The Monkey King Reborn (2021)

A Non-review by Professor Popinjay

Sorry I haven’t posted feverishly throughout the week like I usually do but I’m on a Tron kick right now and the research has led me down some pretty crazy rabbit holes. Also, I ate some really weird cake and grew to a hundred times my regular size. You know how that goes. Cake! Am I right? So I hammered this article out to tide you over.

Anything that needs to be said can be said politely.

I put the year in the title of this article (which usually denotes the existence of multiple films having the same name), this time not necessarily because there is more than one movie with this title but rather because there is just so MUCH Monkey King movies out there, it’s hard to keep them straight. In fact I had to search long and hard just to make sure this one was not part of a whole franchise. The untertitle “The Final Showdown” on the box art makes me think there are films preceding this one. End verdict is: I THINK this is a stand alone film BUT this version of the Monkey King makes a cameo in a separate semi-unrelated film, but I’m still not completely certain.

So much is based on Monkey King! So… so much.

Monkey King is HUGE on the Eastern hemisphere of Earth. My interest in him has existed since I saw him in the 1983 film “Big Bird in China”.

I had no idea how phenomenally popular he was. I have since immersed myself in Chinese folklore all because of Big Bird. Kind of funny if you think about it. A bird sparked interest in a monkey.

I don’t fully grasp why this has “Reborn” attached to the title. Maybe it has more to do with the ending? The New Gods: Nezha Reborn film (2021) features a reincarnated Nezha in a futuristic setting. “Reborn” makes complete sense in that case. This Monkey King is the same Sun Wukong we’ve always known and loved, in his usual time and place.

A Non-review for this is on the horizon too!

If you’re unfamiliar, the Monkey King aka Sun Wukong is one of a handful of characters from the Chinese fable “Journey to the West”. It’s about a monk’s journey to the west to obtain holy scriptures. At some point in his travels this monk becomes connected with Sun Wukong (The Monkey King), Sha Wuneng aka Baijé aka Pigsy, Zha Wajing (called Sandy in Lego versions) a large blue (sometimes aquatic) demon monk (for lack of a better English equivalent word), and occasionally Bai Longma (a prince that turns into a dragon horse thing known as a 麒麟 which is virtually impossible to write in English without resorting to just calling it a “Chillin”.)

There may be a difference between a Qilin and a Longma but I have yet to see it. There are many interpretations.

This rendition took some interesting liberties with these characters. Amazingly Bai Longma makes a brief appearance, which was something of a treat as he is not often seen in the movies. Usually Pigsy is depicted as either a little guy or, at the most, regular sized, while “Sandy” is gigantic. In Monkey King Reborn, Pigsy is huge and “Sandy” is rather slight. It was a fresh take to see Pigsy throw his weight around a bit, no pun intended.

From left to right: Pigsy with his signature rake, Sun Wukong with his signature staff, and a Zha Wajing (Sandy) with his lack of signature monolithic stature.

I thought it was hilarious Sun Wukong kept his magic shape-changing staff in his ear. I’ve never encountered that aspect of it before. The staff is called 如意金箍棒 or Rúyì jīngū bàng, (Compliant Golden-hooped rod.) I knew it was “compliant” but not THAT compliant. He’d flick it out of his ear and it would grow to full size and whack people. It reminds me of… well, nevermind, actually.

From the videogame “Black Myth: Wukong”. I’ve heard of an ear infection and a staff infection but never a combination of the two!

The plot is a bit all over the place as I’ve come to expect with these stories. Folklore has a way of incorporating some unusual ideas as they are passed from one story teller to another. Think of the weirdness of The Brothers Grimm fables. It’s fun though when you’re expecting it.

I watched this in both English and Mandarin Chinese. The differences in translation were very funny. In Chinese they seemed to have no aversion to calling Sun Wukong a “shitty” monkey. If you’re curious it’s 臭猴子 Chòu Hóuzǐ. Impress your friends.

I asked Siri who the main villain of The Monkey King Reborn was and the response made me laugh. She said “Easily, the biggest villain was Sun Wukong (referring to the monkey king himself).” And she’s not wrong. A recurring factor of Sun Wukong’s stories is that he tends to create the problems which he later solves and is super confident about it the entire time, even kind of arrogant. It’s funny though, because he ALWAYS delivers, ten times out of ten.