Stephen Chow Journeys to the West Again!

The Chinese Odyssey films are one of the films that got me into Hong Kong cinema and from that world cinema. And I know others who say the same thing about Stephen Chow’s films. So the fact that Chow has been busy running his production company and being in the middle of lawsuits and made no new films in the past four years is saddening. But time to turn that frown upside down as the long-simmering followup to the Chinese Odyssey flicks is finally moving forward! At this point, it is not really a sequel but just from the same source material (much how A Chinese Tall Tale was sort of a sequel but not really) It’s also interesting how this version will hit theaters before the huge big budget version of the monkey King tale that stars Donnie Yen!

Journey to the West (西游·降魔篇/Xi You： Xiang Mo Pian/Journey to the West: Fell Monsters Chapter) is written/produced/directed by Stephen Chow, along with co-director Derek Kwok. Chow has said he will be in a more limited role, and will appear alongside Shu Qi, Bo Huang, Zhang Wen, Show Luo and Chrissie Chow. The movie is co-produced by six companies, including the Huayi Brothers and China Film Group. The Huayi Brothers have made many of the big budget Chinese films lately (sadly, many of them are not very interesting…)

Like almost all Journey to the West films, this is just one chapter, where the characters fight demons. Besides from that, there are not much details at this time, except that there will be heavy special effects and once again a company is claiming it will have effects on par with Hollywood effects. Because that’s totally what makes a film a good film. Effects.