From: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org (Monkey Digest) To: monkey-digest@valinor.eldar.org Subject: Monkey Digest V1 #895 Reply-To: monkey@valinor.eldar.org Sender: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org Errors-To: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org Precedence: bulk Monkey Digest Sunday, January 21 2001 Volume 01 : Number 895 In this issue: [monkey] monkey in "weekend australian" Re: [monkey] monkey in "weekend australian" [monkey] Read 3 new Masaaki Sakai interviews! Re: Re: [monkey] monkey in "weekend australian" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 17:33:28 +1000 From: "nanakki" Subject: [monkey] monkey in "weekend australian" Hello, Nanakki here, Don't know how many other Australians noticed, but there was a short article on Monkey in the Weekend Australian today (saturday). It discussed the cult status of Monkey here in Australia, and seems to be drawing its information from an interview with masaaki sakai (spelt?). Apparantly monkey has largely been forgotten in Japan due to the fact that shows are not usually repeated on television. Cheers! Free Bloodymail Account-- http://www.bloodymail.zzn.com ____________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE Web and POP E-mail Service in 14 languages at http://www.zzn.com. - --------------------------------------------------------------- + To unsubscribe, send an email to: majordomo@valinor.eldar.org with 'unsubscribe monkey' in the body of your message + Need help? Send an email to: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org - --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 15:06:51 -0000 From: "Howell Parry" Subject: Re: [monkey] monkey in "weekend australian" If you get time, could you type up the article for all us non-Australian fans to have a read? Thanks, Howell >Hello, Nanakki here, > >Don't know how many other Australians noticed, but there was a >short article on Monkey in the Weekend Australian today (saturday). _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. - --------------------------------------------------------------- + To unsubscribe, send an email to: majordomo@valinor.eldar.org with 'unsubscribe monkey' in the body of your message + Need help? Send an email to: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org - --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 17:06:16 -0000 From: "Howell Parry" Subject: [monkey] Read 3 new Masaaki Sakai interviews! I've recently received permission to publish 3 new Masaaki Sakai interviews on my web site - you'll find them on this page: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/8153/interviews_masaaki_actual.html The 3 interviews were done in Summer 2000 for: 1) Rolling Stone magazine (Australia) 2) The Courier-Mail newspaper (Brisbane, Australia) 3) Guardian newspaper (UK) I'm awaiting permission to put another 2 interviews on my site: 4) The Australian (Australia) 5) The Age newspaper (Melbourne, Australia) (these were done in Summer 2000 too - I don't want to put them online until I've been given permission) Enjoy! Howell _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. - --------------------------------------------------------------- + To unsubscribe, send an email to: majordomo@valinor.eldar.org with 'unsubscribe monkey' in the body of your message + Need help? Send an email to: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org - --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 16:10:52 +1000 From: "nanakki" Subject: Re: Re: [monkey] monkey in "weekend australian" certainly; ;) ok, its entitled "Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy fly back" and its written by Kerrie Murphy; - -------------------------------- 'In the worlds before Monkey, primal chaos reigned. Heaven sought order, but the phoenix can fly only when its feathers have grown' Ah yes, the wisdom of the 1978 Japanese television series 'Monkey' was hard to fault, mainly because you were never quite sure what it meant, other than it sounded really deep. Besides, there were far too many other points to ponder, such as: how come they keep referring to the boy-priest Tripitaka as "master" when he was quite clearly played by a woman (Masako Natsume, who died of lukemia in 1985). In case your still wondering, popular wisdom has it that Tripitaka was a very beautiful boy, but they thought it would be easier to cast a woman instead. It has been 22 years since Masaaki Sakai donned the silly sideburns of Monkey and rode the flying cloud, but he has not been forgotten, at least not in Australia, where the show has gained a cult following among those who grew up with the show as children and a new generation of aficionados who discovered its arse-kicking brand of Buddhism last year through the ABC's 'recovery' program. It's a different story in Japan, however. While the tale of Monkey is well known, the television show itself is all but forgotten, since the concept of endless repeats is not a strong one in Japan. "Monkey is based on an old Chinese story which every Japanese knows about," says Sakai in an interview conducted via email. Since the questions were emailed to him, translated into Japanese and his answers into English, it has a slightly dubbed feel to it. "I am now best known as a presenter, as we have a program in Japan that is the equivalent of the Grammy awards that are held in the United States," says the former Monkey. "I have been chosen to present the show for many years. 'Monkey' is hardly known by anybody under the age of 30 now." Besides this, Sakai's resume casts him as an all-round entertainer on Japanese television. Prior to landing the role of Monkey, he had success as a vocalist in a band called the Spiders, and as a solo artist, and he's continued working as a singer with his latest band Sans Filtre. Add to that work as a TV chef and a stage actor and it's easy to see why the 22-year-old show is all but forgotten in Japan. "I enjoy most appearing on stage," says Sakai of his various occupations. For those who missed 'Monkey' it was based on a 16th-century Chinese tale about the Tang priest Hsu-an Tsang's pilgrimage to India to retrieve Buddhist scriptures and bring peace to China. Protecting him along the way is the King of the Monkeys, along with a pig monster called Pigsy and a fish monster called Sandy. As the TV show told it, the priest named Tripitaka and the gang must overcome various monsters and demons - with dodgy costumes and even dodgier dubbed accents - invariably wielding papier-mache weapons. Like 'Dr Who', part of the joy of the show was to keep an eye out for wobbling sets. The series was dubbed into English for release in Australia, Canada and Britain. How this version compares to the original is not something Sakai comments on. "I have never in fact seen an episode of an English dubbed show and even if I did my English is not good enough to understand what they are saying," he says. "I have heard from someone that the English version is not translated straight into English, but parts of the script have been changed to make it funnier. "I think that is one of the reasons that the show has been so popular." Besides the bad dubbing and worse sets, what the series is best remembered for is the outbreak of Kung Fu at the slightest provacation, so it may come as something of a surprise to learn he is no Jackie Chan. "I have never been trained in martial arts. I have been trained only for stunts by a stunt trainer," he says, adding that he did most of his stunts. "It did not take much time to choreograph fights. I have always been able to learn things very quickly. "If it takes 10 days for someone to learn something it would take me mabye a day or so," says Sakai with modesty. And just as Monkey was called to his fate by the gods, you could argue that Sakai was destined to play the King of the Monkeys. "Three years beforehand I was in a stage play of 'Monkey' and I had a hit with a song called 'Monkey Dance'. I suppose I was perfect for the role." - ------------------------------------------- oh well, there you have it. The only other things the article contained was a collection of some of the quotes from the series, and a picture depicting a rather unhappy Monkey complete with the caption "Perfect for the role: Masaaki Sakai was Monkey, but no one in Japan remembers". cheers all, Nanakki :) Free Bloodymail Account-- http://www.bloodymail.zzn.com ____________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE Web and POP E-mail Service in 14 languages at http://www.zzn.com. - --------------------------------------------------------------- + To unsubscribe, send an email to: majordomo@valinor.eldar.org with 'unsubscribe monkey' in the body of your message + Need help? Send an email to: owner-monkey@valinor.eldar.org - --------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of Monkey Digest V1 #895 **************************** ----------------------------------------- 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/