After two decades, the third chapter to the cult Fantasy/Comedy A Chinese Odyssey I & II is finally here. A Chinese Odyssey Part Three is the continuation no one asked for, but director Jeffrey Lau figure if audiences dig it in the 90s, why not bring it back. With all new cast playing characters of old, how is the results? Let’s find out!
Oh, I’m WuxiaRocks! This is my first post here on AVV. Now onto the review.
Chinese Title: 大话西游3
Cast: Han Geng, Tiffany Tang Yan, Wu Jing, Karen Mok, Gillian Chung
Date Released: September 15, 2016
Synopsis by Wuxiarocks: To change her fate, Zixia (Tiffany Tang Yan) use the Moonlight Box to travel back in time to break up with her lover Joker (Han Geng) in an attempt to prevent her future death. But when Joker refuses to break up with her, she decides to become the lover of the Bull King (Zhang Chao) to get rid of Joker. Not willing to let go, Joker confronts the Bull King. Zixia must then decide between the one she loves or the fate that binds her.
—– RECAP AND REVIEW —–
In traditional Fantasy fashion, the film opens with a convoluted narration that goes through one ear out the other. Something about life and pre-written destiny. Free will? What’s that?
Zixia (Tiffany Tang Yan) dies for the sake of love.
The Monkey King fails to save her. (He might as well be watching horses.)
Plot twist! Another Zixia appears. She’s a time traveler from the past. By witnessing her tragic end, Zixia hope to change this outcome. With the magical Moonlight Box in her hand, she activate its power and return to the present.
The first thing she do when she returns, she breaks up with Joker. (Han Geng) Believing that by leaving him, she can avoid her destiny. Because she knows he’s the Monkey King.
She dives into his heart (literally) and feels the love. But she must do what she must.
Zixia argue her problems with her sister, who is a shadow of herself.
She takes Joker to cameo town. (Seriously, this place exist for cameos.)
Zixia finds Jing-Jing (Karen Mok) reprising her role. Zixia wants Karen to seduce Joker so she can leave him.
Karen is trigger by this and throws a Kamehameha of knives.
Then comes bad editing.
Suddenly we are outside with Umbrella lady. (Gillian Chung)
She steps on her donkey head to launch herself. (Animal was harm in the making of this.)
Gillian comes to save Karen from sloppy editing.
After defeating them, Zixia introduces Joker to the two ladies. But Joker only has eyes for Zixia.
Zixia runs away again! This time instead of giving her boy away, she’s giving herself to Bull King. (Logic)
While searching for Zixia, Joker encounters Guanyin, who is fighting the Monkey King. (What?)
Guanyin wants to convince Monkey King to guide the Longevity Monk (Wu Jing) on his Journey to the West. Monkey King refuses, and his reason is? Because the Longevity Monk is annoying.
Guanyin flicks a drop of awesome sauce and summons a cool ice dragon, straight from Hitsugaya of Bleach. This is probably the best CGI battle scene in the whole movie.
Monkey King get taken to heaven.
Note: Apologize if I’m mixing up any of the plot here, this movie is super confusing.
So after Monkey King is gone, the Longevity Monk turns to Joker as an Avatar.
Then Bull King (Zhang Chao) appears randomly and invites Joker to his place to show off his new wife.
Of course Bull King first wife Princess Iron Fan (Nan Xie) shows up. Along with her Red (Hair) Boy. (Yibo Wang) They bully Zixia into a wall. (Not sure what she was expecting.)
Joker arrives and take Zixia away. The Longevity monk tag along for some reason. Red (Hair) Boy throws a fit and chases them. He punches himself so he can bleed. His reason? To create a rain of lava with his fire breath. (Neat!)
Joker, Zixia and the Longevity Monk eventually outsmart Red (Hair) Boy and escape. They run to the lair of Bull King’s sister for protection as he instruct them to. (This movie is all over the place.)
Bull King sis locks them up instead. This gives Joker a chance to re-ignite the flame of romance between him and Zixia. (Best part so far. It’s cute)
Insert ‘Love of a Lifetime’. It ends with a kiss.
Joker attempts to escape with Zixia, who now decides to be with him despite the future. (So sweet.)
The Moonlight Box runs out of juice when Joker tries to teleport out. Bull King then captures them.
Meanwhile in Heaven, Monkey King recalls his past crush. He was in love with a girl who resemble Zixia. Of course this was Zixia’s sister. (See where this is going?)
She didn’t like him because he was hairy.
After a long shave he eventually got some love… But Monkey King later felt love was a prison, and prefer his freedom. So he left his crush behind. (For shame.)
In present day Heaven, Zixia’s sister appears before the Jade Emperor to ask for help. She hope the Jade Emperor can restore her physical body so she can help Zixia and Joker. (Shouldn’t have slept with a Monkey.)
Monkey King listens in on the conversation. He finally understand the meaning of love. His crush was pregnant during the time he left. Their kid turns out to be (Spoiler) the Longevity Monk. He takes up responsibility to rescue the monk and go on that Journey to the West.
He bid his lover farewell and says he’ll reunite with her in the future.
‘Love of a Lifetime’ plays for the second time. How fitting.
Back on Earth, Bull King gets ready for his special wedding. Longevity Monk is on the menu.
Monkey King crashes the party with a super hero landing.
Monkey King fights Bull King.
Monkey girlfriend (Zixia’s sis) arrives in physical body this time to take on Bull King’s sister.
The evil siblings gets beat up. Out of desperation, Bull King tells his sister to eat his head. (Crazy!)
They join power and turns into this bad graphic monster.
Girl dies in battle. Destiny cannot be change. Cause Jade Emperor say so.
Monster gets own.
Jade Emperor watches from above.
Monkey loses. Joker gains. Twins are awesome.
And thus the Journey to the West begins!
Moral of the story, time traveling is pointless.
All in all this movie is a mess. Nothing to do with the actors of course. Tang Yan did well. Wu Jing performance is kinda fun. And Han Geng portraying of Stephen Chow character is not too bad. The script however is all over the place. There’s no clear sense of direction, conflict or stake. Director Jeffrey Lau tries to bring the random jokes of the old days back, but 99 percent of them fall flat. The first two films work for what it was. Odyssey Three fail as both a continuation and as a standalone. The plot starts off extremely confusing, and even after all the explanation, it’s still pretty much nonsensical.
A million flaws aside, the movie is not without moments. I found some decent bits under the mess. It’s a story about life and love, only told in a poor way. But the sweet parts does have some heartbeats. Just ruin by bad jokes. Still true love never dies.
Hence the song “Love of a Lifetime”. Wonderful song. I love every renditions of it. Too bad the movie couldn’t be as great as the song. Each time the song pops up, it makes the film that much better.
At the end of the day, it is what it is. Like the movie suggested, all that is will be.
Hope you enjoy my review! Thanks for reading!
This is WuxiaRocks, flying out.
– Story: ✪✪
– Chemistry: ✪✪
– Acting: ✪✪✪
– Directing: ✪✪
– Entertainment Value: ✪✪
Use this star symbol ✪✪✪✪✪. Half a star = ½
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Dino Gege! Your review was great! It had me LOLing especially all the cute insert comments you put throughout. The movie sounds suuuper confusing especially since they have so many characters and so many side plots that it no longer even bears resemblance to a movie. After reading the whole thing through I’m just all ‘Wuttt the heck just happened’. But, besides the obvious terrible script writing, I would definitely read your movie review again just for the kicks 😛
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Wow, first comment, so fast! Thank you Meimei! Sorry if I didn’t get into much details or describing scenes clearer. The movie left me confuse for the majority of it. lol Things were moving so fast I don’t even know.
But yes, I’ll do my best to improve going forward. Sorry the movie suck. 🙁
Thank you Kap Shifu and to all AVV family. Meimei, Maknae, mochi, Lily Mei, thank you all for the encouragement and your awesome welcoming! Thank you!! 😀
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Haha it’s fine. I loved every second of your movie review. If a movie is confusing in the first place there isn’t much point in trying to explain everything clearly! Haha it’s just your first post so don’t worry. Even if this movie is bad, I’m sure other movies you write about will be a lot better. I loved the laughs in your review! Just keep writing the way you’ve been writing and everything will be okay! I hope to read another one of your movie reviews in the future! 😀
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Thank you Meimei! I will take your advice to heart! 🙂
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Yay Wuxia Rocks, you finally wrote a review on A Virtual Voyage. You and Kappy rocks in Wuxia.
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Thank you JacJac! 😀
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Congrats on your first review, Wuxiarocks! Hahaha..those where funny comments. Is this the continuation of Stephen Chow’s version? I thought that it used the same time travel plot
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Hey Luna! Thank you! Yes, this is a continuation, but also a reboot/remake at the same time. It’s weird. lol
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
This story confuses me. Lol. I’m here for the pretty people in it. Thanks Wuxia!
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Don’t worry Kappy, no one gets this story either. lol
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Dino Gege, good job! I was really confused, but your comments were really funny . Keep working hard! I will definitely read your movie reviews again! ^_^
I have never seen any of the Stephen Chow movies, and this one seems to be super confusing with all the characters. Maybe I’ll consider watching them if I become really bored . . . >.<
Go Gege, Fighting!
<3 Maknae
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Thank you Maknae! Yes, the movie is confusing! And since you haven’t seen the original, it’s even more confusing. It’s confusing enough for those who has seen the original. But luckily it’s a bad movie, so don’t worry. lol
Thanks again for the support! 🙂
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
LOL, Wuxia you crack me up! Hope to see more reviews from you 😀
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Thank you Lily Mei! Hopefully the next movie will be good. 😀
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
I love love the first two (and watch then randomly) and I knew this was going to awful but I had to watch.
Crazy mess was my first thought. Then this Joker is dumber than everyone else in the movie combined was the 2nd. I didn’t want to think much being that point. I don’t even know how he could be the Joker…. Stephen’s was smart, cunning, slick… Everything this one was not so major disconnect right off.
But I did love the song insert and that was the best part out of the whole movie for me.
Thanks for reviewing.
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
Agreed. The first two fits in the comedy genre, this one I’m not sure where it fits.
Thanks for reading my review. 🙂
17 thoughts on “A Chinese Odyssey Part Three (2016) Review”
You’re welcome. ?
Looking forward to your next review. I didn’t enjoy the movie as much your review. LoL