I am a fan of the idea of having a film use no dialogue. (Characters only sometimes say the names of other characters, so at least the main actors are more likely to get fairly compensated as speaking parts.) I don't mind the campy fake blood as long as there is suspense and a good storyline. Cinematography definitely had good moments of creating suspense. Only twice in the film did I find myself in a moment that seemed laughable and took me out of my immersion. One was a "The Shinning" spoof of the "Here's Johnny" scene that played out impressively well, especially by a young child actress in the place of Duvall, but even in its abbreviated form, the scene is just too long to not be a bit dull and out-of-place. The other moment was when our main character stops herself from stealing some french-fries left behind by an antagonist and pouts. I can see how they intended to make this a moment of showing human-ness and generating pity for the child, but it instead came off as an out-of-place moment of levity. I can forgive those things however. The thing that really irked me was the stereotypes used to depict the "badguy" archtype; Joint-smoking, beer-drinking gamer playing violent MMO shooters late into the night, has long unkempt hair and a black baseball cap or hoody with open jacket and ripped jeans, sustaining on cup noodle and fast food, neglecting an otherwise gorgeous home that is taken for granted and absolutely infested with cockroaches. And let's not forget this is supposed to be a child predator. It's just hitting every checkmark for a bad stereotype. When we got our second villain in the story, things started to pick up with suspense.
Reviews
5 Reviews
The Monkey King 2
(2016)
Minor Continuity Issues But Really Came to Deliver
25 July 2021
I was absolutely blown out of the water with the monumental improvements in special effects and costume design from the first film (minus the few seconds of our new take on fur-suit human monkeys). This campy, slap-stick fantasy comedy was an absolute joy to watch and re-watch. Moments of levity inserted liven-up and make each character endearing in a way the first film simply annoyed with, and allowed us to not only empathize with characters, but also humanize their relationships with each other and themselves. It is true that character development is limited in this installment, but this may to some degree be due to working within constraints of the source material. I agree however that Wu Kong, as stubborn as he is, could have learned a more tangible lesson by the end of the film or at least made an explicit acknowledgement of the change he had undergone. I do wish we'd learned more of the fate of the king as his last depiction seems unsatisfactory, but this hardly bothers me until in deep retrospect. The fact of his fate being unsatisfactory may be intentional given the context of our parting from him. This bothered me far less than two counts of continuity issues; First, the obvious change in actors from the first film in which our main villain is now playing the hero's character with vastly different approach to the character. For instance, changing from having a primary motivation to defy death to having a complete disregard for killing others, which had a missed opportunity to be explained as a deep-seeded prejudice against demons as a result of the slaughter of his monkey subjects/family in the prior installment... Which brings me to continuity issue two, wherein Wu Kong, implied in the first film to be the only survivor of his tribe after the tragedy which took place 500 years prior, returns to a fully populated troop of monkeys who somehow have knowledge of their king- all things which make no sense if they were all massacred in the previous film, and if this is to be redacted, leaves no motivation for his demon-bigotry. All I can do is slam my hands on my desk and scream in my head, "MAKE IT MAKE SENSE." But I digress, my favorite character by far must be the White Bone Demon. Gong Li brings to this role the same kind of serpentine sensual tragic villainess energy as she had in her talented (albeit controversial) role as Hatsumomo in the controversial Memoir's of a Geisha film (which, if you do not understand the controversy of, please look into both "yellow washing" and the lawsuit filed against the novel's author Arthur Golden by Mineko Iwasaki). Even her elderly counterpart emanated such pitiful manacle energy to match her own, and I was positively captivated and enthralled by their performances. The design of our final villain form may have had some campy CGI elements, but by far was brilliantly deigned and fantastically choreographed movement. This film is like a dance that I can't take my eyes off of, so rhythmic and compelling.
The Monkey King 3
(2018)
An Enjoyable Yet Unfortunate Product of Its Context
25 July 2021
Cosmetics and effects rivaling, if not trumping, The Shape of Water, a star cast, precedence and notoriety for its previous installments, and a story adapted from a famous ancient Chinese novel deeply imbedded in Chinese national identity (as well as renditions throughout East Asia), were all foundational pieces to set this film in good standing. While depicting the Journey to The West may be nationalist in itself, I find it incredibly unfortunate that this film took opportunity to inject current political propaganda, particularly in favor of the implications of limited children policies. What more, I concur with Elizabeth Kerr that this film "felt like a missed opportunity" to depict its primarily female cast as active-not-reactive. This may be in part due to the source content of the relevant chapters of Journey to the West, yet license had been routinely taken throughout each film in the franchise and there is no good reason to miss the mark here given the nature of the setting and plot. Traditional gender normative are further enforced by the villainization of androgyny and an unfavorable transgender depiction, which was a notable change from the source material. There is also a villainization of Western convention seen through the cosmetic portrayals of our main female protagonist and (for lack of better word) antagonist using the film's contextually-current beauty standards of China and America ("current" for the latter being a bit loosely defined from an American context as it leans a bit more early 2000s, yet still made iconic by American icons such as Barbie with blue eyeshadow, pink lips and blush high on the cheekbones, unnaturally lined eyebrows, and thick winged eyeliner), respectively. This is highly unfortunate given the franchise's seeming success and popularity overseas. Forgiving this work as a result of its context, particularly in how domestic businesses are obligated to be to some extent puppeteer by Chinese official policy in order to exist, the film is enjoyable as a campy (wire effects and costumes like the Power Rangers but CGI like a chef's kiss) and interesting installment to the series that uniquely focuses on love as opposed to strictly fantasy martial arts. I am weary about the injection of propaganda in future installments, but I wait with baited breath nonetheless to give an anticipated 4th installment, rumored to be in the works since 2018 (which I hope the pandemic has not entirely derailed), a chance. I hold on to hope that we may take a step back and focus more on what was done right with the second movie which lacked in the third to bring into the fourth- particularly an equal strength and depth of character for all participants, regardless of sex or gender.
A Really Fun Campy Martial Arts Movie
25 July 2021
Even if someone is not familiar with The Journey to the West, the plot is easy enough and interesting to follow. If you're into early CGI campy martial arts movies, this is definitely for you. The actor for Wu Kong is a professional martial artist and the fights are well-choreographed. I did get annoyed at how often Wu Kong blinks, which is symbolic of his innocent and hyper personality, and thankfully is an element that was vastly decreased in later renditions. His character is still likeable despite his hijinks. The monkeys are a bit nightmare-fuelish, but what do you expect from people in hair suits? We're here for a good time, not the realism. The following two films REALLY stepped up their game with the special effects! There is a bit of continuity break with the fate of the monkey clan and a change in actors, but these two things aside, I have not much more qualms with the films. They're actually really fun to watch, and even if you watch this film just to understand the context of the next two with better graphics, please do and enjoy!
Monster
(2014)
Empowering Protagonist, Memorable Villain, and a Hell of a Ride!
12 November 2020
This instantly became one of my favorite films, even when I watched it without subtitles and couldn't understand a lick of Korean. I adore that the hero is a grown woman with a developmental disability and her relationship with the child has so much chemistry. The way in which the villain disposes of his victim's bodies and collection of mementos of his murders was my absolute favorite detail. It's the iconic theme that I always think of to identify this film. The cinematography is excellent as well as the acting. The script combines humor and horror in a fluid way that does not break immersion. The only thing that would make this film better in my opinion is to stray away from the campy blood splatter effects, but thankfully they are hardly used. What more, the minimal amount of blood used up until the climax made it all the more impactful. I definitely recommend.
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