PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological* MONKEY KING 2 is just as much a feast for the fantasy-loving eye as the first film, but maybe not quite as much for the imagination. Part of the reason for the perceived drop-off may be that, as I commented in my review of KING 1, the middle part of the source novel JOURNEY TO THE WEST is the part that has perhaps been adapted to film most frequently. Also, though the odyssey of Sun Wukong toward discipline and heroism carries over from the first film, it's 500 years later, and we're not in the same cosmic terrain as the first film. I stated before that I didn't think the 2014 film showed any evidence that mortals had come into being yet, but 500 years later, some sort of Chinese culture has come into being, though we still don't see too many ordinary humans in this world of gods and monsters.
Aside from a few incidental characters, KING 2 hinges on the relationship of Monkey King Sun Wukong (Aaron Kwok) to one particular mortal: the young Buddhist scholar Tang Shanzang (Feng Shaofeng). When Wukong's imprisonment ends, he either breaks free, or is allowed to break free. Then the hero learns that the Buddhist deity Kwan Yin has decreed that Wukong must act as a servant to Tang while the monk travels to India in search of rare scrolls on Buddha's teachings, the better to disseminate enlightenment throughout China. Worse, the goddess forces Wukong to wear a metal headband, and if he's disobedient, Tang can bring the monkey-god into line by chanting a Buddhist prayer, which will cause the headband to contract and cause Wukong pain. Though Wukong still has a lot of rambunctious energy, he seems to fall into line pretty easily. A little later, Tang gets two more servants-- a pig-man and a water-spirit, which means they're some sort of Asian fairy-folk-- and though Wukong fights with them a little, he quickly accepts their addition to Tang's retinue. Tang, despite being even-tempered and good-hearted, provides some unexpected slapstick humor with respect to Bajie (the pig) and Wujing (the water-guy). In fact, while many film-adaptations of this story make the monk something of a plaster saint, performer Shaofeng gives Tang a lot of amusing tics that enhance his humanity without diluting his role as the story's spiritual center.
The villain of this chapter started out as an ordinary human, but ill treatment by her fellows led to her becoming the Chinese equivalent of an "angry ghost," obsessed with harming mortals and with becoming immortal by eating the flesh-- or maybe the spirit?-- of a monk just like Tang. This creature, White Bone Demon (Gong Li), takes a variety of forms, sometimes showing all the natural allurement of the beautiful Chinese actress, other times showing herself as a grotesque death-spirit. A part of White Bone does desire to be emancipated from her evil ways, so when Tang offers to give her spiritual counseling to free her from her obsessions, she listens for a while. However, White Bone flip-flops just enough to provide Wukong with a good bout, unleashing a giant skeleton-monster upon the world. For his part, Wukong manifests into duplicate forms of himself, so that he can fight the colossus the way the Justice League would take on a similar titan. In conclusion, KING 2 is still a very good fantasy-film, but the plot is much looser than that of the first film and doesn't sustain as much of a symbolic discourse.
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