Monkey is the English language version of a Japanese television series based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en made by Nippon Television (NTV) and International Television Films (西遊記, Saiyūki). It is often mistakenly called Monkey Magic (which is the title of the theme song).
The series, originally titled Saiyûki, ran for two seasons of 26 episodes each. The first season ran from October 1978 to April 1979. The second season ran from November 1979 to May 1980. Both seasons had footage shot on ___location in northwest China and Inner Mongolia.
The English language version, Monkey, was produced by the BBC and debuted on British television screens in November 1979. The script for the dubbed dialogue was written by David Weir. It ran for only 39 episodes, because at the discretion of the BBC select episodes were not dubbed for the original run. These remaining episodes were dubbed in early 2004 by the original actors following a successful release of the English dubbed series on VHS and DVD. The missing 13 episodes premiered on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 8 September 2004.
Monkey has also aired in Australia and New Zealand and is available on DVD. Monkey (the dubbed version) has not been screened in the United States (for copyright reasons), although Saiyûki was screened on a local Japanese-language TV station in California during the early 1980s.
Monkey is unusual because it was peformed by Japanese actors in China and then dubbed into English.
Plot summary
Monkey, the title character, "born from an egg on a mountain top", was a brash king of a monkey tribe. He achieved 'enlightenment' and proclaimed himself 'Great Sage, Equal of Heaven'. After demanding the "gift" of a magical staff from a powerful Dragon lord, Monkey is approached by Heaven to join their host in the lowly position of 'Keeper of the Peaches of Immortality'. Monkey being greedy eats them all, becoming immortal and running amok. Having earned the ire of Heaven and being bested in a challenge by Buddha, Monkey is imprisoned under a mountain in order to learn humility.
Eventually Monkey is released by the priest Tripitaka in 630 AD, who has been tasked by the Boddhisatva Guan Yin to undertake a pilgrimage to India to fetch holy scriptures. The pair soon recruits two former members of the heavenly host who were cast out as a result of Monkey's transgressions: Sandy, the water monster and ex-cannibal, expelled from heaven because he was the reason a fish statue made from jade was destroyed. And Pigsy, a pig monster consumed with lust and gluttony, who was expelled from heaven because he kept harassing a woman for a kiss. A dragon, Wu Lung, eats Tripitaka's horse, and is punished by being forced to assume the shape of a horse and carry him on his journey; he later assumes human form on occasion to assist his (in the first episode the dragon, judging by the voice, was a HER) new master.
While the pilgrims never reach India during the course of the series, they face many perils and antagonists both human and supernatural. Monkey, Sandy, and Pigsy are often called upon to battle demons, monsters and bandits, despite Tripitaka's constant call for peace. Many episodes also feature some moral lesson, usually based upon Buddhist and/or Taoist philosophies.
Theme Song
The (full) lyrics to the theme song for Monkey are as follows:
- Godiego - "Monkey Magic"
- Born from an egg on a moun-tain top,
- Punk-i-est Mon-key that e-ver popped,
- He knew eve-ry ma-gic trick un-der the sun,
- To tease the Gods, and every-one, And have some fun.
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- What a co-cky, sau-cy Mon-key this one is.
- All the Gods were ang-ry and they pun-ished him.
- Un-til he was saved by a kind-ly priest,
- And that was the start of their pil-grim-age west.
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- With a lit-tle bit of mon-key ma-gic, we'll see fi-re-works ton-ight!
- With a lit-tle bit of mon-key ma-gic, eve-ry-thing will be al-right!
- Born from an egg on a moun-tain top,
- Pun-ki-est Mon-key that e-ver popped,
- He knew eve-ry ma-gic trick un-der the sun,
- To tease the Gods, and every-one, And have some fun.
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic,
- Mon-key ma-gic, Mon-key ma-gic.
"Now in Japanese" Bo-n yori o ato yama toppu Za fanki- saru are toko popu Kare neu kakuhan mahou akkei shita za hi hi Ibiru za Kamigami Ken minasan ken yaku fan Saru mahou, saru mahou, saru mahou, saru mahou, saru mahou, saru mahou, saru mahou, saru mahout
Soundtrack
In 1980, the BBC released a Monkey single on a 7 inch RESL 81. It featured three tracks, an edited version of 'Monkey Magic' on side 1, and 'Gandhara' and 'Thank You Baby' on Side 2. Note: Gandhara has one verse in Japanese and the other in English.
The songs in the series were performed by the Japanese band Godiego. An album containing many of the songs from the programme - Magic Monkey - was released in Japan (and has since also been available on CD).
Cult appeal
Monkey is considered a cult classic in countries where it has been shown. Among the features that have contributed to its cult appeal are the theme song, the dubbed dialogue spoken in a variety of over-the-top "Oriental" accents and the fact that the young priest Tripitaka was played by a woman.
Australian contemporary youth programs like alternative music show Recovery and radio station Triple J often made references to Monkey. Recovery's audience favoured the series to such a degree that they began airing Monkey regularly during their show. Ironically when Recovery was cancelled it was replaced with three hours of Monkey.
Australian radio station Triple J interviewed the original voice actors on several occasions.
On a related note, Australian musical comedy group Tripod, which featured heavily on Triple J, doing their "Song in an hour" segment(in which random things would be combined from idea to lyrics and music to perfomance in just 60 minutes) came up with a song parodying Monkey, included Brad Pitt, and the Monkey Magic lyrics to the theme music of The Goodies.
Characters
| Original Chinese name | Japanese name | Actor | English name | Dub actor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xuanzang | Sanzo hoshi(Genjo Sanzo) | Masako Natsume | Tripitaka | Maria Warburg |
| Sun Wukong | Son Goku | Masaaki Sakai | Monkey | David Collings |
| Zhu Bajie | Cho Hakkai | s1: Toshiyuki Nishida s2: Tonpei Hidari |
Pigsy | Peter Woodthorpe |
| Sha Wujing | Sha Gojo | Shiro Kishibe | Sandy | Gareth Armstrong |
Pigsy is a fictional character in the television series Monkey, based on the character of Zhu Bajie from the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West. He was a disciple of Xuanzang.
Remakes
In 1994, Nippon TV produced another television series, based on the Journey to the West story, titled New Monkey, it ran for only one season. The series when released was considered a special effects achievement.
In 2006, Japan's Fuji Television produced (yet) another television series, based on the Journey to the West story, titled Journey to the West. The lead character of Son Goku (Monkey) was given to Shingo Katori, a member of the pop group SMAP. This latest remake has been so successful as to break viewing records with one in three Japanese viewers watching each episode of the series (according to the Times Online Newspaper). Companies from South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, China, Malaysia and the United Kingdom are all trying to secure rights to broadcast this 11 episode first series.
Hong Kong TVB made a faithful and costliest TV serial (during 1996) adaption of Monkey using the original title Journey to the West, although the Chinese version is more serious and use heavily Buddhist imagery there are numerious campy action and humour sequence, probably as a tribute to the Japanese version. The show was redubbed into English and broadcast to their English sister channel TVB Pearl.
Episode list
Series 1
- Monkey Goes Wild about Heaven
- Monkey Turns Nursemaid
- The Great Journey Begins
- Monkey Swallows the Universe
- The Power of Youth
- Even Monsters Can be People
- The Beginning of Wisdom
- Pigsy Woos a Widow
- What Monkey Calls the Dog-Woman
- Pigsy's in the Well
- The Difference Between Night & Day
- Pearls Before Swine
- The Minx and the Slug
- Catfish, Saint and the Shape-Changer
- Monkey Meets the Demon Digger
- The Most Monstrous Monster
- Truth and the Grey Gloves Devil
- Land for the Locusts
- The Vampire Master
- Outrageous Coincidences
- Pigsy, King and God
- Village of the Undead
- Two Little Blessings
- The Fires of Jealousy
- The Country of Nightmares
- The End of the Way
Series 2
- Pigsy's Ten Thousand Ladies
- The Dogs of Death
- You Win Some, You Lose Some (dubbed 2004)
- Pigsy Learns A Lesson (dubbed 2004)
- The Land With Two Suns (dubbed 2004)
- The House of the Evil Spirit (dubbed 2004)
- Am I Dreaming? (dubbed 2004)
- The Tormented Emperor (dubbed 2004)
- Between Heaven and Hell (dubbed 2004)
- The Foolish Philosopher
- Who Am I?
- What is Wisdom?
- The Fountain of Youth
- Better The Demon You Know (dubbed 2004)
- A Shadow So Huge
- Keep on Dancing
- Give and Take
- Such a Nice Monster
- The Fake Pilgrims (dubbed 2004)
- Pretty as a Picture
- Mothers
- The Tenacious Tomboy (dubbed 2004)
- Stoned (dubbed 2004)
- Hungry Like The Wolf (dubbed 2004)
- Monkey's Yearning (dubbed 2004)
- At the Top of the Mountain
See also
- Journey to the West (TV series)
- Hanuman The Monkey Warrior
- Sun Wukong
External links
- Monkey at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- Monkey Heaven - Comprehensive fan site
- Monkey Magic! - Colourful fan site containing cast biographies
- GodChecker page on the god Monkey
- Fuji Television's English page of the 2006 remake
- Fuji Television's Japanese page of the 2006 remake