Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back 西游伏妖篇

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Stephen Chow produces new installment for Journey to the West, this time Director Tsui Hark is sitting in the director's seat. The movie is scheduled to be released 28 January 2017.

The story takes place before Tang Sanzang got his disciples and embarked on the Journey to the West.

A riverside village is terrorized by a mysterious underwater creature. A Taoist priest kills a giant manta ray and insists that it is the demon. Sanzang, a self-proclaimed demon hunter, appears to warn the villagers that the animal is not the true demon. The villagers ignore him and, at the priest's provocation, strings him up. The demon reemerges and kills many of villagers. Sanzang frees himself and, along with the survivors, manages to beach the creature, which turns into a man. Sanzang then opens a book of nursery rhymes and begins singing to the demon. Annoyed, the demon attacks Sanzang. Another demon hunter, Duan, captures and turns the demon into a puppet. Sanzang tells to Duan that his master taught him a more humane approach and to use nursery rhymes to coax goodness out of demons, a tactic Duan scoffs at. Disillusioned, Sanzang meets his master and bemoans his lack of capabilities compared to more aggressive demon-hunters. His master reaffirms his humanist philosophy sends Sanzang off again to find "enlightenment."

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[Blade~]

The movie opened January 28, 2017, and grossed over 345â€"360 million yuan ($50â€"52 million USD) on its opening day. Data from research group Entgroup showed that the movie had 103,065 screenings and registered 8.7 million admissions Saturday, the busiest day ever at the Chinese box office. This broke the record for the biggest single/opening day for a local film in China, dethroning The Mermaid's former record of 270 million yuan in 2016 while Furious 7's 391 million yuan record remains intact. Journey to the West 2 currently ranks #12 highest grossing movie in China, ranking even higher than Avatar by James Cameron.

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Sony Pictures has acquired the distribution of the movie for US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most of Asia outside of mainland China. If you are looking to see this movie but not available in theaters in your area look for DVD or Blu-ray in a few weeks.