The Forbidden Kingdom
27 04 2008
“The Forbidden Kingdom”
Directed by Rob Minkoff
Starring: Jet Li, Michael Angarano, Jackie Chan, Yifei Liu, Collin Chou, Li Bingbing
First thing’s first, this is going to be my very first film review here in my blog. I am so thrilled to give my thoughts on this film. But there is only one thing I want to request those who have not seen this film… you might encounter reading spoilers and I ask you not to read this blog unless you have viewed the film.
It’s very interesting how I watched “The Forbidden Kingdom” with my brother and finished it hours before the transit strike in the city last Friday. Though we were blessed to still have the transit after the film, my dad picked us up instead.
~
The story begins with a scene where the Monkey King is fighting in the clouds with soldiers. It ended up as a dream by a young Boston teenager named Jason who always go to this pawnshop in Chinatown. Jason one day found a certain relic in the pawnshop that looked like the stick which was used by the Monkey King in his dream. Through the golden stick, he was sent into another world destined with a mission, to return the golden stick to its rightful owner.
I hope I was effective with the synopsis.
~
I have to applaud the achievements of this film throughout the weekend box office ranking first. It’s nice to see a Jet Li - Jackie Chan film which is a first in the history of films.
~
I really find the film very colourful with all the costumes and sets. It’s more of a film that you’d want to watch again because you can see almost every colour in all scenes.
This film is all about the two great action stars: Jet Li and Jackie Chan. It’s great! But I have to say that there aren’t enough stunts for both of them. Probably Hollywood is making sure that everyone is safe and sound in the production or maybe the film itself didn’t require too much crazy stunts from the two. As a conclusion, I really wish this film was produced by a Chinese film company rather than a Hollywood one or maybe they changed the theme of the film into something that shows a lot of JC and Li’s martial arts and acrobatics. If this concerns the age of Jackie Chan or Jet Li, I have to concur cause they both look really fit to do anything despite their age - as a matter of fact, Jackie Chan did well on his stunts on “Rush Hour 3″.
~
Going into another world with a mission, being trained by poetic masters in martial arts, traveling together in the desert, I have to say the plot is a cliché of clichés. It’s like looking back at “Drunken Master”, “Operation Condor”, “The Neverending Story”, “The Karate Kid” and possibly one of Jet Li’s films again all combined in one film.
~
I didn’t have any problem with the story having lots of foreshadowing and obvious references. Yet it bothered me when the pace of the story went too fast. I did find myself saying “WHOA!” when there’s a scene change.
This goes from the very first transition - Jason suddenly going into another world. There wasn’t anything that I reflected upon when the scene changed… my main question that time was, “What happened in between the time of Jason’s fall and the time when he woke up in that magical Chinese kingdom?”
The other scene is when the monk and the drunken master were training Jason to become a good martial artist. It seems like Jason learned how to fight after we have all listened to that poem that Jackie and Jet recited. The poem recital sounded more like it’s merely a part of a script rather than something real coming from the two masters.
Another scene that made me really so frustrated about was when Liu Yifei’s character Golden Sparrow dies in the end of the story in the kingdom. Jason carries Sparrow and asked the old holy man “Is there anything you can do about this?” and the old man told Jason about how Sparrow wrote her own destiny and yada yada she can’t be revived. The next scene made me want to call upon the screenwriters - “Wait a second, where is Sparrow now?” Funny how she ended up to be a reincarnation in the Boston Chinatown.
The pace of the story was really fast, but nonetheless, I can say that the screenwriters were able to make a simple yet effective one… but the focus of the film is not merely on the story.
~
I couldn’t comment too much with character development because just the same as the plot, the characters were just too identifiable. Watch the film and you will have no problem with learning more about the characters in the story. You have a kid who went into another world, a drunken master, a monk, a pretty girl playing music speaking in the third person all the time, a monkey king who is a trouble maker, a villain and his pretty witch disciple, and a couple of holy immortals who were hibernating for the large part of the film.
But I wanted to really learn more about the characters that Liu Yifei and Li Bingbing were playing besides from just learning who they are - of course what could an entertaining film be without so many details about the girls, right?
~
Miscellaneous observations… These do not really affect my overall impression of the film. These are just observations that I wanted to make sure that I could understand whether through reflection or maybe through another opportunity of viewing the film.
It may be interesting but I see that Jet Li’s English accent is a lot stronger than Jackie’s and it’s unfortunate that I couldn’t understand all of the things that Jet was saying because of it. It’s not a problem really but I’m looking forward to watching this film again only to understand what Jet Li was saying.
~
Overall, I have to say that this film is all about Jackie Chan and Jet Li - the showcase was mainly on their big fight in the rock temple and their fights with the “boss” villains.
The fighting styles and stunts that both actors used in their films were pretty much distinctive in the film. You can figure out that Jackie’s falls were genuine and that Jet Li obviously was using the strings when fighting. I sure wish that they have worked together long time ago - watching the interviews with the two definitely have opened me to the idea.
Though I definitely wish that this was something different instead because of the plot and how the action seem to be lacking something, “The Forbidden Kingdom” have attracted me to both the action stars as well as the girls - I really was thrilled to see both JC and Li together in the film and the girls were definitely people to be reckoned with when they get another opportunity to join in a future film production.
“The Forbidden Kingdom” became more of an entertaining endeavour for me rather than an all out reflective one.
