From: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org (Monkey Digest) To: monkey-digest@valinor.eldar.org Subject: Monkey Digest V1 #69 Reply-To: monkey@valinor.eldar.org Sender: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org Errors-To: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org Precedence: bulk Monkey Digest Thursday, July 24 1997 Volume 01 : Number 069 In this issue: [monkey] International Lyrics Server [monkey] Super Saiyuki [monkey] Monkey film "Saiyuki" (1960) Re: [monkey] Monkey film "Saiyuki" (1960) [monkey] Lots of information about Godiego and Monkey... Re: [monkey] Staff, other weapons, and bananas [monkey] http://barnsleyweb.barnsley.ac.uk/users/markt/monkeymagic.wav Re: [monkey] http://barnsleyweb.barnsley.ac.uk/users/markt/monkeymagic.wav [monkey] Viewing Japanese web pages [monkey] MONKEY PRODUCTION VALUES [monkey] Staff, other weapons, and bananas ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 01:53:50 PDT From: "Howell Parry" Subject: [monkey] International Lyrics Server I've added all the lyrics to Godiego's Magic Monkey CD (lots of music from "Monkey") to the International Lyrics Server. To search for any song's lyrics (e.g. Monkey Magic, Gandhara), use this page: http://www.lyrics.ch/search.html To find all the song lyrics for Godiego, do a search for Artist = Godiego. Howell ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 02:16:42 PDT From: "Howell Parry" Subject: [monkey] Super Saiyuki Does anyone know this book: Super Saiyuki - published by Kadokawa Shoten, 1991, Y900. Nagai's version of Wu Cheng-En's Chinese classic Journey to the West (known in Japanese as Saiyuki), which concerns the many and varied exploits of Monkey, `Great Sage, Equal of Heaven'. ? Howell ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 02:44:41 PDT From: "Howell Parry" Subject: [monkey] Monkey film "Saiyuki" (1960) Is anyone on this list familiar with the 1960 Japanese anime film by Taiji Yabushita & Osamu Tezuka called "Saiyuki" (Saiyuki is the Japanese name for the Monkey story)? SAIYUKI (Westward Voyage), Toei Doga, fantasy, 88 min, 14/8/1960. Saiyuki is the first full-length movie animated by Osamu Tezuka; it is inspired by the famous Chinese tale, Sun Wukong, by HiuanTsane. The hero, a monkey, undertakes a long and tiresome voyage, accompanied by some strange characters. Their goal is to bring back the Sutra (famous scrolls containing sacred texts) in his homeland. - ----- I also found this: GOKU NO DAIBOKEN (The big adventure of Goku), Mushi, classical/ adventure, 39 episodes, 7/ 1-30/ 9/ 1967,- The Monkey. Saiyuki, the myth of the young stoned monkey, is here revisited in an absolutely crazy way by Osamu Tezuka, in an amusing series directed by Gisaburo Sugii. The gags are exhilarating and the situation are paradoxical. The fact that in Italy it has not succeeded is mainly due to the poor knowledge of the original myth, and then to the misunderstanding of the parody. The character design is of Shigeru Yamamoto. Anyone know this? Howell ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 12:10:13 +0100 From: L.Stevens@cableinet.co.uk Subject: Re: [monkey] Monkey film "Saiyuki" (1960) In the early 90's HK comedian made a Chinese Odessey trilogay I hvent seen it but Chow sing Chi took the role of Monkey ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 05:28:50 PDT From: "Howell Parry" Subject: [monkey] Lots of information about Godiego and Monkey... I just got an incredible email from a guy in Japan, with lots of information about Godiego, pictures etc. He runs a Japanese Godiego web site: http://www.zzz.or.jp/free/diabro/gossip.htm I will put all this information on a web page at some point, but I thought I'd send it to the list straight away. On my Monkey Music web page (http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/music.html), it describes: * The "Monkey Magic" single which was released in the UK in 1980 * The "Magic Monkey" CD by Godiego, which was released in Japan, and featured lots the music from Monkey. Well, Godiego released an LP in the UK called "Monkey", which featured the same tracks that were on their Japanese "Magic Monkey" CD, in a different order: MONKEY Side A 1.THE BIRTH OF THE ODYSSEY /MONKEY MAGIC 2.A FOOL 3.ASIATIC FEVER 4.DRAGONS AND DEMONS 5.CELEBRATION Side B 1.GANDHARA 2.STEPPIN'INTO YOUR WORLD 3.FLYING 4.HAVOC IN HEAVEN 5.WE'RE HEADING OUT WEST TO INDIA 6.THANK YOU BABY Here's a picture of this LP: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/godiego_monkey.jpg Godiego apparently also released Gandhara as a single in the UK: GANDHARA [Single] Side A GANDHARA(Japanese & English) Side B THE BIRTH OF THE ODYSSEY /MONKEY MAGIC Here's a picture of this single (it's lacking the correct picture sleeve): http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/godiego_gand_e.jpg Godiego also released a Greatest Hits LP in the UK, called "London Celebration": LP "LONDON CELEBRATION" Side A 1.CELEBRATION 2.MONKEY MAGIC 3.GALAXY EXPRESS 999 4.HAPPINESS 6.GANDHARA Side B 1.MIRAGE 2.HOLY AND BRIGHT 3.SALAD GIRL 4.SPRINTER LIFTBACK 5.THE WATER MARGIN 6.TRY TO WAKE UP TO A MORNING 7.RETURN TO AFRICA Side-A features them performing live in Japan - the same tracks as on their "Magic Copsule" LP (released in Japan). Here's a picture of this LP: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/godiego_london.jpg He said: "HOLY AND BRIGHT" is ending song of"SAIYUUKI-2" in japan.(not arrive "SAIYUUKI-3"isn't it?) [SAIYUUKI = Japanese translation of "Monkey"] This confuses me; I always thought that there were 3 seasons of Monkey, each featuring 13 episodes (the 3rd season features "Holy and Bright"). It seems, looking at this guy's statement above that, in fact, there were 2 seasons of Monkey; the first one containing 26 episodes, the second one containing just 13 episodes. I'm guessing here, but perhaps the 2nd season was cut short because of Masako Natsume (Tripitaka) 's illness. Godiego also released an LP of their music for "The Water Margin" in the UK. Here's a picture of this LP: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/godiego_margin.jpg Other info - ----------- 1. The beautiful balled "Thank You, Baby" (on the Magic Monkey CD) is very popular in Japan. 2. The correct way of saying Monkey in Japanese is "SA-I-YU-U-KI" or "SA-I-YOO-KI". 3. Although Masako Natsume (Tripitaka) died 12 years ago, her "picture-books" are on sale in Japan, and are very popular. 4. Masaaki Sakai (Monkey) is still on TV a lot in Japan - this is what the guy said about him: "The main acter "Masaaki Sakai" is carefree. I see him on TV manytime,he is very interesting,hahaha!" 5. Just a few days ago, this guy went to see Yukihide Takekawa (the vocalist from the now split-up Godiego) in concert, and he sang "Monkey Magic", "Gandhara", and "Holy and Bright". Apparently, as these songs are still very popular, he always sings these at his concerts. I've asked this guy lots of questions about Monkey and Godiego, and hopefully I'll have lots more information for you tomorrow... Howell ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 22:41:16 +1000 (EST) From: Nick McCarthy Subject: Re: [monkey] Staff, other weapons, and bananas Monkey does a bit of unarmed combat notably before he gets his staff, against the 'good dog' and in the land of nightmares when he can't find hisstaff. It certainly is mainly weapons however! BTW did you see the interesting weapons that the three villagers used against Monkey in that episode where Sandy finds his father? I'm sure at least one of them had a chain. Do you remember what the weapons were (episode = 'Beginning of Wisdom') Well, I've just watched this episode again recently and the fight scene you are referring to is actually quite a good one. One of the villagers goes for Monkey with a pair of nunchuckas (sp?) and another has a ball and chain kinda thing. However, their weapons have virtually no effect as Monkey jumps about 100 metres into the air to avoid being hit! This fight scene in "The Beginning of Wisdom" is quite fun to watch and more convincing than most. It is clear that the moves have been choreographed carefully and they look pretty good. Monkey does some cool moves and I think he does a backflip at one stage, although you can tell Masaakai Sakai doesn't perform this stunt. The staff spinning he does in this one is really quite impressive and there are some tense standoffs with the villagers as opposed to everyone going all in. Has anyone else noticed though that in several long shots, you can tell it is not the real actors fighting, but stunt doubles? In "The Beginning of Wisdom" it is especially noticable when Pigsy is confronted by the villagers and he fights to protect Tripitaka. If you look carefully, you can tell that Pigsy in the long shot is of a slightly different build to the real actor who plays Pigsy. His facial features are different too but you have to look hard to spot it. This is the same with Monkey sometimes too. Also, what I've noticed about several fight scenes is that the real audio has been left in and they haven't been redubbed. People have often mentioned that they would like to hear Monkey's real voice, well, in certain fight scenes you can. When there is no dialogue during fights but just screaming and shouting, Monkey's real voice can sometimes be heard bellowing or shouting like an ape. Although this is not glaringly evident, you can tell that some of Monkey's "war cries" in the actor's real voice are distinctly different from the voice of David Collings, who did the English translation of Monkey, Nick. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 13:58:29 +0100 From: Matt Sephton Subject: [monkey] http://barnsleyweb.barnsley.ac.uk/users/markt/monkeymagic.wav This fiule is in fact a direct copy of the TruSpeech version of the Theme from my page. In fact most things Monkey related have been 'borrowed' from other pages likewise. Oh well, c'est la vie! Matt - -- u5ms@csc.liv.ac.uk http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~u5ms/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 06:11:35 PDT From: "Howell Parry" Subject: Re: [monkey] http://barnsleyweb.barnsley.ac.uk/users/markt/monkeymagic.wav >This fiule is in fact a direct copy of the TruSpeech version of the >Theme from my page. In fact most things Monkey related have been >'borrowed' from other pages likewise. Oh well, c'est la vie! Ooh! I thought I'd found another 'recording' of the tune.... While mentioning the Monkey Magic theme tune, I'll mention here that a composer friend of mine is currently working on a MIDI version of the Monkey Magic theme tune! I'll let you all know when it's finished. Howell ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 06:19:57 PDT From: "Howell Parry" Subject: [monkey] Viewing Japanese web pages When looking for Monkey sites on the web, I've founds lots of Japanese sites. In doing so, I came across a very useful web utility for viewing them properly on non-Japanese operating systems: http://www.lfw.org/shodouka/ You enter the URL of the page you want to access, click Go! and it will appear with the correct Japanese lettering, instead of the usual binary garbage. Howell ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 23:34:34 +1000 (EST) From: Nick McCarthy Subject: [monkey] MONKEY PRODUCTION VALUES Hi All, I've had the priviledge recently of watching several episodes of Monkey that I hadn't seen for five or six years and I just thought I'd make some comments about the production itself. Of course, Monkey is a cultish kinda program and people often regard the production values as notoriously cheap and nasty. However, after having a good look at the first twelve episodes or so, I don't think this is entirely true. For a start, Monkey has the rare priviledge of being shot entirely on film. This enhances the production considerably, and it is obvious that good film stock was used because the colours are still fairly rich 18 years on. It would have looked a hell of a lot worse if the interiors had been shot on video as is the case with many productions. All the nasty shortcomings of the studio are evident if you shoot on video- like overbright lights and false sets. However, the interiors in Monkey retain a good sense of realism and even when studio sets have been made up to look like outdoor settings, it still works reasonably well because of careful camera placement, subtle lighting and of course, using film. Whilst some effects are pretty bad, like certain cloud flying scenes using dolls as well as the make-up effects on many demons, other effects are really good and work well even today. Simple film camera tricks like fades, reverses, dissolves and slo-mo help create Monkey's magic and I think they are far more fun than all the hi-tech morphing technology of today. Several model shots of ancient Chinese landscapes and architecture are very detailed too and quite impressive. Some of the glass paintings work well too. In Monkey, glass paintings were sometimes used during outdoor locations over long shots. The actors appear in the bottom half of the picture whilst a painting on glass is placed at the top of the camera to represent a background. Snow capped mountains and ancient villages were done this way and whilst some look a tad dodgy, others look great. Monkey's cloud flying has been realized with varying degrees of success. The action man figurine style shots are still pretty funny and unconvincing, however, other shots work well. In earlier episodes, Monkey was superimposed over moving film pictures. The actor himself was then moved on a trolley or some such whilst a pink cloud style video effect was added over the trolley to make it look like the cloud was moving. Some of these shots worked okay. Also, I still think the shot in the first episode of Monkey talking to Buddha whilst standing on the peak of one of the Himalayas is really very good considering this would be a very hard scene for any production team to realize in 1979. Moreover, who could forget the fantastic model shot on the opening credits as the Monkey egg becomes magically fertile! Some of the video effects are fun to watch as well. Whilst Monkey is not exactly a special effects extravaganza, I believe it is certainly superior production wise, to other shows like Doctor Who and Blakes 7. However, that wouldn't be hard :) Later on I might send a message about all the bad effects I've spotted in Monkey. I think they outweigh the good ones somehow :) Nick. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 14:33:11 +1000 From: "Clare O'Farrell" Subject: [monkey] Staff, other weapons, and bananas Chris says > >I'm sure at least one of them had a chain. Do you remember what the >weapons were (episode = 'Beginning of Wisdom') I don't remember a chain, I'll have to have another look but I do remember a 3 sectioned harvesting flail I can't remember what they are called -. It is sort of like a nunchuku but in 3 instead of two sections and the sticks are not as fat. A pretty deadly weapon that one would not want to be in the way of! It was my favourite fight in the series (along with the fight with snake spirit) as clearly all parties knew what they were doing and Monkey is really going for broke with some great kiais (yells). Temporary diversion here - One fighter I really admire is Jet Lee who is in _Once upon a time in China_. He is truly outstanding. There is a brilliant scene where he beats up a sizable crowd with an umbrella! >> Where do bananas orignally come from - does anyone know? > I am impressed with the extent of your banana erudition!!! :-) I checked out the banana website - most interesting even if the photos took ages to download! clare *********************************************************** Clare O'Farrell email:c.ofarrell@qut.edu.au web page: http://www.qut.edu.au/edu/cpol/foucault/ 'Let battle commence. Wine and.... bananas!' *********************************************************** ------------------------------ End of Monkey Digest V1 #69 *************************** ----------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the Monkey Mailing List digest list, send mail to: majordomo@valinor.eldar.org with the following command in the body of your email message: unsubscribe monkey-digest To send a message to the list, send mail to: monkey-digest@valinor.eldar.org If you have any problems or questions, send mail to: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org For lots more information and news about "Monkey", check out the Monkey! web site: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/