"Saiyûki" (1978) TV series 1978-1980

Directors:

Toshi Aoki
Jun Fukuda

Writers:

Motomu Furuta (screenplay)
Hiroichi Fuse (screenplay)

Seasons:

1 | 2 | unknown

Release Date:

1 October 1978 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Family | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy

Plot:

Monkey is the story by Wu Ch'êng-ên based on the ancient Chinese legend tracing the origins of Buddhism...

Plot Keywords:

Monkey | Buddhism | Legend | India | China

Cast

Peter Woodthorpe	...	Pigsy (14 episodes, 1978-1979)
Masaaki Sakai	...	Sun Wu-Kong (Monkey) (13 episodes, 1978)
Toshiyuki Nishida	...	Zhu Ba-Jie (Pigsy season 1) (13 episodes, 1978)
Shirô Kishibe	...	Sha Wu-Jing (Sandy) (13 episodes, 1978)
Masako Natsume	...	Xuanzang Sanzang (Tripitaka) (13 episodes, 1978)

Also Known As:

Monkey (International: English title) (dubbed version)
Monkey Magic (Australia) (informal English title)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG (some episodes) | Australia:MA (some episodes)

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Kokusai Hoei

Trivia:

Made with an ensemble cast and on low budget. Sets are clearly recycled from episode to episode, and the supporting cast can be the King one episode, a demon the next, and a gambler in the one after that.

Quotes:

Monkey: [after finding out that Buddha was female] I always thought Buddha was a fella!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

This is by far one of the most unique TV series.

"In the land before monkey, primal chaos ruled ..." - a quote from the show.

On this show, the dialogue is both crazy and hilarious!

The storylines are just as crazy, with a mixture of fighting scenes and very interesting characters and actors.

The sets and special effects are very 'old school' and this adds to the comical nature of the series. Not to be missed, once you see a couple of the shows you'll want to see the whole series.