If we talk about the first IP of China's film and television industry, it is "Journey to the West".
More than a hundred years after the birth of the film, there are many film and television works based on this classic mythological story written by Wu Cheng'en.
Among them, there are many popular classic adaptations, and many "Journey to the West" film and television dramas have even become national memories.
For example: the 86th edition of "Journey to the West", "Journey to the West", the Japanese manga "Dragon Ball" and so on.
But as Teacher Six said: Adaptation is not a random compilation, and jokes cannot be nonsense.
In the history of the remake of "Journey to the West", it is not a mainland Hong Kong or Taiwan, or Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States, and there has never been a shortage of strange thunder films.
For example, Japan once launched the TV series "Journey to the West" in 1978, in which Tang Monk was an actress.
In 2001, Hollywood made a "Qi Tian Dasheng", the American Tang monk and the Indian Guanyin fell in love to save the world.
In 2018, Netflix also produced an American drama "The Legend of the New Monkey King", and even sha monk became a master sister!
There are also the big bad films in recent years that pay tribute to classic gimmicks and various porcelain journey to the west theme.
However, most of these remakes of film and television dramas have limited influence, and when it comes to the real legendary thundershots in the history of "Journey to the West" remake, it is a film co-produced between the mainland and Hong Kong 30 years ago, and the film is known as:
The most bloody Journey to the West movie ever!
In this issue of "Forgotten Domestic Genre Films", let's relive this alternative cult work from 30 years ago!
"Westward Journey to Ping Demon"
Go West to Subdue Demons
Released in 1991, the film was co-produced by Hong Kong's Changhe Pictures and the Mainland's Xiaoxiang Film Studio.
The director and screenwriter is Zhang Che, a famous martial arts master in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and this film is the penultimate film of his career.
In the 1980s, Shaw's company was discontinued, and Zhang Che's film company in Taiwan was on the verge of bankruptcy, which temporarily left the former blockbuster martial arts film director in a situation where there were no films to make.
At this time, coinciding with the boom of co-production films in the mainland, many Hong Kong directors have gone to the mainland to shoot martial arts films, and Zhang Che has also followed the trend and was invited to the mainland to shoot films, and several kung fu films have been filmed in succession, the most representative of which is "Great Shanghai 1937" released in 1987, which was the box office champion in the mainland that year.
Since then, Zhang Che's directing career has ushered in a warming up in the mainland, but at this time, Zhang Che has reached the age of Hua Jia, and his creativity and energy are no less than when he was younger, and he often falls asleep while shooting on the set. It is precisely because the creative power is no longer there, several films shot by Zhang Che in the mainland are basically re-modified or directly remade of his previous works.
The story prototype of "Great Shanghai 1937" comes from "Shanghai Beach Thirteen Taibao", "Crossing the River Dragon" remake from the old work "Revenge", "Xi'an Killing" is a remake of "Five Poisons", "Shentong" is remade from "Shentong and the Little Overlord", and even this "Westbound Ping Demon" is actually derived from the remake of the movie "Red Child" shot by Zhang Che in the Shaw period.
Like several other films shot by Zhang Che in the mainland, the film is starred by the sixth generation of disciples of Zhang Jiaban, Dong Zhihua, who plays Sun Wukong, Du Yuming, who plays sha monk, and Mu Lixin, who plays the red child, are all actors who have cooperated with Zhang Che many times, and all three are Peking Opera actors, who were discovered by Zhang Che to become martial arts actors because of their neat skills.
Dong Zhihua
Du Yuming
Mu Lixin
In addition, when re-watching the starring list of this movie, I found that the actor Zhang Kepeng, who played the Pig Eight Commandments in the film, is also a hidden big coffee, he is also a Peking Opera actor, and he has also starred in some film and television dramas, but his more well-known identity is the former lead singer of the Black Panther Band.
Speaking of the film itself, because Zhang Che himself is a fan of Peking Opera, so Zhang Che's films often appear in opera elements, and several films in the mainland directly use Peking Opera Wusheng as the protagonist, and this "Westbound Pingyou" is zhang Che's alternative attempt to combine Peking opera elements with mythological martial arts, and the film played a gimmick when it was released that year:
The first mythological stunt movie in China!
However, what is embarrassing is that when Zhang Che's film is not very particular about the cheap painting style and stylized martial arts scenes, coupled with outdated special effects standards and quirky Peking Opera style, the film has completely degenerated into a twisted, weird, vulgar, but cult sense of strange movie.
Specifically where this magic is, let's slowly elaborate.
The film opens with the Peking Opera painting style, and Sun Wukong, painted in Peking Opera oil paint, appears.
The next second, the Peking Opera Sun Wukong became a live-action version of Sun Wukong, still Zhang Che's iconic breastless backless costume.
If it weren't for the actor wearing a yellow hair hood, it would be impossible to see that this is playing the Monkey King!
This is followed by a Shaw-style opening fight, in which Sun Wukong fights the same Peking Opera-style Heavenly Soldier Heavenly General.
The big fuss in the original tiangong became a Peking opera acrobatic stage play in this film.
The opening of just thirty seconds has already foreshadowed the style of the grass bench team of this film.
After that, Tang Monk appeared, and compared to Sun Wukong's shape, it at least looked much normal.
Then there is gao Laozhuang flirting with Gao Cuilan's pig eight precepts, perhaps the director also knows that the pig nose special effects are too fake, so most of the time in the movie, the pig eight precepts only come with a pair of pig ears to prove their identity as a pig demon!
After receiving the Eight Precepts of the Pig, Tang Monk crossed the Quicksand River and met a sand monk who could fight with Sun Wukong.
Then the monk ordered his men to fish out a white horse from the river, and the white dragon horse did not even need to transform, so the master and apprentice gathered together.
The title of the film appears, and as the Tang monks and apprentices travel west, the story of the film officially begins.
The main line of the movie is the path of Tang monks and disciples to exorcise demons, and the plot is roughly divided into three chapters.
The first youkai you encounter is the leopard spirit who plays soy sauce, which is the original plot of the movie.
One evening, the four masters and apprentices entered a village, and the local officials asked the Tang monks and disciples for help.
Originally, there were monsters that ravaged the township, and now they wanted to rob the daughter of the outsiders to become relatives, and the Tang monks and disciples decided to help capture the monsters.
At night, the leopard spirit, who is also in the shape of Peking Opera, came to the village with a group of small monsters
Frankly speaking, just looking at the stupid big ear shape of the leopard essence makes people very suspicious that the director is paying tribute to Disney's Mickey Mouse.
The first fight of the film begins, and the martial arts style of this film is a combination of Peking Opera martial arts and martial arts acrobatics.
The character flips and fights without a word, and then starts performing naked hand-to-hand combat with his bare arms!
In the melee, Goku wields his stick and takes the leopard essence directly, and the leopard spirit hurriedly raises his fork to meet the battle.
The two sides fought with various flips, and for a time the golden sticks and silver forks flew through the air,
The leopard spirit is invincible to Sun Wukong and shows its original form, which is actually to take off its clothes.
After all, it is Zhang Che's director, so the actors of the pat scene always have to show their chests and backs!
The bare-chested leopard reveals a blinding money tattoo, at which point Sun Wukong unleashes a taunt skill:
Yo, it turned out to be a golden leopard?
Later, Sun Wukong also painted the face of Peking Opera, and after a very perfunctory play, the leopard fell to the ground and died.
After beating the leopard essence, several masters and apprentices continued on the road, and on this day they came to the top of the Bull Demon King's mountain.
I have to sigh that the infrastructure of the Bull Demon King's Mansion is very perfect, and the director also deliberately used the panorama to let the audience pay attention to it-
Check out the clean cement pavement and the street lights on the side of the road!
Then, Princess Tiefan, who was hunting down the "Little Three" Jade-faced Princess, and her husband, the Bull Demon King, appeared.
It turned out that the Bull Devil King was now in a family dispute, and the Iron Fan Princess, as the lady of the main house, did not hesitate to forgive the Cow Devil King and his lover Princess Jade Face who were outside the cave house, and it just so happened that the Cow Devil King's brother Sun Wukong passed through this place, and he asked Sun Wukong to judge.
Tang Monk's apprentices were also invited to the Residence of the Bull Demon King, but they did not expect that Princess Tiefan had ulterior motives.
Because of the breakdown of her marriage, Princess Tiefan actually teased the little uncle Sun Wukong at the wine table, and took the initiative to secretly send Qiu Bo.
Seeing this, it is not difficult to guess -
The director is grafting "Journey to the West" with the classic plot of another classical masterpiece!
However, Sun Wukong, like the hero who fought the tiger, categorically refused the embrace of princess Tiefan.
This made the Iron Fan Princess hold a grudge in her heart, and also laid the groundwork for the plot after the film.
Bidding farewell to the Bull Demon King and his wife, the masters and apprentices climbed the mountain and waded through the water and came to the Chechi Country.
Originally, the monarch of the Che Chi Kingdom was wise and wise, and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. But now, the Chechi Kingdom was occupied by three demon dao sheep power, tiger power, and deer power. They proclaimed themselves masters of the state, and led a group of Daoist disciples and disciples everywhere to create demons and stir up peace among the people.
When the Tang monks and apprentices first arrived, they accidentally met two local young warriors, Qiao Wei and Luo Chuan. The two felt that the demon dao was in turmoil, so they wanted to secretly assassinate the three immortals, but after all, there was a huge disparity between strength and weakness, Qiao Wei failed to assassinate and died tragically, and Luo Chuan escaped because of the help of Sun Wukong.
After learning of the chaos of che chi kingdom, Tang Monk tried to decide to stay and help the people clear the demon path.
In the night, Goku, the Eight Precepts, and the Sand Monk infiltrate the palace and find out that the emperor was originally transformed by an old white sheep spirit.
Looking at this low-end cosplay-like head cover, this film does adopt a cartoon style in the close-up style!
The Three Demon Dao felt that the situation was not good, so he planned to implement the Heavenly Luo Dafa and prepare to wipe out all the Tang monks and disciples.
They built an altar high and cast magic, and in an instant the fog filled the air.
In order to eliminate the three immortals, Sun Wukong immediately competed with them in the fighting method, which is the classic Che Chi Guo Dou Fa paragraph.
The first scene is the beheading of Sun Wukong and Tiger Force Immortal, and the film's problems in special effects are also exposed.
The so-called stunts, but in fact the special effects in the movie are not only outdated, but also very fake!
The special effect of beheading is basically to hide the actor's head in the dark with the help of lighting, so as to present a "headless" effect.
Tiger Power Immortal also cut off his own head, but he did not expect that Sun Wukong's golden hoop stick could actually set off fireworks.
Directly aimed at the head of the Tiger Force Immortal flying up, a shot to its head, completed the single kill.
Then it was a gamble with Luli Daxian to fight, and Sun Wukong won the fighting method again, and Luli Daxian was killed twice.
Subsequently, Sun Wukong recognized the Yangli Immortal disguised as a young girl, and the Three Demons Dao was eliminated.
After getting rid of the three demons of tiger, deer and sheep, Che Chi Guo restored its previous tranquility and peace.
Luo Chuan remembered the kindness of the Tang monks and disciples, and proposed that he wanted to follow the Tang monks and disciples to the west.
However, Sun Wukong believes that he is a mortal and it is difficult to protect himself when he encounters a monster, so he refuses to accompany him.
However, the stubborn Luo Chuan did not admit his fate, and the so-called "if he didn't do it, he wouldn't die, and he did meet the Iron Fan Princess on the road."
Princess Tiefan abducted Luo Chuan and threatened Luo Lai to conspire against Tang Monk's apprentices, but Luo Chuan refused to listen.
Annoyed and angry, the Iron Fan Princess fan used a banana fan to fan Luo Chuan's abdomen, and Luo Chuan's stomach was swollen and killed on the spot.
When a plan failed, Princess Tiefan had another plan, planning to throw the red child of the cow demon king's ex-wife Luo Chanu against Sun Wukong.
Therefore, Princess Tiefan secretly cast a spell to control the Red Child's mind, allowing the Red Child to create an illusion to trap the Tang monks and disciples.
At the same time, Guanyin Bodhisattva learned that the Tang monks and disciples would be devastated, so he sent his disciple Nezha and the three brothers to help Goku.
The arrogant Nezha wanted to compete with Sun Wukong, so the two staged a grass-stage team-style martial arts scene.
Nezha constantly changed the weapons in his hands, and Sun Wukong also changed various weapons.
Who would have thought that Sun Wukong actually used a sword instead of a golden hoop stick!
After that, he played acrobatics with the ring, and then he beat each other with fists and feet, and the two sides fought inextricably.
After not fighting and not knowing each other, Nezha told Sun Wukong that it was the red child who trapped their master and apprentice with the illusion.
Several tang monks and apprentices who had broken the illusion found themselves in the Red Child's Fire Cloud Cave, so a great scuffle began.
The three Nezha brothers also joined the battle, especially Nezha stepped on a pair of roller skates to camouflage the hot wheel very windy!
The red child saw Nezha's pulling wheel skates, so he immediately stepped on the hot wheel to fight.
Miraculously, the Hot Wheel in this film is a must-have, and then even Sun Wukong, Sha Monk, Jin Zhao, and MuZha also stepped on roller skates to shine on the stage, and the whole Fire Cloud Cave seemed to become a roller skating rink.
Knowing that he was not an opponent, the Red Child unleashed the Samadhi True Fire, and in an instant the Flame Cloud Cave was blazing.
However, what he did not expect was that Sun Wukong could also use the golden hoop stick to emit the Samadhi True Fire,
He wielded two fiery golden hoop sticks and fought with the demons in the Fire Cloud Cave.
At the moment of crisis, Guanyin released the sharp knife formed by the lotus platform, trapping the red child in the knife bush!
After that, Sun Wukong destroyed the Fire Cloud Cave with a stick, and the red child regained his sanity.
And the Iron Fan Princess, who had been secretly controlling the red child's heart, also died tragically in an instant.
A crisis instantly disappeared into invisibility, and Sun Wukong looked at the red child who had regained his sanity and showed a smile of relief and affection.
The four masters and apprentices continue to embark on the journey to the west, and the story of the movie ends here.
Needless to say, this "Westward Journey to Ping Demon" was a protracted thunder film even in the nineties.
The film exposes complete problems at almost all levels, the story is nonsense, the plot is sloppy, the shape is thunderous, the costume set is fake, all kinds of costume shots abound, and the stunts advertised by the film are even more crude and cheap, basically the explosion effects created by fireworks.
Characters appear to explode, characters are killed to explode, youkai ascend to the altar to explode, Iron Fan Princess method fails to die tragically will also explode, the final fire cloud cave battle is blown from the beginning to the end, Sun Wukong uses not a golden hoop stick, but a flamethrower, all kinds of smoke flames as if watching an acrobatic fireworks show.
The biggest problem of the film is Zhang Che's lack of attention to details as a director, which is also the consistent feature of Zhang Che's films. As early as the Shaw period in the 1970s, Zhang Che never considered whether the character's shape and scene were suitable for the times when shooting costume films, such as shooting Qing Palace scenes, and the characters in Zhang Che's films only kept braids and did not shave their heads.
This kind of detail-seeking shooting method can be understood in the Shaw period when filming was extremely cost-controlled in the 1970s, but in the 1990s, Zhang Che still shot movies according to this line of thinking, which would be very dramatic.
Taking this film as an example, the shape of all the actors is permeated with a sense of nonsense, Sun Wukong in addition to the face of the hair is not like a monkey at all, che Chi Guo three demons of the shape of a thunder man, especially the sheep power immortal, do not know also think that the cos happy sheep it!
This film can be said to be Zhang Che's frustrated work in his later years, on the one hand, he strives to cater to the market, wants to combine his enthusiasm for Peking Opera martial arts and masculine martial arts elements with more gimmicky fantasy and stunts, but on the other hand, Zhang Che's shooting thinking is still stuck in the Shaw period. For example, the stage style of the film opening is the shooting method that he often appeared in his previous films, and the local stunts are also the standard of the 60s and 70s, not to mention the simple and unbearable set and the styling makeup that cannot be deeply investigated.
After "Westbound Ping Demon", Zhang Che only made one "Divine Power", which was also dismal at the box office. Since then, the disheartened Zhang Che has gradually withdrawn from the film world due to physical reasons. The martial arts film master who was in the Hong Kong film industry in the 60s and 70s has changed over time, but in his later years, he made a strange flower of the domestic bad film industry, which made people feel helpless and regretful.