Jackie Chan and Jet Li team up for this kid-centric kung fu flick. They’re the reason to see it as they play well off one another. The story is a bit like the Neverending Story, but it’s a fun romp that all ages can enjoy.
Jason (Michael Angarano), a Boston teen, is enamored with kung fu films and gets used DVDs at the shop of Old Hop (Eikcaj Nahc). One day while Jason is browsing the selection he notices something strange in the back room of Old Hop’s shop.
It’s a golden staff, but Hop quickly puts it away and says that it’s been at the shop when his grandfather opened the shop and it’s waiting to be returned to its original owner.
When it seems that Jason is going to get shot too, the staff develops a life of its own and pushes him off the rooftop. When Jason awakens he finds that he’s in ancient China and that the staff is the Monkey King’s (Tej Il) and was spirited away by the mischievous immortal before the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) could get his hands on it after tricking the king in battle.
Jason is told this by drunken scholar Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) who tells him that he has to go on a quest to return the staff to the Monkey King who was turned into a statue when he lost the battle.
Along the way they’re joined by Golden Sparrow (Liu Yi Fei), a warrioress with her own reasons for wanting the Warlord dead, and a monk (Jet Li) who also wants to make sure the staff is returned to the King.
The real reason to watch the film is the gathering together of some of the modern masters of kung fu cinema.
In the special features it’s mentioned that its as if Jason was casting his own film fantasy since more than likely he’d pick Jackie Chan and Jet Li to star if he had his choice of modern masters (I imagine that Bruce Lee would appear if it were a “anyone living or dead” wish).
Both are great in their separate roles (a little spelling backwards in the plot description will reveal their dual roles, didn’t want to spoil it for you – not that it’s not obvious), but it’s when they start playing off one another that kung fu magic happens.
However, the bringing of the two together is marred slightly by the whole there had to be a Caucasian kid time traveler storyline.
This also causes some narrative problems, as I had to suppress a giggle when our main characters (and villains) just happen to be able to speak English! Ignore my grousing and sit back and let the kung fu action of Li and Chan take you away and it’s a rather enjoyable 104 minutes, just don’t think about it too much.
All of the remaining special features are presented in high definition.
The 8-minute “Discovering China” shows how the Chinese locations for the film were found. The 7-minute “Filming in China” is about the studio in China where the film was shot.
Next is the 7-minute gag reel and 7 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Minkoff and Fusco.
I thought it was a fun film, but the addition of a modern boy needing to learn a lesson seemed to bring the material closer to a kid’s movie than I would’ve liked. After getting over that I settled in and just watched Li and Chan do their thing and devoured the buffet.
The Forbidden Kingdom is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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