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The Monkey King (miniseries)

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The Monkey King
Also known asThe Lost Empire
Based onJourney to the West
by Wu Cheng'en
Written byDavid Henry Hwang
Directed byPeter MacDonald
StarringThomas Gibson
Bai Ling
Russell Wong
ComposerJohn Altman
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes2
Production
Executive producersRobert Halmi Sr.
Robert A. Halmi
Tomas Krejci
ProducerSteve Harding
CinematographyDavid Connell
EditorColin Green
Running time153 minutes
Production companiesHallmark Entertainment
RTL
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseMarch 11 (2001-03-11) –
March 12, 2001 (2001-03-12)

The Monkey King, also known as The Lost Empire, is a 2001 television miniseries produced by NBC and the SciFi Channel. It is a contemporary take on the classic 16th-century novel Journey to the West. It stars Bai Ling, Thomas Gibson, Russell Wong, Eddie Marsan, and Randall Duk Kim. The miniseries was directed by Peter MacDonald and written by Asian American dramatist David Henry Hwang.

Plot

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Nicholas Orton (played by Thomas Gibson) is an American businessman who has lived in China for several years. He has a chance encounter with a beautiful Chinese lady (played by Bai Ling) who says that he is the only one who can save the world from reverting five-hundred years. He is unswayed by this until many modern buildings begin disappearing before his eyes. This mystical lady (revealed later as Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion) transports him to a portal which offers entrance, through the teachings of Confucius (played by Ric Young), to the ancient Chinese underworld.

When Orton (soon to be named The Scholar From Above) reaches the other side of the portal, he finds that his studies of Confucius will come in handy for the path that lies ahead. Orton's first action is to rescue Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, from the mountain in which he has been imprisoned for centuries. Wukong travels with Orton in his quest to save the original manuscript of Journey to the West from retroactive destruction; if the story itself is erased from history, all the people who were ever inspired by the lessons it teaches will be worse off, and history will permanently change for the poorer. They are later joined by Zhu Bajie (Pigsy) and Sha Wujing (Friar Sand) to help them on their way.

Reception

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Robert Bianco of USA Today called it "silly and confused."[1] Variety called it "tedious" and said "all the strong technical work comes across as the outer shell of an empty nut."[2]

The ratings for the miniseries were poor; it recorded one of the lowest ratings ever for a miniseries on NBC. Critics said it was due to oversaturation of special-effects-driven miniseries dropping in popularity.[3]

Release

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The film is available on DVD and videocassette. There was also a novelization of the miniseries by Kathryn Wesley released under the title The Monkey King.

References

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  1. ^ Bianco, Robert (September 13, 2006). "What to watch Thursday". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 5, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  2. ^ Oxman, Steven (March 7, 2001). "Review: 'The Lost Empire'". Variety. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  3. ^ Durfee, Rob. ""Will & Grace" News Archive - 2001". durfee.net. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
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