Forbidden Kingdom (English Movie)
Release Date : 18,Apr 2008
| Director | Rob Minkoff |
| Producer | Casey Silver |
| Starring | Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano, Collin Chou, Crystal Liu Yi Fei, Li Bing Bing |
Synopsis: East meets West and kung-fu legends collide as Jackie Chan and Jet Li square off in the fists-a-flying, family-friendly FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. Based on the classical Chinese novel JOURNEY TO THE WEST, the film begins in modern-day Boston. There, while teenage kung-fu flick enthusiast Jason
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW>>>: At first glance “Forbidden Kingdom,” the first movie to unite the martial arts action stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li, might be mistaken for a pastiche of its genre. Its main character, a Boston teenager named Jason (Michael Angarano), is obsessed with kung fu cinema, and the ways of modern Hollywood might lead you to expect the filmmakers to mock, travesty or wink at this obsession.
Instead they — the screenwriter John Fusco and the director Rob Minkoff — clearly share it. And though it is an English-language film (albeit a heavily accented one), “Forbidden Kingdom” is a faithful and disarmingly earnest attempt to honor some venerable and popular Chinese cinematic traditions.
These include a plot that is at times so convoluted as to teeter on the brink of incomprehensibility, a heavy brocade of martial honor and blurry mysticism, and above all a lot of wildly inventive fighting. The battles were choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, one of the supreme masters of the art, and shot by Peter Pau, whose credits as a cinematographer include “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Filmed on Chinese locations and studio sets, the movie shows the lavish artificiality that is, in the currently booming Chinese film industry, a sign of authenticity. Mr. Chan made his name in scruffier, scrappier Hong Kong entertainments, but as he has aged into an international superstar, he has come to seem at home just about everywhere. Here he plays two roles: an elderly junk dealer in 21st-century Boston and an itinerant fighter, specializing in the “drunken fist” style of combat, in a mythic ancient China.
Mr. Li also plays two parts, both in the mythic past: the mischievous Monkey King (who uses — what else? — monkey kung fu fighting techniques) and a monk. After an inconclusive and thrilling battle — surely the high point of the movie — the monk and Mr. Chan’s character join forces to help Jason, who has been transported to their world by a magic staff that once belonged to the Monkey King.
An evil warlord (Collin Chou) stands in their way, as does a white-haired witch (Li Bing Bing). Accompanying the monk, the drunk and the kid from Boston is a young woman named Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei), a fearsome warrior in her own right, who seeks to avenge the death of her parents.
There is both a surfeit of motives and a dearth of momentum driving the narrative of “The Forbidden Kingdom,” which often drags in the expository sections between set pieces. But many of the set pieces are dazzling, even if, by now, audiences may be a bit jaded by high-flying wire work and artful blends of computer-generated imagery and traditional production design.
Still, the film works well enough as a primer for latecomers and a fix for insatiable martial arts lovers. If you’ve never seen a movie like this, it might satisfy your curiosity; if you can’t get enough of this kind of movie, nothing I say about it would keep you away.
“The Forbidden Kingdom” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has many action scenes, some of them fairly brutal.
The plot: Jason (Michael Angarano) is an American teenager living in south Boston. He's obsessed with kung fu movies and frequents a Chinese pawnshop owned by Hop (Jackie Chan), an old, graying man who tells Jason about a sacred staff that "must be returned to its rightful owner." That rightful owner is the kooky and rebellious Monkey King (Jet Li), who was turned to stone by the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) hundreds of years ago in China.
One day, Jason is bullied by a Boston street gang into stealing from Hop's store. When the old man is shot, Jason runs off with the staff, which sends him back to ancient China. The actual time where he ends up is never made clear but lucky for Jason the people he needs to communicate with all speak English. He befriends Lu Yan (also Chan), a kung fu master who's sort of an homage to Chan's own Drunken Master character (Lu's immortality depends on his drinking plenty of wine). Jason and Lu are joined by Golden Sparrow (Yifei Lu), an orphaned female warrior seeking revenge against the warlord for killing her parents, and Silent Monk (also Li), who has his own allegiance to the Monkey King.
2 comments:
MOVIE WAS FINE AND GOOD
The Forbidden Kingdom is actually a good movie with the right balance of action, story and likable characters that make for an entertaining two hours. Some of its magic must come from our knowledge going in that it's the first time two legendary martial artists of the cinema - Jackie Chan and Jet Li - have appeared on-screen together. In their first shared scene, Chan warns Li, "Somebody could get hurt," which is like a wink at the audience that lets us know we're in for a treat. Credit to director Rob Minkoff for letting Chan and Li share the screen rather than compete for it. Minkoff and his team know fans of both talents will care more about experiencing a fun, exciting action picture than seeing the two simply fight. Their dialogue and interaction ends up being high-spirited and sort of jolly.
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