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In any case though, time is really strangely distorted and the plot's kinda messed up now cuz well, Nataku was supposed to be canonized like 1600 years BEFORE the Journey to the West story, but instead he was born in this time and his life turned parallel with Sun Wu-k'ung/Son Goku's. So in this "timeline", who took his place during the Shang Dynasty?
Other than the time distortion, Nataku's birth and life story was a lot closer to the original novel than Gods of Honor, surprisingly. Although, they added a mother complex and Taiitsu didn't come to claim Nataku as a disciple 'til after he died. Why do I have this feeling the series was influenced here by our Senkaiden Houshin Engi and Nataku's mother complex? In any case though, when he's born, he's the fleshy ball and his father tries to kill this "monster" and out pops Nataku. The kid grows up REALLY fast too, but that's how it's supposed to be also. Other differences include when he takes the tendon from the dragon prince and what happens to cause his death. Instead of making it into a belt, he cooks it in a soup and feeds it to his father. The dragon prince's father takes it up with heaven and the story here is short because troops are sent immediately to come after Nataku. Strange thing is though, they send YOUZEN to do it. Considering that Nataku and Youzen were supposed to have fought side by side centuries before this timeline, this is just messed up. Even more messed up is in Nataku's resistance from being captured, his mother gets killed. Nataku then doesn't want to cause any more trouble and commits suicide. (We all know what OUR Nataku would do in this situation don't we?)
This is where Taiitsu Shinjin makes him his doushi. Time passes and Nataku learns new techniques and I guess he blames his father for Yinshi's death, so in this story, this is why he wants to kill Li Sei. Go figure.
Now I mentioned earlier that Nataku's life was made parallel to the Monkey King's, and it was. Goku and Nataku killed the dragon prince together in this version. They met at the river and befriended each other when the dragon attacked. Funny thing is though, before this, Goku befriended the dragon prince's father too. >.< That's bad. It seems to me here that this friendship may have been influenced slightly be Gensoumaden Saiyuki? I dunno if that's really true, but it's the only other Journey to the West story where I know Nataku and Goku became friends.
Overall, I like this series much better than Gods of Honor for the sake of Nataku. His life story was definitely a lot more true to the original and his brothers didn't look spoiled and him starved. They all looked equally loved and cared for and Nataku didn't have any b!@#$ aunts. The casting job was a lot better also because the actor looked pretty cute this time. Actually, most of the actors and actresses were good looking in this Journey to the West. I guess since it was an anniversary special, they decided to cast all the hottest big names in the business. Now although I liked the part of the story with Nataku better, I was pretty disappointed about the Monkey King's. Dicky does a good job of portraying the Monkey King, but this time his personality was a little out of character as Goku seems to make the White Bone Demon his girlfriend. O.o The Monkey King is supposed to be naive and know nothing about the ways of love. Then there was some kind of weird thing during when the Monkey King was looking for a teacher to show him how to become immortal and teach him stuff. He didn't actually go to a school this time like he was supposed to and like in TVB's other better Journey to the West series. In this version, he met an immortal or something and he taught him some stuff on the spot after going into this temple thing and fighting with his twin. What the heck?!
Now my recommendation or lack thereof. Well, I guess I *kind* of recommend it because it does seem halfway decent. I hadn't gotten a chance to watch the part when Goku makes trouble in heaven or anything though, but I think the rest of the series should be pretty accurate to the Journey to the West story and I think the friendship between Nataku and Goku should prove intersting. I think the beginning at least didn't have that great of a plot and was mostly to gather miscellaneous big names for ratings. This is supposed to be Dicky Cheung Wai Kin's last Monkey King series though, so maybe we should enjoy it while it lasts? In any case though, if you're interested in watching this series, keep an open mind (don't be too nitpicky with plot loopholes like me), and it's available in Cantonese and Mandarin. Be warned though if you get the Cantonese version because the show was originally made in Mandarin, and then some of the actors re-did some of the scenes for the Cantonese version and some just had dubbed voice overs. If you don't mind the occassional non-matching of the voice and mouths, you should enjoy it pretty well enough.
Other than that, just remember that it's called "THE MONKEY KING -- THE QUEST FOR THE SUTRA" and it's distributed by TVB. Go here to see some information on it that you won't be able to read unless you can read Chinese on your computer.
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Now to talk about the 11th Anniversary TVB special "THE MONKEY KING -- THE QUEST FOR THE SUTRA". Why? Because in this show they mixed the Houshin Engi story and the Monkey King/Journey to the West story together! Well, maybe just Nataku's chapter with the Monkey King story, but still!