Sun Wukong dances his way to victory in Te Wei (et al)’s animated retelling of the Baigujing arc.
“In your eyes everyone is a demon.”
I’ve never particularly cared for the White Bone Demon , or Baigujing story in Journey to the West. For those not in the know, the story – one of the earlier adventures for our heroes – is simple: while travelling, Tang Sanzang and his disciples come across a young woman who claims to need help from the party. Sun Wukong sees this to be a demon in disguise and kills her, much to the dismay of the other monks.
This happens twice more, this time with a child and an old man, and each time Sanzang and everyone else believe Wukong to have killed an innocent bystander, and Monkey is punished. Eventually he’s kicked out of the group for his murder hobo habits, where he happily gets to be free of his responsibility. Naturally, the White Bone Demon kidnaps Sanzang and Monkey returns to the party.
The story has some good parts: it lets Wukong show his more human side, and lets the character’s wildly differing emotions play together as the Monkey King processes everything that has happened. But what it gives the reader in growth for one character, it takes away with everyone else. Sure, Bajie is an idiot throughout, and often like to see Wukong get injured but his pettiness is beyond comprehension in this, and Sanzang refuses to even hear out his disciple.
It’s a frustrating tale that gets adapted and retold a lot, probably because of its simple fable-like nature, often updated to give the characters a bit more dynamism (see the pretty decent portrayal in Monkey King 2). In 1985, the aptly-named Shangahi Animation Film Studio returned to the Journey to the West well to bring us the Monkey Conquers the Demon, a fairly book accurate retelling of the story. This was the studio’s third film in the series, after the incredible 1960s Havoc in Heaven and the incredibly difficult to find 1981 Ginseng Fruit.
As a standalone movie, it’s a fun retelling of the story, loaded with some really smooth animation and some out-there keyframe poses that sell the grand, fantastical nature of the whole thing. Unfortunately it does have the feel of a more typical animated film, with fewer big moments of Chinese Opera that defined Havoc in Heaven. There’s certainly a lot more dialogue, but the studio remembers what made the first film so charming, and Monkey King Conquers the Demon features numerous scenes of dancing, acrobatics and more opera sensibilities.
Complete with very moody backgrounds and evocative character designs, Monkey King Conquers the Demon makes one of my least favourite stories into something a bit more entertaining, and logical. They even give the Tang monk more reasoning for being overly trusting, by saying that he doesn’t necessarily distrust Wukong, but rather that even a demon shouldn’t be mercilessly killed without reason. By making small changes to the story, and wrapping it in distractingly good visuals, and suddenly the White Bone Demon doesn’t seem so tiresome.
Verdict: More or less faithfully retelling one of the more iconic arcs in the story, Monkey Conquers the Demon does more than just that, filling the screen with lots of impressive imagery and animation.
Overall entertainment: 7/10
Violence: 3/10
Sex: 0/10
Praying scenes: Shockingly intense
Lip syncing: Practically non-existent
Favourite visual gag: Bajie’s big ears flapping as he flies.
Brother Mouse: Pretty sure that’s a bat.
Monkey King Conquers the Demon (1985)
Also known as: 金猴降妖 (Golden Monkey Demon)
Mandarin
Directors: Te Wei, Lin Wen Xiao, Ding Xian Yan
Writers: Lei Bo, Te Wei
CAST
Li Yang – Sun Wukong
Tan Pengfei – Monk Tang Sanzang
Zhan Che – Zhu Bajie
Zhao Bing – Sha Wujing
Hong Rong – Baigujing
The Asian Cinema Critic 