Monkeys and the Moon They Fish

On the surface, Monkeys Fish the Moon is a fun little tale about foolish monkeys

who think they can catch the moon. But if one analyzes what the monkeys seek, how

they go about seeking it, and the end result, the film can be read as a representation of

communism and its failures.

At the beginning of the film, the monkeys are not obsessed with the moon; rather,

they are trying to obtain food, and they do so in an individualistic manner. When a

monkey knocks down two coconuts from a tree, the fruit is stolen off the ground by other

monkeys before he can reach it. The original monkey has to chase one of the thieves for

his food. The film soon cuts to a monkey reclining lazily with a pile of fruit, and while

he is not looking, another monkey scoops some of the fruit into his empty coconut half

and scampers off. Finally, while two monkeys are fighting over another piece of fruit, a

third monkey swoops in and takes it. Clearly, as indicated by these three examples, this

society of monkeys is both individualistic and opportunistic, representing either

capitalism or the old Chinese way of life, feudalism. The film is not overtly critical of the

situation, but it’s clear that it’s not really a fair society—the monkeys literally do not get

to enjoy the fruits of their toils.

The organization of the society seems to shift toward communism, however,

when one of the monkeys spots the moon and calls for everyone to unite. As the

monkeys band together to reach the moon, they reveal both the power of communal effort

and the ingrained individualistic nature of the society. After a number of failed efforts, in

which the entire group helps, they finally link together to hang from a tree, allowing one

monkey to scoop up the moon’s reflection. As a group, they are successful. Sort of.

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First of all, the group effort is not altogether smooth. For example, when the monkeys

walk up the rock for the first attempt at the moon, one monkey pauses and another passes

him, only to be pulled back into line. This brief expression of individualism

demonstrates the selfish behavior that can occur even when there is a desire to work

together for a goal. When the monkeys make their second tower and it collapses, there

are a few more symbolic meanings. The monkey on the bottom struggles mightily to

support the rest of society and must gain extra support from two other monkeys. Even

then, however, the tower, and the social structure that this is so clearly represented here,

is very difficult to maintain. Moreover, the tower collapses when the top monkey reaches

out to grab the moon. In a sense, when the goal of the community is not readily tangible,

as the moon is not, then the people are not likely to sustain the effort to reach that goal.

In other words, if the benefits of communism are theoretical and philosophical, i.e., not

felt on a substantial, everyday basis, then support for that way of life will waver and

perhaps come crashing down. Of course, the monkeys do try the group effort again, and

eventually capture the moon’s reflection. However, the success is not full in the sense

that they have only caught an image, just a whiff of what they hoped to attain. Their

success is fragile, only partially real, and therefore cannot last. Once the monkeys have

the reflection of the moon, they quickly begin to fight over it, breaking the coconut shell

in the process and losing that which they worked so hard to obtain. Clearly, be it

monkeys or people, nobody really likes to share what they worked to possess. In other

words, despite all the good communal intentions, individual desires can’t be erased.

By using monkeys and avoiding explicit human social references, it is possible to

read the tale as a representation of natural human behaviors, but considering both the

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thematic clash between communism and individualism and the polysemous nature of the

moon, it is possible to read a more specific critique of Chinese communism. On the one

hand, the moon is a heavenly body that has captured the imagination of mankind

throughout time. And yet it is also a steady force of nature, not only influencing the

tides, but at one point in Chinese history, determining the Chinese calendar. That the

monkeys think they can possess the moon, its power and its mythic qualities, seems

rather foolish. But if one looks at from a broader political and historical standpoint, their

actions are not as ridiculous. At the peak of the cold war between the United States and

Russia—i.e. the clash between capitalism and socialism—was the space race. A nation’s

ability to reach outer space was symbolic of its power and intelligence as well as the

validity of its national ideology. The space race was a specific contest between the

world’s two superpowers and both achieved some success. China, though communist,

was nowhere on the same plane as Russia. The monkeys’ desire to reach the moon is

perhaps symbolic of China’s desire to reach the same general level of power and

prosperity as the Soviets by using the Soviet form of government. Reflecting the allure

that this prospect might’ve held for the Chinese is the mesmerizing camera movement—

swaying while pushing in toward the moon—when the monkeys first see the celestial

body. But the monkeys’ mild success, that is, the capturing the reflection of the moon, is

not only temporary, it was, in reality, completely illusory. In turn, this could signify the

failure of Chinese communism to provide that sort of first-world power to China, and any

success the system did have was not only temporary, but misleading and unreal to begin

with.

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 Released in 1981, Monkeys Fish the Moon came out during a general transitional

period in China when capitalism was creeping into the nation and criticism of

communism was more acceptable. The film quite clearly demonstrates that on a

theoretical basis, communism is a difficult proposition because of the nature of human

beings, and in a practical sense, the Chinese communists did not achieve the level of

success for which it had hoped. At the same time, though, the capitalist, individualistic

way of life is depicted on the most basic and fundamental level as being unfair and

ultimately undesirable. Moreover, it is very ineffective when striving for a greater good.

In the end, the monkeys are left staring longingly at the moon. They still want to reach

that high level of prosperity and power, but they really do not know how to go about

achieving such a goal.