalism in China. Although the main plot centres on Tang Zhijun, the supportive characters have their own stories and very distinct features that are a source of many strange events and most hilarious lines of dialogue in Journey to the West . The character of Sun Yitong is especially bizarre and mesmerising, because he seems simultaneously down to earth and completely disjointed from reality. When he says: “I only have one book at home. Chinese dictionary.”, it is impossible not to burst out laughing. It also hints onto a magical quality of words and language, which is reflected in the names of locations such as the Burning Birds Nest Village (Niaoshaowo , 鳥燒窩).

Journey to the West is yet another title in which young Chinese reflect on the chaotic nature of filmmaking and various compromises that need to be made in order to finish the work, no matter if it is big or small budget. In one hilarious scene, the characters are visited by the crew shooting 2019 science-fiction blockbuster The Wandering Earth . The director Frant Gwo has to buy the old space suit from Tang, because the film budget is running out and the crew has to save up on costumes, although Gwo is unhappy with it. The Wandering Earth director and producer play rock-paper-scissors to decide if they take the prop, the interaction between the two being very reminiscent of the scriptwriter-director dynamic in Wei Shujun ’s Ripples of Life . Kong Dashan’s debut is a fascinating case of an art-house auteur film that questions the division between the niche and the mainstream. Backed by the biggest film studios in China – Wanda Pictures, Huayi Brothers, Alibaba Pictures, China Film Group Corporation – I believe Journey to the West shows two important things about the Chinese film industry. One, social networks can overcome any labels. Two, big companies are willing to support young filmmakers and invest in auteur projects that have a chance to enter the film festival circuit. On the other hand, there are elements in Journey to the West (for example, slapstick, subplot centring on family issues, wedding scene at the end of the film) that strikingly resemble a Lunar New Year films ( hesuipian 贺岁片) made in 1990s Hong Kong. Such productions became a template for the development of Mainland Chinese blockbusters. That connection makes Journey to the West a deeply fascinating example of contemporary Chinese cinema and the ambiguities hidden within.

Kong Dashan’s film made me think about the representations of Chinese rural areas circulating in visual culture and the change these images underwent through the decades, from the 1950s worker-peasant-soldier films to the videos posted on Kuaishou . The content published on the app makes me wonder if the short videos are a precious chance for the people living in rural areas to express themselves or are they a result of self-orientalisation – the low-income population’s chance to make money out of online streaming. Most probably it is both and everything in between, but a film review does not offer a space to discuss a topic that might as well be a solid starting point of a PhD thesis.

The spirit of play permeates Journey to the West, and it is why the film approaches reality in a slightly different way than most of China’s art cinema titles do. In his directorial debut Kong Dashan constantly switches between immersion into fiction and shattering its illusion. This balancing leads to the most enjoyable dialogue between the filmmaker, the audience, and the film itself.

Journey to the West screened as part of the 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam.

[1] For more information see: Pickowicz, P., & Zhang, Y. (2006). From underground to independent: Alternative film culture in contemporary China . Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield. Edwards, D. (2015). Independent Chinese Documentary: Alternative Visions, Alternative Publics (pp. 183-194). Edinburgh University Press.

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Cast & crew

Journey to the West

Based on the beloved classic 16th century Chinese novels, Journey to the West tells the story of Monkey, a most unlikely hero on a most extraordinary journey; where adventure lurks beyond ev... Read all Based on the beloved classic 16th century Chinese novels, Journey to the West tells the story of Monkey, a most unlikely hero on a most extraordinary journey; where adventure lurks beyond every turn. Based on the beloved classic 16th century Chinese novels, Journey to the West tells the story of Monkey, a most unlikely hero on a most extraordinary journey; where adventure lurks beyond every turn.