The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven's Palace

Being an American imbued in this ego-mongering, greed-centric culture and it's pitifully vacuous religious folklore and totally unfamiliar with the story behind the 'Monkey King', I was hesitant to watch this since I had to read subtitles which turned out to be difficult at best due to translation issues, but I did manage to get the gist of the story as it unfolded, and I couldn't help becoming involved in the characters soon after it began. The special effects were not the cutting edge I've grown to expect from Hollywood, but considering the complex fantasy nature of the story, I'm glad that they didn't waste time and money trying to go that route since this story is obviously full of ancient iconic elements that have such a nebulous foundation with each other and history that the relationships between them and the time-line of events would not have flowed as well if they had. I thoroughly enjoyed the spirit of innocence and interminable joy demonstrated by the Monkey King at each stage of his travels. The spirit of his appreciation for life was contagious, and I found myself feeling better about my own reality as a result.