Journey
To The West: Conquering The Demons (2013/Magnolia/Magnet Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: A Film: C+
Long
ago when there were demons and demon hunters, all that demon hunters
had to do was kill the demon, every hunter but Xuan Zang. Xuan Zang
(Zhang Wen) was the only one who believe in reformation and
redemption of the demons, but after many failures he starts to
question his own methods. He is repeatedly save by a female Demon
Hunter, who oddly falls for him for and respects his peaceful ways
and journeys with him, but while other Demon Hunters laugh at Xuan
Zang's pacifist ways, Xuan Zang maybe the only one who can defeat the
greatest of the demons in Stephen Chow's Journey To The West:
Conquering The Demons (2013).
Xuan
Zang is a lowly Buddhist monk who believes that demons are not at
fault, and demons are misunderstood, and the result of people turn
into demons are because of their own sins/karma. Only by accepting
their sins can they truly find peace, be enlightened and then be
forgiven. While the other demon hunters hunt because they want fame,
glory and money, Zang does it for none of those thing. Zang must
risks it all when he must face the greatest of demons, Zhu Bajie, Sha
Wujing, and Sun Wukong and turn them into his disciples, together
they will begin the greatest legend of all.
This
is a parody of the Journey to the West legend of what was the origin
story of greatest Buddhist monk before he became the famous. While
Stephen Chow uses the names from the legend, nothing else came from
the original story. While a lot of the scene were beautiful and the
fight scenes were awesome, it was all too over the top and you
couldn't take story seriously. And also unless you were Asian and
knew the Journey to the West story you wouldn't get all culture
references or half of the jokes. Since Kung-Fu Hustle
(reviewed elsewhere on this site), Chow has become increasingly
steeped in fantasy storytelling, but this might be one film too much
in that direction.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot on an Arri
Alexa HD camera and looks good throughout, but has some flaws and
limits, which is something considering 70mm IMAX blow-up prints were
made. The DTS-HD (MA) Master Audio Mandarin 5.1 lossless mix is also
decent, but this was originally issued in a Dolby Atmos 11.1 mix and
one wonders why do not have a 7.1 track instead. Extra includes
stunts & special effects, cast & characters, Stephen Chow,
the laughs, production design, choreography and trailer.
-
Ricky Chiang
