History Series / MonkeyKingQuestForTheSutra

''Monkey King: Quest for The Sutra'' is a Hong Kong/Taiwanese television series adapted from [[Literature/JourneyToTheWest the novel of the same title]]. The series had Dicky Cheung reprising the role of Sun Wukong as he previously did in the [[Series/JourneyToTheWest1996 1996 adaptation]]. The series was first broadcast on TVB in 2002. The cast are as follows: Dicky Cheung as Sun Wukong, Edmond Leong as Tang Sanzang, Eric Kot as Zhu Bajie, and Sam Lee as Sha Wujing. The Twins (Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung) also feature prominently as heavenly fairies that either aid or hinder the main protagonists.

* AnachronisticSoundtrack: The opening credits is a ''rap'' song, performed by Dicky Cheung himself. Which plays in the background of several episodes.

* LighterAndSofter: Definitely so compared to the novel. There are loads of gags in the series, and even some of the specific deviations from the novel (E.g.: The order of recruiting the disciples) are done so for laughs.

Note this twisted adaptation summarized so far is the most faithful this series has to the novel, and when the actual journey begins the various story-plots are completely different from the novel. Even the original purpose of retrieving the scriptures has gradually evolved into some quest against a universal evil threat named Heavenly Demon (Tian Mo). Given the critical responses by the reviewers, it is easily the most reviled adaptation of Journey to the West.

* AbortedArc:
** One notable early part of the story was the fairy Zimei being in love with Nezha, as a parallel to fairy Zilan in love with Wukong. It was quickly dropped, perhaps cut due to length reasons, after Zimei and Nezha had their memories relating to the romance erased.

** Probably the most noble and friendliest live-action adaptation of Sun Wukong to date. The early part of the series focused on [[EstablishingCharacterMoment emphasizing Sun Wukong's character]] as a NiceGuy.

*** Most (but not all) of his morally questionable acts like killing harmless people/demons were left out of the adaptation.

** Compared to the novel version, this adaptation's Sun Wukong is a lot more honorable and likable. The early part of the series focused on [[EstablishingCharacterMoment emphasizing Sun Wukong's character]] as a NiceGuy.

*** Most of his morally questionable acts like killing harmless people/demons were left out of the adaptation.
** This adaptation's Tang Sanzang is easily the nicest live-action incarnation of the Holy Monk ever portrayed, so much so that his disciples tend to walk all over him.

* TheMillstone: Zimei's mischief in the early part of the show triggered or contributed to the downfall of the protagonists Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie. She's partly responsible for Marshall Tianpeng's banishment to the earthly plane, and then she made yet another mistake by messing with the Books of Reincarnation, causing Tianpeng to reincarnate as a pig. Finally, she accidentally killed the peach trees he planted, pushing him further out of favour with the Heavenly Courts and therefore setting up Wukong's eventual rebellion.

* InformedDeformity: Downplayed with Fairy Zimei. Marshall Tianpeng (who eventually became Zhu Bajie) showed absolutely no attraction to Zimei, and pointed out she looks "unattractively underage". The other characters also tend to see her as an annoying brat. While Zimei is Zilan's younger sister, in real life, Gillian Chung (Zimei) is actually more than a year older than Charlene Choi (Zilan).

* InformedDeformity: Downplayed with Fairy Zimei. Marshall Tianpeng (who eventually became Zhu Bajie) showed absolutely no attraction to Zimei, and pointed out she looks "unattractively underage". The other characters in the show also deemed her as a bratty annoyance. While Zimei is Zilan's younger sister, in real life, Gillian Chung (Zimei) is actually more than a year older than Charlene Choi (Zilan).

* InformedAttractiveness: Fairy Zilan was described to be one of the most beautiful fairies on heaven.
* InNameOnly:

** Wukong was made the guardian of the Peach trees and rebelled against Heaven by stealing and eating the Peaches of Immortality. In this adaptation, he became the Peach trees' gardener as punishment for stealing and eating the peaches. His rebellion only happened later on.

* ShipSinking: It looked as if Tang Sanzang was going to fall in love with Susu and vice versa. Susu then announced that she is leaving the group to pursue Buddhism elsewhere.

** Completely new stories and plotlines replaced most of the novel's plot after all the 3 main disciples were found.
** Sun Wukong in a love triangle between senior fairy Zilan and the White Bone Demoness takes a significant portion of the series, instead of focusing on the journey itself. Do we need to say anything more?
** Sun Wukong striking White Bone Demoness three times was left in, but the motivation for that was due to a lovers' quarrel (!!!) rather than Wukong's desire to protect his master. Not only that, Sanzang was barely involved in their quarrel.
** The protagonists' female love interests (or [[ShipTease ship-teased]] ones) are allowed to travel with them and maintain their relationships during the Journey, which completely violates the principles of a Buddhist monk!

** ... Overall, massive liberties with the source material were taken, and so there are way too many examples to list.