Based on its online pre-sales, “Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back” could be the big winner of films to be shown during the Lunar New Year. The movie earned almost 47.7 million yuan or $6.96 million.
It would not be surprising for the film to be the top grosser since its first installment in 2013, “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons” was the highest-grossing movie that year. Besides “Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back,” two other films which would also be shown during the Spring Festival also did well in online pre-sales. These are “Buddies in India” (33.6 million yuan) and “Kung Fu Yoga” (19.5 million yuan).
30-Year-Old Dream
Tsui Hark, director of the film produced by Stephen Chow, said directing the film was his 30-year-old dream. The film is adapted from “Journey to the West,” a 16th century novel in China. His idea was to have Brigitte Lin, a famous actress in Taiwan, play the role of Tang Seng, the film’s protagonist.
However, things did not work out for Hark earlier, but when it did, he placed all his ideas formed in the last years into the movie. Hark described the movie as “a very unlikely tail.” Stars of “Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back” are Kris Wu as Tang Seng and Lin Gengxin as the Monkey King as well as Lin Yun and Wang Likun.
Excessive Use of VFX
Cartoon Brew criticized “Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back” for excessive use of VFX which the website notes is a weakness of Chinese filmmakers for having an “everything-and-the-kitchen sink mentality” when it comes to VFX. It often is an overload of clashing patterns and textures, odd timing of cartoons and a lot of happy accidents that are not found in western VFX which the website said was evident in the movie’s trailer.