Five years after CJ7, Stephen Chow returns to our screens with a new film as writer/co-director, and he’s returning to familiar territory!
Journey to the West: Conquering The Demons is another adaptation/interpretation of Journey To The West, the classical Chinese epic; familiar to all Australians lucky enough to grow up with the much-loved Japanese TV series Monkey. It’s ground Chow has covered before, in Jeff Lau’s two first Chinese Odyssey films — back when I first joined Heroic Cinema, Alison showed me those on VCD by way of explaining Chow’s particular comic genius and popularity and I’ve been a fan ever since.
This time around, though, we’ve got oodles of CGI (and 3D) to help with Chow’s more cartoonish leanings, and it’s a mainland Chinese production rather than a very HK one, though both Mandarin and (dubbed) Cantonese versions will be in cinemas. The film stars Huang Bo (as Sun Wukong), Shu Qi, Wen Zhang, How Lo and Chrissie Chau, and is co-directed by Chow and Derek Kwok (Gallants). It’s going to be interesting to see what a Stephen Chow film is like without the man himself front and centre.
Journey to the West opens across Oz this Thursday the 28th of February, and according to distributor Dream Movie’s Facebook page, it’s showing at:
Sydney: Hoyts Chatswood (Cantonese), Hoyts Broadway (Mandarin)
Melbourne: Village Sunshine (Cantonese), Village Century City (Cantonese), Hoyts Chadstone (Mandarin), Hoyts Melbourne Central (Mandarin)
Perth: Hoyts Carousel (Cantonese)
Brisbane: Hoyts Sunnybank (Cantonese)
Adelaide: Hoyts Tea Tree Plaza (Mandarin)
Canberra: Hoyts Belconnen (Mandarin)