Sometimes I wonder why I watch Stephen Chow movies at all. When you get right down to it, he's essentially Hong Kong's answer to Adam Sandler. He's always playing a hapless loser (sometimes, a guy at the top of his game who suffers a fall from grace, to keep us on our toes) who has to triumph over the baddies and win the heart of the babe through the use of lowbrow silliness and sight gags. It's the same basic mold that Rob Schneider and David Spade use and they blow. And don't get me started on these post-Farrelly Brothers teen flicks which have turned gross out humor into, to quote one critic, "the new gore". The more over-the-top, the better it is for the fans.

Besides the fact that Stephen Chow is charming and likeable instead of grating, the difference between Chow and those other goons is that he does what he does with wit and even some kind of ambition. And none of Stephen Chow's projects have been more ambitious than his parody of the old Journey To The West story known as A Chinese Odyssey, a film so epic in scope that it had to be told in two parts filmed at the same time and so convoluted that you'll have to watch it all three or four times just to follow it.

In the opening of the film, we see the Monkey King being berated by a goddess because he and his brother, King Bull, "ate his master" and stole a mystical item known as the Pandora's Box. You see, when one eats the flesh of the Monkey's master, the Longevity Monk (Law Kar-Ying), they become immortal. That's just something you don't do. The Monkey King committed these crimes instead of embracing his destiny, which was to keep his promise to Buddha to help the Longevity Monk retrieve holy scriptures by undertaking a journey.....to the West! Say that in the same tone of voice that Christopher Lloyd says "back.....to the future!" The Monkey King lashes out at the goddess, who easily captures him, and tells the Longevity Monk that she must report the Monkey's misdeeds to Heaven Emperor. Ol' Longevity, being the sweet guy he is, commits ritual suicide as a way of atoning for the sins of his student.

500 years after, we see a lone woman (the jaw-droppingly gorgeous "Yammie Nam" Lam Kit-Ying) making her way through the desert to a small outpost in Mount Wuyue populated by bandits and other scoundrels. When they tell her that this is no place for a woman to be hanging out, she frightens them by showing off a tattoo of flowers on her shoulder and saying that nothing gets into her way and survives. This reveals her to be Ma'am 30th, the Spider Devil.

The leader of the bandits is Joker (an uncharacteristically hairy Stephen Chow). Awhile back, Joker was hit by a kung-fu move known as the "7 Ultimate Fists", which causes the victim to gradually lose their eyesight and become stupider until they finally die. So Joker bumbles around a lot with his Assistant Master (the ever-present Ng Man Tat), trying to figure out why the Spider Devil has come to Mount Wuyue. After an unsuccessful attempt at getting rid of her, she only tells them that she's looking for someone with 3 birthmarks on the sole of their foot and orders the bandits to help her search.

Joker is the focus of the story. We come to see that he's been having a recurring dream about a voice coming from a cave underneath a waterfall and visions of monkeys. Soon, Joker's "7 Ultimate Fists" injury causes him to lose all muscle control in his legs so he's forced to walk on his hands. This leads to one of the great nutty parts in the film: a chase scene involving Joker running around on his hands with the transformed giant Spider Devil hot on his heels. Or is that palms? And that's before he gets his crotch set on fire. Only in Hong Kong can you see sights like this, ladies and gentlemen. And the plot gets more complicated when another person arrives in town, the Spider Devil's zombie sister, Jing Jing (Karen Mok, unfortunately best known in the USA as the annoying woman from Black Mask).

A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box is one of the most confusing comedies you'll ever see. There are at least three reasons for this: First, the characters are double-crossing, backstabbing, and trying to pull one over on each other like there's no tomorrow. You have to keep their individual motivations in mind as you watch. Second, it helps to know a tiny bit about the mythology behind the story. What makes the Longevity Monk so special? What's with this reincarnation stuff? Who the hell is the Monkey King to begin with anyway? Third, the typically wonky English subtitles in Hong Kong films, while serviceable in action flicks, don't exactly help when you're trying to keep everything straight in a movie like this.

Even given the convoluted script, A Chinese Odyssey Part One, by itself, is one of Stephen Chow's best works. I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to him but I do have to say that this is one of my personal favorite Hong Kong films. The humor is sharp and contains some ingenious moments, the desert location is great, and director Jeff Lau (who makes an appearance in front of the camera as Grandpa Buddha) knows how to make an entertaining, crazy film even despite his faults as a writer. Throw in a little action choreography from none other than Ching Siu-Tung (Duel To The Death, A Chinese Ghost Story, and the Swordsman series, among many others) and you have yourself a winner.

Regarding Stephen Chow's silliness in the movie, I'm not going to give away most of the great bits. But there's the usual odd, non sequitur stuff (when one of the characters is having labor pains, another suddenly puts her into a wrestling hold). There's subversion of traditional movie cliches, as can be seen in the tacked-on love scene that is thwarted when Joker finds himself unable to take off his clothes ("Sh*t! Who make this knot?", the subtitles say as Joker pulls on his pants). And we can't forget more great dialogue like "My little Buddha is hurt. Another hundred years before it is healed!" and "B*tch, don't step on my intestine!"

The film ends on a cliffhanger note that recalls Evil Dead 2 and a short preview of scenes from A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella are shown before the credits roll. Anyone who enjoyed A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box will certainly want to see the sequel. Well, the first film may be hard to follow, but you're absolutely going to be pulling your hair out halfway through the second. Still, they're worth seeing. I'll tell you about the second part after a short detour courtesy of a matt_harney writeoff but I'm dreading writing a review for Cinderella. Pray for JavaDevil's soul as he tries to puzzle out how to summarize one of the most confusing movies of all time...



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening