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Rating: 7.5 stars

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mubi China Hong Kong time travel sisters monkey king literary adaptation sequel

All movies seen on 09/07/2019

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A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella (1995)

Directed by Jeffrey Lau

Fantasy | Adventure | Action

Overview

This sequel to “Pandora’s Box” continues director Jeffrey Lau’s adaptation of the Buddhism saga “Journey to the West”. Stranded five centuries in the past, Joker Monkey King must battle a variety of monsters, seductive women and super-powered villains to save the dying Pak Jing-Jing.

Length 99 minutes

Actors

Stephen Chow | Ng Man-Tat | Athena Chu | Law Kar-Ying | Yammie Lam | Karen Mok | Jeffrey Lau | Ada Choi | Lu Shuming | Johnnie Kong | Hou Yan

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

This is one of those movies that requires more than 3 slots for the genre (same for the previous installment). Besides action, adventure & fantasy, it’s also romance and comedy (tho slight less so compared to the slapstick humor prevalent during the first half of Part One). 

I like Part Two more than Part One. This one picks up right after the end of Part One (after a brief battle between Zixia and some mystical warriors) w/the same scene that ends Part One at the entrance to the Spiderweb Cave. However, it’s not to say this movie isn’t any less convoluted. There’s a lot going on. It’s wild they split the film in two parts (in India it would’ve just been one feature film) but oddly it still works because there are two different stories in each.

This sequel deals w/Joker (Stephen Chow) going back 500 years where he meets Zixia (Athena Chu) and they fall in love. During the course of their relationship the demon sisters cross paths w/Joker creating a new conflict. Ultimately he has to make a choice that returns him to his Monkey King form, forgoing all human qualities like love. It’s rather tragic but it puts him back on his quest to the west.

Athena Chu is the true standout here. She’s a pretty woman tasked with a lot including much of the stuntwork as well as carrying the greatest emotional burden of the story. I really love her in this. Also worth a nod is the massive make-up and costuming budget. It’s just nuts towards the big end finale.

I don’t think a domestic release exists for these films but man would I like a nice Blu-ray set. Whether or not I can locate the original text for the Journey to the West story, I know I would watch these films again.

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