Stephen Chow’s latest comic adventure action and Buddhist (!) meditation begins with a set piece that, for most other filmmakers, would the picture’s climax: a demon hunter, Xuan Zhang (Zhang When), comes upon a riverside village where in a distressing moment, a little kid’s father is eaten by some creature in the water. The villagers, all pretty ignorant and idiotic as only characters in a comedic fantasy movie could be, believe they have caught the killer, a giant stringray, and so they distrust and almost string up the newly-arrived demon hunter, despite his pleas that there’s something else in the water. Defying him, everyone jumps in the water to swim feeling safe, and that’s when the water demon appears and wreaks havoc. In a series of escalating events, the villagers fight back with the demon hunter’s help.

This is a madcap sequence, and there’s always something else that can happen as the village tries to stop the demon from attacking. The wild Looney Tunes mentality keeps things interesting right off the bat. But the title is a bit of a misnomer—I thought going in, without reading the synopsis, that it might be a western with a martial arts action twist, not unlike Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle.

Unbeknownst to me until looking it up, the film is inspired by one of the classic pieces of Chinese literature by Wu Cheng-en, about a young man’s journey to Buddhist enlightenment  How many fantastical demons the 16th-century hero faces off as he does here I can’t say.

What I can suppose in watching Chow’s film is that the director wanted to imbue this story with fun and some romance as well. Here, it’s between Zhang and a skilled demon hunter (or rather huntress) Miss Duan (Shu Qi), the latter so good she can tackle a boar demon (named KL Hogg) and his 20 minions without help until it’s time to, you know, suck the demon’s soul out of the boar. There’s the usual back and forth “No, I don’t love you. Yes, I do” elements that feel forced and rushed, as charming and game as the actors are.

What Chow tries to do is slightly more ambitious than his previous efforts. (From what I’ve seen, Kung Fu Hustle is madly inspired comic gold and CJ7 a weird and always cute diversion). He brings serious and weighty elements to Zhang Wen’s attempt to be a great demon hunter and to ultimately face off against the Monkey King demon. It’s a visual effects extravaganza of epic comic proportions. In one fight, as if in a sudden homage to Monty Python, one of the members of Miss Duan’s demon fighting clan grows a giant foot about 50-feet big to crush an enemy.

I wish Chow had fully committed to one or the other, though. Bits of the drama work, like Xuan Zang becoming very upset over not saving a child. They feel true and consequential. However, there’s a feeling of whiplash when the movie suddenly turns into something very silly and over-the-top, even though it can be funny or at least eye-catching. In this phantasmagoria of demon hunters and demon creatures, it’s funny mostly when the unexpected happens, but there are some points midway where Chow and company are just trying too hard with some shtick.

But there is enough to recommend the movie, if not for the whole then for parts, that show the director’s visual flair and hyper-cartoonist imagination for stunts, gags, and outrageous supporting characters. I would even say the ending has a touch of pathos to what it means to have inner peace and strength. A shame that it ends just as another story seems to begin for Xuan Zang on his way to enlightenment (spoiler, his head is bald by the end).