{year}=2016
{quality}=HD
{duration}=1h:59mn
Summary of the story
Five centuries after the incarceration of Sun Wukong (Aaron Kwok) beneath the Five Fingers Mountain, a young Buddhist monk named Tang Sanzang (Feng Shaofeng) embarks on a pilgrimage to the Thunder Monastery in India to procure Buddha's scriptures. During his journey, he is attacked by a tiger and compelled to release Wukong from his captivity. The Monkey King discovers that he must safeguard the monk throughout their expedition, as the Bodhisattva Guanyin has bound him with an enchanted circlet that inflicts agony whenever Tang Sanzang recites a particular sutra. The duo soon encounters Zhu Bajie (Xiaoshenyang), a lascivious pig demon, and Sha Wujing (Him Law), a genie-like monk. The latter defeats a dragon and transforms it into a horse to serve as their mount.
The group travels to the Yun Hai Xi Kingdom, a realm plagued by the White Bone Demon (Gong Li), who has been devouring humans to prolong her unnatural life and evade the Wheel of Reincarnation. Upon learning of Sanzang's presence, the demoness resolves to consume him to break her cycle of reincarnation and attain eternal demonhood. She assumes the guise of an elderly woman and lures the group into a cottage in the forest. To prevent Wukong from using his truth-seeking eyes to expose her disguise, she throws tainted dust into his eyes, impairing his vision. While her minions keep Wukong, Bajie, and Wujing occupied, the demoness recounts a tale to Sanzang about how she was coerced into marriage as a young girl and blamed for a famine that befell her village, with the people branding her an evil demon and attempting to sacrifice her to the gods. As Tang comforts the old woman, she tries to kill him but is thwarted by Wukong. The demoness escapes before Wukong can deliver the fatal blow and leaves the corpse of the old woman behind. Sanzang and the others refuse to believe Wukong's claim that all the women he killed were demons and accuse him of murdering the innocent. Sanzang punishes Wukong by reciting the sutra, causing the circlet to constrict painfully around his head. Later, Sanzang ascends a mountain where Wukong is sulking and tells him that they are similar in that they both only trust what they see with their own eyes. However, together, they can better discern the truth, which is why they were chosen to undertake this journey together.