, also known by its English title Monkey, also commonly referred to as Monkey Magic (the show's title song), is a Japanese television drama based on the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng'en. Filmed in Northwest China and Inner Mongolia, the show was produced by Nippon TV and International Television Films in association with NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), and broadcast from 1978 to 1980 on Nippon TV.

Plot

, the title character, is described in the theme song as being "born from an egg on a mountain top"; a stone egg and thus he is a stone monkey, a skilled fighter who becomes a brash king of a monkey tribe, who, the song goes on to claim, was "the punkiest monkey that ever popped". He achieved a little enlightenment, and proclaimed himself "Great Sage, Equal of Heaven". After demanding the "gift" of a magical staff from a powerful Dragon king, and to quiet the din of his rough antics on Earth, Monkey is approached by Heaven to join their host, first in the lowly position of Master of the Stable (manure disposal), and thenafter his riotous complaintsas "Keeper of the Peach Garden of Immortality". Monkey eats many of the peaches, which have taken millennia to ripen, becomes immortal and runs amok. Having earned the ire of Heaven and being beaten in a challenge by an omniscient, mighty, but benevolent, cloud-dwelling , Monkey is imprisoned for 500 years under a mountain in order to learn patience.