Animation film review, Monkey King--Hero Is Back

Monkey King is a Chinese animation film came up on July 2015. The film gained the best animation film award of 2015. It is treated as the highest quality animation movie in China so far. The idea of story is inspired by Journey to the West which is one the four great classical novels. The first producer Xiaopeng Tian made some changes of the main characters of the novel. He told others that he wanted to make a different Journey to the West animation when he was in university in 1995. He likes the story telling way of Miyazaki Hayao. Telling story step by step instead of something suddenly happened. He told people that is the way he wants it to be. Also, he said that animation should never just for the low age group like kids and he won’t make this film into a low-age animation.

I can tell that Tian is a fan of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Not only from his claim but also from his character design. The boss of the bad guys in this film called Hundun which means chaos. Hundun is one of the four vicious beast in a Chinese classic text Classic of Mountains and Seas. It was described as picture below.

The Hundun in film.

Next is the character from Chichiro which is a film from Studio Ghibli.

They got some obvious references in the film but they didn't influence the comment of this it. Cause the producers spent a long and toilful time on their work. 8 years from 2007 to 2015. They wanted to present the film in 2013 but due to the disagreement of most of the crew they decided to put the animation back to the stove. After another 2 years work, the film finally comes up.

The story is about a little boy who is an adorer of the monkey king sticking on him and fight against Hundun to save folks. The little boy believe that monkey king is the agency of justice all the time. Producer Tian said that the boy's insistence is the topic of this film. But the thing is that the insistence of believing in justice is actually an opposition of the heaven. Because that was what monkey king did in the myth. But one thing I need to clarify is that the heaven in Chinese culture is not the same as it in Western culture. The heaven here is like an empire in the sky. If the opposition to the heaven is justice or righteousness, what is the heaven's role in that world and what does the heaven represent in the real world? The big changing of personality makes the value of story a little bit messy. Cause the monkey king used to be very savage in the novel. 

My opinion of this question is that the boy is wrong about the monkey king from the beginning, he just think that MK is really cool. But his insistence moved the MK and making him become righteous.I believe Tian wants to tell people something by the film but the storytelling is not that satisfactory. There are some inexplicable plots which made a negative influence of the whole story. Some characters popped out suddenly and started to do something without a point.

The plot and the music of the film are two main points doubted by viewers. There is a background music called 'the brave heart' popped out in the middle of the movie. But it made viewers feel inexplicable. Even the first producer Tian himself said that this song is not proper with the plot at the point. Humble producer Tian also said that the nice comments of the movie shows the lack of good animation resource in China and pointed out two long-term market problems which are the focus on low age group and ignorance of other age group.

However, The Monkey King Hero Is Back made some difference to the homemade animation industry. It shows people that Chinese animator can make something better. A 60 million yuan budget film earned a 900 million box office is also a nice grade. It might be a new beginning of the domestic industry. Even if it is not, the film will still be remembered by viewers and the field.