A decade after his Kung Fu Hustle won over both audiences and critics with its blend of high-octane martial-arts combat and physical comedy, Stephen Chow at long last returns to the action genre with Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons. An artist with many titles, Chow directs, produces, and writes here, though he vacates his usual leading-man role, opting instead to cast the more youthful Wen Zhang, an elastic comic presence and therefore a suitable stand-in. A colorful, flip, and otherwise zany interpretation of (and prequel to) the centuries-old Chinese novel of the same name, the film turns on a Buddhist demon hunter and his noble bid to save the people from a deadly, always-transforming porcine monster. Cogent storytelling is, of course, not the point of the film nor its strong suit. Its concerns are incident and spectacle. The juvenile, high-volume humor can, I admit, grate. Each viewer's mileage will vary in this regard. The action, though, is top-notch without fail, as are the various mystical and mythological flourishes. The film, with its gleeful child endangerment, geysers of blood, and distorted demon visages, pushes its PG-13 rating (for quote-unquote fantasy violence) to what must be the absolute edge, often playing as Evil Dead II by way of Chow's characteristic aesthetic and sense of humor.

B