The Monkey King (2023) 美猴王

Director: Anthony Starkey

Screenwriter: Steve Bencic / Lon J. Friedman

Starring: Ouyang Wancheng / Yang Bowen / Julie Huang Rappaport / Joe Koy / Yuan Wenzhong / Li Nan / Xu Weilun / Sophie Wu / Li Xun / Andrew Kishino / Jodi Long / Huang Rongliang / Dee Bradley Baker / Robert Wu / David Chen / James Xie / Kieran Regan / Artemis Snow / Kaiji Tang / Andrew Pang

Genre: Comedy / Action / Animation / Fantasy / Adventure

Production Country/Region: Mainland China/Hong Kong, China/United States

Language: English / Mandarin Chinese

Date: 2023-07-30 (New York Asian Film Festival) / 2023-08-18 (US Network)

Duration: 92 minutes

IMDb: tt8637498

Adaptation: Addition

Summary:

One night, a monkey is born from a stone atop a tall mountain and disturbs the Jade Emperor. He gives the order to eliminate the cub, but Buddha appears before him and tells him to let him find his purpose. Monkey finds a troop of other monkeys, but his unruly nature keeps him from fitting in. One of his escapades causes a feared demon to pounce from his mountain lair and grab one of the troop’s cubs for food; as a result, Monkey is banished.

To prove his worth, he trains to fight the demon. After many years, when he deems himself ready, he confronts the demon, but his training proves ineffective, and another cub is snatched. To fetch a more suitable weapon, Monkey dives into the sea realm of the Dragon King, who is about to use a glowing column to eradicate all life on the world’s surface. Communicating with the column, Monkey turns it into a staff and escapes. Monkey returns to the demon’s lair, defeats him, and rescues the cub. Prompted by the grateful troop, he crowns himself King of the Monkeys, but the troop’s elder cautions that his staff should only be used by the gods, so the new Monkey King decides to kill 100 demons, thus gaining the right to become a god.

Eventually, he comes to a village terrorized by the Red Girl. With the endorsement of a girl named Lin, Monkey King defeats Red Girl, but the Dragon King arrives during the victory celebration to reclaim his prized weapon. After fighting him, Monkey King leaves the village; Lin, pledging herself as his assistant, tags along, even though he treats her condescendingly. Unknown to him, Lin is helping the Dragon King reclaim the staff in return for saving her drought-stricken village.

In a graveyard, Monkey King opens a portal to Hell to get to the Archive of Souls and strike his name off his Scroll of Life and Death, thus gaining immortality. King Yama, the ruler and chief judge of Hell, recognizes them as outsiders and fights them. Monkey King succeeds in erasing his name, but is only made ageless. He steals Yama’s Book of Everlasting Life and learns he must eat a peach from the Orchard of Everlasting Life to gain full immortality. The Dragon King subtly guides Monkey King and Lin to a peach tree laced with an intoxicating poison, but ends up getting fed one himself, foiling the plan.

After realizing the peaches are fake, Monkey King learns from the book that Wangmu, the divine Queen Mother, brews an immortality elixir for the gods. He and Lin infiltrate the Jade Palace’s pharmacy to create a sample of the elixir. Wangmu catches them in the act, but Monkey King consumes the potion, thus becoming fully immortal. Although Lin has several chances to steal the staff, she repeatedly returns to help Monkey King, who also demonstrates that despite his rude behavior, he cares about her too. Monkey King and Lin flee the Heavens, and in a following heart-to-heart, Lin admits that she longs to make a difference in the world and tries encouraging Monkey King to do the same.

When Monkey King remains aloof and boisterous, Lin outwits him and delivers the staff to the Dragon King. The Dragon King reneges on his deal and prepares to drown the world in a mega-storm, but Monkey King challenges and attacks him. Realizing her mistake, Lin enables Monkey King to beat the Dragon King, but Monkey King becomes power-drunk, and Buddha prepares to intervene. Wanting to give Monkey King another chance, Lin is allowed to act as Buddha’s voice and challenges Monkey King to leap off Buddha’s hand to win rulership over Heaven, or else suffer a period of penance. Monkey King fails and is imprisoned in a mountain. Before the mountain is fully closed off, Lin is allowed to say goodbye to Monkey King, who finally admits how important Lin has become to him. She leaves him his staff for company.

Five hundred years later, Monkey King is freed from his prison by a monk, a pig, and a river spirit at Buddha’s behest. They invite him to join them on a journey to the West, to which he over-happily agrees.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_King_(2023_film)