Journey to the West - Chinese TV Drama - 17 DVDs in Box Set (PAL - All Region, Mandarin with English Subtitles)

You looking to find the "Journey to the West - Chinese TV Drama - 17 DVDs in Box Set (PAL - All Region, Mandarin with English Subtitles)" Good news! You can purchase Journey to the West - Chinese TV Drama - 17 DVDs in Box Set (PAL - All Region, Mandarin with English Subtitles) with secure price and compare to view update price on this product. And deals on this product is available only for limited time.

Price: $122.00   

Product Description

Adapted from one of the famous Four Great Chinese Classical Novels of China, the story tells about a fictional account of the mythologized legends around the Buddhist monk Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India during the Tang dynasty in order to obtain Buddhist religious texts called sutras. The Bodhisattva Guanyin, on instruction from the Buddha, gives this task to the monk and his three protectors in the form of disciples - namely Sun Wukung, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing - together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuanzang's mount, a white horse. These four characters have agreed to help Xuanzang as an atonement for past sins.

Journey to the West - Chinese TV Drama - 17 DVDs in Box Set (PAL - All Region, Mandarin with English Subtitles) Review

Before describing the product, I would like to say Asian Media Market was very helpful. You should know that this product is a PAL DVD and Not NTSC which is typically what we use in the United States. Before fulfilling my order they wrote an Email and asked me to check my DVD.

I did and sadly it was NTSC, I was informed by Asian Media Market that I could obtain a DVD player that would play PAL DVDs at Walmart for about $40.00, low and behold I found one at Walmart for 49.99 and it works like a charm. Thank you Asian Media Market, I appreciated all your help!

Now for the DVD set Journey to the West.

This is a Chinese television series adapted from the classical novel of the same title containing all 66 episodes of the 2011 series. Right or wrong I'm going to assume you are familiar with the story Journey to the West already or you wouldn't be looking at this product, if not Journey to the West is a 500-year-old tale by Wu Cheng'en that is based off the real-life pilgrimage of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang. The story follows Xuanzang as he eventually joins ranks with the magical Monkey King, a gluttonous pig spirit, a river-ogre, and the third prince of the Dragon King, on a quest to retrieve Buddha's scrolls from India - as a means (both literally and symbolically) of attaining enlightenment. It's a fantastical yarn that is deeply rooted in Chinese folk religion, philosophy, mythology, and value systems in general.

It is a fairly faithful adaption of the story. Large cast [if you have seen the 2008/09 film Red Cliffs you will see that Zang Jinsheng who was Zhang Fei in that film, plays Zhu Bajie "Pigsy" in this series], large sets and plenty of CGI. When we start following Sun Wukong (The Monkey King), the makeup was reminiscent of the original Planet of the Apes with Roddy McDowall. Okay maybe leaning towards the 1974 TV series Land of the Lost, especially the special effects. Wu Yue as Sun Wukong is brilliant as the monkey king and injects enough feelings in the role. His fighting scenes are good to show his style. But his appearance did not do him enough justice as you can see how hard he struggles to talk at times.

When you start meeting the characters Sun Wukong faces you may be reminded of the Power Rangers. This gets better when the actually Journey begins, and becomes more of a Wuxia story.

As it may compare to "Lord of the Rings" traveling epic story wise, it does not compare to those films in effects.

Zhang Jizhong, who produced this series, is in the pre-production phase of a film adaptation of Journey to the West. He has hired Neil Gaiman as a screenwriter and the two were introduced to each other by James Cameron, who turned down the role as director, but has agreed to help with the special effects of the film. Each of the three films in the trilogy is expected to have a budget of $100 million, which would make them the most expensive films made in Chinese history. John Woo's Red Cliff budgeted roughly $80 million and currently holds the record for the Chinese film with the highest budget. As Zhang is also developing a theme park, an online game and this television series all based on Sun Wukong and Journey to the West, I think it's easy to say he is a fanboy of the story and just as engrossed as Peter Jackson is in J. R. R. Tolkien's stories.

SUBTITLES - these are pretty bad. Good enough to follow, but if you are unfamiliar with Mandarin make sure you have your remote handy to pause to read all the dialogue or make sense of it. The wording is so poor it makes me wonder if Hollywood is this bad when they subtitle films for the international market. I certainly hope not.

All said I enjoyed this series, if Zhang Jizhong ever makes the first true crossover Sino-Western epic film, I'll definitely see that too. That would at least attract those who cannot stand subtitles. I can tolerate and enjoy what some may call "cheesy effects", the subtitling drops a star.

Most of the consumer Reviews tell that the "Journey to the West - Chinese TV Drama - 17 DVDs in Box Set (PAL - All Region, Mandarin with English Subtitles)" are high quality item. You can read each testimony from consumers to find out cons and pros from Journey to the West - Chinese TV Drama - 17 DVDs in Box Set (PAL - All Region, Mandarin with English Subtitles) ...