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Monkey - My C.v. (resume)
Also known as : Great Sage Equal of Heaven, King Monkey, The Immortal Egg, King of the Apes, Son Goku in Japanese, Sun Wukong in Chinese.
Address : Water Curtain Cave on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit.
Features : Large full on sideburns, Covered from head to toe in fur at times, Made of stone, Gold band around my noggin - though not through choice!
Weapon of choice : Magic wishing staff which can grow to any size.
Skills : Bojutsu, Cloud flying, Kungfu and Magical powers – I have the ability to complete 72 self-transformations, from a tree to a bird, a beast or even a bug as small as a mosquito - particularly handy for tricky demons – I can sneak into an enemy's belly to fight them from the inside out! I can also transform clumps of my hair into any object.
Immortal? : Well, you know... a bit
Favourite phrases : ‘Oi!’ - ‘I love a good fight!’ - ‘ I don’t like it !’.
About me : The Handsome Monkey King, as I love to be called, is a rebellious soul I admit, but I’m not, in fact, an ordinary being. I was born out of a stone egg, fertilized on top of a mountain by the grace of Heaven. I learned all the magic tricks and Gong-fu from a master Taoist, my old friend Patriarch Subodhi. Using clouds as a vehicle i can travel 180,000 miles in a single somersault. I’d like to think that after acquiring the magical wishing staff i became pretty handy at disposing of the demons that came looking to eat the master on our journey to India. Don’t get me wrong, I was tough before, but the stick , well, the stick made me even tougher. The Peaches of immortality helped too, as did the magic Elixir... I didn’t steal them , you know !
I'm a bit of a trickster, and like nothing more than having a little giggle at someone elses expense... especially that stupid swine, Pigsy - he's too easy! If i was mortal, when i die i would have engraved on my tombstone - 'Here lies Monkey, king of kings... gave his brain so Pigsy could think !'
Dislikes : Headache Sutras and Lau Tzu - He tried to burn me in his 8 Trigram furnace, the old fool. Forty nine days I spent in there, and got nothing more than a suntan and the most amazing eyes! I'm not too keen on Sandy's constant philosophising either - i can't understand a single word he says most days!
Reference from Buddha : ‘Monkey symbolizes the restless instability of genius - wit, intellect, courage, perseverance and strength. Monkey’s spirit and mind must be brought under control.
He is by far the most powerful and cunning of all the disciples and doesn't he know it !’
Work experience : Discoverer of caves behind waterfalls, slayer of Demons, spent a short time (a very short time) as keeper of the Heavenly stables - a very over-rated job. Currently bodyguard to the jibbering fool Tripitaka (who doesn't appreciate me at all) and full time Great Sage, equal of Heaven.
About the actor :
Monkey was played by actor Masaaki Sakai. Born 6th August 1946 as Kurihara Masa'aki in Tokyo. The son of Shunji Sakai, a famous comedian in Japan, Sakai initially came to fame by fronting the group sounds band The Spiders. The group formed in 1962 and were popular throughout the 1960s, they spawned several hit songs as well as five films. Funnily enough due to his later fame, Sakai created a dance called "the Monkey" which became a craze in Japan. Sakai went on to a successful solo career after The Spiders disbanded, acting in films and on television in such shows as Hakkutsu! Aruaru daijiten (English translation - Encyclopedia of life), Chuubou desuyo! - (English translation - Here's the Kitchen!) and ‘Shinano no Columbo’ - (Japan's version of Columbo – the ‘not as dim as he likes people to think’ detective), as the lead character.
In 1999, he formed the band Sans Filtre with two former Spiders, Hiroshi Kamayatsu and Takayuki Inouye. They released their first album Yei Yei in 2000.
Sakai has been married and divorced twice, and has two daughters. He is an active supporter of AIDS charities. His show-business nickname is "Machaaki".
Website : You can check out the original spiders webpage here
Uk tv voice-over : David Collings :
Collings has played several characters in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who including Mawdryn in the serial Mawdryn Undead and Poul in The Robots of Death. He has also performed in one of the audio plays by Big Finish Productions in the Doctor Who Unbound series - Full Fathom Five. His other notable science fiction appearances were as Deva in the final episode of Blake's 7 and as the character of 'Silver' in several of the Sapphire and Steel adventures. Collings did the voice acting for the Japanese television series Journey to the West released in English-speaking countries as Monkey. On radio he portrayed Legolas in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. In 1989 he played Charn (the baddie) in 'Through The Dragon's Eye'.