Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons - 西遊:降魔篇

Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons (西遊:降魔篇) is an 2013 film out of Zhong Guo. The film stars Wen Zhang and Shu Qi. The supporting cast include Huang Bo, Show Lo, and Chrissie Chau. The movie is the highest grossing film out of Zhong Guo. It also was the highest grossing film for several months in early 2013.



Chen is a demon hunter that travels where evil energy is strong. Chen lands in a fishing village and takes on a fish demon. When he tries to turn the demon via love, another demon hunter comes and captures the demon through brute force. Chen goes back to his master for advice. The master tells him that his path is right and not to waver. Chen than finds the den of a pig demon. When the brute force demon hunter that captured the fish comes to his rescue, they are both defeated. When Chen ask his master for advice, the master points him to the Monkey King Demon. On the way there, Chen is faces with some obstacles. The other demon hunter is Duan and falls in love with Chen. Duan risk her life to save Chen over and over.



This movie was very well made. If you watched enough cartoons, movies, and dramas from Zhong Guo, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, the story of the Journey To The West and the Monkey King will show itself. It is like the Brothers Grimm tales of the "western" countries, but the Asian countries have Journey To The West among other stories.



This movie was Wu Li Tou to the max. You would expect that from the forefathers in Stephen Chow. From nose bleeds, to getting K'd, it was a flashback to the HK movies hi jinx of the 1980s and 1990s that made me love HK cinema so much.

Shu Qi is showing her age whilst trying to play a youngster, but she did pull it off. This is Shu Qi that got all of Asia forgetting her teen coming out party. Shu Qi keeps on keeping on and we all love her for that.

The Fantastic Water Babes - 出水芙蓉

The Fantastic Water Babes (出水芙蓉) is a 2010 film out of Hong Kong. The film stars Gillian Chung and Alex Fung. Supporting cast includes Eva Huang, Stephen Fung, Chrissie Chau, and former olympic gold medalist Tian Liang.

Gillian Chung plays a brass swimming gal who's madly in love with her boyfriend. However, she's gravely embarrass when a secret recording is broadcast of her boyfriend cheating on her and making bad remarks about her. She challenges the gal he's cheated on to a swimming challenge. In order to do this, they kidnap Alex Fong, who's a world class swimmer.

This movie is common HK fare these days. The gals are pretty, the plot suffers from cheesiness, but its a feel good movie at the end. This is so different from the HK movies that I grew up watching from the 80s and 90s. Where happy endings were made fun of. Watch it for Gillian, Eva, and Christy. Skip if you want a good story that makes sense.