it like someone took a fantasy type video game and put it in a blender and and the resulting scene mishmash is what we have to sit through. now let me go on record by saying how much i love chinese fantasy films. from the fun and silly and to those focusing on martial arts and to the more dramatic and romantic typesit a genre i very much enjoy. films like a chinese odyssey represent pandora box and a chinese odyssey represent cinderella (both of which were written and or or directed by jeffrey lau) while the bride with white hair while butterfly and sword while green snake while a chinese ghost story while swordman ii while zu represent warriors from the magic mountain while crouching tiger and hidden dragon while and others. which is why i was looking forward to a chinese tall story. one of the film characters is the monkey king (aka sun wukong) and an extremely well known character in chinese mythology and first told in the stories of the journey to the west and the epic adventure written about 500 years ago. (the story of the monkey king and his disciples is also the focus of the chinese odyssey films and amongst many others). other familiar characters that appear in the film are zhu wuneng (the pig character) and sha wujing. so how does it all go wrong. well and let take an example familiar to western audiences. how about the robin hood mythology. a well known story from ye olden days. let say that our robin hood film starred wesley snipes as robin hood and and haley joel osment as friar tuck. maid marian is none other than rosie perez. let give sir robin an uzi as well and because you never know when you might have to waste the sheriff of nottingham. they might need rocket packs also and and while were at it and give them a tactical nuclear weapon because that sure could come in handy. if you think this sounds like a really neat retelling of the robin hood tale and then a chinese tall story is the movie for you. as i indicated above and this movie is a jumbled mess. in the first 30 minutes and we are introduced not only to sun wukong and zhu wuneng and and sha wujing and but also to the monk tripitaka (who is actually the main protagonist) and kidnapped children and a millennium bug demon (which shoots laser beams) and an underground tree god and a lizard imp tribe and an angelic girl in an intergalactic egg and the lord chancellor tortoise and a sea dragon king and a ever morphing magic golden staff and a chatterbox imp girl and wormholes in space and and the four heavenly knights. all this do not be too bad the tales and myths passed down over the years certainly do have all sorts of fantastical elements. but i guarantee you the chinese mythology does not include much of the stuff we get subjected to in the last half of the film. (helpful advice to the filmmakers represent just because your computer effects guys can come up with cool looking spaceships and depictions of intergalactic war and does not mean they should). you know your chinese mythology movie is on the wrong track when the director asks (and i am not making this upit a direct quote from the commentary) i asked the composer whether or not we can have a more rock and roll type music when she transforms into some kind of android like thing. is there a story hidden in here somewhere. yes. yes and there is. most of the adventure follows tripitaka (played by nicholas tsegen x cops and time and tide and my schoolmate the barbarian) and meiyan and the lizard imp girl (played by charlene choi and a computer). choi is the best thing going in this film. you may know her as half of the canto pop group twins and from other films such as the twins effect (a fun flick) and just one look (a surprisingly good drama or romance or comedy). poor choi and being a lizard imp and all and is hardly recognizable with her warts and snagged out teeth and doughy nose and and hunched back. that is until the computers get a hold of and beautify her and which somehow makes it worse. tse is passable and but all of the supporting actors were abysmal. a couple of recognizable faces in bit parts are wasted. at one point i was debating with myself if a chinese tall story was a spoof. i was almost able to convince myself that it was when the intergalactic egg girl (played by a very pretty fan bing bing) got out and lit up a marlboro (. ) while talking with tripitaka who was practicing martial arts dressed in a spider man costume (. ). but it is not a spoof. of course there is the typical hong kong silliness and but the movie takes itself seriously enough and with enough scenes of romance and pathos (scored with a sledghammering of violins and evocative cellos) and rousing action and adventure. you might think that you could watch this on a netflix rental and it do not cost you anything. (oh and but it will cost you and all right). is there anything good to say. sure. the colors are vibrant (they are the best thing about this movie). and the filmmakers certainly were trying very hard. too bad all that effort went into a movie that is not much more than a bad video game. 
it like someone took a fantasy type video game and put it in a blender and and the resulting scene mishmash is what we have to sit through. now let me go on record by saying how much i love chinese fantasy films. from the fun and silly and to those focusing on martial arts and to the more dramatic and romantic typesit a genre i very much enjoy. films like a chinese odyssey represent pandora box and a chinese odyssey represent cinderella (both of which were written and or or directed by jeffrey lau) while the bride with white hair while butterfly and sword while green snake while a chinese ghost story while swordman ii while zu represent warriors from the magic mountain while crouching tiger and hidden dragon while and others. which is why i was looking forward to a chinese tall story. one of the film characters is the monkey king (aka sun wukong) and an extremely well known character in chinese mythology and first told in the stories of the journey to the west and the epic adventure written about 500 years ago. (the story of the monkey king and his disciples is also the focus of the chinese odyssey films and amongst many others). other familiar characters that appear in the film are zhu wuneng (the pig character) and sha wujing. so how does it all go wrong. well and let take an example familiar to western audiences. how about the robin hood mythology. a well known story from ye olden days. let say that our robin hood film starred wesley snipes as robin hood and and haley joel osment as friar tuck. maid marian is none other than rosie perez. let give sir robin an uzi as well and because you never know when you might have to waste the sheriff of nottingham. they might need rocket packs also and and while were at it and give them a tactical nuclear weapon because that sure could come in handy. if you think this sounds like a really neat retelling of the robin hood tale and then a chinese tall story is the movie for you. as i indicated above and this movie is a jumbled mess. in the first 30 minutes and we are introduced not only to sun wukong and zhu wuneng and and sha wujing and but also to the monk tripitaka (who is actually the main protagonist) and kidnapped children and a millennium bug demon (which shoots laser beams) and an underground tree god and a lizard imp tribe and an angelic girl in an intergalactic egg and the lord chancellor tortoise and a sea dragon king and a ever morphing magic golden staff and a chatterbox imp girl and wormholes in space and and the four heavenly knights. all this do not be too bad the tales and myths passed down over the years certainly do have all sorts of fantastical elements. but i guarantee you the chinese mythology does not include much of the stuff we get subjected to in the last half of the film. (helpful advice to the filmmakers represent just because your computer effects guys can come up with cool looking spaceships and depictions of intergalactic war and does not mean they should). you know your chinese mythology movie is on the wrong track when the director asks (and i am not making this upit a direct quote from the commentary) i asked the composer whether or not we can have a more rock and roll type music when she transforms into some kind of android like thing. is there a story hidden in here somewhere. yes. yes and there is. most of the adventure follows tripitaka (played by nicholas tsegen x cops and time and tide and my schoolmate the barbarian) and meiyan and the lizard imp girl (played by charlene choi and a computer). choi is the best thing going in this film. you may know her as half of the canto pop group twins and from other films such as the twins effect (a fun flick) and just one look (a surprisingly good drama or romance or comedy). poor choi and being a lizard imp and all and is hardly recognizable with her warts and snagged out teeth and doughy nose and and hunched back. that is until the computers get a hold of and beautify her and which somehow makes it worse. tse is passable and but all of the supporting actors were abysmal. a couple of recognizable faces in bit parts are wasted. at one point i was debating with myself if a chinese tall story was a spoof. i was almost able to convince myself that it was when the intergalactic egg girl (played by a very pretty fan bing bing) got out and lit up a marlboro (. ) while talking with tripitaka who was practicing martial arts dressed in a spider man costume (. ). but it is not a spoof. of course there is the typical hong kong silliness and but the movie takes itself seriously enough and with enough scenes of romance and pathos (scored with a sledghammering of violins and evocative cellos) and rousing action and adventure. you might think that you could watch this on a netflix rental and it do not cost you anything. (oh and but it will cost you and all right). is there anything good to say. sure. the colors are vibrant (they are the best thing about this movie). and the filmmakers certainly were trying very hard. too bad all that effort went into a movie that is not much more than a bad video game. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

Judge the movie review above, you need to make a function call:
    If you feel the movie review is positive
        print "This is a semantically positive review."
    Otherwise, if you feel the movie review is negative
        print "This is a semantically negative review."
