Black Myth Wu Kong EXPLAINED - Cultural References to Journey to The West/The Monkey King

in this video i'm going to explain the references to the book journey to the west shiyoji contained in the recently released super exciting chinese game trailer black myth uh [Music] hi you're watching avenue x where junky and good storytelling shares her thoughts knowledge and occasional weird ideas on stories and how they're told if this is your first time coming to avenue x this is a channel that's exclusively on chinese drama reviews but very occasionally i also talk about other stuff and this video is one of those exceptions the black myth or con trailer got released a couple of days ago and it got really popular both within china and internationally the reason i'm making this video is because i've seen many reaction videos on youtube and after watching them i really wanted to jump into their video and tell them you're missing this part you're missing that part so this video is my attempt to pull out all the literature and cultural references that i can see contained in this game trailer first a quick introduction to journey to the west shioji the novel and the character journey to the west is a chinese classic novel that's written during the 16th century exact date unknown today commonly believed to be written by the author uh this is considered china's first formal long-form fantasy novel although one of the main characters tang tsung the monk of tongue is based on a real monk who lived during tong dynasty the story itself is a fantastical story that features gods fairies demons heavens hell all kinds of mythological and imaginary places and characters the novel is 100 chapters long and it contains 820 000 chinese characters now let me very quickly condense the story of the monkey king this monkey is born out of a stone he has no father no mother he's super clever super strong he immediately becomes the monkey king within the region he lives because of how clever this monkey is he decided he wants to learn how to live forever cultivation if you're familiar with chinese dramas you know how prominent that concept is so he goes on a journey and finally finds a really capable teacher and learned from that teacher of incredible magical skills afterwards he decides to upgrade his weapon so he goes under the ocean to the realm where the dragons rule and steals their most precious pillar of supporting the ocean we will see that later in this game and turns it into a stick he uses he also goes up to the heavenly realm and makes a huge mess over there because he's so skilled so clever so powerful that actually none of the gods can defeat him in the end the heavenly emperor goes to the buddha to ask for help and buddha being who buddha is defeats the monkey without an effort and locked monkey under a mountain for 500 years then the monkey is told one day a monk is going to walk by you and he will release you from the mountain in return you will have to accompany his journey to the west to get buddha scripture and the monk does come eventually he is the monkey king becomes disciple to the monk and he's called literally meaning understanding the concept of it's too complicated a buddhist term to explain here so he becomes a servant slash disciple to the monk on their way to the west more characters join their journey including a pig a river god and a white dragon turned white horse they encounter many challenges many dangers many difficulties on their way eventually succeeding at arriving at buddha's place in the west and getting the scripture the monkey king is awarded with the title victorious fighting buddha doja so that is the condensed version of the story of sun kong knowing that will really help you understand the stuff that's referred in this 30 minutes long game trailer i'm going to skip the first part of the trailer where the animated old monk is talking about the stories beginning because it is subtitled it's very easy to understand what he is saying he does look like the old age fully turned into human version of the monkey he also looks very much like the profile picture of this game company's account on billability on which they release this trailer so maybe the old monk is at the end of the story monkey because this game's version of journey to the west is their version it's the black myth it's like the other story that people do not know it could really play at such as parallel universe such as one of the characters i'm gonna talk about later as we watch the trailer or other things that's common in the age of deconstruction that we're living in let's start with the cicada part first let me quickly mention the cicadas reference it is probably referring to first songkong's 72 different forms of transformation ability he often turns into little bugs so that he can get into very small spaces and eavesdropping on people the second thing it may be referring to is golden cicada chinchan is the name of jing chan who is a disciple of the buddha and he reincarnated many times until he becomes tangsung the town monk of journey to the west so that may be the two reference that's being used at the same time in the gameplay they're using this ability as the player's stealth mode so the cicada flies into this region of mountain and comes across wolf soldiers these wolves are the demons of the mountain they are cultivated from animals and become this type of yo in traditional chinese mythology and they're having conversations as i'm watching it i'm gonna explain what those soldiers are saying so the first line comes from two wolf soldiers one of the same oh there are a couple of wine jars i wonder if there's still one left inside the other wolf is saying don't do over it be careful if we mess up with our task so presumably they're out on a task and saying if we mess it up will be eaten as side dishes by lin xi jinyun ling xi jinyun is the later wolf that you will see like the big boss that our character has to fight off and this is based on journey to the west plot where there is a place called that it's ruled by a bear demon and a wolf demon but we'll talk about that later another two characters are talking one is saying oh brother i hear there's some disturbance at the front gate of the mountain the other wolf is answering don't get paranoid with a brother like me who is so strong guarding over here who would be so senseless to come in and look for death the voice actors do a great job imitating the 1980s drama in china journey to the west that is so influential and it also influences this game trailer if you're a chinese person you probably have a watcher drama when you were little if you were born after the 80s the style of the dubbing immediately brings back all those memories it's really well done at this point our character runs into the first person that he has to fight off if you look at the bottom of the screen on the right hand corner it has a character standing holding a stick and on the side it is a icon with a character written inside that icon says which is ape later you'll see it being used so it is the transformation that our main character can do on the left side you'll see the bars that is like the health the stamina kind of normal thing in gameplay and on the side you'll see four icons those are based on sun kung's known superpower that is written in the book the right one currently is calling off so you can tell this is the transformation into bug one of his 72 transformations ability on the left that icon represents another swing constability called shenzhou literally means the curse of the jinx to freeze somebody's body and it will be used multiple times in this gameplay the top icon represents another songkong's ability called tonto tier b copperhead iron arm when he turns that on he cannot be harmed he's super hard and strong so it is like the defense mode that you see in other gameplays but they're all based on actual zoom kong's abilities then the bottom icon represents his ability to trim chomping blow hair into soldiers so he can grab hair from himself because he's a monkey and he has a lot of hair and just blow at it and it will turn into many many many other monkeys to fight off his enemies for him so you can see the four abilities that our player has are all based on the book version of songkong of his many incredible abilities so this current enemy is saying don't you dare to think just because those little soldiers could not recognize you that you can pause me easily so this is a person who can actually tell monkey is transformed into cicada and it cannot fool this character so every character afterwards will be stronger so here you see the left icon turns on and it is the doom shenzhou frees the enemy this is a brilliant line okay the character longcho is saying you can molly oh [ __ ] [ __ ] happened a furry faced monk just broke in if you've read the book or if you've watched the 1980s drama series this is just a line that shows up so many times because songkong is always the attacker the first person to go out and fight off all kinds of bad people so he breaks into people's places carelessly and he breaks into mountains breaks into other demons territory and every time he does that you know there will be little foot soldiers of those beings go ah [ __ ] [ __ ] a furry face monk is here so this line immediately makes a lot of chinese people laugh but yeah if you haven't seen the drama before you haven't read the book you wouldn't really understand why um it is funny so he comes across another enemy he needs to fight off and it's called dolan gelto literally means saber wolf coach so this is like a teacher of other smaller soldier this is one of the little boss in this game and he's saying who has come over here and disturbed my cultivation that's a very interesting line yo should you hold another monkey so it's kind of a leaking plot here it's basically telling you a monkey has already come over here and done something now this is the second monkey that has come over maybe that is hinting at what is the main plot line of this game how it's playing on the original legend of journey to the west and the story of songkong sorry if i'm getting a little bit overexposed uh the song has decided to come out okay keep going a monk a buddhist way of respectfully calling a person who is not a monk and who is potentially going to give him money and food why don't you put down your stick and also learn a little bit buddha's teaching from me so presumably this coach is actually a buddhist and who is very zen and who is very cultivated so during this fight we'll see hong kong using the top icons ability of tongto right defense that he turns into super strong and an enemy cannot really hurt him and here when he defeats his enemy the enemy says oh are you the heaven dictated person mentioned by our king so it's also leaking plot this game may have something to do with you as a player is the heaven dictated heaven chosen person for what task and here you'll see soon come pick up the weapon from the enemy and then put it into his ear uh it's not shove it into his head as some of the reaction video said it is put it into his ear which is his common place of hiding his super powerful stick that is actually the pillar supporting the ocean that he steals if you know the character know the novel you see that happening you're really happy it's like ah it's a great reference also it's called choo chow that weapon literally means red tide and it is a reference to the game company's previous game our monkey king turns into this card again and that ability has timer on it it's stealth mode you can hear that now is a voice talking to him and it has a bracket literally saying a voice coming from under earth from underground and saying be careful if you move forward you're going to disturb more demons little monkey come over here come over here here here here so you can hear the voice coming out first before the character shows up which later you'll see is the uh radish like old man this old man with a stick kingdom come radish head is saying this little god is hey function black winged mountains 2d earth literal meaning so i am have a mountain's tradition which is china's mythology and folklore of a very localized small god called earth god and he is responsible for protecting this little region 2d has levels so a very local 2d is just a small 2d and then many many small 2d on top of them there's a bigger 2d who is in control of a bigger region and here this bold reddish head man is the earth god of the black queen mountain and he's saying i've been waiting for you for a long time that's great acting from an animated character literally saying similar so similar see this is was a leaking plot because previously the other characters said another monkey now this one is saying look really similar so who is he or who are you as a player looking similar too if you continue walking that will be zen temple back then that temple has many pilgrims what a pity after the big fire later the zen temple got rebuilt but if the human heart got burned out literally means human heart but here it means people's trust people's belief in something when that gets burned off you know what's the point of building a physical structure basically [Music] this little old man will leave first it's a very typical thing from tradition to show up from the earth and then disappear into it it usually calls itself this little old man so another really well dubbed and written line and he's telling our main player i'll meet you later once you pass the plank road that's on the side of the mountain which is what you're going to see later and the monkey hops over and running on the plank road then our character will come across ten wolves so those are all wolves soldiers the foot soldiers of the wolf demon and he's gonna use his power of turning into ape if you freeze the frame when this character turns into the big ape you'll see that icon being clicked on the lower right hand corner and says ape so he can transform into a for a period of time now he keeps going and going to guan yin chan which was mentioned by the little earth god previously changing means zen temple guanine is the chinese name of a very very well respected very beloved bodhisattva in china and he yes it's he actually although he shows up as a woman's figure in chinese culture mostly he is the most commonly show up bodhisattva in journey to the west helping tungsten's team out on their way to get to the west to buddha and guanine changuen this place also exists in the original novel in the novel it is on the hayfun mountain and is ruled by a black bear and a good friend of that bear which is a wolf but they've both cultivate to the point that they have human forms they have super powerful abilities and in the book song killed the wolf but the bear is really strong and they fought for a long time and couldn't really figure who is the winner then the guanyin the bodhisattva comes in and solves the problem and actually really liked the bear so he made the bear into a mountain god it is one of the demons one of the y'all in the journey to the west that didn't get killed by songkong but the wolf as you see later in the game did get do you see the gameplay is heavily referred to the book and sticking to its plot here you'll see the monkey also coming across that little earth god again and it's saying shh you know be quiet don't disturb that big dog which is the wolf oh yeah in the backyard that guy is the hey funguai the heifen demon which is the bear good friend called lyongshuitsu if you think back on the earlier part when the two wolves are talking about ling shoots they will eat them as side dishes so the wolf is named liu leon that is a very elegant actually taoism [Music] based on your current skills it is and then he gets stopped and saying little monkey run away you know it's still time don't go ahead but you're a gamer right you have to go ahead so if you enter the gate you cannot come back there's no way back no turning back oh now we see the big fluffy wolf so during this fight i'll just mention two things you can see when he pulls his hair and blow and make many little monkeys that is his superpower which is also the bottom icon on the left hand corner you will also see when he killed the previous coach the icon on the right hand corner it's instead of ape it has another one which says wolf so i'm thinking in the game when you defeat an enemy you can have the ability to transform into him and also take his weapon so that is when later when the monkey king is about to lose he can switch on the wolf mode and becomes the previous character he defeated and then defeated this fluffy wolf really cool so now after he fights off this wolf i think here the game switches into the storytelling mode which is you can't really control it has to play the plot and i think they haven't finished rendering it because if you pay attention you'll see once it switches to this scene this monkey doesn't have a tail they probably haven't rendered that in so it's not the gameplay now it's the plot part and the really cool thing when the monkey swings and another stick stops him and you see the leather the lettering on the stick start to light up one by one that is written in a form called joan which is a particular type of calligraphy that's usually used for stamps and it's an old version of chinese very old and it says that is the name of kong's stick it's a really super powerful weapon rui means as you wish so it's a lucky auspicious kind of word jing means gold is hope so that stick has golden rings on it bun is stick that stick weighs over 5000 kilos yes and it can get big and get small as well depending on how the monkey wants to use it isn't that cool so this is very interesting because now you see as the camera pans up you see that it's the other monkey king who is dressed in armor and it looks like the proper monkey king so now you have two monkey both having a stick but the other one has the rui jingu bang which is kind of the signifier of the real song and the ice flash which is the real swoon kong's ability too and it goes into many montages of the rendering of the plot that's gonna happen later based on that there is a possibility of either this is the journey to the west has all finished and you're starting a second journey or it could actually be playing into the idea of genji me ho real or fake monkey king which is a very important chapter in the book sun comes across another monkey called leo armijo he literally looks exactly like him who has all his abilities who has all his weapons it's like a second copy of him so you have two monkey kings and who is going to prove that he is the real one could be that in the game version they're telling the second version of the story which is the real songkong died and the fakes don't come because of how successful he was really fooled everyone and god buddha's title or it could be something else so in the following things it's cut together from different kind of gameplay and some of them are gameplay because you can see the tale of the monkey some are definitely just the plot part because there's no tail they probably haven't rendered it i'm gonna pick out a couple of things during that montage and talk about what i think they might be the part when he is like feeling headache and kneel down and i've heard one of the reaction videos saying what is the point of putting that in well in the books version the monkey is very rebellious he wants to run away from the monk and the guanyin bodhisattva comes in and gave the monk a particularly nasty thing a crumb thing that he put on the monkey's head and when the monkey decides to rebel the monk will just recite this mantra and that hoop will start to tighten and make the monkey's head hurt and there's no way to take it off so every time he messes up his teacher will just punish him in that way so maybe it's referring to that headache thing which is classic in sun kung story so this part when you see the swing monkey and the music starts to play i have to mention this is where they added in an instrument called i'll leave a link in the description box to one very famous sword not music that is on youtube go and listen to it yourself it is truly the overlord of all instruments when you place whatnot it can cut through any other music instruments it is an instrument in traditional china that is used for both huge celebrations and funerals so it is literally an instrument that you play from a person's birth bed to their deathbed so there are many different types of enemies really cool looking at the tail you can tell what is rendered for this probably a plot or the gameplay actually and here a lot of people were like wow epic what are the four freaking things with the monkey king standing in the foreground these are the four tian wang the four cardinal direction gods in the first level of the heavenly realm which is in both buddhism and taoism but it's actually based on hinduism if you want to go and research for it in chinese relational culture the four directions god would be holding four different things the east god would be holding a music instrument piva the west god would be holding a snake or dragon the north heavenly god will be holding an umbrella which you can see in this shot one of them is definitely holding an umbrella and the south god will be holding a sword for your information in the journey to the west novel the monkey king did defeat all four of them yeah so they're big but they're not that powerful in journey to the west standard then you see the monkey king dressed in his armor and then traveling on his cloud this cloud is also based on the book it's called jindoywin literally means somersault cloud he has this magic cloud that he rides on and every somersault he does is literally means hundred and eight thousand is an ancient chinese length it's like half a kilometer or something but you know pretty incredible and in the background you see a white dragon flying up it's very likely that it is referring to the part of the plot in the book where they comes across the third son of the dragon palace in the ocean's king so the ocean king is a dragon and one of his son made a big mess and was about to get killed and guanine comes in again the bodhisattva and saying don't kill it i'll transform it into a horse and become the right of the monk if they manage to get to the west you know successfully then the dragon has paid for his crime and blah blah blah so it is the little white dragon who gets transformed into the monks right poor thing then you see the monkey can get to the heavenly realm and in the cloud fighting this is referring to the earlier part of the book when the monkey king gets his super powerful weapon and starts to go up to the heaven and mess up everyone's life in the heavenly realm he fights off 100 000 heavenly soldiers so that probably is that part then you see it fades into the title which is name understanding the concept of emptiness that's a direct translation but it's not actually what it means very complicated anyway and you see the final tag line kind of suggesting they're re-walking the journey of journey to the west so it's all hinting at a type of alternative storyline of journey to the west or maybe a second round of journey to the west and at the very very very end hear this music [Music] [Music] this would not mean anything if you're not chinese because that music is the modernized more exciting version that's based on the title music of the drama series journey to the west cog that was made in the 1980s and was so popular in china and it's like everyone's childhood memory so when that gets to play every chinese person just goes crying stand up and uh standing ovation so i've gone through the entire thing i hope this video game can come out eventually there's still a long way to go you can go to twitter to search there's a lot of information on that about what's their progress what they're looking forward to probably another two years plus before this thing can come out if things happen according to plan and their team is super small currently only 30 people and they really need 100 people to do it so they are hiring i sincerely hope this game can get made eventually to their liking to the level that satisfy them and if it maintains this level of quality i may even try to play it although i have like probably not the best computer for it and i don't have game cons so i don't even have a television oh we'll see in two years time hopefully you've enjoyed this video this really long video thank you so much i'll see you in my next video meanwhile live long and happy game playing and drama watching you

Channel: AvenueX

Views: 284,390

Keywords: Chinese, Drama, wu kong, the monkey king, Black Myth Wu Kong, Game Science, journey to the west, 西游记, 孙悟空, 黑神话悟空, wu kong explained, black myth wu kong explained

Id: iN0ym4x_jPw

Length: 29min 43sec (1783 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 28 2020