The Lost Empire (2001) (TV)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Peter MacDonald

Writer (WGA):

David Henry Hwang (written by)

Release Date:

11 March 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

Reluctant hero, beautiful goddess, three days to save the world.

Plot:

American journalist Nick Orton is caught up in the world of Chinese gods and monsters while on a search...

Plot Keywords:

Demon | China | Monkey King | Goddess | Book

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Thomas Gibson	...	Nicholas Orton
Ling Bai	...	Kwan Ying
Russell Wong	...	Monkey King
Ric Young	...	Confucius
Kabir Bedi	...	Friar Sand
Eddie Marsan	...	Pigsy
Randall Duk Kim	...	Shu
Henry O	...	Wu
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Annette Badland	...	Confusion's 4th Wife
Inday Ba	...	Elizabeth
Terence Beesley	...	Prince of Confusion
Simon Bernstein	...	Umbrella King
Jacqui Chan	...	Mother Superior
Cecil Cheng	...	Monkey
Anthony Chinn	...	Citizen 1
James Faulkner	...	Marcus Harding
Turbo Kong	...	Big Demon (as Turbo)
Burt Kwouk	...	Professor Sheng
Hossan Leong	...	Spectacles Demon
Stiven Liang	...	Terracotta warrior II
Pik Sen Lim	...	Granny monkey
Kwong Loke	...	Imperial Crier
Richard Ng	...	Communist Official
Olga Sosnovska	...	Linda
Chia Suan	...	Whitesnake
Hon Ping Tang	...	Nine Inch Nail Demon
Picasso Tan	...	Pointy Head Demon
Gregory Teo	...	Chef 1
Hua Chung Ting
Ian U'Chong	...	Rat Demon
Yuka Uto	...	Maiden 2
Teo-Wa Vuong	...	Maiden (as Teo Wa)
Teo Wa	...	Maiden 1
Ozzie Yue	...	Citizen 2
Sai-Kit Yung	...	Jade Emperor (as Stuart Ong)
Jeremy Zhang	...	Barman

Also Known As:

The Monkey King (UK) (USA) (working title)
Monkey King - Ein Krieger zwischen den Welten (Germany)
The Lost Empire: The Legend of the Monkey King (International: English title)

Runtime:

Brazil:150 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | USA:Unrated

Company:

Babelsberg International Film Produktion

Trivia:

Uses several visual ideas from "The Monkey King" television series from the 1960s.

Movie Connections:

References The Fly (1958)

A mixed bag, weak in many key areas

Lost Empire, a VERY strange title for a retelling of the old Chinese classic adventure "Journey to the West", is a mixed bag of a film. David Hwang's screenplay is in many respects a sequel to the original story, as opposed to being a modern rendition of the original story. I regard this as a mistake as I believe Mr. Hwang lost more by giving up on the original characters than he gained by having a modern setting.

Good points: The lovely Ling Bai did a good job as the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Kwan Yin). Some scenes with Monkey and the "Scholar from Above" went well (mainly the scenes when Monkey rescues his subjects on Flower Fruit Island). Some interplay between "Sandy" and the "Scholar from Above" was funny. Some of the art design for the palace of the Jade Emperor was good (but NOT the throne room, yuk!).

Bad points: Too many explosions. A really ugly and totally wrong portrait of Confucius (I could go on for some time but I'll stick with this key point: Confucius was a materialist. He had no interest in religion and spirits. He was only interested in how a good state was run. The depiction of Confucius in this movie is totally at odds with EVERYTHING that Confucius stood for.) The last half-hour of the movie was anti-climactic, over-wrought, and uninteresting.

Deeper problems: Journey to the West is, at its core, at Buddhist story about the quest to attain enlightenment (along with the fun stuff about beating demons). This story (Lost Empire) takes place AFTER Monkey and Sandy have achieved their ultimate state. They are both "supposed" to be enlightened beings. The problem with this is that a) they don't act like enlightened beings, and b) there isn't much drama possible when you are enlightened. You can really tell the weakness in the writing when Kwan Yin has to tell Monkey's old teacher that "Monkey HAS been blessed by the Buddha". If you need a 3rd party (a goddess no less) to convince other people that you have become enlightened and have been blessed by the Buddha, well, its clear to me that the story is saying one thing, but doing another.

In fact, none of the characters behaves "in character". At least not like the characters that you enjoyed when reading "Journey to the West".

Deepest problem: the story (Lost Empire) is trying to both be and not be "Journey to the West" at the same time. Its trying to both be true to original ideas and be "modern" and up-to-date at the same time. Its trying to be a sequel that retells the original story. It is, in short, a total mess at a very deep level. -- Colin Glassey