Hong Kong's most popular comedic actor Stephen Chow steps back behind the lens for Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, the latest cinematic retelling of the classic Chinese novel. While some fans may be disappointed that Chow doesn't appear in the film itself, his style is felt throughout the movie, which is a fast-moving and funny take on your usual fantasy story.

Chow had already tackled the novel's material with the 1995 A Chinese Odyssey films, but those have a much different way of telling the story, with only the real common thread between the two productions being the character of the Monkey King, played by Chow there and by Huang Bo here.

For the most part, Journey to the West works better as a film than A Chinese Odyssey, since it is more concise -- running at under two hours versus ACO's three-plus -- mostly due to its' focus on fewer characters. Besides the Monkey King, the only other main characters are a pair of demon hunters played by Wen Zhang and Hsu Chi. Their relationship forms the nucleus of the movie, and Chow manages to play off their chemistry well, making what could be two stock characters into people the audience will care about.

Journey to the West also benefits from a much higher budget than ACO that gives the costuming, sets, and special effects a much more convincing look. Another major point is that Journey to the West is available on a DVD that has a legible translation, unlike the DVD for ACO from Universe, which has "Chinglish" subtitles that are nigh-impossible to follow at points, especially while trying to keep up with Chow's trademark rapid-fire delivery.

The US DVD, from Magnolia's genre label Magnet, is the full uncut version of the movie, running at 110 minutes. Bonus features include six featurettes (in Mandarin with English subtitles) that run for about 12 minutes total, the English language trailer, and several other trailers for Magnolia releases. Like the majority of Magnet's other releases, this DVD looks and sounds great for the most part. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen at 2.35:1. Dolby 5.1 Mandarin and English soundtracks are available, with English, English captions, French, and Spanish subtitles. The English subtitles are not dubtitles.

One matter that warrants a bit of a mention is the rating. The US version is rated PG-13, while the original Hong Kong rating is IIB, which is similar to a R. While the movie is not overtly violent and the closest it comes to sexiness is a bare butt cheek, it does deal with some dark subject matter at points. Fox example, one of the demons has a restaurant that serves human flesh. So this isn't exactly one for the little tots in your life. But for most everyone else into Chinese comedies, this is one of the better entries in years and well worth checking out.

RATING: 7.5

Note: The DVD and Blu-ray are available from Amazon.