It’s just opened in London (at The Palladium ) this month and is getting great reviews, with a mention of John’s work in translating some scenes from the film, into the stage version, noteably the tornado sequence.

Here they are :

The point of the board was to sell the concepts that John had in mind, to the producer / director, since he envisaged a mixture of moving image (eg CGI) projected onto semi-transparent, moveable screens and using clever lighting to create “magical” transitions – I’m curious to see the end result…

Click on the link below to open in a new browser:

Click on the PDF link here fps200606hi – pages 31 – 32, for a review I wrote in 2006 covering “Negadon – Monster from Mars” – an independant C.G.I short which paid homage to the classic era of Toho Godzilla & “Tokusatsu” films.

As the line underneath the title suggests, the name “Monkey Magic” suddenly seemed quite appropriate (thanks Paul H) – my parents came to the U.K in the 50′s and I was born here, and although it’s true I’m actually IN the West, I think, like many people of Asian (or other) origin, I’m still making a Journey to The West – and like the characters from the Chinese myth, perhaps its a case of never actually getting there, and more about the journey itself.

I’m hoping to make this blog more of a journey, an exploration & perhaps a bit of an adventure too, posting odd bits & pieces of work , that may not go anywhere particularly, and articles I’ve written, which are linked in some way or another to this metaphorical journey – and also a bit about that 80′s TV show, “Monkey!”.

I think at this stage in my life, what seemed like random, unconnected efforts in various directions, seems to be pointing towards this idea of groping for something – that “thing” being a crystallisation of ideas , grappling with this notion of “identity”, perhaps an “East / West” thing, perhaps not – whatever it is, hopefully it will be interesting – failing that, I will just stick up examples of my work that I like, experiments that failed or succeeded & let, you, the viewer, decide for yourself.