Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back

The monk Tang and his three disciples continue their journey west. Their group looks united on the surface, but resentment and suspicion run beneath it. The Monkey King, the pig demon, the river spirit and the monk bicker and threaten one another while demons keep attacking them. Over a series of confrontations with those demons, they come to understand each other's hardships and resentments, settle their internal disputes and start fighting as a single demon-quelling company.

Tsui Hark directed the film, the twenty-sixth of the thirty-one features he has directed on record, following The Taking of Tiger Mountain and preceding Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings. The screenplay is credited to Stephen Chow and Hark, and Chow also produced. Kris Wu plays Monk Tang, with Lin Gengxin as the Monkey King, Yao Chen, Lin Yun, Mengke Bateer and Wang Likun in supporting roles; the cast runs to 136 credited names and the crew to 78. It is a sequel to the 2013 film Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons.

Made for a reported 64 million dollars, the film took about 249 million dollars worldwide, a strong return on its budget. Audiences rate it modestly: on IMDb it holds 5.5 out of 10 from around 4,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from roughly 144 votes. A critics' score of 6.2 out of 10 from 11 reviews sits slightly above the IMDb audience figure and close to the TMDB one.