The Forbidden Kingdom by Rob Minkoff (2008)
20 April 2008I have been excited to see this film since I initially heard that Jackie Chan and Jet Li were finally teaming up in a film, though of course the fact that it is an American film in English did damper my enthusiasm, but I must say there fight alone is worth the price of admission, even with a 50 something Jackie and a 40 something Jet Li. And honestly I enjoyed most of the rest of the film as well. It is an enjoyable popcorn adventure film that both kids and martial arts fans can enjoy (thanks to the fight choreography by Yuen Woo Ping). The worst things are the acting of the gang members members in the modern New York section, which is on par with gangs in other Jackie Chan movies, which is to say absolutely terrible, and their distortion of the story of the Monkey King, which starts out alright, but ends with the Monkey King a hero, and skips the whole thing of him rampaging through heaven and being put under a mountain, and only being released by the Buddha Guan Yu to help the monk get the scriptures, nor the fact that basically only he was strong enough to pick up his staff. I know Western Audiences won’t know the difference, but I have read 3 of the 6 books, and seen many movies, and I wish they had tried to keep the Monkey King more accurate. Still overall I did enjoy the film. The writer and/or director fans of Hong Kong martial arts films with all their references to old Shaw films (from the opening title sequence to one of the Monkey King films showing on the lead characters TV), but characters are also borrowed from Classic Hong Kong films, like the Bride with White Hair (originally portrayed by Bridgitte Lynn Chin Hsia), and Golden Sparrow (originally portrayed by Chen Pei Pei). And while the story is simple, it is still fun. The film has good action, great looking locales, and decent enough performances. This is certainly worth going to see, and I will certainly get ti again when it comes out on video..
The film starts with the Monkey King (Jet Li) high on some mountain peaks doing battle with his fearsome staff, but quickly we realize it is a dream of a young white kid named Jason Tripiitikas (Michael Angarano from Sky High). Jason heads out to his favorite haunt, a Chinese pawn shop in Chinatown where he purchases Chinese martial arts films from an old man he has befriended named Old Hop (Jackie Chan Siu Chun). Jason sees into a back room where there is a staff just like the one the Monkey King had in his dream, and Old Hop tells him that it is a staff that has been there since his grandfathers time, and it from some gangs and needs to be returned to it’s rightful owner. Jason leaves and sees a girl, and is bragging about martial arts when a gang shows up led by Lupo (Morgan Benoit), who beat up Jason, and then take him back to Hop’s to help them break in. They get in and end up shooting Hop, and Jason grabs the staff and runs, but they corner him on the roof, but before they can kill him, the staff throws him back and he falls, and wakes up in ancient China in a village. Jason doesn’t speak Chinese, so he is in trouble when soldiers attack, and runs, and is only saved by a wanderer who fights in drunken style named Lu Yan (Jackie Chan).
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Lu Yan takes Jason to a a restaurant, where Lu Yan tells Jason about the Monkey King, once Lu Yan starts talking to Jason in English at least. The Monkey King went to heaven on 4 finger mountains and went into the Emperors peach party where they drink the elixer of the immortals, and he charmed the Jade Emperor (Deshun Wang) and his wife (Li Liu Xiao), and they are about to leave for 500 years of meditation, so they leave the Jade Warlord (Jason Chou) in command, and tell him to give the Monkey King a position among the immortals. The Jade Warlord agrees, but once they leave, he goes back on his promise and challenges the Monkey King to a fight, and tricks him into giving up his staff, so he is turned into Stone, but not before he cast his staff out for someone to find and return to him. This all happened 500 years before.
The bill comes and when neither can pay, soldiers attack them, and they only manage to escape with the help of a lovely young woman named Golden Sparrow (the very cute Liu Yifei who will soon be giving Zhang Ziyi a run for her money in the states I am sure). Sparrow is out for revenger as the Jade Warlord had her family killed, and she only barely escaped, and she has a Jade dart which can kill immortals to kill him with.
Jason wants Lu Yan to teach him martial arts so he can return the staff, but it is stolen by a Monk (Jet Li) and Lu Yan must fight him for it, until they realize they are on the same side, and the two begin to train Jason who has no martial arts skills at all.
Meanwhile the Jade Warlord (why does he wear so much eye makeup) makes a deal with Ni Chang the Bride with White Hair (Li Bing Bing) where if she brings him the staff, he will give her the elixir of eternal life.
Eventually they fight the Bride, and try to run away, but Lu Yan is hit by her arrow, and will die. They go to a monastery and learn the only way to save Lu Yan is to get him the elixer of life, but the Monk wants to train Jason more, but he leaves on his own.
The Jade Warlord only has one elixir so he decides to have the Bride and Jason fight for it, and he isn’t doing too well, until the Monk arrives with Sparrow and all the young monks. They manage to get the elixir to Lu Yan who is revived and is truly immortal now, and they Jason uses the staff to release the Monkey King. Sparrow then tries to kill the Jade Warlord, but fails, but Jason uses her dart and kills him, but she dies anyway, though she dies happily, and the Emperor and his wife return. Jason is granted a wish, and his wish is to return home if he can’t bring Sparrow back.
Jason awakens back in Boston on the ground, and runs into Lupo and the gang again, and starts getting beat, but then he realizes he knows martial arts, and fights back and even takes the gun from Lupo. An ambulance comes and gets Old Hop, who will live, and Hop tells him of course he will live as he is immortal, and Jason tells him he returned the staff, and the ambulance leaves.
As everyone clears away a girl who owns a shop across the street from Hop says she thinks Jason is very brave, and hopes to see him again, it is Liu Yifei again, and Jason smiles and says of course, and it seems he may be able to be with Sparrow after all.
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I am psyched this movie opened number 1 and even beat out a Judd Apatow flick, because it is an enjoyable film and I am sure kids will like it as well. Now we can only hope that is true that Jackie Chan and Jet Li plan on doing a real Hong Kong film together. It should have happened 15 years ago, but I will be happy enough if it happens soon!