Monkey-Volume 10 (1980)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Fantasy	Biographies-Character Synopsis DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1980
Running Time	127:39 (Case: 130)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Satoshi Aoki
Studio Distributor	NTV/Kokusai Hoei Shock Entertainment	Starring	Masaaki Sakai
Case	DV-4
RPI	$29.95	Music	Mickie Yoshino

    Returning to Saiyûki again after a lengthy absence is like returning to a bottle of wine where the outer glass has cracks and stains on it, but the wine contained within tastes rich and warm. You can't help but turn your nose up at the way the programme has been presented, but the content itself is so enriching that one soon forgets about the presentation - mostly. Monkey, as it is better known, is based on the writings of Wu Ch'êng-ên, and can roughly be described as the ultimate stoner show - I get the munchies just from watching the hilariously bad special effects.

    Season Two, which started on the last episode of the previous disc, sees Monkey (Masaaki Sakai), Pigsy (Tonpei Hidari), Sandy (Shirô Kishibe), and Tripitaka (Masako Natsume) continuing their quest to India. Accompanying them now is a horse who keeps changing in and out of human form, going by the name of Yu-Lung (Shunji Fujimura) when he is human. The show finds our heroes having to overcome some new kind of devilry in each episode, and ends with a moral that is perfectly delivered in a way that makes the viewer want to listen, instead of bashing them over the head with it like some programmes I can mention.

    Again, three episodes are presented on this disc for the viewer's gratification. I would prefer two to a disc, as this might preserve some semblance of the image quality, but this is a minor quibble, as this is one of the better transfers of Monkey I have yet seen. The episodes on this disc are:

• The Dogs Of Death (Season Two, episode 28, 42:45)
  The pilgrims enter a land under the control of the evil Dogs Of Plague, who in turn are loyal to the Great Hound Of Hell. In this land, people are dying left and right of a mysterious plague which the local doctor is unable to cure. Tripitaka goes in to see the dying men, but is himself infected. A visit to the only people in the area known to be able to cure the disease results in Monkey being told that the only way to cure his master is to feed him fresh monkey brains.
• The Foolish Philosopher (Season Two, episode 29, 42:08)
  A rather nasty princess is being held captive by a fish monster who wants to marry her, but she thinks he is too "common". She sends two water sprites in order to get help from her parents, and the pilgrims happen across them in their journey. Escorting them to the king and queen, Tripitaka and Monkey send Pigsy and Sandy to rescue the princess.
• Who Am I? (Season Two, episode 30, 42:46)
  The pilgrims eat some mushrooms and lose their memories. Monkey wanders off and joins a band of outlaws, who have been offered a reward by a king to capture Tripitaka. Tripitaka soon leaves Pigsy and Sandy, and is captured by the outlaws. Yu-Lung sets out to help Monkey regain his memory so that they can save their comrades.

Video

    If you've read my previous reviews of Monkey on DVD, then you know what is coming. Let's not kid ourselves here - you cannot make a pristine transfer out of source materials that are so far gone that they might not ever be useable again. However, what we do have here is acceptable if you're a fan of the show, which is all we can really ask for under the circumstances.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

    This transfer is acceptably sharp, with enough detail to decipher what is going on in any one shot. Most of the footage in these episodes was shot under bright lighting conditions during the day, so shadow detail is not a major issue here. There does not appear to be significant low-level noise, although ghostly outlines are occasionally apparent around the actors, such as at 23:05 in The Dogs Of Death, when Masaaki Sakai has quite the golden halo around him.

    The colours in this disc are acceptably rendered. There are no instances when colour is lost from the signal, as has happened on a couple of previous Monkey DVDs. There is occasional smearing, but nothing that can be considered unacceptable for fans of the series.

    MPEG artefacts were not prominent in this feature, which was surprising given the quality of the source material and limited disc space. Minor compression grain can be seen in nearly every shot, but if this is the worst that source material of this quality suffers, then we're well in front. Film-to-video artefacts were not an issue in this transfer, with no noticeable aliasing on offer. Film artefacts are available in copious amounts, however, with all sorts of scratches, marks, and even hairs visible in more or less every scene. One artefact in this transfer I found puzzling was the presence of a dropout at 39:50 in The Foolish Philosopher, where several horizontal white lines appear in the picture, then are replaced by static. I suspect that this is merely damage to the source material, but it is still quite a puzzling effect, all the same.

    There are no subtitles included on this disc, so Hearing Impaired viewers will be out of luck. I don't think it is really possible to capture the Monkey flavour with text, anyway.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one soundtrack on this DVD: the English dub that was commissioned for UK audiences in the early 1980s, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 with 192 kilobits per second.

    The dialogue is always very clear and easy to make out. Audio sync is terrible, but that's only to be expected when dubbing English over video that was recorded with a limited-syllable language like Japanese. The only major complaint I have about this transfer is that a mild hiss is present through pretty much all of the feature, but this is a minor problem compared to what could have been.

    The music in this series is credited to one Mickie Yoshino, and it is quite a hilarious effort at that. It is sad that we do not get to hear the Monkey Magic theme more often, as it is one of the most amusing and catchy themes I have heard in my life. Still, the music in this series has set the standard for scores in all bad chop-socky films, which is impressive to me.

    The surround channels are not used by this soundtrack, so they had the night off. So too did the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is static and not 16x9 Enhanced. It is slightly difficult to navigate in my opinion.

Character Biographies

    A brief biography of each character, which is now a little out of date. No mention is made of Yu-Lung, and the biography for Pigsy still lists him as being played by Toshiyuki Nishida.

Synopsis

    Pages of text are included to provide a quick synopsis of each and every episode, which is handy if you want to know where your favourite episode fits into the Monkey canon.

DVD Credits

    A listing of all the parties who put this disc together.

    Monkey is still not available in Region 1. I have not heard of it being available in Region 2, Europe or Japan.

    Monkey is a wonderful television series that every child should watch at least once. It is certainly far more suitable for that market than the thoughtless tripe that is being shovelled at them today. It is also a good show for adults to watch, if only for the seriously wacky special effects. Who knows, they might even learn a few philosophical tidbits from it.

    The video transfer is acceptable given the limits of the source materials.

    The audio transfer is as good as it is ever likely to get.

    The extras are light.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall