''The Monkey King'', also known as ''The Lost Empire'', is a 2001 television

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

produced by NBC and the

SciFi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. La ...

. 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 David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yellow ...

Plot

Nicholas Orton (played by Thomas Gibson) is an American businessman who has lived in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

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, also known as Sun Wukong ( zh, t=孫悟空, s=孙悟空, first=t) in Mandarin Chinese, is a legendary mythical figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'' ( zh, ...

, 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 of 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

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

Release

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

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Monkey King (miniseries), The Works based on Journey to the West 2001 films 2000s adventure films 2000s American television miniseries American fantasy adventure films 2000s American science fiction television series 2000s English-language films Films directed by Peter MacDonald Sonar Entertainment miniseries Sword and sorcery films Television shows based on Journey to the West American fantasy television series 2000s American films