The Monkey King 3 [Xiyouji zhi Nü’erguo] ** (2018, William Feng, Aaron Kwok, Zanilia Zhao, Shenyang Xiao, Him Law) – Movie Review

Director Soi Cheang’s bright and lively The Monkey King 3 is a pleasant, lightly entertaining, and reasonably likeable romantic fantasy action adventure, enriched and enlivened with decent performances and a lovely production, which cost a hefty $73,000,000. Inevitably, there is way too much CGI, and the scenes without it are surely the best. The CGI looks nice enough though, giving the movie a fairy tale comic book look.

A travelling monk called Xuanzang (Shaofeng Feng [William Feng]) and his trusty companions – The Monkey King Wukong (Aaron Kwok), the pig demon Bajie (Shenyang Xiao), and the blue-skinned sand demon Wujing (Him Law) – find themselves trapped in Womenland, where men are an endangered species (that is there aren’t any) and the women want the newcomers dead – all except the beautiful young Queen (Zanilia Zhao [Liying Zhao]), who rather fancies the monk. But has she just fallen under the spell of wicked men?

Womenland’s matriarch Madam Perceptor (Gigi Leung) thanks she has, as men are the worst poison to their women kind, and she orders the quartet’s immediate execution. Can the lads escape?

The sweetly soft-centred movie is very gentle, and mostly quite romantic and comedic, keeping the action adventure elements largely in the background. There are only two big battle scenes, one in the middle of the film with two giant scorpions (very Ray Harryhausen), and the other at the climax with the vengeful River God (Lin Chi-ling) trying to drown all Womenland.

The story feels a little over-extended at two hours, with some repetition, producing a rather dull sag around half way after the scorpion attack, but the film does pick up again with quirky subplots and unexpected details and characters (the men get pregnant, cue a cross-dressing hermit, and then there’s an unrequited lesbian romance) and that vengeful climax, and it ends up feeling quite charming.

There is a good balance of comedy, romance and fantasy, with performances exactly tailored to fit. The hero and heroine are attractive and appealing. And it also helps that the soundtrack is hauntingly melodious. But the film will frustrate those looking for an action fantasy rather than a romantic fantasy, which is what we unexpectedly have here.

The screenplay is by Ning Wen (credited as Elvis Man), based on the novel by Cheng’en Wu (as Wu Chengern).

It follows The Monkey King (2014) and The Monkey King 2 (2016). The Monkey King 3 confidently sets up a fourth film, a Fiery Mountain episode.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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