That would be The Monkey King, a Netflix release based on the Chinese literary staple, Journey to the West. The 16th-century novel has been adapted into everything several times over. That's not getting into Dragon Ball and its spin-offs. So how does it compare to the other films? Read on.
Monkey King (Jimmy O. Yang) was born from a stone on a mountaintop. The other monkeys shun him until Monkey gets himself a magic stick (Nan Li) and defeats an evil demon. Monkey sets off to defeat 100 more demons so that Buddha (BD Wong) and the Jade Emperor (Hoon Lee) will make him a God. During his 100th battle, he meets a village girl named Lin (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) who becomes his assistant. Whether he likes it or not.
Lin is actually an agent of the Dragon King (Bowen Yang), the deity from whom Monkey pilfered the stick. Lin just has to steal the stick back to get the Dragon King to save her village from a drought. But the Dragon King actually needs the stick to start his torrential conquest of Earth. Her task is complicated when she and Monkey become friends. That's basically it.
The film is a decent compression of the novel's first seven chapters (out of 100). There's some tweaking here and there, such as introducing Lin, but there's plenty of recognizable plot points. Monkey's demon fighting montage even includes more of the novel's demonic rogues gallery. Its sense of humor is relatively modern, but it's got some good gags. The only downside is that Monkey's personality constantly fluctuates between arrogant all-powerful monkey to selfless hero. It gets worse at the end when it has to bring in Buddha. Still, Monkey's trickster persona is delightful when he fights his first demon.
Monkey, despite his inconsistencies, is an entertaining and even sympathetic character. His arrogant attitude is tragically understandable with his outcast upbringing. Lin makes for a good deuteragonist and foil for Monkey. One can easily sympathize with her as Monkey disregards her help. Them becoming actual friends is decently compelling, but their final scene together is moving. The Dragon King is an entertaining bad guy all the way through, complete with his own villain song. His sidekicks, Babbo and Benbo (Ron Yuan and Joy Koy), are surprisingly amusing. The Red Girl (Sophie Jean Wu), Monkey's 100th demon, and King Yama (Andrew Kishino), the ruler of Hell itself, are fiery scene-stealers.
This is a film where monkeys, demons, gods and more fight all across existence. Naturally, its production and character designs are all appealing. Everyone from Monkey to King Yama looks great, while Buddha is just stunning. Sure, their hair isn't as animated as them, but the characters are still impressive. Stick's glowing is cool, but the most impressive thing about him is his digeridoo-style voice. How did Nan Li do it? We also get a grand score and some catchy songs from Toby Chu. I already mentioned the villain song, but the montage song surprisingly fits.
The Monkey King should make for an easy home matinee. It's only 96 minutes long and they're sure to fly fast. It's a bit inconsistent, but it's still a good introduction to the classic novel. To answer the question at the beginning, I don't know which film is the definitive telling, but I think they're all worth comparing to each other. See it soon and you might see what I mean.
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