Monkey the king of China's animation cinema
- By Wei Jia
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 28, 2015
"Monkey King: Hero is Back," an animated movie created around the story of the Monkey King, the all-powerful, irreverent and impulsive character in "Journey to the West," a classic Chinese fantasy novel, recently knocked Kung Fu Panda 2 off its perch as the top grossing animation movie of all time in China.
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A poster of "Monkey King: Hero is Back" [File photo] |
Since its opening on July 10, Monkey King has proven its magical charms with soaring ticket sales, and it officially became the top earner of all animation movies shown in China on the afternoon of July 25, when it beat the previous record of 617 million yuan, or about US$103 million, that had been held by Kung Fu Panda 2 for four years.
A triumphant box office performance is matched by acclaim by the movie-going public. "Monkey King: Hero is Back" scores 8.8 out of 10 on Doubai Movie, a go-to website for cinephiles in China.
So how did the homegrown monkey give the Hollywood-born Panda a run for its money?
The different pedigrees of Monkey King and Kung Fu Panda underlie the fact that the Chinese, of all ages, embrace the monkey with more passion than they did the more cuddly panda. Rooted in Chinese folklore passed down over generations in stories children are hooked on before sleep, Monkey King, with its fabulous feats defeating monsters and devils in all shapes and forms, and impish pranks on high-placed gods, is inherently and vividly relatable to the Chinese. The foreign nature of the Kung Fu Panda was best captured by Tian Xiaopeng, director of "Monkey King: Hero is Back," when he said that the Kung Fu Panda franchise cannot really represent Chinese-style animation since it's Western values that make its characters tick, despite their Chinese guise.
Departing from the template of previous Chinese animation movies that cater to preteens, "Monkey King: Hero is Back" is also a more grown-up proposition as it targets both adults and kids. Tian said he was inspired by the character played by Morgan Freeman in the 1995 movie "The Shawshank Redemption," who grows from a streetwise hooligan into someone ill-adapted to and fearful of a world that has changed beyond all recognition after his 40 years behind bars.
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