The Forbidden Kingdom
(out of 4)Starring Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano, Collin Chou and Liu Yifei. Directed by Rob Minkoff. 113 minutes. At major theatres. PG
East meets west in The Forbidden Kingdom, a colourful action comedy about an American kung-fu wannabe’s adventures in ancient China.East meets east, though, in the match-up that is of greater import to martial arts movie fans. This is the long-awaited teaming of superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and it’s an occasion to applaud for those who like a few yuks with their kicks.Purists may flinch at screenwriter John Fusco’s Americanizing of the Chinese epic Journey to the West, which the Hidalgo scripter has married with plot elements borrowed from Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Chan’s own Drunken Master series.The choice of director is also far from conventional: former animator Rob Minkoff is better known as the helmer of kidpix The Lion King and Stuart Little, not as the stager of anything requiring more than a bloody nose.But let’s get serious, as Forbidden Kingdom occasionally does. This kind of movie is always an amalgam of influences. Star Wars, for one, was based on Japanese master Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. And the story of a naïf requiring schooling from a noble warrior is as old as the hills, no matter what continent those hills are on. But when the action is this much fun, who needs to quibble?The naïf du jour is Jason (Michael Angarano from TV’s Will %26amp; Grace), a meek Boston teenager who frequents the Chinatown pawnshop of Old Hop, looking for bootleg DVDs and video games. %26quot;You watch too much Hong Kong phooey,%26quot; Hop chides him.Still, it has taught Jason a thing or two about Eastern culture, and he recognizes a golden staff amongst Hop’s clutter. It’s a staff of legend and magic, as we soon see, that suddenly transports Jason to a farming village in ancient China.Whereupon he is attacked by soldiers of the despotic Jade Warlord (Collin Chou), who has assumed control of the land by devious means. Stepping in to save boy and staff is drunken peasant Lu Yan (Chan), who is as quick to kick as he is to quaff.Major exposition thus begins, but unlike most such tales, it’s easy to follow. Seems Jason might be the hero they call %26quot;the seeker,%26quot; whose job it is to return the staff to the Monkey King, a mirthful good-guy simian who fell victim to the deceit of the Jade Warlord and was encased in stone for centuries. Sounds like an easy enough task, since the Monkey King is entombed at the Jade Palace, just over yonder across some magnificent hills (part real Chinese landscapes, part CGI). Lu Yan is willing to train Jason to fight for himself, if only because it means he can finally be rid of him.Standing in the way, of course, are the Jade Warlord and his long-locked henchwitch Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing), who want the staff for themselves and who have no qualms about how to get it.Then there’s this troublesome Silent Monk (Li), who looks like he wandered off the set of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He has few words in him but plenty of fight, and he soon set to mixing it up with Lu Yan in the battle the fans have been waiting for.Wait for it: turns out Silent Monk is also a good guy deep down, and he’s willing to assist in the martial arts instruction for the deeply dweebish Jason, even if it means working with Lu Yan.%26quot;We can kill each other when it’s over,%26quot; Lu Yan agrees.The squabbling partners trope is even older than those aforementioned hills, but Chan and Li don’t disappoint. Their choreographed fight scenes are as good as their verbal give-and-take, giving us reason to look forward to future pairings of these two very agreeable talents.And give credit to Angarano for making Jason more than a rubber-stamped boy hero. He’s the butterfly inside the cocoon, or maybe the proverb inside the fortune cookie.Rounding out the colourful cast is Liu Yifei as Golden Sparrow, a dart-hurling diva who has her own grudge against the Jade Warlord and her own agenda.The Forbidden Kingdom is ultimately a family film, despite all the fighting. Lu Yan’s philosophy that %26quot;we are all the same inside%26quot; works as the movie’s guiding principle, even if it is expressed on the fly and in the heat of another squabble with Silent Monk.Speaking of same on the inside, watch closely for two characters doing double duty, who almost disappear inside their secondary guises. Martial arts mavens will figure it out right away, but they’ll also get the inside jokes. Those who don’t immediately get it will have a couple of fun reveals to look forward to later. The only thing really forbidden about this kingdom is that anyone should take it all too seriously.
Tags: amp, diers, family, hong kong, job, rth