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the-monkey-ruler · 8 months

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what are some upcoming xiyouji media that you’re excited for?

Here are a few!

2020 Journey to the West: Conquer the Demons 西游降魔篇 - I think this is like a re-write of the whole Chow Xiyouji films into a tv series!

2020 I'm Not a Great Sage 我不是大圣 - the Six-Earred Macaque being seen as a hero when he is trying so hard to be a villain. (Correction there are two movies with the same name and I got the poster for the wrong one whoops)

2021 Seven Sages 七圣 - a movie all about Wukong's brotherhood like with Snub-Nose Monkey King or Flood Dragon King!

2021 Sun Wukong: Heaven Devourer Monkey孙悟空之噬天魔猴 Trailer - the animation for this looks AMAZING AND I CANT WAIT!!!

2022 King of Confusion: The Rise of the Great Sage / Four Monkeys in Confusion 混世之王：混世四猴 /混世之王之大圣崛起 - Super excited to see Wukong and ALL THE SPIRITUAL MONKEYS!!! FINALLY THE WHOLE GANG IS HERE

2022 Bajie: Movie Preview 八戒：電影搶先看 - I am a huge Bajie fan and this just looks ADORABLE!

2022 The Lower Boundary of the Canopy of Bajie八戒之天蓬下界 - Another Bajie love story and honestly this one looks precious, he really trying to just get his weapon back but oh no he is being WOOED!

2022 Red Boy: Newborn Calf红孩儿之初生牛犊 - super fun animation! Really want to see the back story in this one!

2022 Monkey King and JJ大圣和江流儿 - I NEED THIS I NEED THIS LIKE WATER I NEED HERO IS BACK WUKONG TO BE A FATHER PLEASE

2023 The Legends of Monkey King 凌云志 - This was based on like a web novel and it sound more insane that it should be. can't say it is "good" but it def sounds interesting at LEAST.

2025Monkey King: The Havoc in Heaven西游记之大圣闹天宫 - I have heard that THIS is going to be a prequel to the 2015 Hero is Back Movie SO !!!!!!!!!!!! WOULD LOVE TO SEE MORE HERO IS BACK WUKONG HE IS LIKE MY SECOND FAVORITE!!!

2030Monkey King: Flame Mountain孙悟空之火焰山 - the animation here just looks so interesting and Wukong looks so uncaney valley I'm really interested about this one.

NullThe Monkey Prince - this one is kinda a cheat but it is a WUKONG-inspired character and honestly, this looks like a lot of fun!!

NullJourney to the West - I can only PRAY that the art style of the poster for this movie is the same as the animation. I have NEVER seen a Xiyouji movie done by the French but if they make it this whimsical and colorful attitude I'm HERE FOR IT.

Needless to say, I'm excited about a lot of things.

#anon ask #anonymous #anon #jttw #journey to the west #xiyouji #ask #zhu bajie #sun wukong

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chaoseclips · 11 months

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Comfort movies!✨

Post 10 comfort movies and tag however many people:]

1 . Deep Sea (2023)

2. Coco (2017)

3. The Thief and the Cobbler (1993)

4. Luca (2021)

5. The Princess Bride (1987)

6. Ponyo (2008)

7. Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015)

8. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

9. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

10. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Tagging @cosmoshard @confuzzledhooman and anyone else who would like✨

#Honorable mention to A Monster in Paris - Wonder Park and Inkheart #deep sea movie #pixar coco #the thief and the cobbler #pixar luca #the princess bride #ponyo #monkey king hero is back #lupin the third #the hunchback of notre dame #seven brides for seven brothers #tag game #comfort movies #I’m posting this very late at night hehehe

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sketching-shark · 6 months

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I was curious to know, is there a specific adaptation of JTTW that you particularly enjoy? Whether its good or accurate isnt important but more like in your personal taste

AUGH going to be honest @seasonalsummers in that I don't feel like I can pick just one...there's so many excellent retellings! But I will take this opportunity to present some of my favorites.

So first up we have the 1986 Journey to the West tv series. It is in many ways very goofy and gaudy, but there's just as many reasons why it's considered one of the best retellings out there, from its genuine heart to the adherence to the og classic. And needless to say its Sun Wukong really set a standard for cheeky scheming monkey behavior. You can start watching it here:

youtube

Next up is 2016s The Monkey King 2. While this film is one of those retellings that gives the White Bone Demon a lot more prominence than she has in the og classic--and definitely has its own silly stupid moments--it also stands as one of the very few retellings that directly addresses the paradox of Tang Sanzang's mission: that he's trying to get the sutras to help mortals achieve a state of peace all while abhorring violence, and yet its only because of the violence of his disciples, especially Sun Wukong, that he's able to right a number of wrongs or simply go from day to day uneaten. You can watch it here:

youtube

And now it's time to give kudos to 2015's Monkey King: Hero Is Back. While this film is FAR from a faithful retelling and (usual refrain) has its own silliness, pretty simple plot, and gross-out humor, it also has so much heart and stands as a wonderful embodiment of the dad Wukong characterization. One also has to give it credit for its main child character, Jiang Liuer, being a genuinely charming kid who's wonder at the world and desire to do good drives the story forward in a sincerely lovely way. You can watch it here:

youtube

More recently--and in a work that is at best only loosely following the plot of Xiyouji--is 2022's Lighting Up the Stars. This film follows the story of a Li Nezha coded little orphan girl Wu Xiaowen and a Sun Wukong coded funeral director Mo Sanmei as they go from a very tense relationship to a genuinely loving father-daughter relationship. While there are moments of this film that feel kind of overwrought, it's an honestly wonderful exploration of what goes into dealing with death and the importance of love in all its many forms during life. I also have a soft spot for Mo Sanmei, who from what I've seen is the very peak of explicitly shitty cringefail loser who then genuinely works hard to become a better person Sun Wukong out there. It can be watched here:

youtube

Turning away from film and animation for a moment, I simply have to give proper kudos to Chaiko Tsai's comic The Monkey King. Between the gorgeous art, fun character designs, a good sense of how to translate many of the stories of Xiyouji into comic format, and a resolution to the Sun Wukong vs. Niu Mowang fight that I actually prefer above that in Journey to the West itself, this is definitely a comic worth going through! You can purchase it here for about $30.00

And last but certainly not least, one simply has to give due credit to 1964's Uproar in Heaven. It's an absolute gem of stylized Chinese animation, a work with the very rare allowance on the Monkey King getting to go full grandpa for tons upon tons of monkeys at Mt. Huaguoshan, and it's very faithful to the first half of the og classic with the difference that here Sun Wukong does his havoc in heaven and gets away with it. All around its a really fun work to watch and does have a lot of importance from both an animation and a historical perspective. You can watch it here:

youtube

So those are my favorite adaptations of Journey to the West! It's but a fraction of the adaptations out there, but I hope other people found these as fun as I do.

#journey to the west #jttw #xiyouji #sun wukong #monkey king #jttw retelling #jttw adaptation #chaiko tsai monkey king #1964 uproar in heaven #uproar in heaven #monkey king hero is back #lighting up the stars #journey to the west 1986 #aaaaaa #to this day one of my favorite things about jttw #is all the incredible adaptations and retellings its inspired #ask answered

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quitealotofsodapop · 7 months

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So now that Netflix!SWK and NewGod!SWK have a MK, does that mean HeroisBorn and Reborn will get one too? Well HeroisBorn does have Liuer so maybe not yet?

It'll be cute if the kid somehow helped him in meeting/winning over HeroisBorn!Mac though. 😅

I just finished watching the film properly, and Wukong/Dasheng in it is so "I didn't plan to be a single father, but I guess this is my life now"-coded. His interactions with Liuer and the baby "Silly Girl" just solidify it.

Jiang Liuer in "Hero is Back" (2015) is actually meant to be that timeline's Tripitaka! The creators of the film stated that Liuer is the 9th Golden Cicada incarnation, and that he pretty much released the Monkey King "early", hence why the seals/measures around the mountain were actively trying to restraint SWK. It's believed that the machinations of Hundun/Chaos in the films is what caused this new timeline to occur.

HeroIsBack!SWK finds his Macaque clutching a strange stone oval that the hunters targeting FFM are very adamant on stealing...

Liuer def would be the little kid that wants their parent to find love and a partner, and now that there's another special mystic monkey in the team with a weird stone baby monkey? Perfect! Parent Trap shenanigans most certainly ensue. Uncle Pigsy is all for it! He can taste the wedding banquet already...

As for Reborn!SWK, his MK has already lived it's first life... and now must be reborn as something new.

Maybe that six-earred monkey demon Wukong keeps seeing in his dreams can help them figure out why a bunch of demons/celestials are so adamant that the two never meet...

#wukongverse #monkey king hero is back #monkey king reborn #sun wukong #liu er mihou #six eared macaque #qi xiaotian #jiang liuer #shadowpeach #jttw inspo character ideas #journey to the west

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sunny-days-and-warm-mournings · 5 months

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An Emperor and his General, who escorts him, take a walk.

#xiyouji #jttw #jttw fanart #jttw au #journey to the west #journey to the west fanart #journey to the west au #jttw sun wukong #sun wukong #sun wukong fanart #general ba #the monkey king #monkey king hero is back #monkey king: hero is back(2015)#the monkey king fanart #art #great sage #Legends Of Liberation

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m4nt1dr4x · 1 year

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Man 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨

#art #fanart #пон #sketch #арт #скетч #фанарт #sun wukong fanart #sun wukong 2015 #sun wukong #six eared macaque fanart #six eared macaque #shadowpeach #monkey king #monkey king hero is back

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draklan95 · 6 months

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Пара маленьких скетчей.

Сделать первый скетч меня вдохновила поза из фанарта на злодея Пятно, сам арт нашла в пинтересте

#monkey king hero is back #monkey king hero is back(2015)#monkey king #sun wukong #journey to the west #jttw

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ick25 · 8 months

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My favorite movie Wukongs.

Journey to the West fans love to see the monkey king represented or even mentioned in different media, there are so many versions of the character that its hard to decide which one is the best or who even is the most accurate to the novel. A lot of people grew up with Journey to the West cartoons and tv shows from China or Japan which has many of the most iconic and beloved versions of Wukong. However, this was not the case for me, my exposure to the Monkey King was when I was a teenager, when I decided to read the novel after noticing so many mentions of the character in different shows.

Aside from the recent Lego Monkie Kid, which has the cutest version of Wukong I've ever seen, I noticed that there is almost no other recent shows or movies that are successful in introducing this legendary monkey to American audiences.

So instead of shows, I'm gonna be talking about recent movies, and with the new Monkey king movie out in Netflix, I thought it would be the best time to share my thoughts about the different versions of the character in movies where Sun Wukong is the main character or is important to the plot, both animated and live action, from worst to best.

*Spoiler Warning if you want to watch these movies by yourselves.

10. Monkey is back (2021)

I have this habit of watching every movie the has the Monkey king in it, that is how I came across this one. Unfortunately, it was the most confusing and boring movie I had ever watched.

Wukong is called the Ling Ming Stone Monkey here, and he is a deity who already has people praying to him. He is turned into a human without magic and stays like this almost the entire movie.

This version of Wukong is strangely mild mannered, and just like me, he is seemingly lost through out the movie.

So many things happened in this movie that it was hard to keep track of what was going on, and it made me ask myself, when is this movie set? Before or after Journey to the West? And what did that ending mean?

9. The immortal demon slayer (2017)

I thought this movie was gonna be the last one in my list until I saw Monkey is Back. Before that, the Immortal demon slayer was the movie I actually hated for how they treated my boy by making him a human without any magic! T T

Just like in the previous movie, Wukong is a magicless human, and all he has is his martial art skills and Jingu Bang (his iron staff) to protect himself, but even Jingu Bang loses its abilities halfway through the movie. The story is basically him and a group of immortals getting stranded in the mortal realm, and have to learn to work together to save a village from a demon.

This version of Wukong is grumpy and a little tsundere because he has this potential romance going on with one of the stranded immortals. Near the end, Wukong finally returns as the super powerful monkey who beats up everyone in heaven.

The movie finally got interesting at the end, but by that point it was already to late for me to forgive the movie's boring story.

The battle at the end between Wukong and Erlang Shen with his newly acquired third eye, was the only thing I liked, that, and the adorable French bulldog that appears with little fake bat wings!

8. Monkey King: Hero is back (2015)

Not a fan of this design.

It was a cute movie, but it was lacking in so many areas. This Wukong is a legendary hero that is known by the humans. After being sealed for 500 years he seems to have lost his powers, so now he is just some grumpy tall monkey through out the movie, and I don't blame him, because he becomes a babysitter for two literal children.

Pigsy appears in this movie and he is almost entirely accurate, personality and all, but Wukong looks so weird that I forget he is a monkey, he is strangely tall, has that Chad chin, and he doesn't even have a tail, and those little monkey feet he has makes me laugh every time I see them, its like he has stumps for legs.

The reason this movie isn't lower is because it does a better job of conveying what the Monkey King is all about compared to the previous movies. The intro of the movie was pretty good.

7. New Gods: Nezha Reborn (2021)

In this futuristic world, Wukong has an important role, training the reincarnation of prince Nezha. He starts out as some cooky old man wearing a creepy mask wanting to buy Nezha's bike, but later reveals himself after saving the boy from some demons. He teaches Nezha how to use his powers and watches over him till the end of the movie.

I like this version of Wukong because it shows how wise he really is, many versions have him seem naive or even dumb, but he is actually very clever in the novel. He is also visibly old which makes sense, old monkey has been around for more than 500 years after all.

To protect his identity, he calls himself the Six Eared Macaque, who was known for copying Wukong's power and technique, but its canon that Wukong did kill Macaque during his journey to the West, so sorry Shadow Peach shippers.

Also, those little monkey clones he makes are super adorable.

6. Monkey King Reborn. (2021)

Ah yes, the movie with the edgy Wukong and where the whole group is killed near the end... But comes back to life again.

Yeap, this movie was a rollercoaster of emotion, but it does a great job at setting up the tone of the original novel and its world building.

This Wukong is edgy and mischievous, his relationship with the Tripitaka was short but very cute, I wished it was explored more, but this movie just gives us the second best thing, Wukong putting up with an adorable little baby who is just another version of Tripitaka's soul or something.

This Wukong is powerful and has a really bad temper like the original, but he still lacks that charm and sense of humor that makes the Monkey King so memorable.

And, what did they do to Sandy?!

I swear, they never seem to get Sandy right in most movies.

5. The Forbidden Kingdom. (2008)

I have a soft spot for this movie, not only was it the movie that introduced the Monkey King to my family (Who I was already a fan of), but it also made me give the novel a try, and now I freaking love it!

The story is a retelling of how the Monkey King was trapped for 500 years in a mountain, the villain being a Jade Warlord who turns him into stone, but Wukong manages to saves his Jingu Bang by sending it to the mortal realm. A teenage boy from the future gets isekaid to ancient China after touching Jingu Bang where he meets a young Jackie Chan who tells him that he must release the monkey king from his prison by returning him the golden staff so he can go back to his own world.

The Monkey King's appearance in the movie was short but memorable, maybe because he was played by Jet Lee who is not known for laughing and smiling very often. I think he does a good job portraying the character, he is strong, skillful, and very clever, but very trusting of his own abilities which is the reason he left his guard down and got turned into stone.

4. Journey to the West 2; The Demons strike back. (2017)

A movie that gives Wukong so many different appearances that I don't know what he even looks like anymore. Shapeshifting is something very common in journey to the West, so it makes sense that Wukong can look any way he wants. First we have this human form where he looks like a stinky hobo fed up with life who barely obeys or cares for his new master.

Then we have this form where he has golden hair covering his body which I thought was his real appearance.

But then we get this nightmarish thing that looks more like a demonic monkey with bright red eyes like in the novel.

And none of these forms are even close to what he looked like in the prequel, but I'll get to that later.

This movie is a comedic retelling of the story, so many crazy things happen in this movie. Aside from the fact that Tripitaka punishes Wukong by whipping him, their interactions are pretty funny, specially because Wukong wears a magic ring on his head that used to belong to a woman the monk fell in love with in the previous movie, so he thinks about her every time he looks at him.

But it's also kind of messed up because Wukong was the one who killed her in front of him so...

3. Monkey King; Havoc in Heaven's Palace. (2014)

The movie summarizes the first 6 chapters of the novel that are all about Wukong's life, from seeing how he was born from a magical rock, to the reason he attacked heaven. Wukong starts out as a sweet and naive monkey who is curious and very playful, and he even has a little love interest. However, instead of just getting angry and causing trouble in Heaven, Wukong is fooled my the Bull demon king who tells him that the Jade emperor destroyed his home in flower fruit mountain and even killed his love interest. So naturally, Wukong picks a fight with heaven, the bull demon is discovered, and our protagonist humbly accepts his 500 year punishment from the Buddha, until the actor was re-casted in the sequel.

I like how nice this Wukong was, but not how the havoc in heaven wasn't entirely his fault. He was manipulated and still got punished for the misunderstanding. Wukong is not evil, but he isn't completely innocent either, which brings me to my next pick.

2. Journey to the West: Conquering the demons. (2013)

This guy right here is a hilarious representation of how the Monkey King is described in the novel.

The movie is about the Tripitaka before becoming a monk, and is instead a "demon hunter" who tries to subdue demons by being nice and singing to them. He encounters Sandy, and then Pigsy who are terrifying man-eating demons. Sandy is captured by a woman who is a real demon hunter and who falls in love with Tripitaka, Pigsy manages to escape, but is then captured after being lured into a trap set by the two humans and Wukong, who was still trapped in a mountain.

Wukong once again looks like a dirty hobo, only this time he is crazy looking and bold, but after he fools Tripitaka into removing the seal from the mountain, he shows his true form in all his glory. He appears with his golden armor and head piece along with some fancy decorations, three demon hunters appear and make fun of him saying how short, ugly and skinny looking he is.

I love this because that is exactly how the novel describes him. Needless to say, Wukong completely obliterates the three of them easily and without remorse, and to make matters worse, he even kills the girl who Tripitaka finally confessed he was in love with.

I know I keep saying how he is not evil, but we have to remember that he was a demon, a man-eating one even, so he naturally seems evil to us because he sees humans as insects that are not worth his time, you know how many people he killed in the novel? He even killed a guy just because he called him a ghost!

The sequel did a better job of making a Journey to the West story, and with better visual effects, but this demonic version of the monkey king and how he was stopped by the Buddha was the most accurate depiction I've seen of the character.

Monkey King 2 and 3. (2016)

This is my favorite movie Wukong!

For some reason they changed the actor from the first movie, but I guess it was because of how his personality completely changed in the sequel.

These movies are the best representation of the novel, Wukong is a badass and the one who has to do everything because Tripitaka is a moron and the other two disciples are really bad at their job.

The day he met Tripitaka he asks the monk if he doesn't want him to protect him, Tripitaka being a coward says no and Wukong took this opportunity to yell at the heavens and zoom out of there, only to find out immediately that they are being forced by the gods to travel together, like it or not.

This Wukong is clever, intimidating, selfish and a little grumpy, but he still likes to play around and he does take his job of protecting Tripitaka very seriously.

I admit I also find him a little attractive, just look at those muscles!

So what are your thoughts about these movie Wukongs? Do you agree with this list? Who is your favorite Monkey King?

#sun wukong #journey to the west #top 10 #jttw monkey king

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