Monkey
I RECKON it's part of a parent's remit to expose their kids to the finer things in life. With such lofty ambitions in mind, I sat down with my seven-year-old daughter this week to watch an episode of Monkey, the quasi-mystical, utterly insane Japanese TV series that I'd fallen in love with when I was around her age in the late 1970s.
To say she was bewildered by the mix of martial arts mayhem, simplistic Buddhist philosophy and badly dubbed comedy playing out on the screen is a bit of an understatement.
"What is going on, Daddy?" was her, not unreasonable, response, as the origin story of the title character unfolded before us. I have to say, I couldn't really answer her. I still love Monkey, but it remains one of the most bewildering viewing experiences I've ever had.
At a basic level, the essence of the show is impressively high minded: under its original Japanese title, Saiyuki, it was an adaptation of the 16th century work Journey to The West by Wu Cheng'en, one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature.
It was shot in North-west China and Inner Mongolia and broadcast on Nippon TV between 1978 and 1980. It's when it came to be dubbed into English and re-titled Monkey for Western audiences that the fun really starts, though.
The title character, played by Masaaki Sakai, is the cheeky and trouble-making King of the Monkeys, who's imprisoned for 500 years for getting on the wrong side of Heaven. As penance, he is sent on a mission to accompany a young boy priest, Tripitaka (Masako Natsume), on a life-threatening quest across China to retrieve a stash of Buddhist scriptures.
Other characters along for the ride include two figures who've been transformed into monsters for their misdemeanours, the greedy Pigsy (first played by Toshiyuki Hidari in early episodes before Tonpei Hidari took over) and a cannibal river monster, Sandy (Shiro Kishibe), plus a dragon (Shunji Fujimura) who magically transforms into a horse for Tripitaka.
From there, it's a madcap travelogue across country – well, mostly cheaply-dressed Japanese TV studio sets, but you get the idea – where the team must fight off local demons and monsters while learning a handy moral lesson along the way.
If that sounds a little serious, trust me, it's not. This is the most fun you'll ever have with a high-kicking, fast-talking, philosophy-spouting martial arts comedy drama for kids. The dubbed voices, provided by the legend that is Burt Kwouk and the great Miriam Margoyles, among others, is hilarious, while the funky music from Japanese pop group Godiego (including the absolute ear worm that is the theme tune, Monkey Magic) pushes things along at a mighty pace.
Some of the jokes may be a tad off-colour for modern audiences, but the action is intense and the rush of pure nostalgia on offer is, like Monkey himself is called in the opening credits, "irrepressible".
It's available again on Netflix: confuse your kids and show it to them this weekend. It's what any good parent would do, you know.
