A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box (Sai yau gei: Dai yat baak ling yat wui ji - Yut gwong bou haap)

Release Year: 1994

Director: Jeffrey Lau

Review: You need to be in a special kind of mood to enjoy a slapstick comedy combined with a fantasy adventure about Buddhist mythology.  It's a bizarre mix of awful special effects and mediocre kung-fu with an equally convoluted story.  The Monkey King, which is literally is a half-man, half-monkey hybrid, is punished for disobeying his master and imprisoned for 500 years.  The story then jumps to the present day where Joker (Stephen Chow), is a leader of a group of bandits who are invaded by a beautiful woman.  The woman turns out to be a spider demon who is later accompanied by her demon sister.  It's revealed that they are searching for the Monkey King so that they can capture his master, the Longevity Monk.  Or at least thats what I could get from the plot.

There was romance, there was fighting and there was humor.  All the best ingredients for a perfect stew of entertainment.  Unfortunately something goes terribly wrong.  The movie feels like an extended episode of the 'Power Rangers', only with a story which is less satisfying.  Contributing to the mess is a series of awful costumes, and even worse physical humor.  Stephen Chow getting his crotch stomped on to put out a fire was almost funny once, but it was annoying after about the third time.  I might even put it on a lower level then the 'Power Rangers' because there I could at least enjoy a somewhat competent story arc.  Here, director Jeffrey Lau, continually left me confused with what was happening, and thoroughly uninterested once I did piece things together.  Even after two viewings I had a hard time stringing together a cohesive plot.  The pacing is completely off and rips you out of the story.  It's hard to enjoy a movie where you are constantly trying to figure out the basic plot.

Altogether it was a frustrating watch.  I wanted to like this, and there were a few scenes which showed what kind of movie it could have been.  The first encounter with the spider demon was intense, engaging you in the action, building up to the anticipated conflict.  This wasn't the standard formula unfortunately.  They seemed more concerned with putting in lame gags than interesting action, and ultimately the humor never worked for me.  What I was left with was a action-comedy, where the action was anemic and the comedy fell flat, leaving only a surreal fantasy which went over my head.  The film stopped abruptly to be continued in part two, but I think I've seen enough.
Rating: 2/5

Comments

[Lovestorycritic1]

Hi there,

Love your site. You have written an insightful review. I agree with your statement that it's convoluted, but I do believe the movie is watchable.

I go into detail on my site, but basically, I believe that this story is a commentary on human nature. Humans sometimes feel trapped as we are earthbound and a slave to our carnal urges. It is a frustration feeling. Sometimes, we just want to be free and fly off into the skies, thereby becoming angels. However, that freedom comes with a price.

Being an angel (or god/fairy) means giving up carnal human urges such as passionate love.This concept is extremely Buddhist. The Buddha Sakyamuni taught us that in order to achieve enlightenment and thus, nirvana, we must give up our desires, because desire causes suffering. Yet, it is difficult to give up earthly attachments and desires.

Even if we were to become fairies as a reward, I don't know if I could do that. Could you?