A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016)

Hong Kong Action & Mainland Fantasy

A Chinese Odyssey Part 3 is an odd joint (ad) venture of the typically Hong Kong action movie and the traditional fantasy drama of China Mainland. This third part of the saga feels like sitting in a roller coaster, the scenes are fast and furious, perhaps difficult to follow if you didn't see the previous Odyssey parts, or if you aren't familiar with Chinese myths.

Story
This movie is actually a revised version of the traditional Monkey King story, starting with fairy Zixia (Tiffany Tang) who uses Pandora's Box to look into the future. She sees a war between mankind and the gods. Desperate to prevent this from happening, she travels back in time, also hoping to try and stop Joker, the current human form of the Monkey King (Han Geng) from falling for her and to push him towards his supposed true love Bai Jingjing (Karen Mok). Things don’t work out according to plan, with the Longevity Monk (Wu Jing) needing protection and various secrets and complicated relationships coming to light. Main question is, will her plan work out for the best in the end?

Acting/cast
Chinese Odyssey #3 has an all-star cast, so the acting is quite good. Moreover, among the support cast is pop idol Wang Yi Bo. He plays Red Kid, the son of the Bull Demon King. This divine youth flies through the air with his feet on spinning-tops, dashing fire red snot from his nose to his enemies. Something new in comparison to the super farts from the Monkey King.

Rewatch value & Verdict
Among the Chinese sense of humor are a lot references to American pop & Hollywood movies (f.e. Michael Jackson & Avatar puns). Some of these jokes work, others don’t, but it gave me good vibes. So I think I will rewatch this movie, and if you didn't see it, just give it a try.

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