"Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" (西游降魔篇)

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons [File photo]

Hong Kong's "King of Comedy" Stephen Chow made his way to the 2013 top with "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons." It made US$215 million worldwide and is the biggest grossing Chinese film ever.

The film is loosely based on the Chinese classic "Journey to the West" and has echoes of Chow's classic 1995 cult movies "A Chinese Odyssey - Pandora's Box" and "Cinderella." However this time, to the disappointment of some fans, he only worked behind the camera as a director rather than taking on the lead role while another director Derek Kwok helped with directing. Yet the film is still a 3D fantasy adventure full of typical Chow-styled humor, which made people wonder how great it would have been if Chow himself had starred in the film.

The story is about how the monk Xuanzhang falls in love with a female exorcist and tames the three demons of a monkey, a pig and a fish to become his disciples in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The monkey, a.k.a. Monkey King Sun Wukong, is the biggest villain in the film, which is a very bold adaption -- as in the original literary text the Monkey King plays a very positive role. The film recruited two newly emerged Chinese comedy kings Huang Bo and Wen Zhang, as well as popular Hong Kong actress Shu Qi. It makes audiences laugh, thrills them and moves them to tears, all with help of some dazzling visual effects.