wow, anyone watching this? i only caught the 2nd part tonight. i was shocked to see that it was based on this novel series called, Journey to the West, that i read in my earlier years. a brilliant novel and a classic. actually technically, the movie involves the novel but is not really based on its story (even though some of the characters are in the Lost Empire as well). it is one of the greatest pieces of chinese literature ever written. it is china's equivalent to Lord of the Rings. if you get a chance to, i recommend picking up the books (amazon and barnes and nobles, both carry them)...the translation is iffy at points, but you'll get the point. unfortunately, i found the NBC movie to be cheesy, full of poor special fx, and inaccurate character portrayals, but don't let that put you off. the book is amazing, and it's about time it earned some recognition in the US.

[Edited by hahn on 03-12-01 at 06:49 PM]

I've got to read those books. When I heard the TV movie was based on Chinese novels I thought that it might be pretty good if they did it right. But then I actually tried to watch it. I'm pretty sure they butchered whatever it was based on because that movie was horrible. Little kids might've liked it, but I just could bare to watch anymore after the first twenty minutes. They shoulda got Ronny Yu to direct it.

when they say based on, they mean that the characters are from the book, and the book itself is mentioned. however, the story in the tv movie has NOTHING to do with the story of Journey to the West. the story has to do with the pilgrimage of a mortal monk through china and out west (in india) to retrieve the holy scriptures of the Buddha from Buddha him/herself. he is escorted by 3 servants, the monkey king, pigsy, sandy, and a dragon king (who was turned into a horse) who were all criminals at one time but reformed by Buddha. guanyin is the goddess of mercy who also assists along the way. through the journey, the group faces many dangers, monsters, and demons.

i was actually quite annoyed by NBC's the Lost Empire, not so much by its cheesiness, but by its protrayal of guanyin, who throughout the novel, was a constant source of strength and wisdom. she was infallible, and unwavering. the movie protrays her as succumbing to the emotional turmoils of love. that's BLASPHEMY! imagine if gandalf had fallen in love with a female hobbit, and given up all his powers for her. that's what it would be equivalent to. i was aghast that the screenwriter, who was chinese, would twist the character so unjustly. but there's hollywood for ya. and of course, the protaganist of the story was a white guy. no offense to white guys, but come on!!! there are enough white heroes in movies. shouldn't one about a chinese story, have a chinese leading character??? sheesh...this kind of stuff usually doesn't bother me, but it was so blatant in this movie...

[Edited by hahn on 03-13-01 at 10:31 PM]

Why did I just KNOW people would take that little Hallmark theater production way tooo seriosuly? It was a lark - a calculated attempt to cash-in on the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" zeitgeist.

And for what it was - a thinly veiled, vaguely Asian episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" - it wasn't completely horrible. The makeup and costuming were surprisingly good. And although reduced to generic individualism-vs.-conformity PC-platitudes, the asides to Asian culture were handled moderately well.

It was about on the level of other Spring-time mini-series of late -- "Merlin," "Gulliver's Travels," and "Alice in Wonderland."

Don't take it so seriously.

Although I'd love to see some further exploration of this genre. It opens up a whole new fantasy world for fans to explore.

It's all about context. You need to have read the book to understand what I'm saying. Those others mini-series you refer to all were based on the books themselves, and had protaganists from the books themselves. I don't mind some artistic liberty including the use of English by all the Asian characters. I don't even really care that the characters are completely misrepresented. I agree that this was supposed to be lite fare. But here we have an Asian tale with an Asian goddess needing a mortal westerner to rescue her. If you've read the book, you would know that this is just soooo completely off. Furthermore, it perpetuates the M. Butterfly stereotype. You may not see this as the intention, and I agree, it probably was NOT the intention, and I'm sure many intelligent people will not buy into the bunk. However, that's what makes it even more dangerous. Stereotypes grow from subtly planted seeds which are easily planted in ignorant minds. As we all know, the world is full of ignorance. You are naive to think that movies like this do not affect people's perceptions of Asians. While YOU may have seen through all this movie, do you really believe that EVERYONE else has?

Agree. They made her like some white guy's ideal rice queen.

hey, what else in new? didn't you know asians are not allowed on screen unless it's at the benefit of a white guy?
this is a decades-old law of american entertainment. my only question is, why not just ignore this classic rather than bastardize it? for more insight, check out the interview by the writer, something hwang, who explained about forcing a white character into the story. this is the same sellout who wrote 'm butterfly'.

I haven't read the book, and I wasn't home when it was on, but I had set my ReplayTV up to record it, having seen a preview. I enjoyed it, in the vein of Tenth Kingdom and some other miniseries in the last few years. I knew they weren't trying to be serious, they were just having fun, and I took it in that spirit. I plan to order the dvd when it's available.