Gorillaz + Saiyuki - Three Good-Looking Men = Monkey

Last night, I went to see Monkey in the Palace Theatre in Manchester (England) with my cousin and what we watched as really amazing. At first, he and I thought this opera might not have the appeal to many young people and children, but once we found our seats, I was surprised to see that so many of them were waiting to see this collaboration by the makers behind Gorillaz (aka Jamie Hewlett and Damon 'Blur' Albarn) and Chen Shi-Zheng. And once the curtain draws up, the intro started wonderfully as our main hero, Monkey was born out of the egg (via stone) with wonderful animation and really amazing music that blends Western orchestra with Chinese traditional music and under the 'Gorillaz' music.



So, what are the bad points? Well, because the all of the songs were in Mandarin Chinese, I had a hard time trying to look for the subtitles (and it was below, dammit). However, that was only the bad point I've ever come across.



Now that the bad points out of the way, it's now time for the good points. I really love how this production mixes live-action with animation (that's really some great animation I've ever come across, plus it's British!) and I love the set and costume designs. I just want to hug Jamie Hewlett for producing this wonderful design, as not only original, but very charming indeed.



And then there's the music. It's really endearing and wonderful to listen to the performers singing Chinese harmonically with his [Damon Albarn] compostion and in actual fact, I want to get the soundtrack ASAP. No, really.



And what about the performances? The most important factor of them all and safely to say, they were wonderful and surprisingly funny. I love how Monkey is the star of the show and how the actor portrays him as a very comedic character (and I lol'd when he said about the Smoking Ban in England). I just love the acrobat and the action scenes that were choreographically spectacular (and better than the musicals I've ever come across).



I won't spoil the ending for you, but here are some pics of the programme that I picked up; with beautiful artwork by Jamie Hewlett.

Just click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you want. Whew, that's done, so now I'm going. For some odd reason, my favourite character happens to be Sandy. Not sure why.

Quote of the Moment - "The catchy chorus makes it a perfect attention-getter at karaoke parties." - Newtype USA's Climax Jump review. Now, how did this Toku opening from Den-O got to a mainly anime and manga magazine is beyond my knowledge. No, really.