Havoc in Heaven (1961/1964)

Ink painting that moves, and the most beautiful thing made from this book.

The rebellion in heaven is the part of the novel that is pure image, so animate it as a national art form and let the pictures do the arguing.

You want the most beautiful object anyone has made out of this novel, and you do not need it to tell you the whole story.

What it keeps and what it changes

Keeps: the first seven chapters — Monkey’s birth, his titles, his theft of the peaches, his war with heaven — in operatic detail.
Changes: the ending, in the sense that there isn’t one. The film stops before the pilgrimage begins, so the journey west is not in it at all.

Keeps the heaven-rebellion arc in operatic detail — Monkey's birth, his fraudulent promotion, the peaches, the war with heaven. Changes the scope by simply stopping: this covers the novel's first seven chapters, so the journey west, the monk, and three of the four travellers are not in it at all. Worth knowing before you press play.

Whose story is it?

Monkey’s alone, before the monk exists to complicate him.

How much time does it ask?

Made at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio under Wan Laiming, in two parts finished in 1961 and 1964.

The heaven-rebellion arc only — the first seven chapters, none of the road.

Where to find it

Find where it’s streaming — JustWatch →

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More ways west: Journey to the West (CCTV, 1986) · Monkey (1978–1980) · Monkey King: Hero Is Back (2015)