Journey to the West is an old yet very famous fairytale in China. The story is basicly about a trip of 5 Gods going on a journey to get an ancient scripture to bring understand the spirit of buddha. The party consists of The Master Monk played by Kong Wa, the monkey king played by Dicky Cheung, the pig fairy played by Lai Yiu Cheung, another monk Sa Chang who was a roughless river monster once and a dragon prince transformed in a horse. 

The master monk, Kong Wah was a disciple of Buddha, but he has been punished because he was sleeping when Buddha was talking. He have been banished of the " buddha's heaven" and will only be allowed to go back, is when he managed to retrieve some religion scirptures in Tien Chuk (India?) to help people. 
He had to pass over a number of dangers before he can have the religion books. 
On earth, he doesn't have any memory of his life at the "heaven", he was only a little monk in a church. But he saved the king's life once and they became friend. 
In a dream, Quan Am (the goddess of mercy) told him to search for her. After a long journey of 3 years, he found her. Quan Am confide to Kong Wah to fetch the religion books and explained his previous life to him. Because of Kong Wah divine past, his body is very precious to the animals all around the world. It is said that if they ate his body, they'll achieve 1000 years of divine powers. But because Kong Wah doesn't Quan Am assigned 4 disciples to him, but he had to search for them first. In his trip he met, Dicky Cheung, his first disciple. Who had a story of his own. 

Dicky is the monkey king (so he is a monkeygod too). Dicky was the legendary Sun Ng Hung. Being born from a rock that had absorbed the powers of heaven and earth, gave him right from the start incredible powers that he couldn't handle. In the form of a monster ape he began his destructing journey. The King Of Heaven gave order to Lai Yiu Cheung a Heaven's Guard to stop this moster. Lai Yiu Cheung managed to cut the tale of the monster ape. The monster ape, losing a important part of his being changed into a baby monkey. However, before Lai Yiu Cheung killed the monkey Quan Am, the goddess of merce appeared to him and told him that he can't kill the monkey. The monkey baby survived and thus his real life begins. 
The monkey king went to a place where a thousands of monkeys live the Fruit Mountain. But one time, he saw an old monkey die and realized that although he was born as divine being, he could die also. Being frightened by this idea, he made a decision to go in a human city to learn magic to achieve immortality. 
 He managed to find a school for fairys and met a bunch of new friends. And because of his divine background, he learnt very very fast. One time, the teacher asked his disciple what they want to achieve with their magic. Shung Ng Hung gave a surprising answer, saying that he wants to gain immortality. The teacher himself didn't managed to gain immortality and said he can't help Ng Hung. So he send Ng Hung to a cave to train. After 50 years of fighting a monster, his once lost powers came back gradually but this time he could control them and he became an powerful monkey with 72 magic/tranforming powers. (the power of magic is somehow leveled in the number of tranformation one can do. It seems that 72 is one of the highest levels. 108 as an maximum) (And Dicky took the part of the grown monkey king now, so he'll be reffered as Dicky)
He went back to his cavern. While all of his fellow students became old, he was still as vital as always. The teacher however told Dicky that Dicky's power has far exceeded him and there was nothing he can teach him anymore and send him away. 
Dicky went back to his fruit mountain. A little bit after, the royal court of the heaven terrified because a mere mortal achieved immortality on his own and was afraid that Dicky (knowing his past as a monster ape) would turn evil and destroy the world. There is no one in heavan who can stop him then, so they decided to call him and propose to become an member of the royal court. Dicky accept, but after he discover that he was only a horse keeper he went back to his cave. 
Later he realized that his powers is much more powerfull then all gods in heaven and named himself the The As Powerful As Heaven Saint. 
 The King of heaven was so mad that he ordered his Heaven Soldiers to capture and kill Dicky. But the soldiers couldn't do anything because Dicky is to powerful, Dicky even ate a magical pill and achieve one more power! No one in heaven could stop him so Dicky decided to be the King of heaven, but Buddha suddenly appeared and punished him. 
During 500 years, he was burried in the mountain "Ngu chi son" (The Five Fingers Of Buddha Mountain). One day, Quan Am appeared to him and told him that soon a monk will pass here and this monk has to fecth some religion books. She says that if Dicky agreed to protect him and after they get the sciptures, he will be forgiven for disturbing  the royal court and he will become a buddha. Dicky, always respectfull for Quan Am because she saved him once, naturally agreed. 

So Kong Wah and Dicky meet each other and begin their trip. Soon they meet Lai Yiu-Cheung, the second disciple. And his story is like this: 

Lai Yiu-Cheung wasn't an important member of the royal court at first, but when he has cut Dicky's tale, he got a higer rank. Only problem, he fell in love with Seung Nga and wanted to marry her, but Seung Nga didn't accepted Lai Yiu-Cheung's love. So he decides to match her up with him by changing the book of love. But he has been discovered and imprisoned. 
The king of heaven punished him to live an 1000 lives with loves deceptions. In the fivehundred or so life, Lai Yiu-Cheung wanted to stop his neverending fate and when he was in hell he fell into the corridor of animal and he become an pig in his next life. but of course, because of his divine background, he became part human/part pig. In that life, Quan Am came and told him that if he help Kong Wah to fetch the sciptures he will be forgiven and will become an buddha and she give him back his 36 magic powers. But because of his loves deception, Lai Yiu-Cheung always falls in love with any beautiful women and he will cause a lot of problems. 

So after Kong Wah, Dicky and Lai Yiu-Cheung meet and continue they trip and will meet the last 2 disciples Sa Chang and Lung Tai Chi (Dragon Price/the horse) . They were both members of the royal court and have been punished because both of them have broke something. All these years they ate human, but they regret it and ask if they can be Kong Wah disciples. Sa Chan become a monk and Lung Tai Chi, a horse. 

They continue their trip, but each other has a different personnality so they will quibble. When they arrive to "Qua nghiem son", it's so hot that they can't support it and  the only way to change the temperature is to extinguish the volcano with the fan of the fan's princess. The fan's princess and her husband are Dicky's best friends. They met when Dicky want to learn magic.Dicky went to borrow the fan but his best friends son steal the fan. Dicky and the others will try to reconcile the fan's princess and her husband, because they always quibble. At the same moment, there is a dream monster who want to eat Kong Wah. Dicky don't know what to do because the son of his friend always make problems. In a battle against him, Dicky become blind and he can't use his magic power, he almost die. But Quan Am cured him.At the same time, the dream monster has capture Kong Wah and Lai Yiu-Cheung and want to eat them. Finally, they borrow the fan and extinguish the fan, kill the monster, reconcile the fan's princess and her husband and their son become a good and wise child and he is Quan Am's disciple. 

They continue they trip, but always quibble and get on Kong Wah nerves. They will meet a skeleton monster who want to eat Kong Wah to become a real woman so her husband, a prince, will accept her. She borrow human body to show up in front of Kong Wah three times. The three times, Dicky kills  the human body and Kong Wah is mad at him and chases him. How ever the skeleton has kidnap Kong Wah and when she was fighting with Lai Yiu-Cheung, the prince came and wanted to deliver him but he has been killed by Satan.After Kong Wah realize that he was wrong and wanted to call Dicky back and say sorry but Lai Yiu-Cheung refuses, telling that he can protect Kong Wah. But, arrived in a country, Lai Yiu Cheung falls in love with the princess and they want to marry and Lai Yiu-Cheung will become the king of the country. So he simulate a death to gag Kong Wah and Satan. But Kong Wah and Satan discoverded it. The skeleton monster borrow her husband body and went to the palace. She want to kill Kong Wah and transform him into a bear. Lai Yiu-Cheung didn't know and thought that the bear has eat his  master so he wanted to kill the bear but accidently kill Satan. After that, Lai Yiu-Cheung wanted to die, but ? appear in a body shape and tell Lai Yiu-Cheung to search for Dicky and he die. Finally, Dicky rescue his master and Quan Am give ? and Satan lifes back. 

Now the friendship between Dicky, Satan and Lai Yiu-Cheung is really good and they continue thier long and harsh , yet cheerfull journey and had many adventures. 
So many that it couldn't be told in just one part of Journey to the West, so TVB decided to have a part 2.... 

This series is also one of my personal favorites. The plot of a monkey, pig, and two monks traveling westawards in search of a Buddhist scripture and fighting monsters on the way is enough to make any series a fun one to watch.

Dicky Cheung, as we all know, was a GREAT monkey. Might be due to  his height (5'4"?), but I loved watching him bounce across the screen and swing around on his golden stick. He almost defines the character of Suen Ng Hung. Very lively, very active, and not to mention, very funny.
 

Chu Ba Kai the pig played by Lai Yiu Cheung was also GREAT! Even though he's a little thin for the part, and his big belly looked a little fake (especially when he lie down on the ground and the belly still that perky, totally rejecting the law of gravity), he was very cute and adorable to watch, not to mention a great comedian too.
 

Sa Ng Jing and Tong Tsang were, on the other hand, not very enjoyable to watch. Sa Ng Jing by Mak Cheung Chun was dead annoying! So dumb that you want to just jump into the screen and choke him at times. But that does show Mak Cheung Chun did a great job portraying him, so even though I don't like the character, I do find him a talented actor. Tong Tsang on the other hand, pppbbbbtttt! First of all, Kong Wah is not a beautiful man with very smooth skin. Second of all, his big build does not make him look weak in anyway that would need constant protection. Third of all, that innocent look that he always puts on his face is a little too awkward because it made him look like a 40 yr old trying to act 15. So I think he was totally wrong for the role. 
Another bad casting was the girl who played Kun Yum Dai Si (Kwan Yin Buddha). As everyone knows, Kun Yum is supposed to be kind of plumpy looking, kind of sad looking, and very mature looking...but she looked like a little girl who's
playing dress-up without her mother's permission (especially because of that smirky grin that she always has on her face).
 

The different stories in this series were generally pretty good and interesting. I especially liked the Spider Cave one, very touching and romantic. It was one of the few parts of movies that I actually shed a tear.
Only bad part of the stories was where they were trapped in the desert (Actually a dream) and were dehydrating. That part might not have been so bad if it didn't last...oh say, FOREVER!!!
 

All in all, this is one fun series. Very entertaining and very funny. I really enjoyed watching it.