Review of A Chinese Tall Story (2005) by George C — 14 Jul 2014

Director Jeff Lau, who brought us Chow Sing Chi's impressive Chinese Odyssey saga, and many, many other exciting action comedies, delivers an updated version of the aforementioned Monkey King tale.

And yet again, strange as it may seem... it works.

And I do want to focus on the word 'strange'.

Anyone who isn't used to the weird and wonderful world of HK cinema will think that both their eyes and mind has just been raped after their first viewing of A Chinese Tall Story. And I don't mean that in a bad way!

As much as I think this is possibly one of the strangest adaptations of the Monkey King, wait - this is the strangest adaptation of that very famous story - it is also one of the most entertaining, marred only just, by some OTT moments and Jeff Lau's usual fault of trying to cram too much into one show. But hey, you get over it.

As a film maker, I do appreciate the amount of work that goes into a film, and this one deserves to be seen at least for what went into it.

The handsome Nicholas Tse plays Prince Tripitaka, who has to rescue the Monkey King and his other friends after they get captured by an army of giant insects (no, really). Along the way, he meets a mixture of characters who all play a 'who's who' of those you'd recognise from the superb Dragon Ball Z series - including the criminally underused Yuen Wah as the Turtle King. Classic Shaw Brothers stars Gordon Lui and Kara Hui co-star in non-action roles, but all in all, there is plenty here to let that all pass.

Check it out - I guarantee you'll not have seen anything like it...