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Journey To The West: Conquering the Demons (2014)
Journey To The West: Conquering the Demons (2014)
2014 | Action, Drama, International
Transcendent. A purified gonzo spectacle with enough madcap panache to measure on the Richter scale. Stephen Chow really is the *fucking* man, like if Ang Lee in the early aughts did enough acid to choke out a small village. Like all of Chow's work, it's got it all: riveting emotion, uproarious comedy, zany action, stellar production, and less than zero visible self consciousness to speak on. Exactly what these movies oughta be - plays with space like a champ and stages itself like an old school cult classic with a heavy emphasis on rubberlike physicality and Rube Goldberg-esque setpieces brought lovingly into the modern era, then injected with numerous hallucinogens. A gigantic Buddha bitch slaps the entire planet in this (literally). Have some issues with underwriting in its core relationship, and a bit too loose of pacing near the end; but it whips itself into shape enough to hardly notice too much. Balances silly with serious really formidably. The tectonic, slapstick partner piece to the blood-gushing, limb-loathing 𝘕𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯.