A Chinese Odyssey - Parts I & II
The FilmDirected by: Jeffrey Lau
Written by: Jeffrey Lau, based on the novel by Wu Ch'eng-En.
Starring: Stephen Chow, Ng Man Tat, Athena Chu, Lam Kit Ying, Karen Mok
Released: 1994
Initially unpopular, but with large followings in mainland China, this film was recently recognized by the Hong Kong Film Awards as the 19th best Chinese film of all time. It's a retelling of "Into the West," the classic Chinese novel. And it's quite a different take on the tale, involving time travel and some furious slapstick comedy.
The film is broken into two parts, "Pandora's Box" and "Cinderella Story." Watching the first is absolutley mandatory before watching the other.
The Reviews
This film is an epic slapstick comedy. But there's more than just the surface comedy and events. It's a very involving story, with some great characters. And some absolutely brilliant comedic scenes. Essential viewing. -John Moore
The DVD
Region 0 NTSC
Released by Media Asia. Cantonese or Mandarin, with removable Chinese, English, Japanese, or Korean subtitles. Anamorphic widescreen.
Naturally a barebones disc, the video quality is more than passable and I have no qualms about the audio.
Subtitles: A little harder to follow than usual, but makes enough sense to follow, for the most part.
There's also a Region 0 Deltamac that we don't have any information on.