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| Monkey | |
|---|---|
  Top: The Japanese title card forMonkey, readingJourney to the West Bottom: The title card used in the English-languagedub | |
| Also known as | Monkey (UK) |
| 西遊記 Saiyūki | |
| Genre | |
| Based on | Journey to the West byWu Cheng'en |
| Written by | |
| Directed by | |
| Starring | |
| Voices of | UKdub: |
| Theme music composer | Mickie Yoshino |
| Opening theme | "Monkey Magic" byGodiego |
| Ending theme |
|
| Country of origin | Japan |
| Original language | Japanese |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 52[1](list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producers | |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | NNS (NTV) |
| Release | 2 October 1978 (1978-10-02) – 4 May 1980 (1980-05-04) |
Saiyūki (西遊記;lit. 'Account of the Journey to the West'), (titledMonkey in English, but often referred to asMonkey Magic due to the lyrics of its title music), is aJapanese television drama based on the 16th-century Chinese novelJourney to the West byWu Cheng'en.[2] Filmed inNorthwest China andInner Mongolia, the show was produced byNippon Television andInternational Television Films [ja] and was broadcast from 1978 to 1980 on NTV and its affiliates.[3]
Monkey (孫悟空,Son Gokū), the title character, is described in the theme song as being "born from an egg on a mountain top", a stone egg, and thus he is a stone monkey, a skilled fighter who becomes a brash king of a monkey tribe, who, the song goes on to claim, was "the punkiest monkey that ever popped".[4] He achieved a littleenlightenment, and proclaimed himself "Great Sage, Equal of Heaven".[5] After demanding the "gift" ofa magical staff from a powerfuldragon king, and to quiet the din of his rough antics on Earth, Monkey is approached byHeaven to join their host, first in the lowly position of Master of the Stable (manure disposal), and then—after his riotous complaints—as "Keeper of the Peach Garden of Immortality".
Monkey eats many of the peaches, which have taken millennia to ripen, becomes immortal and runs amok. Having earned the ire of Heaven and being beaten in a challenge by an omniscient, mighty, but benevolent, cloud-dwellingBuddha (釈迦如来,Shakanyorai), Monkey is imprisoned for 500 years under a mountain in order to learn patience.
Eventually, Monkey is released by the monkTripitaka (三蔵法師,Sanzōhōshi), who has been tasked by theBoddhisatvaGuanyin (観世音菩薩,Kanzeon Bosatsu) to undertake a pilgrimage from China to India to fetch holy scriptures (implied to be the region ofGandhāra inthe song over the closing credits). The pair soon recruit two former members of the Heavenly Host who were cast out and turned from angels to "monsters" as a result of Monkey's transgressions:Sandy (沙悟浄,Sa Gojō), the water monster and ex-cannibal, expelled from Heaven after his interference caused Heaven'sJade Emperor's (天帝,Tentei;Shangdi) precious jade cup to be broken (his birthname is also later revealed to be Shao Chin, having been abducted as a child, but meets his long-lost father, in "The Beginning of Wisdom"), andPigsy (猪八戒,Cho Hakkai), a pig monster consumed with lust and gluttony, who was expelled from Heaven after harassing the Star PrincessVega—theJade Emperor's mistress—for a kiss.
A dragon, Yu Lung (玉龍,Gyokuryū), who was set free by Guanyin after being sentenced to death, eats Tripitaka's horse. On discovering that the horse was tasked with carrying Tripitaka, it assumes the horse's shape to carry the monk on his journey. Later in the story he occasionally assumes human form to assist his new master, although he is still always referred to as "Horse".
Monkey can also change form, for instance into ahornet. In Episode 3,The Great Journey Begins, Monkey transforms into a girl to trick Pigsy. Monkey's other magic powers include: summoning a cloud upon which he can fly; his use of the magic wishing staff which he can shrink and grow at will and from time to time, when shrunk, store in his ear, and which he uses as a weapon; and the ability to conjure monkey warriors by blowing on hairs plucked from his chest.
The pilgrims face many perils and antagonists both human, such asEmperor Taizong of Tang (太宗皇帝,Taisōkōtei) 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 uponBuddhist and/orConfucianist,Taoist philosophies, which are elucidated by the narrator at the end of various scenes.
| Character | Character Actor | Dub Actor | Original Chinese name | Japanese name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monkey | Masaaki Sakai | David Collings | Sun Wukong | Son Gokū |
| Tripitaka | Masako Natsume | Maria Warburg | Tang Sanzang | Sanzō hōshi (Genjō Sanzō) |
| Sandy | Shiro Kishibe | Gareth Armstrong | Sha Wujing | Sa Gojō |
| Pigsy | s1:Toshiyuki Nishida s2:Tonpei Hidari | Peter Woodthorpe | Zhu Bajie | Cho Hakkai |
| Yu Lung/"Horse" | Shunji Fujimura | Andrew Sachs | Bai Long Ma | Gyokuryū |
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Two 26-episode seasons ran in Japan: the first season ran from October 1978 to April 1979, and the second one from November 1979 to May 1980, with screenwriters includingMamoru Sasaki,Isao Okishima,Tetsurō Abe,Kei Tasaka,James Miki,Motomu Furuta,Hiroichi Fuse,Yū Tagami, andFumio Ishimori.
Saiyūki wasdubbed into English from 1979, with dialogue written byDavid Weir. The dubbed version was broadcast under the nameMonkey and broadcast in the United Kingdom by theBritish Broadcasting Corporation,[6] in New Zealand byTelevision New Zealand[7] and in Australia by theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation. Only 39 of the original 52 episodes were originally dubbed and broadcast by the BBC: all 26 of series 1 and 13 of series 2. In 2004, the remaining 13 episodes were dubbed byFabulous Films Ltd using the originalvoice acting cast, following a successful release of the English-dubbed series on VHS and DVD; later, these newly dubbed episodes were broadcast byChannel 4 in the UK.
A Spanish-dubbed version ofMonkey aired in Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic in the early 1980s. While the BBC-dubbedMonkey never received a broadcast in the United States, the original Japanese-language version,Saiyūki, was shown on local Japanese-language television stations in California and Hawaii in the early 1980s. It once aired in China, but it was cancelled after the third episode due to it being criticized for straying too far from the original source material.
Half of series 2 was not originally dubbed into English, but was dubbed later in 2004 with as much of the original cast as possible. The translation and voicing of the subsequent English voice dub is less erudite and humorous than the original effort; and includes some swear words that feel out-of-place in the context of the original. The voice of Pigsy is slurred in parts — perhaps reflecting the age and health of the voice actor decades later.[8][9]
The songs in the series were performed by the five-piece Japanese bandGodiego. In Japan, the first series' ending theme "Gandhara" (ガンダーラ,Gandāra), which was named after the ancient kingdom ofGandhara, was released byColumbia Music Entertainment on 1 October 1978, backed with "Celebration". This was followed by the release of the opening theme "Monkey Magic" on 25 December 1978, with "A Fool" on theB-side. Godiego also released the soundtrack albumMagic Monkey on 25 October 1978, comprising all of the songs that the band had composed for the first series.
The album became one of the group's highest-charting releases, staying at #1 on theOricon chart for a total of eight weeks from January through March 1979 (it was unseated for most of January by the Japanese release ofGrease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture), and it was ultimately the #1 LP for 1979. For the second series, the ending theme of "Gandhara" was replaced with "Holy and Bright", which was released on 1 October 1979 (the two sides of the single featured a Japanese-language version on one side and an English-language version on the other).
In the UK, BBC Records released "Gandhara" as a single in 1979 (RESL 66), with both "The Birth of the Odyssey" and "Monkey Magic" on theB-side.[10] The single reached #56 on theUK Singles Chart, eventually spending a total of seven weeks on the chart.[11] A second BBC single was released in 1980 (RESL 81), this time featuring an edited version of "Monkey Magic", along with "Gandhara" and "Thank You Baby", but this single failed to chart.[12] The BBC releases of "Gandhara" have one verse sung in Japanese and the other in English. BBC Records also released theMagic Monkey album under the simplified title ofMonkey (REB 384) in 1980 but it failed to chart.
Masaaki Sakai, who plays Monkey in the series, also performed several of the songs for the series: "SONGOKU", "Ima de wa Oso Sugiru" (今では遅すぎる; "It's Too Late"), "Kono Michi no Hatemademo" (この道の果てまでも; "To the End of the Road"), a Japanese version of Godiego's "Thank You Baby", and "20 Oku Nen no Kurayami" (20億年の暗闇; "Two Billion Years of Darkness").
Monkey is considered acult classic in countries where it has been shown, reaching as far as South America.[7] 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, the reasonably good synchronization of dubbing to the actors' original dialogue, the memorable battles which were for many Western youngsters their first exposure to Asian-style fantasy action sequences, and the fact that the young male priestTripitaka is played by a woman.[13][14]
In 1981, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation debuted the BBC-dubbedMonkey at 6pm on week-nights. Since then, the show has been frequently repeated on the ABC, notably during the contemporary youth TV showRecovery which aired episodes ofMonkey weekly from July 1999[15] to April 2000[16]. WhenRecovery was put on hiatus, it was replaced with three hours ofMonkey. The radio stationTriple J often made references toMonkey and interviewed the original BBC voice actors on several occasions.
The British indie-pop bandMonkey Swallows the Universe took their name from an episode ofMonkey.
Starting from the 21st of September, 2024, the then recently-launchedFreeview channel Rewind TV[17] started airing repeats ofMonkey.[18]
