A Chinese Odyssey Part One - Pandora's Box (1995)
Reviewed by: MadMonkey on 1999-12-09
A Chinese oddity, perhaps--with its recursive, time-bent plot and its twisted interpretation of the Journey to the West legend, ACO is a unique and thrilling spectacle, full of great effects (for HK), spectacular fighting, and some nice costume-period drama. YOU WILL BELIEVE STEPHEN CHOW IS THE MONKEY KING! I don't think that Chow was picked for the role so much as the legend itself was crafted for his embrace by ancient storytellers with an oracular bent; honestly, I've seen dramatic interpretations of this myth before, but never has there been an actor with the kind of preposterous gusto, physical slapdashery, verbal dexterity, and general comfort with monkeyshines that the role of Son Wu K'ung demands...until Stephen Chow, that is. Throw in the fact that Ng Man Tat was clearly born to play Pigsy, the Monkey King's companion on his travels with the Longevity Monk, and you've got a casting coup that will hardly be equaled in the annals of HK cinema. :) The story isn't really explicable, except in general terms: Chow is the reincarnated Monkey King, doomed to wear the form of a human until he is able to complete the original quest of the Journey to the West. Since the Longevity Monk sacrificed himself 500 years ago so that his disobedient simian disciple would not be sentenced to hell, this would seem to be impossible...until a magical treasure, Pandora's Box (why Greek mythology here?), enters the picture, with its ability to send its user back through time...suffice it to say that Chow as Joker, the Monkey King's human reincarnate, finds himself looped back into a time half a millennium away, and is given the opportunity to fix his ancient mistakes, as well as cast away the frailty of human desire. Is the ending a happy one? Bittersweet, perhaps... The tale is funny, by turns moving, exciting, and didactic, full of great comic strokes and brilliant twists of plot; the ending is a bit confusing, but why shouldn't it be? You may not like it, but you MUST watch it.

(4/5)