MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, psychological* As I stated earlier, I've never read any version of JOURNEY TO THE WEST, the 16th-century novel on which this film and its two predecessors were based. According to Wiki, much of the latter half of the book concerns the episodic adventures of the traveling monk Tang Shangzan and his supernatural helpers, and one of those episodes dealt with the travelers entering a "land of women," where Tang, Wukong, Baije and Wujing, being males, are not welcome. Seven years have passed since the third installment in the series of adaptations, so there's a fair chance that KING 3 will be director Soi Cheang's conclusion to the series.
Whatever the story from the 16th-century novel might be like, the Chinese/Hong Kong film industry has a strong history of adapting older works for the purposes of romantic fantasy. On the face of things, the overall mission of Monk Tang-- to acquire Buddhist sutras in order to spread enlightenment throughout China-- does not suggest any romantic story possibilities. Cheang may have solved that problem by asking a "last temptation" sort of question: what if the selfless representative of a religious movement becomes beguiled by the possibility of a normal life with love and sex?" Thus, in this version, as soon as the four males meet the (apparently nameless) Queen of Womanland (Liying Zhao), sparks immediately fly between Tang and the Queen, who's never seen a man before and was birthed by her mother via magical parthenogenesis. To complicate things even further, there's a prophecy stating that the advent of males to Womanland will spell the nation's doom. (Note: despite the many lissome ladies in the story, there are never any full-fledged female-led battles here, though it's clear that many of the girls are capable, as when one of them kicks Yujing's butt at arm-wrestling.)
One narrative weakness of KING 3 is that unlike the previous two films, there's no strong villain driving the story. There's some sort of river god (or goddess, since "he" sometimes looks female) who forced the travelers into this hostile domain, and maybe the god's keeping them from leaving, thus increasing the chances that the more martial maidens will execute the infidels-- which they try to do, on one occasion, only to be saved by the Queen's intervention. I think the river-god was spurned by the Queen's mother in order to protect Womanland, which makes it more poignant when the young Queen considers leaving everything behind to be with Tang. The actor playing Tang has to thread a narrow line: showing absolute fidelity to his religious priorities while being mightily tempted by his connection to the only woman who will ever be in his life.
Though KING 3 was probably less expensive than the previous movies, it still looks good, and the humor is far more controlled than one sees in most Chinese comedies. For instance, given the lack of much villainy going on, Wukong, Baije and Wujing don't have much to do, except for an extended joke in which some magic makes Baije, Wujing and Tang all pregnant, which affords the ladies much amusement. Wukong has to find another spell to "abort" the unwanted pregnancies, but even here, Cheang keeps things much less goony than one would expect from any comedy dealing with pregnant males. Thanks to the talents of the actors, I enjoyed the interactions of Tang and the Queen even knowing that theirs was a "love that could never be." Both characters sacrifice temporal love for a higher form, which accords well enough with the overall themes of the series. That said, I didn't think KING 3 went the extra mile in showing this irresolvable human conflict, in contrast, say, to the 2011 romantic fantasy SORCERER AND THE WHITE SNAKE.
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