宇宙探索编辑部

Journey to the West

Presented by Bay Area Chinese Culture Salon

ALL THREE SHOWS are AT RUSH! (a rush line will be available for unclaimed seats, on a first-come-first-serve basis.)

Sharing the same title as Chinese classic literature, JOURNEY TO THE WEST is not a story about the Monkey King, but about an ordinary man’s continuous pursuit of UFOs in the Chinese countryside. TANG Zhijun, editor-in-chief of Space Exploration magazine, together with his fellows, went to investigate the collective sighting of an unidentified flying object in a village called Burning Nest, where a stone ball disappeared from the mouth of a stone lion.

Based on historical reality, JOURNEY TO THE WEST is a Sci-Fi film with a nostalgic style. It combines the vintage aesthetic of realism with the genre by collaging footage of different textures, such as VHS images, vintage television broadcasting images, as well as documentation footage. Deep down inside, it is also a film about chasing faded love.

“The spirit of play permeates Journey to the West, and it is why the film approaches reality in a slightly different way than most of China’s art cinema titles do.” —Easternkicks

“Shot in a faux documentary style complete with direct to camera interviews and occasional breaking of the fourth wall, Kong’s hilariously deadpan, absurdist epic sees Tang journeying west in search of the meaning of life only to be confronted by the vastness of the universe and discover himself, and the answer he seeks, already in its embrace.”  Windows on Worlds

Runtime
1h 58m
Year
2021
Director
Kong Dashan
Format
DCP
Country
China
Language
Mandarin with English Subtitles
First Showing
May 6, 2023
Categories
  • Assisted Listening