The Monkey King | |
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Also known as | The Lost Empire |
Based on | Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en |
Written by | David Henry Hwang |
Directed by | Peter MacDonald |
Starring | Thomas Gibson Bai Ling Russell Wong |
Composer | John Altman |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 2 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Robert Halmi Sr. Robert A. Halmi Tomas Krejci |
Producer | Steve Harding |
Cinematography | David Connell |
Editor | Colin Green |
Running time | 153 minutes |
Production companies | Hallmark Entertainment RTL |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | March 11 – March 12, 2001 |
The Monkey King, also known as The Lost Empire, is a 2001 television miniseries produced by NBC and the SciFi Channel. It is a contemporary take on the classic 16th-century novel Journey to the West . It stars Bai Ling, Thomas Gibson, Russell Wong, Eddie Marsan, and Randall Duk Kim. The miniseries was directed by Peter MacDonald and written by Asian American dramatist David Henry Hwang.
Nicholas Orton (played by Thomas Gibson) is an American businessman who has lived in China for several years. He has a chance encounter with a beautiful Chinese lady (played by Bai Ling) who says that he is the only one who can save the world from reverting five-hundred years. He is unswayed by this until many modern buildings begin disappearing before his eyes. This mystical lady (revealed later as Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion) transports him to a portal which offers entrance, through the teachings of Confucius (played by Ric Young), to the ancient Chinese underworld.
When Orton (soon to be named The Scholar From Above) reaches the other side of the portal, he finds that his studies of Confucius will come in handy for the path that lies ahead. Orton's first action is to rescue Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, from the mountain in which he has been imprisoned for centuries. Wukong travels with Orton in his quest to save the original manuscript of Journey to the West from retroactive destruction; if the story itself is erased from history, all the people who were ever inspired by the lessons it teaches will be worse off, and history will permanently change for the poorer. They are later joined by Zhu Bajie (Pigsy) and Sha Wujing (Friar Sand) to help them on their way.
Robert Bianco of USA Today called it "silly and confused." [1] Variety called it "tedious" and said "all the strong technical work comes across as the outer shell of an empty nut." [2]
The ratings for the miniseries were poor; it recorded one of the lowest ratings ever for a miniseries on NBC. Critics said it was due to oversaturation of special-effects-driven miniseries dropping in popularity. [3]
The film is available on DVD and videocassette. There was also a novelization of the miniseries by Kathryn Wesley released under the title The Monkey King.
Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, is a literary and religious figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. In the novel, Sun Wukong is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices. After rebelling against heaven, he is imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha. Five hundred years later, he accompanies the monk Tang Sanzang riding on the White Dragon Horse and two other disciples, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing, on a journey to obtain Buddhist sutras from India, known as the West or Western Paradise, where Buddha and his followers dwell.
Journey to the West is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the great Chinese novels, and has been described as arguably the most popular literary work in East Asia. It is widely known in English-speaking countries through Arthur Waley's 1942 abridged translation, Monkey.
Tang Sanzang is a Buddhist monk and pilgrim who is a central character in the 16th century novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. Tang Sanzang is based on the historical Tang dynasty monk Xuanzang.
Ruyi Jingu Bang (Chinese: 如意金箍棒; pinyin: Rúyì Jīngū Bàng; Wade–Giles: Ju2-yi4 Chin1-ku1-pang4), or simply Ruyi Bang or Jingu Bang, is the poetic name of a magical staff wielded by the immortal monkey Sun Wukong in the 16th-century classic Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Zhang Jinlai, better known by his stage name Liu Xiao Ling Tong, is a Chinese actor, best known for his role as the Monkey King in the 1986 television series Journey to the West adapted from the classic Chinese novel of the same name. Zhang adopted his father Zhang Zongyi's stage name, Liu Ling Tong, and amended it to Liu Xiao Ling Tong.
Baigujing is a demon from the 16th century novel Journey to the West. The name is translated into English as White Bone Spirit in the William John Francis Jenner translation. Baigujing is a shapeshifting demoness, and in her true form she is depicted as a skeleton.
Havoc in Heaven, also translated as Uproar in Heaven, is a 1961 Chinese donghua feature film directed by Wan Laiming and produced by all four of the Wan brothers. The film was created at the height of the Chinese animation industry in the 1960s, and received numerous awards, earning the brothers domestic and international recognition. The story is an adaptation of the earlier episodes of the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Mount Huaguo or Flowers and Fruit Mountain, is a major area featured in the novel Journey to the West. A number of real-world locations have been connected with the Mount Huaguo, although the synonymous mountain in Lianyungang, Jiangsu is most commonly identified as its source of inspiration.
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book is the third book written by Maxine Hong Kingston, and was published in 1989. The story follows Wittman Ah Sing, an American graduate of University of California, Berkeley of Chinese ancestry in his adventures about San Francisco during the 1960s. Heavily influenced by the Beat movement, and exhibiting many prototypical features of postmodernism, the book retains numerous themes, such as ethnicity and prejudice, addressed in Kingston's other works. The novel is rampant with allusions to pop-culture and literature, especially the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West, also known as Doraemon's Parallel Journey to the West, is a 1988 Japanese animated science fantasy film which premiered on March 12, 1988 in Japan. It is loosely based on the 16th-century novel Journey to the West. It is the 9th Doraemon film.
The Monkey King is a 2014 Hong Kong-Chinese action-fantasy film directed by Soi Cheang and starring Donnie Yen as the titular protagonist Sun Wukong. Yen also serves as the film's action director. The film co-stars Donald Chow, Aaron Kwok, Joe Chen and Peter Ho.
Bull Demon King, also translated as the Ox King, also-known by his self-proclaimed title the Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven, and as Dàliwáng and as Niú Dàli, is a fictional character from the 16th century novel Journey to the West.
Monkey King, or Sun Wukong, is a main character in the classical Chinese epic novel Journey to the West.
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is a 2013 fantasy comedy film co-written and produced by Stephen Chow and co-directed by Chow and Derek Kwok. The movie was first announced in July 2011 and was released on February 10, 2013 in China. The film is a loose comedic re-interpretation of the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, a Chinese literary classic often believed to be written by Wu Cheng'en.
The White Dragon Horse, known as Bai Long Ma, and Yu Long, in Chinese, is one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West. He is Tang Sanzang's steed who later became one of the Babu Tianlong Guangli Bodhisattva at the end of novel.
The Monkey King 2 is a 2016 Hong Kong-Chinese action fantasy film based on the classic 16th-century novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. The film was shot in 3D and is a sequel to the 2014 box office hit The Monkey King with Soi Cheang returning as director and Sammo Hung as action director, who replaces Donnie Yen's role from the previous installment. The film stars Aaron Kwok, who portrayed the main antagonist in the previous installment, as the film's titular protagonist, who also replaces Yen from the previous installment. Other cast for the film included Feng Shaofeng, Xiao Shenyang, Him Law, Fei Xiang, Kelly Chen, and Gong Li.
Monkey King: Hero Is Back is a 2015 Chinese computer-animated fantasy adventure film written and directed by Tian Xiaopeng in his directorial debut. The film was released on 10 July 2015, and became the highest-grossing animated film in China until it was surpassed by the 2016 films Zootopia and Kung Fu Panda 3.
The Monkey King 3 is a 2018 Chinese–Hong Kong fantasy film based on the classic novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. The film is the third installment of the Monkey King franchise, after The Monkey King (2014) and The Monkey King 2 (2016). Directed and produced by Soi Cheang, the film stars Aaron Kwok, Feng Shaofeng, Xiao Shenyang, Him Law and Zhao Liying.
Puti Zushi, also known as Master Bodhi, Patriarch Bodhi or Patriarch Subodhi, is a character from the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. The character is believed to be derived from Subhūti, one of the ten principal disciples of the Buddha.