Trailer For Stephen Chow’s Latest Crazy-Ass Film ‘Journey to the West’

Actor and director, Stephen Chow makes weird but really entertaining films, like ‘Kung-Fu Hustle’, which I loved.

A trailer has just been released for his latest adventure called ‘Journey to the West’, which looks equally as crazy as his previous offerings. The film seems to be based on one of the four great classical novels from Chinese literature which was written in the 16th century during the Ming Dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng’en.

The novel is a fictionalized account of the legendary pilgrimage to India of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, and loosely based its source from the historic text Great Tang Records on the Western Regions and traditional folk tales. The monk traveled to the “Western Regions” during the Tang Dynasty, to obtain sacred texts (sūtras). The bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin), on instruction from the Buddha, gives this task to the monk and his three protectors in the form of disciples — namely Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing — together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuanzang’s steed, a white horse. These four characters have agreed to help Xuanzang as an atonement for past sins.

Journey to the West has a strong background in Chinese folk religion, Chinese mythology and value systems; the pantheon of Taoist immortals and Buddhist bodhisattvas is still reflective of Chinese religious beliefs today. Enduringly popular, the tale is at once an adventure story, a spring of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeying toward India represents individuals journeying towards enlightenment.

The film is currently scheduled to arrive in Chinese theaters on February 7, which is just in time for the Chinese New Year. Chow fans living in other parts of the world will have to wait patiently for the movie to work its way to the rest of the planet.

Check out the trailer below!