#Zhenyuanzi

[by13x]

西遊記-

34- Immortal Zhenyuan 鎮元大仙

[the-monkey-ruler]

Monkey King and Fruit of Immortality (1981) 人蔘果

Director: Yan Dingxian Screenwriter: Li Keruo / Yan Dingxian Starring: Shang Hua / Yang Wenyuan / Chen Yanhua Genre: Animation / Fantasy / Adventure Country/Region of Production: Mainland China Language: Mandarin Date: 1981 Duration: 45 minutes Also known as: Sun Wukong secretly eats ginseng fruit / 孙悟空偷吃人参果 / Ginseng Fruit IMDb: tt2572226 Type: Retelling

Summary:

It is said that the four masters and disciples of Tang Monk came to Wuzhuang Temple in Wanshou Mountain. At that time, Zhen Yuanzi, the master of the temple, went to Yuanshi Tianzun to listen to the sermon and listen to the Dharma. He had already asked his disciples Qingfeng and Mingyue to entertain the eminent monks from the East with ginseng fruits. This ginseng fruit is a rare delicacy in the world. One bite can prolong your life and make you immortal. However, Tang Monk saw that the ginseng fruit was in the shape of a baby and refused to eat it, which made Qingfeng Mingyue laugh. Zhu Bajie coveted the delicious taste of ginseng fruit, so he encouraged his senior brother Sun Wukong to enter the garden and steal it. This move caused a dispute between Qingfeng, Mingyue, and the Tang Monk's apprentices. Sun Wukong became so angry that he even broke the ginseng fruit tree, which caused a series of disasters.

This film is adapted from a story in Journey to the West, one of the four classic Chinese classics, and won the Special Award at the Second Manila International Film Festival in the Philippines in 1983.

Source: https://letterboxd.com/film/ginseng-fruit/

Link: https://youtu.be/dJK93N6d-FU

[sneakydraws]

The let's-slice-wukong-open-like-a-tangerine scene from ch25 of @dorkshadows's fic! i jest but it was actually SO atmospheric and eerie with the statues and the bajie pov and his discomfort... and jiu gong sitting under a statue of herself... really captured my imagination haha so i tried super hard to convey all that even though coloring and to a lesser extent shading aren't the strongest of my suits <:3c

[dorkshadows]

Monkey King Reborn (2021)

After what, 100 years?? I finally watched 西游记之再世妖王 | JTTW Return of the Demon King! Or Reincarnation of the Demon King. And I learned that both those titles are wrong now LMAO The OFFICIAL English name is now Monkey King Reborn (it has nothing to do with Nezha Reborn however). 

Watch here (Chinese subtitles only)

So I wasn’t really expecting anything fantastic since the movie didn’t exactly do anything groundbreaking for audiences in mainland China when it was released back circa April. Critical consensus was that it’s OK, not the worst thing, but not a “good” film. Objectively, that’s probably right LOL this is by no means on the level of Monkey King Hero is Back (2015) or Ne Zha (2019). Structurally, it’s also not as paced as Nezha Reborn (2021). My thoughts:

Compared with every other animated and online JTTW film we’ve had since 2015, it’s a Masterpiece. Could be better, but was surprisingly watchable and has enough going for it to override the flaws. Tonally, it’s all over the place asdfasdf. Hero is Back + Ne Zha + JTTW17 + Netflix Kingdom + AVENGERS ENDGAME. (*More on this below the cut because I am not exaggerating.) Don’t go in expecting an award-winning script and it’s really entertaining.

Basic plot: Centuries ago, the Golden Cicada used his spirit to seal the demon king, Yuandi (the first demon TM), under the earth. The rensheng tree grew from that energy and Zhenyuanzi has been in charge of it since. The pilgrims come to Wuzhuang Temple per canon, get into baby fruit shenanigans, and Wukong destroys the tree. Yuandi escapes and steals Sanzang, meaning to consume his essence. At the same time, the tree’s own life essence takes the form of a living baby fruit who claims to be the pilgrims’ only hope of sealing Yuandi. 

Some jokes actually made laugh though (watch out for a hilarious take on the silver horn/gold horn arc). Favorite one was this:

Bajie: “You almost scared me to death!” Wukong: “Then die.”

And this:

Yuandi: Who’s Sun Wukong? Some kind of monkey!? Minion: Yeah, he is a monkey! How did you know?

The pilgrims are the film’s strongest suit. They all had their unique personalities and never once do they try to undermine each other. I think this is the first time I’ve seen a jttw film where the pilgrims were a solid little found family from beginning to end. The disciples genuinely loved each other, loved their shifu, and vice versa. Which is Wild because you can’t tell that they were this loyal a group from the trailers. So that was a nice surprise. They really were like, a family that goes west together DIES TOGETHER.

1) Sun Wukong. We’ve been waiting on 21!Wukong’s personality since forever and I can confirm that it was worth it. He resembles Kenny Lin’s 17!Wukong quite a bit (and the design totally plagiarized 15′s) but he overall feels like his own character. He’s more of a punk than an emo lol; confident, snarky, cool (but it doesn’t stop him from getting peed on by a piece of fruit). And surprisingly mature for someone who also has a reckless temper, so this was a pretty successful adaption of him. His voice isn’t what you’d expect (the character has monkeyish moves but the voice doesn’t seem animalistic), but when you get used to it, it’s.. good. Just wish the VA could go even louder during the climax.

**I guarantee 21 will awaken something in some of you.

2) Zhu Bajie. He was literally himself from the book. A gluttonous pervert, which was surprising because animations usually remove the lust part LOL. Literally a complete pig as lazy and indulgent as you’d expect, but also Wukong’s #bro to the end. And there’s a cool show of his powers in the third act. A great Bajie.

3) Sha Wujing. This Wujing is amazing and I cannot stress this enough- he is a NERD. A bookworm. He carries one of those scholar backpacks filled with books and scrolls, so he can read aloud to his brothers and share cool trivia with them. Blown away by this take on Wujing. He’s not even a big or intimidating demon- he really looks like a fishman here, and once again, he is a NERD. FANTASTIC WUJING.

4) Tang Sanzang. I like the design- they remembered that he’s supposed to be a beautiful monk TM. But he was barely in this film?? The big bad kidnaps him within the first 15 minutes and the rest of the movie is about the disciples going to rescue him. From what we do see though, his personality kinda resembles Sanzang’s from A Chinese Odyssey LOL. Always believes in the best of their group. Ditzy, but genuinely loves his disciples, which you don’t always see so obviously in jttw adaptations.

One Big change here is that Wukong is the disciple Sanzang’s always indulging  instead of Bajie. Pretty clear that Wukong is his favorite in this one ;) 

5) Bailong. The horse’s eyes are distinctly dragonlike and his mane too. But ALAS, the filmmakers forgot about him after the intro. Ao Lie really nowhere to be seen after Wuzhuang asdfasdf

The animation wasn’t perfect. I felt like they were skipping frames in the beginning, and it’s very obvious that the budget went into Act 2-3. Just a lot was going on. There’s also an obvious difference between the quality of the main cast and the nameless side characters LMAO. But the ending makes up for it imo.

Pros:

Solid characterizations

The pilgrim bond TM

Every time Wukong pulls the staff from his ear, it looks Cool

There’s a rendition of the Bimawen theme! And when the disciples visit a random village, everyone reacts to them like they’re monsters, as they should haha

A truly sick version of the 1964 Havoc in Heaven theme (instead of Dagger Group Prelude) when Wukong powers up at the very end; not going to spoil it, but his design in that scene is pretty cool too

Watch past the first credits for the Guanyin cameo! She’s buddha-sized.

Cons:

No pacing. Things happen so fast with no transition asdfasdf. Unless you’re alerady connected to the characters, I don’t blame you if you don’t feel anything because the movie doesn’t stop long enough for you to. 

The movie’s message is about how demons can choose to be good or evil. But that’s not a lesson the disciples actually had to learn because they just weren’t bad people at any point in the film LOL like, they were ready to die for a sentient fruit. they already worked out all of their problems before the movie started so who is learning what

The... style of the movie?? We went from an accurate portrayal of the baby fruit arc to Monkey King: Hero is Back to Avengers Endgame...

The villain’s initial look was interesting. Then he reached his “final form” and he honestly is Zack Snyder’s idea of a jttw villain. He talks, acts, and looks like one.

They tried very hard to make the baby fruit endearing, but I just found it disturbing and I was glad when it “died” adfasdf

Things that make you go “eh?”:

Yuandi is the Demon of demons that everyone has heard of. Except Wukong for some reason. I also don’t know what Yuandi’s so smug about since he’s not the one who caused havoc in heaven. The lack of respect smh

Wukong’s temper was inconsistent (for me personally); he seemed to overreact a lot at Wuzhuang, but was perfectly “mature” for the rest of the film

Worldbuilding was hard to follow, especially why Yuandi kept Sanzang alive instead of eating him immediately, the Golden Cicada’s connection to the talking baby fruit, and why the disciples are soooo fond of that thing in the first place. I just do not get it.

The baby fruit is a cannibal- it eats other fruits to rebuild energy LOL

Things that make you go asdfasdfa (SPOILERS BEWARE):

The first half of this movie is family-friendly. Even the part where Yuandi’s minions zombify a village- it’s all very PG. Then in the climax, Zack Snyder takes over and Yuandi kills the disciples on screen. He MURDERS Bajie and Wujing right there for us to see.

Then he spends like, 20 minutes, beating up Wukong. It’s not super graphic (I think?), but the monkey is literally coughing up blood in this animated movie??? 

Yuandi also “kills” Sanzang by taking the Golden Cicada’s essence in front of Wukong after he spent 20 min beating him into a pulp asdfadf. And at that point, literally all the pilgrims (except Bailong who was forgotten) die on screen. After Yuandi kills the baby fruit, it gives itself to Wukong and he powers up enough to beat Yuandi. It doesn’t have the feeling of the tragic comeback from the finale of Hero is Back, but it is very pleasing to see happen anyway. Also because that Havoc in Heaven electric guitar theme SLAPS.

Then the pilgrims come back to life because baby fruit powers. And we’re like, “damn, zhenyuanzi was right. the fruit tree is special!”

And this is the final shot of the movie (before the first credits scene). The classic Sun Wukong-looking-over-shoulder parting shot!

Overall, 6/10. Not the best, but certainly not a bad JTTW adaptation.

[frozenladybug]

haha you thought I was done but here I am, creating even more art for @dorkshadows From Here the Rain Falls

Shown are:

The immortal ZhenYuanzi’s reaction to his fallen tree (Ch.6)/ Wukong’s fight with ZhenYuanzi (Ch.6)/ Sanzang holding the whip (Ch.6)/ Wukong taking the whip (Ch.6)

This chapter sure had a lot of glass shards in it haha 

[666skrskr]

Zhenyuanzi has extraordinary strength and holds ginseng fruit. Why can he only be an earthly immortal?

Zhenyuanzi has extraordinary strength and holds ginseng fruit. Why can he only be an earthly immortal?

Zhenyuanzi is a rare free man in the Journey to the West. He holds ginseng fruit in his hand. He doesn’t need to work for the Queen Mother of the West. The only drawback is that he is always an earthly immortal and can’t go further. Some people say that Zhenyuanzi only knows to live by ginseng fruit. He is an embroidered pillow and has no ability. If so, Zhenyuanzi is really wronged, because…

[the-monkey-ruler]

Can you tell me who are the sworn brothers of Erlang and Sun Wukong? Maybe Nezha too and Bull Demon King please 🤔

I’m not sure if Nezha has sworn brother honestly… he just has real brothers. At least that I know of.

Jinzha 金吒

Muzha 木吒

Wukong does have a LOT, pilgrims not included even if those are his junior brothers in Buddhism.

Bull Demon King 牛魔王

Peng Demon King 鵬魔王

Dragon Flood Demon King 蛟魔王

Snub Nose Monkey Demon King 禺狨王

Spiritual Macaque Demon King 獼猴王

Lion Demon King 獅駝王

Immortal Zhenyuanzi (became sworn in the journey) 鎮元大仙

Erlang has his 6 plum brothers!! (and Wukong)

Kang Anyu 康安裕

Zhang Boshi 张伯时

Li Huanzhang 李焕章

Yao Gonglin 姚公麟

Guo Shen 郭申

Naoken 直健

Sun Wukong (became sworn in their fight) 孙悟空

Bull Demon King is similar to Wukong's list just without Immortal Zhenyanzi. And actually he has a REAL brother that is Immortal Ruyi 如意真仙 who guards the abortion water.

[dorkshadows]

#dude no way#i feel like everyone saw this movie at once cause it dropped on youtube it’s great#my favorite line was when the little fruit guozi kid was like did you know your name sounds ugly as fuck LIKE OKAYY#AND WUKONG HAD TO TAKE IT LIKE A CHAMP#CAUSE COME ON HE CANT BEAT UP THIS LITTLE KID and hes emotionally attached#and i agree the plot was kindaaa all over the place i couldnt follow through like how come yuandi turned into a hunk when his normal form#is all the more threatening to begin with#i think my favorite characters besides the main cast are qingfeng and mingyue#like they get hot headed and stuff but handle things like literally any normal perso#AND THEY WERE IN THE RIGHT TO BEGIN WITH WUKONG DIDNT HAVE TO DESTROY THE TREE JUST CAUSE TWO GUYS DIDNT BELIEVE YOU#this arc woulda lasted like 2 pages in canon if video surveillance existed#also the amount of times wukong wanted to beat their asses was funny#also also side note kinda upset qingfeng and mingyue never made it past heaven secretary cause i really wanted to see their take#on jade emperor (tags via @cringemonkey)

1) Welcome back, Zixuan!! We missed you :D

2) adsfasdf the tags OKOK where to start. I had no idea it was on youtube omg, but in case it gets struck for copyright violation, I’ll keep that “pirate” link up. LMAO same the guozi kid was MEAN and Wukong knew he couldn’t beat it up (which is also hilarious because like, his attachment to it was so awkward- they wanted what Jiang Liuer had smh) so he just suffered. Plot was wild! I enjoyed it in the end, but it was a ride. Yuandi’s dbz villain form was so generic, I think they should have made the “normal” form his final form LOL. 

Oh! I forgot to mention Qingfeng and Mingyue, GNC employees of the month! I also loved how they were just reacting like normal people here haha (And agree- Wukong overreacted so hard here, he was just so offended by the math). I also liked how their voices just didn’t match their faces- amazing LOL. Losing it at “video surveillance,” CRINGEMONKEY WHERE IS THE LIE. 

Now that you mention it, I also feel kind of robbed that we didn’t see the jade emperor (but maybe it’s not a huge loss- given how generic Zhenyuanzi looks, the team’s better at designing demons than celestials). 

[dorkshadows]

FMA anon - in the dream, you answered that you'd never watched/read FMA - but, this was because you'd heard something bad about it? I can't remember what exactly it was, but I do remember that it was true for dream!FMA but not actual FMA? maybe this was the 2003 version? Also, completely different topic but I saw your posts about From Here The Rain Falls and boy am I excited for some suffering! :D (I'm very much into JTTW right now and... I think that fic is at least partly responsible xD)

Hi again, anon! LOL I like how close to reality the dream was! Except for the hearing bad things part- I’ve only ever heard good things about FMA Brotherhood. And that might be way I haven’t really looked at it XD If all I heard was bad things, I would have been more tempted haha. 

(I heard the FMA first anime was crap, but I watched Kuro so I can’t judge. Also, there’s that thing with the dog and the girl omg but that’s not enough to drive me away lol)

And OMG, you’re reading From Here the Rain Falls? Ahh, thank you so much! Really glad you’re enjoying the story! I promise there will be plenty of suffering ahead- you will not be disappointed! :D

Also, high-five! You have no idea how much it means to know the fic helped you get (more) into JTTW! Feel free to stop by and talk about JTTW whenever you want- it is my drug ;) 

[dorkshadows]

Act 1 Complete!

Act 1 of From Here the Rain Falls is finally finished :’) For anyone interested, here’s an excerpt/spoiler:

“Big brother’s odd.”

“That he is. So Xiao Bailong, remember this.”

Ao Lie watched Xuanzang dip the cloth in water once more and rest his hand atop the monkey’s forehead.

“Big brother thinks he can protect us all,” Xuanzang said, fingers ruffling that tousle of dark hair, “but sometimes, we have to protect big brother.”

Now I can start plotting the angst in Act 2!

[dorkshadows]

Ch. 26 Up

Guess what just updated? From Here the Rain Falls ;)

Ao Lie: “My arm’s gone, but I’m alive.”

Zhenyuanzi: “Wonderful!”

[dorkshadows]

Act 2 and 3

Tbh, out of all 3 Acts of “From Here the Rain Falls,” the third one is the murkiest. I have it planned out, but it might change a lot from my mind before it gets on the keyboard. I honestly thought the story would only be 2 Acts, but then I got carried away lol. What I know about Act 3 is that it’s definitely going to have at least 3 chapters worth of monkey medical drama and one count of Puti courtroom drama.

Maybe Act 3 spoilers down here?

Act 2 came out the way I wanted for the most part, but some of the most drastic changes are:

Bajie and Wujing were supposed to beat the shit out of Wukong together in ch. 21, but Wujing developed into another direction and I scrapped that because it wouldn’t make sense. Also, Wukong passed out here- Ao Lie was supposed to come and save him, before we jumped to the “there’s so much blood, big brother” moment and then Xiao Bailong’s big sacrifice.

^ That was all changed because at the rate Wukong was going in the climax, he wouldn’t go down that easily. And the biggest change- Lingang/King of Spiritual Touch- wasn’t part of Huang Feng’s group in the initial ideas. So Wukong actually got messed up even more than intended lol

Tudi/Zhenyuanzi/the servants weren’t part of the climax, but it felt right to let them be there. Zhenyuanzi especially wasn’t supposed to become one of the major characters, but he did somehow.

And at the finale, Huang Feng was going to rip Wukong’s heart out and eat it (maybe in front of Xuanzang to fully parallel JTTW 13), but somehow Wukong would survive that lmao. This was removed after I saw Wu Kong and its stone heart idea- I didn’t want the chapter to mimic it. But in my defense, the heart would have done nothing for Huang Feng; it was just my way of proving Wukong’s literally flesh and blood now. Huang Feng would have done it because he’s a dick.

I remember more tweaks, but that’s a post for another time! Maybe after I get around to writing ch. 24 and ending Act 2.

Now, for possible Act 3 spoilers that may or may not change! Written for personal reference and if anyone’s curious:

Xuanzang meets Puti

We spent 2 Acts with Wukong getting jealous over Xuanzang; there might be one instance in Act 3 where it’s Xuanzang getting jealous of [redacted] over Wukong ;)

Nezha cameo

What if I decided to be super cheesy and unnecessarily dramatic, and threw in an amnesia subplot on top of everything else Wukong has to recover from??

Return to Moonfield?

[666skrskr]

Zhenyuanzi is not afraid of Tathagata. Why is he respectful to Guanyin?

Zhenyuanzi is not afraid of Tathagata. Why is he respectful to Guanyin?

Zhenyuanzi should be a relatively free immortal in the three realms. His base camp is Wuzhuang Guan. He guards a ginseng fruit tree. The gods respect him. The monsters are afraid of him. Even Guanyin has to weigh his identity. However, Zhenyuanzi is not afraid of Tathagata, but he is respectful to Guanyin. Before Tang Monk and disciples arrived at Wuzhuang Guan, Zhenyuanzi had already taken the…

[dorkshadows]

I want to write, but at the same time, I also... don’t want to lol. Ch. 15 is halfway done and honestly, I’m so invested in this fic now that I can’t die peacefully until it’s finished. And I’ve left everyone on non-stop angsty cliffhangers so I can’t possibly just leave it on an angsty note; that’s just not right. 

So this really isn’t an update since I don’t have any now, but it does have some non-spoilery spoilers for the story just to let anyone reading this know that I haven’t abandoned you :’)

First off, this fic can be divided into 2 categories:

Chapters where Wukong isn’t bleeding: 4, 5 Chapters where he is bleeding: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

We’re hitting another turning point at the end of 15, but the real whammy is in 16, and I considered revealing a little on my blog, but I think it’d end up being too spoilery no matter how I word it. There’s also another twist I don’t think anyone saw coming at around 20 or so- for this twist, I’ve been hinting at it throughout all of Act 1 and a bit of Act 2 LOL. Hint: It concerns one of the other pilgrims.

Also, remember Ao Lie’s 4 and a 1/2 transformations? It’s not just a joke. The half transformation is an actual power move. But at what expense for dragon boy, at what expense...

Puti’s showing up again in 18. Right now, I’m thinking about how to explain the Liang Guo, Yachi, Mr. Sun triangle and whether I should throw another twist on it. Back in Act 1, it felt like Yachi was in love with Mr. Sun, who was in love with his dead first wife... but that might not be the case. 

Zhenyuanzi gets some spotlight in 15 too. And I don’t consider this a spoiler because everyone who’s been reading up to now knows what to expect- Wukong’s going to get horribly, horribly injured by the end of Act 2. It’s going to be so bad Act 1 looks like a walk in the park. It’d be impossible for the pilgrims to patch him up this time, which brings up another point...

There’s going to be an Act 3 to resolve everything. It’ll be shorter than the first two, but I’ve decided to give the readers more good moments to balance out all the bad. There’ll be plenty of fluff, believe it or not, and the relationship between Wukong and Xuanzang is finally going to stabilize. But the first half of 3 is still going to be standardly angsty B)

Erlang Shen and Nezha might make appearances. Especially Nezha. I feel like I’ve hinted at him so much that he deserves one at this point lol. Also, Zhenyuan’s banquet is going to happen.