Film review: JOURNEY TO THE WEST 2: THE DEMONS STRIKE BACK [西遊伏妖篇] (Tsiu Hark, 2017)

When we first came to England, my family didn’t have that much money and so despite loving films, TV and all things multimedia from a young age, I didn’t actually own that many VHSes. One of the few videos I did possess were episodes of 西游记 [Journey to the West], taped off the TV.

An extremely popular Chinese children’s novel, it’s had many adaptations, from TV show to film to plays. Even though I recognise that, were I to watch said episodes now, I would pick up on its low production value, campy acting and all-too-convenient deus ex machinas at the end of almost every episode, I loved that show as a kid, and I still regard the concept of it with fondness.

For that reason, when I clocked that the Chinese cinema-friendly Odeon Panton Street were screening Journey to the West 2, I leapt at the chance to see it, despite not having known about Journey to the West 1’s existence. I knew the general construct pretty well (a Buddhist monk, accompanied by three disciples possessing magical powers, the most prominent being monkey Sun Wukong, carries out his life calling to capture demons), so figured I’d be able to follow the plot despite not having seen the first.

First day of the month nostalgia.

Just a little something I'm going to start on this blog: a walk down memory lane on the 1st of every month!

Without a care in the world.

Would give anything to go back to these days, to be honest.

I can hear the sound of violins long before it begins.

Downloads available for the three Princess and the Frog tracks.

01. Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word (Blue ft. Elton John)
All throughout March, I was on a bit of a Blue kick, and downloaded all of their albums to relive my early teen years, wherein I would frequently dance around the living room to their songs. Whilst Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word probably isn’t my all-time favourite of their’s (that’s probably You Make Me Wanna), I love how amazing Blue sound with Elton John, as well as the truth behind the lyrics.

02. Ma Belle Evangeline (The Princess and the Frog soundtrack) download
This song is completely and utterly adorable, and, for me, sums up the cuteness of The Princess and the Frog, plus the theme of the song is used later, in a minor key. It’s just lovely.

03. Fly By (Blue)
Haha, more Blue. The music video for this song makes me chuckle quite a lot, because of the way the men think they have swagger.

04. Stephen (Ke$ha)
Right, I don’t actually like Ke$ha one bit. I think she looks like she has lice, and she really can’t sing. That said, I do think Stephen is an extremely likeable song, and a decent counterpart to Taylor Swift’s Hey Stephen.

05. Du bout des lèvres (Mélanie Laurent)
In addition to being beautiful, a stunning actress and one of the coolest women in Hollywood, Laurent continues to stun me by singing too! I don’t know any French so if anyone fancies translating the lyrics for me, that’d be greatly appreciated, but even if the meaning’s completely lost in translation, it still sounds pretty.

06. The Swan (Camille Saint-Saëns)
Standard. Saint-Saëns seems to be me classical composer du jour recently, as I’ve also been listening to Danse Macabre a lot since last night’s episode of Jonathan Creek. But The Swan is absolutely gorgeous.

07. Down in New Orleans (The Princess and the Frog soundtrack) download
Yeah, I like The Princess and the Frog soundtrack.

08. Chelsea Hotel (Leonard Cohen)
So many lines in this song actually make my heart pang from the level of beauty. “Giving me head on the unmade bed” and “You told me again that you preferred handsome men / but for me you would make an exception” come to mind. Regina Spektor captured the beauty of the song in her own cover. Both rock.

Speaking of Chelsea (ha, see what I did there?SEE?!), I did the BBC online predictors for the remaining fixtures, and... it doesn't look good for my team D:


Admittedly, I am being super-pessimistic, but I can just see us fudging up against Liverpool and Spurs. Hence the Surrey Reds getting another title. Wah.


09. Something Kinda Oooh (Girls Aloud)
Just a fun, sexy, amusing song. Stupidly catchy, and Cheryl, Kimberley and Nadine are all awesomesauce.

10. Almost There (The Princess and the Frog soundtrack) download
*sings along*

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Finally, if you fancy learning Chinese, nothing's better than this cribsheet:


:P

Good times.

47. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)