Monkeys and Snakes and Bulls, Oh My!
The second part of this weekend's double feature; A Chinese Odyssey: Part Three.
A Chinese Odyssey: Part Three (no bonus subtitle this time, oddly enough) was directed by the same man, Jeffrey Lau, who directed Parts One and Two in the 90’s. I’m not sure why it took him so long to make the third part, and on the surface, you wonder why a third part was even necessary, since Part Two ended in a relatively good place, with a lot of plot threads at least somewhat resolved (as best as I can tell, anyway). However, I’m glad he decided to do it, if for no other reason than that it makes for a fascinating viewing experience when you watch all three movies one right after the other.
Once again, it’s going to be difficult to explain the plot, but I’ll do what I can*. At the beginning of the movie, Zixia has found a way to travel back in time, and learns what will happen if she and Joker pursue a relationship. Since it’s not going to turn out well for either of them, she decides to do the noble thing and push Joker towards his love from the first movie. When that doesn’t work, she tries to avert fate by marrying the Bull King, again to the displeasure of Princess Iron Fan (Nan Xie). The Monkey King (Geng Han) is also hanging around, the Longevity Monk sporadically shows up, now with the new quirk of jumping around in time and making pop culture references, and a new character is thrown into the convoluted love story, Bull King’s sister White Snake (Phoebe Wang). But the really interesting thing about this movie is that we keep getting cutaways to Heaven, where the Jade Emperor (Huang Zhen) is trying to manipulate events down on Earth. And it’s at the point where we finally start learning why where the movie takes a fascinating, if still bizarre, turn.
It’s hard to explain things, both because of the convoluted nature of the story and because of spoilers, but this movie is both trying to be philosophical and recontextualizing the first two movies. There are ruminations, though not overt ones, about the nature of fate and whether or not it can be changed, and the execution of that is very clever. And a lot of the scenes from the first two movies are reshot, often putting a slightly different spin on them and, in many cases, making them feel a lot less random. That being said, there are moments, especially in the early going, where it feels like Lau is just trying to remake his first two movies, but better this time, since material from the first two movies are either ignored or play out in very similar but noticeably different ways. Some of this makes sense once you start getting the various reveals, but others just remain odd choices. But assuming you watch this one after the first two, you’ll probably still be in the “this makes no sense but I’m going to roll with it” mindset, so this isn’t as much of a problem as it might seem.
Other than that unique wrinkle, the positives from the 90’s movies mostly carry over to this one. It’s not as nonstop comedic, but it’s still clearly meant to be humorous. The female characters still continue to hold their own with the men, in and out of fight scenes. About the only major change is that the effects and makeup are now digital instead of practical, but I don’t object to this for two reasons. One, it makes some of the sets absolutely gorgeous. And two, some of the effects look fake, so they still fit right in with the cheesy nature of the story, allowing another throughline between the tales. It’s separated from the originals, and yet at the same time, it fits right in. Now that’s a hell of a balancing act.
I do recommend checking this one out as well, though I do have a caveat this time. Since it does somewhat impact the perspective you’ll have on the first two movies, you may want to avoid it if you just enjoyed the comedy of the 90’s movies and don’t want things recontextualized. However, I feel like Part Three is saying something really neat about filmmaking or creative vision, though I can’t entirely put my finger on why (admittedly par for the course with these movies), and thus encourage those who love film to give this one a look. After all, any movie that can both make you laugh and make you think should definitely be worthy of examination.
*Unfortunately, the names of the characters on IMDB are different from the names given in the first two movies, so I can’t entirely tell who’s playing who, since all of the actors/actresses were replaced for this one. In order to keep them straight, I’ll just use the names from the first two movies and give actor names where I can.
A Chinese Odyssey: Part Three (no bonus subtitle this time, oddly enough) was directed by the same man, Jeffrey Lau, who directed Parts One and Two in the 90’s. I’m not sure why it took him so long to make the third part, and on the surface, you wonder why a third part was even necessary, since Part Two ended in a relatively good place, with a lot of plot threads at least somewhat resolved (as best as I can tell, anyway). However, I’m glad he decided to do it, if for no other reason than that it makes for a fascinating viewing experience when you watch all three movies one right after the other.
Once again, it’s going to be difficult to explain the plot, but I’ll do what I can*. At the beginning of the movie, Zixia has found a way to travel back in time, and learns what will happen if she and Joker pursue a relationship. Since it’s not going to turn out well for either of them, she decides to do the noble thing and push Joker towards his love from the first movie. When that doesn’t work, she tries to avert fate by marrying the Bull King, again to the displeasure of Princess Iron Fan (Nan Xie). The Monkey King (Geng Han) is also hanging around, the Longevity Monk sporadically shows up, now with the new quirk of jumping around in time and making pop culture references, and a new character is thrown into the convoluted love story, Bull King’s sister White Snake (Phoebe Wang). But the really interesting thing about this movie is that we keep getting cutaways to Heaven, where the Jade Emperor (Huang Zhen) is trying to manipulate events down on Earth. And it’s at the point where we finally start learning why where the movie takes a fascinating, if still bizarre, turn.
It’s hard to explain things, both because of the convoluted nature of the story and because of spoilers, but this movie is both trying to be philosophical and recontextualizing the first two movies. There are ruminations, though not overt ones, about the nature of fate and whether or not it can be changed, and the execution of that is very clever. And a lot of the scenes from the first two movies are reshot, often putting a slightly different spin on them and, in many cases, making them feel a lot less random. That being said, there are moments, especially in the early going, where it feels like Lau is just trying to remake his first two movies, but better this time, since material from the first two movies are either ignored or play out in very similar but noticeably different ways. Some of this makes sense once you start getting the various reveals, but others just remain odd choices. But assuming you watch this one after the first two, you’ll probably still be in the “this makes no sense but I’m going to roll with it” mindset, so this isn’t as much of a problem as it might seem.
Other than that unique wrinkle, the positives from the 90’s movies mostly carry over to this one. It’s not as nonstop comedic, but it’s still clearly meant to be humorous. The female characters still continue to hold their own with the men, in and out of fight scenes. About the only major change is that the effects and makeup are now digital instead of practical, but I don’t object to this for two reasons. One, it makes some of the sets absolutely gorgeous. And two, some of the effects look fake, so they still fit right in with the cheesy nature of the story, allowing another throughline between the tales. It’s separated from the originals, and yet at the same time, it fits right in. Now that’s a hell of a balancing act.
I do recommend checking this one out as well, though I do have a caveat this time. Since it does somewhat impact the perspective you’ll have on the first two movies, you may want to avoid it if you just enjoyed the comedy of the 90’s movies and don’t want things recontextualized. However, I feel like Part Three is saying something really neat about filmmaking or creative vision, though I can’t entirely put my finger on why (admittedly par for the course with these movies), and thus encourage those who love film to give this one a look. After all, any movie that can both make you laugh and make you think should definitely be worthy of examination.
*Unfortunately, the names of the characters on IMDB are different from the names given in the first two movies, so I can’t entirely tell who’s playing who, since all of the actors/actresses were replaced for this one. In order to keep them straight, I’ll just use the names from the first two movies and give actor names where I can.