Cinema Saturday Presents: the Forbidden Kingdom
Run Time: 104
minutes
Year: 2008
Rating: PG-13
Movie Grade: A-
Principle Cast:
Director: Rob Minkoff
Writer: John Fusco
Jet Li: The Monkey King / The Silent Monk
Michael Angarano: Jason Tripitikas
Jackie Chan: Lu Yan / Old Hop
Liu Yifei: Golden Sparrow
Collin Chou: The Jade Warlord
Li Bingbing: Ni-Chang, the White-Haired Witch/Assassin
Synopsis: Jason Tripitikas is a young urban white boy
who idolizes the art of kung fu but lacks any martial arts ability himself.
Jason spends his day’s day dreaming of being a martial arts master as he
peruses Old Hops pawn shop for more Chinese bootleg of kung fu movies. It
comes as no surprise when young Jason is pressured by a group of gang bangers,
who never got the memo that the fifties greaser is no longer a thing, to help
them break into Old Hops home. Things go
wrong of course and the old shopkeeper is shot but with his last bit of
strength Old Hop tells Jason that must take his prized possession, the staff of
the monkey king, and begin a journey he will never forget in order to return
the staff to its proper owner. Jason agrees and finds himself magically
transported to a world that resembles ancient china but under the control of the
ruthless Jade Warlord who will stop at nothing to make sure the staff never
reaches its destination.
Spoiler free review: the movie is a fun love letter to the kung fu
movie genera but it’s not exactly anything original. If you like Jackie Chan,
Jet Li or just kung fu movies in general then you should absolutely give this
movie a try. If you have only a passing
interest in the genera the movie is still worth a check out for it fun fantasy
romp and entertaining storyline.
Review: Kung fu movies by definition tend to be heavy
on action light on story so it should come as no surprise when I say that the
story of The Forbidden Kingdom is not
the main reason you should be popping this film into your blu-ray player. This
is not to say that the story is awful just cliché, but we will get to that in a
minute. The real reason you should go watch The
Forbidden Kingdom is because it stars both Jackie Chan and Jet LI,
together, in the same movie. If that’s
not enough to get you to go out and rent this movie then just stop here because
there’s nothing I can do to convince you that this movie is worth your time if
that double billing doesn’t wet your appetite. But if having the two greatest
living martial artist legends in a single film is not enough for you then maybe
I should mention that they fight. Yes Jackie Chan and Jet Li kick the living
daylights out each other for possession of the magic stick that once belonged
to a smelly monkey man. Aright, Alright
it’s obvious you actually want me to do work and review this ridicules
movie.
The best way to sum up The Forbidden Kingdom is to call it
silly and fun, a modern fable for the new generation. Fable is honestly the best word I can think
of when talking about The Forbidden
Kingdom, the movie paces forward much like a fairytale with elements that
are very childish and cliché while at the same time having flowery dialogue and
a deeper more overarching message about the true meaning of kung fu. That
is how one needs to enter into The
Forbidden Kingdom like they are walking into those old fantasy stories of their
youth to gain the proper appreciation of the story.
The acting in the movie is hit and miss but seeing as several of the actors were Chinese natives and only knew English as a second language I can cut them a bit of slack. Obviously both Jackie Chan and Jet Li steal the show as they each play dual roles and put extra effort into making sure that their first clash was an epic one. Collin Chou and Li Bingbing was also gave fun performances as the Jade Emperor and the white witch respectively. Michael Angarano does a great Shia Labeouf impression; seriously, you would think that Hollywood has a secret underground cloning facility, and the less said about Liu Yifei’s performance as Golden Sparrow the better.
What really sells me on Forbidden Kingdom is that despite how
cliché and corny much of the film is I am never once bored. The sets are absolutely breathtaking, both Jackie
and Jet are in rare form as they both push their limits in both there acting
and there fighting. The truth is that for all its’ silliness and
cliche antics it’s actually one of the more mature Martial artist movies. Many kung fu movies are merely entertaining
only for there fighting and the underfed outline that passes as a plot usually fails
to be anything worth paying attention to.
Forbidden Kingdom however
makes sure that its story always stays in focus despite the random fights that continuously
break out. The Forbidden Kingdom is
an excellent piece of Kung Fu cinema and has something for everyone so if you’re
interested in martial arts this one is worth a look.
Fun facts
. While loosely based on the story “Journey to the West" The original
concept for the movies script was born out of an original fable the writer
would tell his son before bed.
. During the back-story of
Golden sparrow the village that is burning was actually set on fire for the
take.
. During the village burning Colin chow’s horse despite having done
numerous takes and having two handlers dressed as soldiers next to him, ended
up spooked by the flames and refused to face the camera.
. The film attempts to use the word Gung-Fu which is the proper
pronunciation of the anglicanized Kung fu but actor Jackie Chan was so used to
saying Kung Fu that he had difficult time saying the correct pronunciation.
. The character of Jason Tripitikas was originally going to be changed
to an Asian character but both Jackie Chan and jet Li insisted that the
character needed to be white in order to demonstrate that kung fu is for
everyone not just the Chinese.
Quotes:
Opening line: Jason: What’s
goin on, Hop?
Ending line Jackie Chan narrator: “And so the legend is told, that
the Monkey King began his journey west in search of truth while the traveler
returned to his world to walk the path of the worrier and find his own
truth. As one tale ends so another
begins.”
.Golden Sparrow: She should have killed
you, witch!
Ni Chang: Not if I kill you first,
orphan b****!
.Old hop: leopard style dragon style fly through air, fight on
water, Crouching tiger spanking monkey.
I know you, another white boy who wants to know kung-fu.
.Lu Yan: Praying Mantis. Very
good…for catching bugs. But not tiger!
Mini Commentary:
. Have to admit
sharing the J is a clever way of equalizing the byline between Jackie and jet (1:17)
. the movie
playing on Jason’s TV is called Monkey Goes West (1966) (2:39)
. this has to be
one of the single coolest opening credit sequences I’ve ever seen. (2:50)
. So the kid that
dreams of being a master fighter is bullied on a daily basis? You hear that? all
board
the the cliche train! Tropes and plot contrivances welcome! (7:38)
.Did he just say
loser cruiser? (7:42)
.I just can get
over that his name is lupo. I mean who
names there kid that? (10:51)
. That’s putting
it mildly but regardless jet Li’s performance as this crazy monkey person is
fantastic. (18:31)
.Golden sparrow
this movie is filled with odd names …and I’m ok with that. (28:19)
. Painfully
obvious Product placement: for Virtual Fighter 2 (32:06)
. The moment you
have all been waiting for…wait it’s over a half hour into the film and were
just now putting these two together? That’s just criminal. (37:31)
. That was a heck
of a shot even by fantasy Kung Fu standards (1:05:00)
. I do like that
it took three people to finally defeat the witch helping keep up her threat level
as an
enforcer. (1:25:00)
