Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box

Customer Reviews:

Joker- "Where are my grapes?!" Grandpa Buddha- "I am your grapes!".......2007-09-03

The Monkey King has been captured after he tried to eat the Longevity Monk. After this opening confrontation, the story moves to a small town full of bandits and Stephen Chow is their leader. He is named Joker. He lost his kung fu abilities and has been left partially blind. 2 devil women come to town and they are looking for a man with 3 birthmarks on the bottom of his foot. Then they find out that Stephen Chow is really the Monkey King, but Chow has no idea what they are talking about. The Monkey King was banished from his body for 500 years and those 500 years have passed. There is also the Monkey King's friend King Bull who is causing terror and wants to eat the Longevity Monk. But the Longevity Monk gave his life to save the Monkey King from being killed forever. Now the Longevity Monk is being reborn.

So obviously the story is complicated to say the least. Part 2 is even harder to understand, but both movies are still a lot of fun. The comedy is given in generous proportions and there is also plenty of action to liven things up even more. The action is mainly sword fighting and it is done very well, as expected from Ching Siu Tung. The fighting reminded me a lot of The Moon Warriors. Now this is only the first part of the story, part 2 is called A Chinese Odyssey, Part 2: Cinderella.

3.5/5

lovely and funny.......2006-12-23

I saw this movie many many times. Faye Wong and Tony Leung shows
groundbreaking performance.
They made such a nice couple here. Amazingly funny.
But they have to work on the subtitles, they can do better.

Great movie.......2006-06-19

"A Chinese Odyssey: Pandora's Box" and "A Chinese Odyssey: Cinderella" is a two-parts series movie. Together, it is my favorite Chinese movie of all time. It's a modern and humorous twist on the famous Chinese story of "The Journey West" (also known as "The Monkey King"). In the first part, the Monkey King has been reincarnated as Joker, the leader of a group of bandits...

However, I'm confused by the picture that's shown on this listing. That picture is for "Chinese Odyssey 2002"--clearly a movie NOT made in 1995, with a completely different cast of actors. It stars Tony Leung (a supporting actor in Jet Li's "Hero") and singer/actress Fay Wong. It's not the same movie as described here.

Edit: Looks like Amazon has removed the picture I was talking about, so I've taken a bit of time to scan and upload the front and back covers of this DVD.

This is the best Chinese movie of all times, period!.......2005-10-10

It will laugh you to death, and then move you to life (and tears), and then laugh to death again, and again, and again.
No words can do justice to this movie. Sadly, you have to know Chinese (or even Cantonese) to fully appreciate it. This great movie definitely deserves a 6. It is better than Kung Fu Hustler. Strongly recommend it to anyone who knows or is studying Chinese. Buy it, watch it, NOW!

reiterate: it is a cult classic.......2005-09-16

It is the best of best among Stephen Chow's movies. (Both Part One and Part Two)

It's not only the slapstick style of humor which is sort of typical in his movies, the conversations in the movie are funny and brilliant too.

Again no English subtitle version can do justice to its full wit and flavor, which, I guess, a Chinese version of Woody Allen's movie would be terrible in this respect too.

Like the effect of some childhood rhyme that everyone remembers, to break the ice among a group of Chinese college students, just recite some words from this movie or sing the "Only you" song from it, you can bring the joy that will immediately spread and light up everyone. Guaranteed! It is a cult.

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