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The Forbidden Kingdom
Reviewed By Rich Drees
It seems almost inconceivable that fans of Hong Kong action cinema
have had to wait nearly two decades for its biggest stars, Jackie
Chan and Jet Li, to appear on screen together. It is just a pity
that it had to happen inside the confines of the Hollywood-produced
film The Forbidden Kingdom. Had it the matchup occurred in a
film produced by the film industry that launched Chan and Li’s
careers to international stardom, we probably wouldn’t have been
stuck with the decidedly mixed-bag of results that Forbidden
Kingdom is.
The film opens on Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), a teenager in
Boston who cruises dusty old Chinatown pawnshops for video tapes of
old martial arts movies. By accident he discovers an ornately carved
fighting staff, which magically transports him back to China’s
Middle Kingdom. There, he finds himself embroiled in a quest to
return the staff to the Monkey King, who will use it to defeat the
evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). Joining him on the quest are Lu Yan
(Chan), who claims to be immortal, a Silent Monk (Li) and the
revenge-seeking Golden Sparrow (Yifei Lui), whose family was killed
by the Jade Warlord’s men.
The film’s main storyline reads like a greatest hits list of Hong
Kong wuxia, martial arts fantasy, films. The influences range from
the classic kung fu actioners of the Shaw Brothers Studio to the
fantasy-fuelled movies of Tsui Hark. We’ve seen Jet Li play
warrior-monk types before, while Jackie Chan is definitely playing a
variation of his character from his two Drunken Master films.
Yifei Lui’s Golden Sparrow is named after Cheng Pei Pei’s character
in the 1966 classic Come Drink With Me, and the title of the
film appears as one of her lines of dialogue. And while some Hong
Kong fans will find the results derivative, the mash up of elements
makes for some good popcorn thrills.
Where the film doesn’t work is with its central conceit of a modern
day teenager being transported back in time to participate in the
adventure. Storywise, the character of Jason adds nothing to the
story that couldn’t be added by having the character be a Chinese
boy native to the time period. His absent father could be explained
away as a warrior killed in battle. His lack of kung fu knowledge
could then be accredited to a grieving mother who doesn’t want her
son to follow the path that his father did. As it is, the character
merely exists as a hook to get the audience involved in the story.
That’s a fairly insulting thing for the filmmakers to do, as it
states that we don’t have the capacity to be interested in or care
about stories featuring characters who don’t look like what we see
in the mirror.
Anytime Jackie Chan has a new film out, there is the inevitable
speculation about his age and his ability to continue to do the
rigorous stunt and action work he is known for. He seems in fine
shape here, though admittedly there are a few instances where some
stunt doubling might be going on. Many of the fight scenes feature
some great wire-harness work, something that Chan has eschewed in
his films that take place in the modern world, but are a staple of
the fantasy-oriented wuxia genre. While not the best work of master
choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, the fight sequences still manage to be
more entertaining than a majority of Hollywood’s more traditional
action output.
What keeps the film’s action sequences, and by extension the rest of
the film itself, from succeeding more is the direction of Rob
Minkoff. Hollywood directors can study all the Hong Kong cinema they
want and praise it as loud as they can, but until they actually show
that they’ve learned something from these films, it is all just hot
air. Outside of the sequence that introduces Jackie Chan’s character
into the film and the initial meeting of Jackie Chan and Jet Li’s
characters, the fight scenes are shot too close and edited in such a
way that makes it hard to follow the flow of the fight. Hong Kong
directors know to shoot the action wide, allowing audiences to
thrill at the actors’ martial arts skills. Hollywood directors are
too tied to the editing tricks and visual sleight-of-hand that
allows actors to be replaced by stunt men when the fists start
flying. Unfortunately, the end result of this is a film that is less
than the sum of its parts. |
