Director: Soi Cheang
Notable Cast: Aaron
Kwok, Gong Li, William Feng, Xiaoshenyang, Him Law, Fei Xiang, Kelly Chen, Lu
Weu, Xi’er Qi, Miya Muqi
Having recently watched The
Monkey King when it finally arrived on Netflix Streaming in the US, the announcement
that Well Go USA was going to be releasing the second film, the aptly titled The Monkey King 2, in the US on VOD, DVD
and Blu Ray came as something of a shock. While the first and second film in
this fantasy action franchise did some serious cash in the Chinese box office
in 2014 and 2016 respectively, the first film was wholly centered on very
non-western concepts with story arcs and beyond that was a massive CGI fueled,
family friendly train wreck. Was the second film going to improve on the quality
and, if so, would a western audience in the US really be willing to dive into
the culture of this tale? The second part of the question remains to be seen (The Monkey King 2 is currently available
on VOD, but doesn’t hit physical media until early January), but the quality of
the film and the approach would certainly indicate movement in the right
direction. Does it match the quirky and artistic merits of many of the other
cinematic spins on the Journey to the
West story line? Hell no, but The
Monkey King 2 does fix many of the issues that plagued the first entry and
does provide a decently fun and entertaining fantasy flick…even if there are
plenty of issues to address still.