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"The Monkey King" (Trilogy)
French Title: "Le Roi-Singe"
Genre:
Fantasy/ legend
Circa:7th Century
Main Location: China/India
Duration: 3 x 2h 00 min
Format: 35mm
Estimated Budget: 20 millions USD per episode.
This film project is copyrighted and protected under international laws.
Project
outline:
A fantasy film taking place in Ancient China, "The Monkey King" is a screen adaptation of "Journey to the West", the most famous popular novel in China, written 400 years ago by Wu Cheng'en (1500 - 1582). Inspired by a true story, "The Monkey King" relates the journey across China of the Venerable Xuan Zang (602-664), a high-ranked buddhist monk who has really existed. A fictionalized and mythologized account of Xuan Zang's pilgrimage, "The Monkey King is an epic odyssey full of wonders and magic, with a strong background in Chinese folk religious beliefs, Chinese mythology and value systems.
Pitch/synopsis:
China, 6th Century, during the Tang Dynasty. The Venerable Xuan Zang, a buddhist monk from The Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Shanxi Province, begins his long journey across China. Following the instruction of Kouan-Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the devoted monk has for mission to go to India to search for sacred buddhist texts, called Sutras, preciously kept in the great indian Monastery of Nalanda. To assist him in his dangerous quest, the Bodhisattva Kouan-Yin assigns him three mighty protectors - Sun Wukong, a rebellious Monkey-king endowed with magical powers, Zhu Bajiè, a Pig-monster, and Sha Wujing, a River-monster - and Xiao Bái Long, a dragon prince who acts as Xuan Zang's horse mount. Altogether, the group of pilgrims will undergo eighty-one calamities of all sorts, experiencing innumerable trials and hardships over a period of 17 years, before bringing the Sutras back to China...
Author's
comments:
The Asian "Lord of the Rings"!
The original novel comprises 100 chapters. Only thirty out of the hundred chapters has been translated so far by Arthur Waley, the author of the best translation available in English, Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China (1942).
"The Monkey King" trilogy will cover all the 100 chapters in 3 episodes of 2h 30 min. It would be the first time that the complete story is adapted to the big screen for the international audience. Many versions of the film already exist in China and Hong-Kong, produced for TV or for the local markets but none of them covers the entire story nor respect the original plot and narrative structure of the novel.
- The opening episode of "The Monkey King" trilogy recounts the earlier exploits of Sun Wukon, the monkey-king, how he learns martial arts and acquires his magical powers. The episode 1 also explains the background of Xuan Zang, the buddhist monk and how he is chosen to go on pilgrimage to India to bring back the Buddhist Sutras. We also meet the 3 other main characters of the story, the other protectors of the monk who join him in his pilgrimage. Then, the quest begins and the pilgrims have to face their first trials and harships, meeting numerous monsters and demons on their way...
- The second episode focuses on the quest itself with a lot of actions and spiritual lessons.
- The final episode of the trilogy shows the end of the pilgrimage, the last years of struggle before the pilgrims reach India and enter the Monastery of Nalanda where the sacred scriptures are preciously kept. With many twists in the plot, we find out many secrets and learn the hidden purpose of the quest. We also follow the monk, Xuan Zang, back to China...
Author's
statement: my personal reasons for making this film
My personal goal in making this film is to adapt this great chinese novel for Western viewers who are not too familiar with chinese popular beliefs and traditions.
As an Asian raised in the West, I believe that I have the right profile for making a film that can appeal to Westerners and Asians as well, preserving without distortion the essence of the original novel and its philosophical, historical and cultural implications.
I believe that "The Monkey King" story is part of our world cultural heritage and that it is therefore one of our duty to preserve and transmit it to future generations from East to West.
Beside
this, using cinema as a media, "The Monkey King" trilogy can
help Westerners understand better Chinese popular beliefs, still pervading
all layers of the society in most Asian countries.
Part of the film's potential popularity comes also from the fact that it can work on multiple levels:
- it is a first-rate adventure and action story,
- a dispenser of spiritual insight, and
- an extended allegory in which the group of pilgrims journeying toward India stands for the individual journeying toward enlightenment.
It also has much comedy, poetry and word play.
Thank you for supporting this film project.
To
get further information on "The Monkey King" film project, obtain
the final script (in English or in French), take part in the production
or join the cast, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you.
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© 2006 - Không-Lô Pham - All Rights Reserved - All scripts, plot summaries, synopsis, concepts and ideas presented in this website are copyrighted and protected under international laws. Web design by Lô Pham.