The Forbidden Kingdom is a special kind of film. It’s the kind of film where you see the trailer and you say to yourself “I must see this!” The kind of film that, despite what critics might say, you have to see it for yourself. So, what makes this film so special? It’s the first onscreen pairing of Jet Li and Jackie Chan, two of the titans of martial arts cinema. That’s what makes it special. And for my money, the film delivered wholeheartedly.
While the story (by “Thunderheart” and “Young Guns” scribe John Fusco) was fairly predictable, it had its fair share of surprises (none of which I’ll be spoiling for you here). The narrative focuses on Jason (Michael Angarano), a geeky teen from Boston who loves old martial arts films. So much so, that he goes to a pawnshop in Chinatown and picks up bootlegs of classic films, like “The Bride with White Hair” (I could easily imagine D_Davis behaving like Jason when he was a lad). However Jason gets bullied into helping some thugs loot the pawnshop. During the raid, he comes into contact with a mystical staff that sends him through time and space to “The Forbidden Kingdom”, where he must help fulfill a prophecy in order to free the Monkey King (an important figure in Far Eastern mythology) from his imprisonment by the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). And as he embarks on this journey, he is joined by the Drunken Master (Jackie Chan) and the Silent Monk (Jet Li) as well as a scorned and vengeful young woman named Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu). Naturally, evil is vanquished and Jason is returned to his own world (in a very “Neverending Story” style denouement) with the wealth of martial arts knowledge that he picked up while on the journey.
As you can see, the narrative is pretty typical for your journey-of-the-hero type of adventure, but where this film shines is in the fight choreography. Yuen Woo-ping, who choreographed the fight scenes in the Matrix Trilogy and the Kill Bill Saga, does a beautiful job of giving the viewer some amazing battles to behold. He is a true martial artist (with emphasis on “artist”). The movements in fight scenes just flowed perfectly (especially the battle between Li and Chan).
Also of note was Jet Li’s portrayal of the Monkey King. He seemed to relish this role. And you could see his enjoyment as Li played with the character and his surroundings. And I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile this much, ever. That was kind of weird. Cool, but weird. That’s not to say the other performers were bad. Jet Li just managed to really stand out in this role.
Additionally, I found David Buckley’s musical score to be quite enchanting. It accentuated the film quite well and unlike some scores, didn’t just feel like audio filler.
There was really only one small flaw with this film. And that was the filmmakers’ inclusion of one scene of bathroom humor. Granted, it was just one scene, but why include it when it sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of the film? I’m betting some executive told them to include the scene (because, bathroom humor makes him laugh) or else he would withhold their funding. Whatever the reason, it was a pointless scene and served no real purpose within the narrative.
All in all, I really liked this film. It was a great collaboration between two cinematic icons with a decent story and a great supporting cast. The film, while very much a Western film (in terms of narrative style) treated the Eastern subject matter and characters with respect. It paid homage to classic Kung-Fu action flicks and gave us some excellent fight scenes. I will definitely be picking this film up when it comes to DVD.
