Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back

Plot

The monk Tang Sanzang (Kris Wu) finds himself as a giant in a city in India. His master congratulates him on reaching India and retrieving the Sutras, and gives him a halo as a reward. The halo however malfunctions and Tang awakes from his dream to being on an alley in a village of actors with his three disciples, Sun Wukong (Lin Gengxin), Zhu Bajie (Yang Yiwei), and Sha Wujing (Mengke Bateer). Tang encourages Sun Wukong to perform for the villagers, but he refuses. Angered by his stubbornness, he agitates Sun Wukong by calling him a "bad monkey", which causes Sun Wukong to smash through the village and damaging the actors' homes. The terrified villagers present the group with money and food for travelling, but Sun Wukong continues wreaking havoc, sending Zhu Bajie and Tang flying through the air. That night Tang whips Sun Wukong for his disobedience.

The next morning Tang goes to find water for their breakfast congee and comes across a house. Its host, a beautiful woman in a splendid outfit (Wang Likun), welcomes them all in for breakfast. As Sun Wukong sees through their disguises to being several spider demons, he purposely provokes them, and she and the others show their true form as giant spiders. They fight and the demons come together to form one huge spider, and Sha Wujing falls into illness and slowly bloats into a fish-like creature after absorbing the spiders' poison. Sun Wukong defeats the spider, but before he could kill her, Tang interferes to exorcise her but Sun Wukong smashes the demon's head with one blow. Tang is again annoyed at Sun Wukong's disobedience and whips him again that evening.

Later that night, the enraged Sun Wukong discusses with the others his plans to kill Tang, but the others fear Tang's mighty Buddha Palm powers. Tang overhears this and prays to Buddha to help him, and also confesses that he really doesn't have the Buddha Palm. Zhu Bajie overhears this and tells Monkey, who challenges Tang to a fight. However just as he is about to strike, a blinding ray of light shines from the heavens and Sun Wukong retreats. The next day they pass into the capital city of the Biqiu Kingdom, and a minister comes out to greet them and to see the King, who is a very immature man who likes to play. He orders Tang to perform for him but he doesn't have anything to showcase so Sun Wukong tricks Tang into using the obedience sticker so that Tang can copy Monkey's moves. Tang copies Monkey's martial arts skills but then slaps the King by copying Sun Wukong. The King kicks them out but Tang orders Sun Wukong to come in to apologize, but Sun Wukong slaps him continuously, provoking the King to reveal his form as a demon, the Red Boy. They fight and destroy the palace's courtyard, and Sun Wukong wins, and the real King of Biqiu (Bao Bei'er) is freed from his cage under the throne. As a reward for helping him, the King gives them a beautiful girl, Felicity (Lin Yun), to accompany them on their travels.

They set off and on their way go to visit Felicity's home village. However Sun Wukong sees that Felicity is actually a demon, though Tang does not believe him. Sun Wukong is enraged and that night he destroys the whole village, killing everyone. Tang stops him from killing Felicity, angering Sun Wukong, but Felicity finally confesses that she is actually the demon White Bone Spirit, and that the whole village was a illusion. Monkey flares up and turns into a giant gorilla and eats Tang. At that moment, the minister and a demon arrive and see that Monkey has fallen for their trick.

They had deliberately sent Felicity with them to cause strife between Tang and Sun Wukong, so Sun Wukong would kill his master. However, Sun Wukong spits Tang out, as they had in fact known this all along but played along with it, so that the minister would reveal her true form. They fight and the demon creates the illusion of Buddhas surrounding Monkey, using them to fight him. However the real Buddha uses his giant palm to crush the false Buddhas and destroy the demons. The animosity between Sun Wukong and his master has dissolved, Sha Wujing sneezes out the poison and turns back to normal, and they and Zhu Bajie continue their journey to the West through a desert with the band.

Cast

Production

Principal photography began in October 2015. This is the first major collaboration between the "King of Comedy" actor-turned-director Chow and wuxia film wizard Tsui. They had never worked together until Tsui Hark finally appeared in Chow's The Mermaid with a cameo role during Spring Festival 2016. Chow wrote and was the executive producer of the sequel of Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, with Tsui directing. The companies that produced and/or invested in the film are: China Film Group Corporation, Star Overseas, Hehe (Shanghai) Pictures, Xiangshan Zeyue Media, Shanghai Tao Piao Piao Entertainment, Wanda Media, Dadi Century Films (Beijing), Guangzhou JinYi Media Corporation, Zhejiang HengDian Entertainment, Tianjin Maoyan Media, Maxtimes Culture (Tianjin) Films, Lianrui (Shanghai) Pictures, Huayi Brothers Media Group, Shanghai New Culture Media Group, Dongshen (Shanghai) Pictures, Black Ant Shanghai Entertainment, Horgos Hehe Pictures, Horgos Lianrui Pictures, Wuxi Huichi Entertainment and Shanghai Mengchacha Entertainment Investment.

Release

The film was released in China on January 28, 2017, which comes at the start of the Chinese New Year holiday. In December 2016, Sony Pictures acquired the North American and multi-territory distribution rights to the film in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and much of Asia outside the Mainland China, including Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It will open day-and-date along with its Chinese release on January 28 in Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand. The UK and U.S. will follow on February 3, with Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand later in the month.

Promotion

Journey to the West: Demon Chapter had its first teaser released in China on November 8, 2016.

Pre-release

The Demons Strike Back was made on a production budget of 440 million yuan ($63.9 million) with an additional 140 million yuan ($2 million) spent on marketing (promotion and advertising) materials. The film was highly anticipated in China by both industry insiders and ordinary moviegoers and was projected to emerge very successful at the box office, partly due to the robust demand and success of the first film. Morever, in its domestic market, the film was released during the Chinese New Year period, the most lucrative time of the year for local films. The holiday which is also known as Spring Festival is a coveted release period in the country in which millions of Chinese moviegoers – both casual and hardcore fans – flock to theaters in what is regarded as the busiest moviegoing period on the planet. However, since the period is a strategic time to release possible blockbuster films, the film wasn't void of competition. Nine other local pics opened on the same day and films such as Kung Fu Yoga, Buddies in India, Duckweed, The Village of No Return and Boonie Bears: Entangled World posted the main box office challenge for the film. The film pre-sold more than 100 million yuan ($14.54 million) worth of tickets even before its release, according to the film distributors and promoters, breaking the previous record held by Chow's The Mermaid.

The main draw of the film has been credited to Tsui Hark who has directed some of the highest-grossing films in China, including the two recent The Taking of Tiger Mountain and Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon and also Chow's involvement in the project, although the cast has received mixed response.

Theatrical run

It opened January 28, 2017, and grossed over 345–360 million yuan ($50–52 million) on its opening day. Data from research group Entgroup showed that the movie had 103,065 screenings and registered 8.7 million admissions Saturday, the busiest day ever at the Chinese box office. This broke the record for the biggest single/opening day for a local film in China, dethroning The Mermaid's former record of 270 million yuan in 2016 while Furious 7's 391 million yuan record remains intact. Before this, it made an estimated 10.45 million yuan ($1.5 million) from midnight previews on Friday night. It earned 209 million yuan ($30.4 million) on its second day, Sunday, bringing its two-day cumulative total to 553 million yuan ($80.3 million) with some figures going as high as $83 million. This broke the record for the biggest Saturday-Sunday opening in China previously held by Hollywood film Star Wars: The Force Awakens a year ago. In IMAX the film broke the record for the biggest single/opening day with $4.2 million from 390 screens and the best Chinese New Year opening day for IMAX. It came in third for all titles, behind Warcraft and Furious 7. In two days, the gross was worth $7.4 million, the second best, behind The Force Awakens.

Its worldwide box office total now stands at $239.5 million, with $232 million from China market as of Feb. 16, 2017. It also has become the highest grossing film in Tsui Hark's career and the highest grossing film among the Journey to the West novel adaptations.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 63%, based on 8 critics' reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10.

RogerEbert.com gave the movie a glowing review and a 3/4 rating. They called the collaboration between Stephen Chow and Tsui Hark a "worthy fusion of two of the film world's most brilliant stars." They also said "it's got more imagination in one nimble limb than a "Fast & Furious" sequel or a "Star Wars" prequel can lay claim to in their whole battered chassis." The Hollywood Reporter gave a mixed review, praising the film for its action sequences and special effects, but criticizing its screenplay, narration and weak character development.