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Journey to the West
REVIEW BY GRADY HENDRIX
Director: Stephen Chow
Country/Year: Hong Kong/China, 2013
Opening: March 7
Where: Limited
Returning after a five-year absence, Hong Kong's box-office-busting comedic auteur, Stephen Chow (best known in the U.S. for 2004's Kung Fu Hustle), breaks even more records with Journey to the West, a frenetic fantasy flick that he directed but in which he doesn't so much as make a cameo appearance. His bigscreen absence didn't dampen audience enthusiasm: the film has taken in $200 million in China, spawned a 173-acre amusement park, and has a sequel in the works. Moreover, the story of this 110minute movie (subtitled Conquering the Demons internationally) serves as a mere prequel to the 100-chapter Chinese classic, meaning that Chow might spend the rest of his life shooting future installments, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Written in the Ming Dynasty (about 1592), Journey to the West is one of the four great classics of Chinese literature, and it's long been a standard source for movies. The legendary...