Review of Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (2017) by Kazuhiro I — 31 Aug 2018

None of the actors were back as the main 4, Shu Qi appeared but just for Tang Sanzang, the three demons were boiled down to one characteristic except for Wukong, and never touched on their pasts so their characters were incredibly one dimensional.

Costume design reverted the three back to more of a demon-like look while it looks cool, doesn't have anything to do with their redemption. The storyline felt more forced if anything while it was an adventure on their way to India, the atmosphere broke the feeling.

Tang Sanzang completely changed his character, he didn't hold any of the virtues that he had in the first movie and was cruel to the three which was completely out of character. Aesthetically I enjoyed it but plot wise it was awful, the characters weren't written well as the first one even if KL Hog and Sandy had no speaking lines in the past.

At least they had some depth in the first movie with the teacher talking about them.