You need to watch Part I to understand Part II! This film is absolutely not a faithful adaptation of the original Chinese Myth, rather, it is a much more personified version of the Monkey King's story.

I've seen most of Stephen Chow's films, and this one stands above all his older films. It has a well-rounded script and much deeper characters.

Possible spoilers------------------------------------------------ Continuing from part one, chow uses the magic box to go back into time in order to save his wife from death, but the box accidentally brings him back 500 years instead of 5 min. On the spot where he last saw his wife, he meets Zixia, a goddess on the run to seek her true love.

As a token of their meeting, Zixia gives him three moles on the bottom of his foot, which completes the prophecy of Chow becoming the Monkey King again.

However, Chow is reluctant to fulfill his fate, instead, he wants to go back to the future and save his wife. Zixia takes away the magic box, and Chow is forced to follow her in order to get the box back.

From here on, he is torn between time, love, and his unavoidable fate.

End of spoilers----------------------------------------------------- There is a big gap between how he transitioned from his previous love relationship into the new one with Zixia, but beside that, this is a great film. Stephen Chow has done something different here, for there are moments of very raw, touching, and honest emotions rarely seen in most of his films.

I also highly recommend the original Cantonese Version of the film, even if it means you have to read the sub, because the best line in this film doesn't deliver in the Mandarin dub.

Yes, it's not just the best movie ever from Stephen Chow but the best movie ever!

You have to watch the first part before fully appreciate all the trivial details in the second part. If we consider the first part as the usual comedy product of Stephen Chow, then surprisingly the second part not only continued the comedy routine but every funny element eventually turn into something much deeper, richer and tragical, which made this movie absolutely cult icon in the next decade in China.

The story is based on the classic Chinese Novel 'Xi You Ji', in which the rebel Monkey was tamed by the Budder and helped a Monk to go to India. Stephen Chow's contemporary adoption of the story is one of his trademarks by mixing the modern elements with the ancient context. It not only added the funny material into the movie, but also the irony and insanity on top of it which younger generation is so addicted to.

At the beginning this movie looks just like another Stephen Chow's typical box office hit but with the stories go on, audience started to feel increasing sadness and later on realised the unavoidable tragical ending.

It's a tough movie for Westerners to understand and appreciate because it requires quite bit Chinese culture knowledge and lots of loss in translation but I would still encourage everyone to give it a go simply for it's such a wonderful and creative movie.

This movie has two parts. I suggest you watch them both in one sitting. This is based on the famous Chinese story "Journey to the West." Joker aka reincarnation of the Monkey King(Stephen Chow) delivers a lot of laughter. He get's involved in a demon women(Jing Jing, played by Karen Mok) and makes a mistake while traveling back(500 years too far). He eventually falls in love with the Zixia(Athena Chu). From there they ensure on a crazy journey fill with laughter, and love. The first part is more of a comedy with the plot leading into the second part. The second has more to do with the adventure itself. I must say the ending was touching. Sure there is lots of laughter in the movie, but the underlying love story was good. I wen't in watching and expecting all out funny, but got much more. The movie itself is very memorable. Music wise, it's spectacular. However, in the end I was kind of left in the air. I didn't have the full details as I would like. Which leaves room for a third one(unfortunately there is none) that would show conclusive ending and giving all the details.

One the whole, this movie work's for all kinds of people. It's got comedy, romance, and fighting. One of my favorites.