A Chinese Odyssey
A two-part romantic comedy directed by Jeffrey Lau and starring Stephen Chow, offering a subversive reimagining of the emotional entanglements between Sun Wukong, Bai Jingjing, and Zixia.
A Chinese Odyssey is a two-part Hong Kong period romantic comedy directed by Lee Lik-chi and starring Stephen Chow, released in 1995. The films, titled A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box and A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella, premiered in Hong Kong on January 21 and February 4, 1995, respectively. These films marked the debut of Stephen Chow's own Star Overseas Production and were co-produced with the Xi'an Film Studio. The story subverts the original narrative, recounting how Sun Wukong and the Bull Demon King conspired to frame Tang Sanzang to seize the Moonlight Box. Five hundred years later, Wukong is reincarnated as a bandit leader named Zijunbao (played by Stephen Chow), who becomes entangled in a fated romance with Bai Jingjing (played by Karen Mok) and Zixia Fairy (played by Athena Chu). Lines such as "Once, a sincere love lay before me" have become classics of Chinese popular culture. While the initial box office returns were modest—approximately 25 million and 20 million Hong Kong dollars respectively—the films became a phenomenal cult classic after 1996 through word-of-mouth among college students in mainland China. They are hailed as a representative work of the "post-modernist deconstruction of Journey to the West," cementing the peak of Stephen Chow's "mo lei tau" aesthetic.