In the worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heaven sought order. But the phoenix can fly only when its feathers are grown. The four worlds formed again and yet again, as endless aeons wheeled and passed. Time and the pure essences of Heaven and the moisture of Earth, the powers of the sun and the moon all worked upon a certain rock, old as creation. And it became magically fertile. The first egg was named "Thought". Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said "With our thoughts, we make the world". Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it then came a stone monkey. The nature of monkey was irrepressible!
Features 3 Episodes:
Monkey Goes Wild About Heaven
Mischievous King Monkey is summoned to heaven, where he steals the heavenly peaches, and eats them to gain immortality. He fights two of the Emperor's officials, and all three of them are expelled to Earth. Monkey gets imprisoned under a mountain of rocks, while the other two are tranformed into a pig monster (Pigsy) and a water monster (Sandy). Buddha says that a holy man must be sent to fetch the Holy Scriptures from India to save the world. "How long must a fool who misses the way wander through his many lives?"
Monkey Turns Nursemaid
Buddha sends a messenger, the Boddhisattva kuan-yin the Compassionate, to find a holy man to make the journey from China to India to fetch the large vehicle scriptures. She chooses the boy priest Hsüan Tsang, and bestows upon him the name Tripitaka. Joined by the irrepressible Monkey - with his magic wishing staff and magic powers - and a talking horse, this could be a journey to remember..."We want so much when we need so little. But the illumined man wants for nothing."
The Great Journey Begins
Tripitaka and the ever-impatient Monkey begin their perilous journey. Arriving at a village terrorised by a greedy and lustful monster, Monkey thus faces the wrath of Pigsy and his deadly muckrake. To cross the Mighty River of Flowing Sands, they must first pass the cannibalistic water monster Sandy. A sandstorm, an army of tiger ghosts - will Tripitaka end up as cat food, or will Monkey save the day? "You may run from tigers, but where can you hide from your own fear? Desire is unquenchable - you can only free yourself from it."
