#like uproar in heaven and JTTW 1986

[sketching-shark]

Sorry. Forget my ask about the Monkey King movie. It's not the best, and westernaised. I just talked about the animation. Sorry it was stupid ask that I sent (and also I didn't know that you saw it, sorry). So sorry.

asfgerwrefsd ANON it would be an act of vile hubris on my part to assume people regularly check my blog to see what I have and haven't answered, so seriously no need whatsoever for your to apologize, especially since there was nothing stupid or harmful at all about the ask you sent! And I'm aware enough about my tastes to know that I'm EXTREMELY picky when it comes to JTTW retellings, so retellings that work for other people will be ones I'll be a lot more harsh on (see for example my history of dunking on Chinese retellings that focus on a Sun Wukong romance). Plus I think it's a good, indeed vital part of criticism to know that you can recognize a story's flaws and still enjoy other elements of it. And as is besides agreeing with you that the fight scene animations were indeed pretty cool, of the Western retellings of Xiyouji I've seen this did feel like a bit of a step in a neat direction in terms of being up-front in giving its protagonists morally gray but understandable motives for doing what they do. The Monkey King's brutal honesty is something I love about his character in the og classic, and it was kind of neat to see a version of that in the Netflix film. So while we haven't yet gotten a western JTTW retelling where the writers respected the "intelligent" in "intelligent stone primate," and while there's always more that can be done to not westernize stories from other cultures, I'd say that Netflix's Monkey King is a pretty decent addition to the ever-growing library of JTTW retellings out there.

[earl-of-221b]

Hello! I've recently seen a lot of discussion that seems to be surrounding JttW, particularly on your blog. While I've only read the (translated) original work, it seems that it would be worth looking into some different adaptations. I'm not sure how knowledgeable you are about what to look into, but I'd love to hear any suggestions you may have about where to start, or even some of the better remakes, etc.

Oh hi lordofthegauntlets!! Sure thing, Journey to the West is one my fav shows that’s been made and remade over and over but I’ll never get sick of it. 

The classic cartoons are a good place to start cos they’re just so choice. 1964 Havoc in Heaven (or mandarin Uproar in Heaven with eng subtitle) focuses only on Sun Wukong with that iconic red-painted face and high pitched voice, all done to popping beijing opera tunes. Despite being so old, it holds up very well and is so rewatchable. It starts with Wukong already trained in magic and the Monkey King of Flower Fruit Mountain. He goes on an adventure that ends with him getting spurned and singlehandedly trashing heaven, then going home to be beloved by monkeys everywhere. 11/10. 

1999 JttW, since I grew up watching this one, is my personal Definitive Version with 54 eps. The animation is more modern (but still from 1999 lol), it’s a full, mostly faithful adaption. Zhu Bajie (Pigsy), Sha Wujing (Sandy) and Tang Sanzang (Tripitaka) and Monkey go to the west while protecting master from demons who want to eat him. Sun Wukong in basically the coolest, smartest, cutest demon ever here and the opening and ending songs are BANGERS. I love it, though it might not be for everyone cos the animation does get a bit wonky.

Here it is in full in mandarin with eng subtitle (but gotta turn the subtitle on). Be aware the first eight eps about the Havoc in Heaven has a different art style than the rest of the story where they journey west. Just because. 

Here it is in a not great english dub starting at the beginning of the journey west, but sadly it skips past the Havoc in Heaven (and it’s cut weird, and it sucked out all the dramatic chinese filial piety beats™ lol). 

1996 JttW aka Hong Kong JttW aka the Definitive JttW for Cantonese speakers. It’s a live action series subbed in english on kissasian. This one flows really good and has a way of storytelling that’s really easy to follow. Sun Wukong does some sick flips and looks handsome, Bajie is lovelorn, Wujing is mentally impaired in this version but still a good bro, Tripitaka is compassionate but stern. It’s a less faithful adaption because of storyline changes, but it really doesn’t matter at all because it 100% captures the spirit of JttW! The journey west happens around 7 eps in, after the Havoc in Heaven arc. 

Saiyuki is Japanese manga where the writer decided that the pilgrims needed to be Hot™ and Angsty™ bishounen boys with tragic backstories on a road trip with their pet dragon that turns into a jeep. And somehow this works Great. Tripitaka is Genjo Sanzo, a cynical gun-toting monk (this has guns and shit, it’s hardcore), Sun Wukong is Son Goku, an innocent teenage demon wearing a diadem that seals his awesome demonic powers, Bajie is Hakkai who is kind and intellectual, Wujing is Gojyo, an alcoholic and womaniser. (Yes Bajie and Wujing’s personalities are swapped in this version.) Together they will stop the demons from destroying the world. The art gets better as you go on and there are a few sequels and a tragic prequel (but read the original one first to get that full punch in the gut). If you need some of that good, buddhist angst, this is it. 

2015 Monkey King Hero is Back is a recent animated movie that’s amazing and a lot of people swooned over Sun Wukong (a monkey) in this version who feels older, is more mature and is slightly beaten down by life (aka: Mountain to the back for 500 years). It’s essentially a JttW de-aged AU where Tripitaka is like an eight year old boy and….Wukong has to be The Adult. This is the first version ever that really uses Wukong’s monkey physicality to his advantage in fight scenes. I love it heaps and I’m still waiting for the sequel. 

1986 JttW (eng sub) is usually considered the definitive adaption for mainland China all thanks to its really iconic Sun Wukong and it being the first long-running Chinese JttW adaption. It’s quite faithful to the book. But I left it last on the list cos it’s quite dated now and to someone who has never seen it before: it’s weird as hell. (Partly because live action just forces you to realise how absolutely nutty this story is.) Sun Wukong genuinely looks and acts like a monkey here - even more so than the cartoon versions!

And those are my top picks

[sketching-shark]

I was curious to know, is there a specific adaptation of JTTW that you particularly enjoy? Whether its good or accurate isnt important but more like in your personal taste

AUGH going to be honest @seasonalsummers in that I don't feel like I can pick just one...there's so many excellent retellings! But I will take this opportunity to present some of my favorites.

So first up we have the 1986 Journey to the West tv series. It is in many ways very goofy and gaudy, but there's just as many reasons why it's considered one of the best retellings out there, from its genuine heart to the adherence to the og classic. And needless to say its Sun Wukong really set a standard for cheeky scheming monkey behavior. You can start watching it here:

Next up is 2016s The Monkey King 2. While this film is one of those retellings that gives the White Bone Demon a lot more prominence than she has in the og classic--and definitely has its own silly stupid moments--it also stands as one of the very few retellings that directly addresses the paradox of Tang Sanzang's mission: that he's trying to get the sutras to help mortals achieve a state of peace all while abhorring violence, and yet its only because of the violence of his disciples, especially Sun Wukong, that he's able to right a number of wrongs or simply go from day to day uneaten. You can watch it here:

And now it's time to give kudos to 2015's Monkey King: Hero Is Back. While this film is FAR from a faithful retelling and (usual refrain) has its own silliness, pretty simple plot, and gross-out humor, it also has so much heart and stands as a wonderful embodiment of the dad Wukong characterization. One also has to give it credit for its main child character, Jiang Liuer, being a genuinely charming kid who's wonder at the world and desire to do good drives the story forward in a sincerely lovely way. You can watch it here:

More recently--and in a work that is at best only loosely following the plot of Xiyouji--is 2022's Lighting Up the Stars. This film follows the story of a Li Nezha coded little orphan girl Wu Xiaowen and a Sun Wukong coded funeral director Mo Sanmei as they go from a very tense relationship to a genuinely loving father-daughter relationship. While there are moments of this film that feel kind of overwrought, it's an honestly wonderful exploration of what goes into dealing with death and the importance of love in all its many forms during life. I also have a soft spot for Mo Sanmei, who from what I've seen is the very peak of explicitly shitty cringefail loser who then genuinely works hard to become a better person Sun Wukong out there. It can be watched here:

Turning away from film and animation for a moment, I simply have to give proper kudos to Chaiko Tsai's comic The Monkey King. Between the gorgeous art, fun character designs, a good sense of how to translate many of the stories of Xiyouji into comic format, and a resolution to the Sun Wukong vs. Niu Mowang fight that I actually prefer above that in Journey to the West itself, this is definitely a comic worth going through! You can purchase it here for about $30.00

And last but certainly not least, one simply has to give due credit to 1964's Uproar in Heaven. It's an absolute gem of stylized Chinese animation, a work with the very rare allowance on the Monkey King getting to go full grandpa for tons upon tons of monkeys at Mt. Huaguoshan, and it's very faithful to the first half of the og classic with the difference that here Sun Wukong does his havoc in heaven and gets away with it. All around its a really fun work to watch and does have a lot of importance from both an animation and a historical perspective. You can watch it here:

So those are my favorite adaptations of Journey to the West! It's but a fraction of the adaptations out there, but I hope other people found these as fun as I do.

[sketching-shark]

Any favorite jttw AUs?

Oooo fun question anon! BUT if you will indulge me in including some of my favorite big-budget AUs as well (i.e. retellings that take a LOT of liberties so I'm not including JTTW 1986 in this lmao), I'd say that those would be Monkey King: Hero is Back, The Monkey King 2, and Xuanzang, though the last one is more of a dramatized historical-ish account of the actual monk's journey to India. And then of course Uproar in Heaven is a very fun watch both for being a great example of early animation as well as for technically being an AU where Sun Wukong wins his war against the deities.

As for those that you can find here on tumblr dot hell, I'd say that the AUs composed by @antidotefortheawkward-art, @kaijufluffs, and @sunny-days-and-warm-mournings are all quite interesting! I particularly like Antidote's various human AUs for their fun and often really cool/sometimes heartbreaking takes on how the pilgrims might function as people, Kaiju's Sun Wukong's Mother AU is great for the emphasis on how much the Monkey King and the Mt. Huaguoshan simians love each other, and Sunny has a TON of AUs in the work that each bring very different but very interesting flavor to various "what-if" JTTW scenarios.

[sketching-shark]

Hello! What are your favorite Journey to the West adaptations? I just discovered the story recently and I'm almost all the way through the Aaron Kwok movies and I saw a very strange one where Guanyin (i think??) sexually harasses Tripitaka for 2 hours. But I love Sun Wukong very much and wish to see more of him!

Hi there! Well @andthebeanstalk I am very much with you on loving Sun Wukong and wanting to know more about retellings of his story and wow that sounds like some pretty horrifying times with JTTW adaptations. But in terms of my favorite adaptations so far, I guess I'd have to go with:

a. Anthony C. Yu's English translation of Journey to the West: okay so maybe this one is a little bit of a cheat BUT it has to be noted that even a very good translation is going to require a LOT of adaptation because of language differences if nothing else, and Yu's work to this day remains the best and most complete presentation of Xiyouji for an English-speaking audience. If you look up "anthony c. yu" on this website you should find numerous posts that have links to pdfs of all four volumes of his translation for free.

b. Journey to the West (1986): This one is a really fun series! I'm not many episodes in, but from what I've seen and heard it's very faithful to the source material and definitely stars one of the best Monkey Kings I've ever seen! You can start watching it here:

c. Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015): So it has to be acknowledged that this one definitely isn't the best animation out there BUT I still find it really fun and really charming! It also has a relatively unique take on the Tang Sanzang & Sun Wukong relationship, and it's always a delight to see a retelling of Xiyouji that lets the monkey king be more of a dad. You can watch it for free here:

d. Uproar in Heaven (1964): Another older production but a very good one! This animation is heavily stylized, really fun, offers another work that puts a lot of focus on Sun Wukong's love of his monkey family, and actually presents a scenario where he havocs through heaven and gets away with it. It's a really fun animation all around! You can watch it for free here:

So these are the adaptations of Xiyouji that I love that I can think of off the top of my head, but of course everyone should feel free to add links to their own beloved retellings if they'd like! The more monkey the better.

[angstandhappiness]

Interesting

Sorry. Forget my ask about the Monkey King movie. It's not the best, and westernaised. I just talked about the animation. Sorry it was stupid ask that I sent (and also I didn't know that you saw it, sorry). So sorry.

asfgerwrefsd ANON it would be an act of vile hubris on my part to assume people regularly check my blog to see what I have and haven't answered, so seriously no need whatsoever for your to apologize, especially since there was nothing stupid or harmful at all about the ask you sent! And I'm aware enough about my tastes to know that I'm EXTREMELY picky when it comes to JTTW retellings, so retellings that work for other people will be ones I'll be a lot more harsh on (see for example my history of dunking on Chinese retellings that focus on a Sun Wukong romance). Plus I think it's a good, indeed vital part of criticism to know that you can recognize a story's flaws and still enjoy other elements of it. And as is besides agreeing with you that the fight scene animations were indeed pretty cool, of the Western retellings of Xiyouji I've seen this did feel like a bit of a step in a neat direction in terms of being up-front in giving its protagonists morally gray but understandable motives for doing what they do. The Monkey King's brutal honesty is something I love about his character in the og classic, and it was kind of neat to see a version of that in the Netflix film. So while we haven't yet gotten a western JTTW retelling where the writers respected the "intelligent" in "intelligent stone primate," and while there's always more that can be done to not westernize stories from other cultures, I'd say that Netflix's Monkey King is a pretty decent addition to the ever-growing library of JTTW retellings out there.