Monkey King: Hero Is Back

The all-powerful Monkey King, Sun Wukong, once roamed freely between Heaven and Earth, but after angering & defying the Gods and defeating the heavenly army, he is imprisoned by Buddha within an ice cage deep within the mountains.

500 years later, monsters attack a small village- a boy monk (Liuer), the sole survivor of a previous attack as a baby, flees to the mountains to save a baby girl. The boy stumbles into the cave where the Monkey King was imprisoned and unknowingly, releases him from his curse. However, a remnant of Buddha's seal prevents Sun Wukong from regaining his full powers. Despite being restricted by Buddha's seal, Sun Wukong fights bravely against the monsters. He afterward, starts travelling with the children, gaining their implicit trust and developing a fondness for them, especially Liuer. The three later find another travelling companion in a man that Sun Wukong beat 500 years previously, who as a side-effect of being beaten turned into a pig-human demon now called Pigsy.

In the midst of their journey, the four come to a house where the people who own it let them stay the night. Unfortunately, the owners turn out to be monsters in disguise and the four narrowly escape from them.

Unfortunately, events escalate and the girl is abducted by the leader of the monsters, who easily defeats Sun Wukong, due to his powers being suppressed by Buddha's seal. Scared of his being powerless against the monster, Sun Wukong stays behind whilst the other two go to save the children. Overcoming his fear, Sun Wukong races after them.

At the monster's lair, it is shown that the Monster Lord plans to refine the baby girl and the other recently abducted babies into elixirs, like the previous batches of babies that were abducted & sacrificed over the years. In the process of rescuing her and the other babies who were kidnapped by the monsters, the head monster turns into a titanic and monstrous beast. The young boy is killed when the monster's rampage causes rocks to fall and crush him right in front of Sun Wukong, mere seconds away from saving him.

Upon seeing the boy's death, the Monkey King is devastated, and full of fury against the monster that killed the boy, forcibly breaks Buddha's Seal with sheer brute force, despite the seal still trying to suppress him. This returns his original supernatural powers to him and he easily defeats the Monster Lord.

As the story ends, it is revealed the young boy was not dead, but was only seriously injured and had fallen unconscious. The abducted children are returned to their families by the boy monk and his teacher (who had somehow tracked him to the monster's lair) on floating clouds summoned by the Monkey King. However, Sun Wukong himself does not appear in this scene and it is not shown or stated where he has disappeared off to.

7.8 million yuan ($1.23 million) of the film's marketing costs was raised through crowdfunding, in exchange for listing of 109 producers (many of whom are children) in the film's credits.[7][8]

On October 17, 2019, a video game version was released on Playstation.[9]

• Monkey King: Hero Is Back at IMDb