Remakes

Video clip of Masaaki Sakai's appearance in Fuji TV's new Monkey TV show!

The main character is Shingo Katori, who plays Monkey (he is very famous as a member of SMAP)
Others are:
Eri Fukatsu - Tripitaka
Atsushi Ito - Pigsy
Teruyoshi Uchimura - Sandy

It follows the Masaaki Sakai series in many ways; the male priest is played by an actress again, and his/her costume is almost identical. Special effects are noticeable by their absence. Monkey's cloud has turned into a skate board. Web site for the series: http://wwwz.fujitv.co.jp/gokuu/index2.html
A general Japanese TV drama site containing lots of information and comments in English: http://www.jdorama.com/drama.990.htm
Fuji TV (main site): http://www.fujitv.co.jp/jp/index.html

The BBC News article: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Monkey magic casts spell in Asia says that an undisclosed British TV company has secured the rights to this remake and it will be shown in the UK later in 2006! More news when I get it.
The Times newspaper in UK contained this article back in February 2006: Broadcasters in a spin as Monkey swings back to TV - TV and Radio - Times Online
The Guardian newspaper published this article: Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Confessions of a Monkey lover

Just before the final episode of this Monkey remake series screened on Monday 20 March 2006, it was announced that Masaaki Sakai would co-star in the final episode of the new Monkey remake series, alongside Shingo Katori.

Here's the Japanese news story about Masaaki Sakai's appearance: http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20060311-00000030-sanspo-ent

Here's some stills from his appearance: http://blog.goo.ne.jp/tokyoradio/e/26a555d51d8efe672135e3a24a823947
Check out his stick-fighting - not bad for someone who's almost 60 ;)

The viewing figures for this series so far indicate that it's the most popular Monkey remake series yet!

Here is a video that may be of some interest. Its the actor who plays Goku being interveiwed and doing magic tricks. There is a small clip of the TV show in there as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neBlk8WysxE&search=monkey%20magic

There have been AT LEAST 4 remakes of the Monkey TV series:

• "Monkey King - Journey to the West" (China Central TV, People's Republic of China, 1986)
  At the end of the credits there's an odd screen that says: China Central TV, China Teledrama Production Centre, The 11th Construction Bureau, Ministry of Railways.
  Starring Liu Xio Ling Tong (Monkey), Xu Shaohua (Tripitaka), Ma De Hua (Pigsy), Yan Huai Li (Sandy).
  Click here to see a picture of the 4 main characters in this series. (many thanks to UPIR for providing me with this picture)

  The following is a list of the episode titles and the chapters in the book (Anthony Yu translation) that they cover:
  [Many thanks to Paul Rubin (pdrubin@earthlink.net) for this information]

  EPISODE TITLES --------------- BOOK LOCATION
  1) The Monkey King Comes Into The World Ch 1-2
  2) Being Appointed Protector Of The Heavenly Horses Ch 2-4
  3) Havoc In Heaven Ch 4-7
  4) Interment Under The Five Elements Mountain Ch 7-9,12-13
  5) Escorting The Tang Priest Ch 13-15
  6) Trouble From The Guanyin Monastery Ch 16-17
  7) Capturing Eight Prohibitions Pig With Tricks Ch 18-19
  8) Overcoming Three Disasters On Their Rough Way Ch 20-24
  9) Stealing Manfruit Ch 24-26
  10) Beating Lady White Bone Up Ch 27
  11) Monkey King Is Prodded Into Action Ch 28-31
  12) Treasures Recovered In Lotus Flower Cave Ch 32-35
  13) Eliminating The Monster In Wuji Kingdom Ch 36-39
  14) Fighting With Red Boy Ch 40-42
  15) Deep Wisdom Monastery Ch 44-46
  16) An Interesting Experience In The Kingdom Of Females Ch 53-55
  17) Three Bouts To Requisition The Plantain Fan Ch 59-61
  18) Cleaning The Pagoda And Clearing A Framed Case Ch 62-63
  19) Lured Into Lesser Thunder Monastery Ch 64-66
  20) Monkey King Skillfully Practices Medicine Ch 68-71
  21) Trapped In Gossamer Cave Ch 72-73
  22) Four Visits To The Bottomless Cave Ch 80-83
  23) Passing On Martial Arts In Yuhua Prefecture Ch 84-85,88-90
  24) Capturing The Jade Hare Ch 91-9X
  25) More Troubles In Western Heaven Ch 9X-100

• "Journey To The West" (TVB, China, 1996)
  TVB made a version of Monkey in 1996 called "Journey To The West" (the name of the full English translation of the story), starring Dicky Cheung, Chan Mui Ying, Angie Cheung, Kiung Wai, Lai Yu Chung, and Muk Chung Ching.

  Note: TVB is the world's largest producer of Chinese-language programmes, and people in Europe can see TVB programmes on TVB Satellite Channel - Europe (TVBS-Europe).

• "New Monkey" (NTV, Japan, 1994)
  "New Monkey" was made by the same TV company as "Monkey" (NTV). "Monkey" is the most popular TV show that NTV ever made, so to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the channel, they made a new 1990s series of Monkey, a remake of the original series. It featured the newest special effects and computer graphics, and included a completely new cast. It only ran for 1 season, and was unpopular (I guess it couldn't beat the original series!).