Box Office Gross: 1.043 billion yuan No, this isn't a movie about a wacky primate who finds out he's next in line to the English thrown and must learn to govern over the country with little experience (that would be good, though); The Monkey King is actually the name of a Chinese fantasy film starring Donny Yen from 2014, based on the classic Chinese tale Journey To The West. You won't believe it, but Chow Yun-fat stars in this movie, too (that guy really knows how to rule the Chinese box office, doesn't he?). Just like From Vegas To Macau II, though, The Monkey King was met with negative reviews; critics panned the poor special effects, the uneven script and the title character, who was described as being generally insufferable from start to finish. Which you can kind of imagine. China bloody adored it though; at least, going by its box office ranking, it was - for a brief time - a cultural phenomenon of the highest order. Then again, people do love monkey men.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
