Monkey King: Hero Is Back (2015)

A broken Monkey, a small child, and ninety minutes that earn the ending.

Start Monkey at his lowest — powerless, bitter, five hundred years buried — and let a kid's faith in him be the plot.

You want to feel something tonight, you have ninety minutes, and you would like the ending to be earned rather than announced.

What it keeps and what it changes

Keeps: the emotional core of the character: the arrogance, the shame under it, and the fact that he does come back.
Changes: almost all of the plot. This is not the pilgrimage; it is an invented rescue story with the novel’s people in it.

Whose story is it?

Monkey’s and the child’s, and the film knows the child is the one asking the question.

How much time does it ask?

A feature, and the most emotionally direct thing on this list.

The film that restarted Chinese animation as a commercial force.

Where to find it

Find where it’s streaming — JustWatch →

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More ways west: Journey to the West (CCTV, 1986) · Havoc in Heaven (1961/1964) · Monkey (1978–1980)