You don’t require familiarity with its predecessor to appreciate The Monkey King 2 – although that would exponentially amplify your pleasant surprise at this new release. Less a cash grab than a startling overhaul of 2014 film The Monkey King’s slapdash storytelling, substandard visuals and poorly drawn characters, Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s second contribution to the franchise is a vastly improved production that marks the finest attempt yet at adapting Journey to the West for an effects-driven blockbuster.

The film picks up 500 years after the first ended, as the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (William Feng Shaofeng), while being attacked by a tiger, inadvertently releases Wukong the monkey king from under the Five Elements Mountain. Replacing Donnie Yen Ji-dan in the titular role is Aaron Kwok Fu-shing, who played the antagonist Bull Demon King in the previous outing but now, like the rest of us, secretly prefers it never happened. Unlike Yen’s mischievous interpretation, Kwok offers a soulful undertone to the character.

While they acquaint themselves as master and disciple and set off for the pilgrimage to the West under the instructions of the Goddess of Mercy (Kelly Chen Wai-lam), the pair come across Xuanzang’s two other disciples, the pig demon Bajie (Xiao Shenyang) and the sand demon Wujing (Him Lo Chung-him). Based on the well-known episode in which Wukong thrice struck the White Bone Spirit, the film also features Gong Li as that skeleton demon, while Kris Phillips plays a Persian king who preys on White’s reputation.