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The Monkey King 3

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The Monkey King 3
Theatrical release poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese西遊記女兒國
Simplified Chinese西游记女儿国
Literal meaningJourney to the West: Daughter of the Country
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinXī yóu jì nǚ'ér guó
Directed bySoi Cheang
Screenplay byElvis Man
Based onJourney to the West
by Wu Cheng'en
Produced bySoi Cheang
Starring
CinematographyRichard Bluck
Yang Tao
Edited byYau Chi-wai
Music byYu Kobayashi
Production
company
Filmko Entertainment
Distributed byFilmko Entertainment
China Film Group
Release date
  • 16 February 2018 (2018-02-16)[1]
Running time
114 minutes
CountriesHong Kong
China
LanguagesMandarin
Cantonese
BudgetRMB 550 (US$87 million)[2]
Box officeUS$114.2 million[3]

The Monkey King 3 is a 2018 Chinese–Hong Kong fantasy film based on the classic novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. The film is the third installment of the Monkey King franchise, after The Monkey King (2014) and The Monkey King 2 (2016). Directed and produced by Soi Cheang, the film stars Aaron Kwok, Feng Shaofeng, Xiao Shenyang, Him Law and Zhao Liying.

The film was released on February 16, 2018, the first day of the Chinese New Year holiday period.[4] It received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

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Sun Wukong (Aaron Kwok), Tang Sanzang (Feng Shaofeng), Zhu Bajie (Xiaoshenyang) and Sha Wujing (Him Law) – inadvertently enter the Womanland of Western Liang, a nation populated by women raised to believe that men are fatally deceptive in matters of the heart.

Love nevertheless blossoms between Tang Sanzang and the Womanland's young queen (Zhao Liying), even though her royal preceptor (Gigi Leung) is hell-bent on sentencing the men to death. As Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing search for a way out of this nation surrounded by a vast magical net, it soon transpires, conveniently, that romantic love is the only key to opening the gate.

Cast

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Production

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Casting

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Zhao Liying was cast in the role of the Ruler of Women's Country.[5] The original cast members of The Monkey King 2: Aaron Kwok, Feng Shaofeng, Xiaoshenyang and Him Law reprised their roles as Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing respectively in the film.[6] Liu Tao, Lin Chi-ling, and Gigi Leung joined the cast for this installment.[7]

Filming

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Hollywood talent Shaun Smith (300, I am Legend, The Monkey King 2) returned as the special makeup effects supervisor/designer for the Monkey King 3. Principal photography began in December 2016 and concluded in early April 2017.

Release

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The Monkey King 3 was released in China on February 16, 2018.[8]

Reception

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On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 29% based on seven reviews, and an average rating of 4.8/10.[9] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10] On Tianjin Maoyan Culture Media's ticketing website the film has received a 7.8/10 from the audience based on over 240,000 reviews.[11]

Elizabeth Kerr from The Hollywood Reporter believes that the film is "bonker(s), but in a charming, delirious sort of way" with "enough eye-catching set pieces". As for actors, Aaron Kwok delivers a "strong performance...that's far more nuanced than it needs to be", while "Feng and Zhao are a less than riveting couple, making their dilemmas leaden soap opera instead of compelling crises of conscience or identity". She also points out that even the Queen's still "begging for the men's help" and notes that The Monkey King 3 is missing its opportunity to make the female characters "active-not-reactive".[12]

Chinese critic Raymond Zhou regards The Monkey King 3 as inferior to its predecessor, The Monkey King 2. He criticized that the CGI effect is more credible than the story is and that both of two romantic leads have no chemistry. He commented that Feng Shaofeng's performance is reliable among leads.[13]

Film critic Derek Elley, however, credits The Monkey King 3 as "the most engaging of the three films on a character level, with a relaxed tone and often silly humour that also help to bolster its "human" face". Xuanzang's role is "always a difficult one to bring off amid such colourful company (Aaron Kwok, Xiaoshenyang, and Luo Zhongqian)", but Feng Shaofeng "manages to make Xuanzang sympathetic"; Zhao fails to "dominate the film as her character should"; Gigi Leung "grabs the spotlight" while her character is not "fully-drawn"; Lin Zhiling "has a couple of memorable moments in the CGI-heavy finale".[14]

References

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  1. ^ "西游记·女儿国 (2018)". movie.douban.com.
  2. ^ Zhang Rui (16 February 2018). "movie guide for Spring Festival 2018". China.org.cn. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  3. ^ "Xi You Ji Nu Er Guo (2018)". The Numbers. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
  4. ^ "Big bucks behind new Monkey King film". China Daily. 18 April 2017.
  5. ^ "赵丽颖出演《西游记·女儿国》国王 2018年上映". ent.ifeng. 3 December 2016.
  6. ^ "郭富城回归《西游记：女儿国》还演孙悟空". news.ifeng. 22 November 2016.
  7. ^ "《西游记：女儿国》聚女神 林志玲梁咏琪刘涛入国". Sina. 1 March 2017.
  8. ^ "西游记·女儿国 (2018)". movie.douban.com (in Chinese). douban.com. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  9. ^ "The Monkey King 3 (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  10. ^ "The Monkey King 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  11. ^ "西游记女儿国 - 猫眼电影 - 一网打尽好电影". maoyan.com. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  12. ^ "'The Monkey King 3': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  13. ^ Zhou, Reymond (22 February 2018). "《女儿国》不如《三打白骨精》，它跟过年两年的奇幻大片是同一个问题：把创作的重心放到视觉奇观上，而忽视了故事的重要性。也许主创们觉得这故事耳熟能详，讲得好不好不重要。反正我留下印象的全是画面，对那两组毫不来电的恋爱故事直接无视。但跟《三生三世》等相比，这部似乎要胜一筹。演员中冯绍峰是可信的". Sino Weibo. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  14. ^ "Review: The Monkey King 3 (2018) | Sino-Cinema 《神州电影》". sino-cinema.com. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
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