I read an article about Monkey King: Hero is Back, a recent animated blockbuster in Chinese cinema, in Monday's newspaper. The author argues that the subject of the Monkey King and the story Journey to the West have had too many adaptations in the theater, and it is time that Chinese directors and scriptwriters should explore lesser-known subjects from Chinese folklore.

The author makes a good point that Chinese artists in film and television production lack ambitions to be creative. That is why although China boasts a huge number of production of films, dramas and animations, few of them are remembered by audiences after they are pulled from the theaters.

To some extent, box office cannot always reflect the true quality of a movie in China, as audiences are easily blinded by heavy publicity and the halos of stars.

But let's put Hero is Back into perspective: This was indeed a critically acclaimed animated movie with 8.7 scores out of 10 on the movie rating of Douban, an equivalent of Rotten Tomatoes or IMDb. The popularity is rare for indigenous Chinese animations, except for a few ingenious works before the 1990s, such as Havoc in Heaven and Calash Brothers.

The majority of the Chinese audience are quite excited at this cartoon, praising the movie for successfully combining traditional Chinese elements with Hollywood-style narrative structure and filming techniques.

Most importantly is that by borrowing the old tale of Sun Wukong, it tells quite a different story and redefines the major characters.

The storyline has nothing to do the traditional pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures, but a quest for self-redemption; Tang Monk is just a seven-year-old boy monk instead of a pedantic and committed grown-up; Sun Wukong is more like a frustrated middle-aged man, who even loses his power in the middle of the movie. Besides, other characters are also redesigned such as the Tu Di Gong, or earth god, who is simply a groundhog.

Therefore, given that the storyline and characters are original and are attractive to the audience, it is a bit unfair to say that it was just another addition to the countless adaptations of Sun Wukong.

Although the story has flaws and has drawn some criticism, it is still a creative movie. Its creation lies in its successful deconstruction of an old tale, like A Chinese Odyssey, starring Stephen Chow and loosely based on Journey to the West.

I think Hero is Back takes a step forward, although a small one, to reinvigorate China's rich folklore.

Its popularity might enlighten directors and scriptwriters of the taste the Chinese audience has. Deconstruction of an old story is just a start, we can expect more original stories coming out in the future.

Zhou Yanhan, a freelance writer based in Beijing