The Forbidden Kingdom

Over the weekends, I managed to catch The Forbidden Kingdom. Frankly, I was steeing myself after I saw the trailer fo this movie. An American teenager travelling back into space to return the magical staff to the rightful owner:. This movie set off against the backdrop of the fantasy tale on the Chinese classic Journey To West and all the ingredient for a Hollywood mash-up is complete.

The story – In the Celestial Court, Monkey king was touted as the superior one. Then, this Jade warlord was utterly jealous and he challenged the Monkey King to a duel. However, Monkey King was tricked into abandoning his magical staff and “qi” power during the fight. I guess you already know the next move, the cunning warlord used underhand means to defeat monkey king though he never really defeated him but freezed him. Then, the prophency of someone returning the magical staff arised. Obviously, Jade Warload did not buy the story.   

The centrestage took off with Jason Tripitak as seeker who is a kung-fu-obessed fan who stumbles across a mysterious staff in a China antique shop and transported through the unparallel dimension and back to an ancient China where he faced the heculean task of freeing the fabled Monkey king imprisoned by the warlord and embarked on his journey to the 5 Elements Mountain. The journey was met with obstacles and hurdles.   You would be impressed by the angmoh kid’s immense knowlege of chinese kungfu. Along the way, he befriended Lu Yan, the drunken master (Jackie Chan), the silent monk ( Jet Li) and Sparrow ( Lu Yifei). They have a common mission to kill the dastarly warlord.

Disappointments – The Monkey King was speaking interchangeable English and Mandarin. It was a total mismatch. On one hand, all the chinese actors and actresses were speaking english and the other the angmoh kid tried to speak mandarin. I felt that the plot was messy. Nevertheless, who cares about the plot. Everyone was looking out for the 8 minutes fighting scene between Jackie and Jet.

Secondly, Fans of Lu Yifei are gonna to be disappointed. She looked ordinary as compared to “天龙八部” Where she was more feminine and ladylike. She was outshrined by her fellow compatriot, Li Bing Bing a.k.a 白发魔女.

The ending segment was cliche. Lu Yifei appeared (recarnated, i suppose) back in the modern city and coincidentally, the angmoh kid caught up with her. Isn’t this particular scene look famliar to the one we saw in “The fairy tale” by Hu Ge and Lin Yi Cheng. Does that ring a bell? Lame loh! No creativity.  

Likes – What was really worth mentioning was the fighting scenes between Jet and Jackie. They were exchanging fisticuffs in enjoyaly old fashsioned fight choreography that shows off their nimble footwork and physical dexterity. Unlike the nonsensical fight sequences tricked out too much CGI effects in most western action-packed movies. The plot’s is creaky and there are inevitably cheesy moments. A perfect marriage of two greatest kung-fu masters  with a blur angmoh kid, is actually rather entertaining.

Part of the reasons why I am so forgiving of this utter nonsense is becuse Jackie himself had warned that this movie is in fact utterly nonsense. Do not expect too much from this movie as Jackie said”I thought it was a nonsense!” Well, at least director Rob Minkiff had put together an incredible cast that will please the mass audience.