The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven

[GeneChing]

Another treatment of Monkey King (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50181).

The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven (http://www.chinesefilms.cn/1/2011/11/10/122s5658.htm)
2011-11-10 10:55:31 Chinese Films

http://www.chinesefilms.cn/mmsource/images/2011/11/10/47ec799f774b4b468395d46f5c88e8c6.jpg
The image of a monkey wearing a yellow shirt and a tiger print skirt, glaring at the heavenly palace with his piercing eyes, is one that is ingrained in the memories of fans of the legendary character The Monkey King, the main character of "Journey to the West", one of China's Four Masterpieces.

Originally created in 1961, a new 3D adaptation of the world-famous Chinese animation "The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven" will hit domestic screens on January 12, 2012, as announced yesterday by the film's production team in Shanghai.

According to a report on xinhuanet.com, a star-studded cast will provide the voices for the animated classic, including famed director Feng Xiaogang and Chen Kaige, actors Chen Daoming and Chen Peisi, and actresses Liu Xiaoqing and Yaochen.

Compared to the original, the story line is mostly intact. "We remade it in a 3D format and cut the time from 120 minutes to 80 minutes," director Su Da said in an interview. She also stated, "The new film will cater to the viewing preferences of current audiences".

The production company has revealed that the film's 3D effects and post-production stages will be managed by the same team that was in charge of "Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon".

By Chen Nan

[GeneChing]

Can anyone find a webvid trailer?

'Come A Bright Day,' 'Monkey King 3D' Get World Premiere in Berlin's Generation Sidebar (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/come-a-bright-day-monkey-king%203d-Berlin-generation-280916)
8:10 AM PST 1/12/2012 by Scott Roxborough

Festival sidebar announces lineup of children and youth films.

COLOGNE, Germany - Come A Bright Day, a Brit crime thriller from director Simon Aboud starring Craig Roberts (Submarine) and The Monkey King - Uproar in Heaven, a 3D animated take on a classic Chinese tale, directed by Da Su, will both have their world premiere at the Berlin international film festival's Generation section for children and youth films.

Generation's 2012 lineup also includes the world premieres of the Dutch drama Snackbar from director Meral Uslu; Lucy Mulloy's Cuban-set refugee tale One Night and two productions from New Zealand: the documentary Maori Boy Genius from director Pietra Brettkelly and Robert Sarkies' drama Two Little Boys. In total, 58 short and full-length films from 32 countries will screen in Generation's Kplus section (children's films) and Generation 14plus (teen and young adult) competitions for the section's Crystal Bear awards.

The Generation section is part of the Berlin international film festival, which runs Feb. 9-19.

The full 2012 Generation lineup:

Generation 14plus

A Secret World dir. Gabriel Marino
Beauty dir. Daniela Seggiaro
Comes A Bright Day dir. Simon Aboud
Electrick Children dir. Rebecca Thomas
Love Is In The Air dir. Simon Staho
Maori Boy Genius dir. Pietra Brettkelly
Mustafa’s Sweet Dreams dir. Angelos Abazoglou
Night of Silence dir. Reis Celik
Off White Lies dir. Maya Kenig
One Night dir. Lucy Mulloy
Punch dir. Han Lee
Snackbar dir. Meral Uslu
The Crown Jewels dir. Ella Lemhagen
Two Little Boys dir. Robert Sarkies
Young & Wild dir. Marialy Rivas

Generation Kplus

Arcadia dir. Olivia Silver
Gattu dir. Rajan Khosa
Just Pretended to Hear dir. Kaori Imaizumi
Kauwboy dir. Boudewijn Koole
Lotte and the Moonstone Secret dir. Janno Poldma and Heiki Ernits
Nono dir. Rommel Tolentino
Pacha dir. Hector Ferreiro
Taking Chances dir. Nicole van Kilsdonk
The Children from the Napf dir Alice Schmid
The Ice Dragon dir. Martin Hogdahl
The Mirror Never Lies dir. Kamila Andini
Zarafa dir. Remi Bezancon and Jean-Christophe Lie

Out of Competition

Fourteen dir. Cornelia Grunberg
The Monkey King - Uproar in Heaven 3D dir. Da Su



3D Monkey King makes debut in China (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/usa/china/2012-01/11/content_14425008.htm)
Updated: 2012-01-11 20:31
(Xinhua)

SHANGHAI - The three-dimensional (3D) animation, " Uproar in Heaven", a landmark work of China's animation film history, staring Monkey King, made its debut on the big screens around the country Wednesday.

The newly-released 3D version of "Uproar in Heaven" is a collaboration by the Shanghai Film Group (SFG) and Technicolor Group, an internationally renowned moviemaking company famous for its postproduction services for films.

Based on one of the four classic Chinese novels -- "Journey to the West" written by Wu Cheng'en in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), "Uproar in Heaven" was first filmed in 1964.

The movie "Uproar in Heaven" features the part of the novel when Monkey King caused trouble in heaven and defeated an army of 100,000 celestial soldiers, led by the Four Heavenly Kings. Monkey King was subdued by Buddha and later became a protector of a Buddhist monk Xuan Zang during his pilgrimage to India during the Tang dynasty (618-907).

The award-winning animation features various Chinese elements and remains one of the favorite animations of many people at home and abroad.

As a recreation of the classic animation, the 3D version of "Uproar in Heaven" aims to take advantage of high-tech to make the original story more vivid and dynamic, said Su Da, the Chinese director of the 3D film.

Yan Dingxian, the 75-year-old painter of the original animation "Uproar in Heaven," has also participated in the recreation of the 3D version.

"The 3D version has lifelike visual and sound effects," said Yan.

China's film market demands high-quality technology support so that Technicolor Group, the special effects producer of a series of international blockbusters such as "Avatar," "2012" and "Harry Potter," cherishes this chance to cooperate with China, said Frederic Rose, CEO of Technicolor.

The 3D version film will provide movie-goers with a visual feast while some may recall the beautiful memories of their childhood, said Ren Zhonglun, producer of the film.

Western classic music has been added into the film soundtrack catering to the international market, compared to the traditional version featuring the music of Chinese opera.

A group of popular actors, singers and directors including Feng Xiaogang, Yao Chen, and Chen Daoming have been invited to dub for the film.

"We are looking forward to bringing a batch of classic animations popular in the past five decades to life via recreating them in the 3D version," said Ren, "We also will consider to find some native speakers of foreign languages like English, French and German to use their voices for dubbing the movie so that Monkey King can reach more people in the world."

[ghostexorcist]

Can anyone find a webvid trailer?

This is the closest thing that a cursory search turns up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp_A36s-guE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=lQXAVyjRU68

I have the original on DVD.

[GeneChing]

As it's post-production 3D, I'm not as attached to seeing the 3D version as I usually am. The original is up on YouTube but the resolution is horrid.

The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven 大鬧天空 (http://www.filmbiz.asia/reviews/the-monkey-king-uproar-in-heaven)
China
Animation
2012, colour, 1.85:1, 3-D, 92 mins
http://www.filmbiz.asia/media/BAhbB1sHOgZmSSIxMjAxMi8wMi8yOC8wMi8yOC8yOS83MjEvdX Byb2FyX2luX2hlYXZlbi5qcGcGOgZFVFsIOgZwOgp0aHVtYkki DTUwMHgxMDAwBjsGVA?suffix=.jpg&sha=71ca2db0
Directed by Su Da (速逹), Chen Zhihong (陳志宏)
The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven
By Derek Elley
Tue, 28 February 2012, 21:00 PM (HKT)

Radical refurbishment of the '60s cartoon classic looks like a newly minted coin.

Mythical ancient China. Born from some magic stones that fell to Earth a long time ago when Goddess Nüwa mended the sky, Sun Wukong, aka Monkey King, lives on Flower-Fruit Mountain, where he leads a community of other monkeys with his magical powers. One day, after breaking his halberd, he learns he can get a new one from Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, whom he visits in his underwater lair. Annoyed that Monkey King doesn't find any of his halberds heavy enough, Dragon King tells him he can borrow anything he can pick up, and Monkey King makes off with a massive pillar - the Sea-Calming Gold-Banded Cudgel - which Dragon King had used to pin down the ocean. Monkey King is able to shrink and expand it to any size he wants. Infuriated, Dragon King petitions Celestial Jade Emperor for the return of the cudgel, and the latter, on the advice of God of the Great White Star, sends an envoy summoning Monkey King to his presence. Monkey King is unawed by the Jade Emperor and his palace, but accepts the job of Protector of the Imperial Horses that Jade Emperor offers him to keep him under close supervision. When his boss, Lord of the Imperial Stables, scolds him for being unruly, Monkey King becomes angry, wrecks the place and returns to Flower-Fruit Mountain. Jade Emperor sends Heavenly King Li, his multi-headed and -armed son Nezha, and God of Mighty Miracles to tame the arrogant Monkey King, but they are all defeated. In defiance of Jade Emperor, Monkey King demands the title of Great Sage Equalling Heaven. To tame him, Jade Emperor makes him Guardian of the Imperial Peach Orchard, which supplies fruit exclusively for the Empress Queen Mother, but Monkey King eats and steals the peaches, as well as the Magic Elixir of Lord Lao Zi, and takes them back to Flower-Fruit Mountain. Furious, Jade Emperor sends 100,000 celestial troops against him.

Review

WAN Laiming 萬籟鳴's '60s animation classic, based on the first seven chapters of the Ming dynasty novel Journey to the West 西游記, gets a new coat of paint and much much more in The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven 大鬧天宮. Along with the first Asian sound cartoon Princess Iron Fan 鐵扇公主 (1941), it's the best known of the works of Wan (1900-97), known as the "Father of Chinese Animation", who along with his three brothers pioneered the form from 1926 onwards. Restored and also re-worked into a 3-D version with the help of Los Angeles-based Technicolor, this is not simply a re-issue but virtually a new version for the 21st century, and comes up looking bright and shiny on the big screen.

Made over four years (1961-64) and originally in two halves — the first taking the story up to the initial battle between Monkey King and the celestial warriors, the second continuing with the peach orchard episode and second battle — the film has since 1978 been known in the West as a single movie called Uproar in Heaven 大鬧天宮 (1964), with an English commentary overlaying the Mandarin dialogue. The 2012 version not only expands the original's screen ratio from 1.33 to 1.85:1 (by widening the backgrounds with additional drawings rather than re-cropping) but also features a new arrangement and recording by SHI Jiayang 施佳陽 of the original mono score by WU Yingju 吳應炬, has a new, big-name voice cast and — most contentiously — condenses the original from 110 to 86 minutes (plus six minutes of new end credits).

Collectors, therefore, should not throw away their treasured copies of the original, with its jerkier look and weaker colours. But it's hard to argue too much with this radical refurbishment which, though losing some of the naive charm of the '60s version, looks like a newly minted coin with its rich colours, supported by an equally rich voice cast. Directors CHEN Kaige 陳凱歌 and FENG Xiaogang 馮小剛 make a wonderfully grumpy Dragon King of the Eastern Sea and gnarly Lord Lao Zi, while actor CHEN Daoming 陳道明 essays a suitably woozy Celestial Jade Emperor and LI Yang 李揚 an egotistical Monkey King. Other names like veteran actress LIU Xiaoqing 劉曉慶 (as the Empress Queen Mother), comedienne YAO Chen 姚晨 as a court fairy and actors ZHANG Guoli 張國立 and LIU Ye 劉燁 are strewn across the celebrity-heavy line-up.

Aside from occasional in-your-face effects (specially drawn), mostly for Monkey King's use of his magic cudgel, most of the DCP 3-D simply gives a feeling of slight depth — through the huge job of separating and layering the characters and backgrounds into dozen of levels. This comes into its own in the two huge battles that dominate the film, and the displays of martial arts. Though the missing minutes in the story condensation are regrettable, they're not especially noticeable and, to be fair, the film has been available in several versions since its initial release. As a whole, it still drags a little in the dialogue sequences between the action. This is largely because the plot is little more than a series of variations on a single joke: the continual besting of the celestial hierarchy (representing feudal government) by the indestructible, pesky and endlessly resourceful Monkey King (representing the ordinary Chinese people).

The loving care with which the whole project has been undertaken by co-directors SU Da 速達 (a TV animator best known for the still-running Dear Tutu 大耳朵圖圖 series) and CHEN Zhihong 陳志宏 (TV series Qin's Moon 秦時明月之笑闖江湖) is movingly demonstrated in the new end titles, which include B&W pictures of Wan and his team at work on the original.

[doug maverick]

if its animated its fine gene...cause all animated 3d is post production 3d..lol

[GeneChing]

good point...:o

[ghostexorcist]

The remastered version is available on YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4aQ0EPbxBw