A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box, and Part Two: Cinderella [1995]
Original Titles: Sai yau gei: Yut gwong bou haap, Sai yau gei: Sin leui kei yun
Hong Kong
Director: Jeffrey Lau
My Rating: 8/10
These movies are excellent, they have the same slapstick humor I usually hate, but that Stephen Chow does so well. You don't need to be familiar with Journey to the West to enjoy this adaptation. This is an action comedy involving mistaken identity, love triangles, time travel, swordplay and mythology. The characters are varied with comedic goofballs, strange and monstrous villains, and lovesick warriors. I think everyone will enjoy the Monkey King especially, there's a reason he's the star.
Coming from 1995, some of the costumes aren't so great, but some other effects are pretty impressive for the time. The story gets a little convoluted, especially in the second part, and it's easy to lose track of who's who. It's intentional, magic spells have characters body hopping and confusing each other. Romances begin and end quickly because the characters are just as fickle and confused as people are today.
The version I watched had poor subtitles. They sometimes flashed by too quickly and were full of spelling and grammatical errors. This is a minor grievance, hopefully they have been updated for current releases.
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