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To bring order into the haos of the world, Father Buddha decides to
hide away his scripture somewhere in India & tells the Buddha of
compassion to search China for a person holy enoughto be worthy to find
it, & provide him with a suitable entourage so he can dendure the
perils of his voyage. The entourage is soon found, in the fallen
heavenly guards Sandy (Shiro Kishibe) & Pigsy (Toshiyuki Nishida), a
heavenly dragon & most notably Monkey (Masaaki Sakai), only who on
earth could be holy enough for the scripture of Buddha ... Soon, the
Buddha of Compassion discovers a young monk, Tripitaka (Masako Natsume),
who asks for forgiveness even for the murderer of his father, who has also
prevented Tripitaka's own mother from seeing him, & when forgiveness
is not given, Tripitaka prays at his dead body ... anyone who does that
must be a fool - a holy fool. So Tripitaka is told about his mighty
challenge, & even though the Chinese emperor gives him a vast army to
accompany him, they all soon die on the way, & Tripitaka is all alone
when he happens upon Monkey, imprisoned in a rock because he brought
chaios to heaven (see previous episode, Monkey
goes Wild about Heaven). Tripitaka frees Monkey, but to prevent
him from going all wild again, he forces him into submission with a magic
headband. Soon a dragon swallows Tripitaka's horse, but it's the
Heavenly Dragon who didn't know what he was doing, & to repent for his
sins, he promptly turns into a horse himself (apparently, heavenly dragons
can do that). Tired from his journey, Tripitaka seeks refuge at a
temple, but the local abbott is fascinated by the relics the young monk
has with him, locks him in & steals Tripitaka's cloak of Buddha ...
but of course, not only the abbott but also the Monster of the Night would
like the cloak, & thus soon kills the abbott to steal it ... Just a
good thing that Monkey has magical powers, & he can not only free
Tripitaka, but also turn into the Night Monster's vitamine pill ,to be
swallowed & defeat the monster from the inside ... & the cloak of
Buddha is saved.
In case you wondered, yes it is every bit as childish as it sounds,
garnered with sloppily done special effects & unconvincing costumes
and sets ...
... and it's of course great, a piece of trash surrealism
in garish colours that has an almost triplike quality. Little details,
like the Buddha of Compassion, repeatedly referred to as a woman being
obviously played by a man (who doesn't even attempt to hide it) while the
male monk Tripitaka is portrayed by a young woman only add to the
otherworldly experience ...
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