AllMovie

The second part of Hong Kong filmmaker Jeff Lau's extravagant visualization of the classic novel Xi You Ji (Journey to the West), this follow-up to the same year's A Chinese Odyssey, Part One -- Pandora's Box continues the fantasy-driven story of the introduction of Buddhism to China. This installment takes up where the original left off, with Joker (Stephen Chow) stranded five centuries in the past and falling for a Spider Web immortal called Lin Zixia (Athena Chu Yun), who is actually part of Buddha's lampwick-given flesh. The other part of the wick is Zixia's evil sister, Lin Qingxia (Ada Choi), who is just one of many enemies whom Joker must face and defeat in his efforts to change the past and save the dying Pak Jing-jing (Karen Mok), who was poisoned by the 30th Madam (Lam Kit Ying) in the first film. The film's most spectacular invention, other than its zombies, giant spiders, and so forth, is King Bull, who has an army of animal-headed mutant warriors and his own personal cadre of oversized bloodsucking fleas. Superbly choreographed by Ching Siu-tung, the film also contains a number of inside jokes, including several at the expense of Asian pinup queen Brigitte Lin (whose real name is Lin Ching-hsia, thus the sound-alike Lin Qingxia character) and a delightfully flamboyant production design by James Leung. Ng Man-tat co-stars with Law Kar-ying.