The first ever pairing of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, two of the biggest martial arts stars going around ever, should be reason enough for everybody to catch up on this movie if you haven’t done so already. Apart from that, if anyone needs a reason that is, the movie is an enjoyable romp with good comedy, great action sequences, and good performances albeit with a weak storyline. I for one have grown up on Jackie Chan and have managed to probably miss a couple of movies of his till date so that should be reason enough for my catching up on the movie. Jet Li however I did get introduced to only about a decade or so back (mainly from Lethal Weapon 4 from 1998), but have been quick to catch up on most of his movies too. Jet Li’s version of Wong Fei Hung i.e. the series Once Upon A Time In China is a must see if you want to catch up on Jet Li and get an introduction to his amazing body of work.
Coming back to the movie The Forbidden Kingdom, it’s a good fun romp and has some great action sequences, but it’s more than just two of the greatest onscreen martial artists fighting each other on the big screen. In fact the story mainly revolves around a young man Michael Angarano who does not fit in with the in crowd and is beaten around and made fun of always. He ends up finding refuge in Kung Fu or more aptly in Kung Fu movies and frequents a Chinese store run by a very old Jackie Chan where he collects the latest Chinese movie DVDs and during one such trip he chances upon an old staff at the back of the store. Jackie Chan tells the young man (Michael Angarano) it’s an old staff that has magical powers and is waiting to be returned to its rightful owner, The Monkey King (Jet Li) who was deceived by an evil warlord (Collin Chou) and the staff was sent into another world and Jet Li turned into stone and imprisoned for all of eternity. Jet Li being an immortal cannot be killed so he waits for the magical staff to be returned to him and to set him free. Michael Angarano finds himself thrown into an adventure of a lifetime where he has to make a journey into another land, time and space to return the magical staff to its rightful owner, The Monkey King. At the very outset of this journey he runs into trouble with the army of the evil warlord, Collin Chou, chasing him to capture and destroy the magical staff. He is rescued by a young Jackie Chan playing a drunken Kung Fu master/teacher who takes him under his wings and begins to teach him martial arts and also makes the journey with him to return the magical staff to The Monkey King. They are joined in this journey by Yifei Liu a young girl whose family has been killed by Collin Chou and she is out for revenge. Joining this group is a monk Jet Li who begins by stealing the magical staff but then after a fight with Jackie Chan reveals he too wants to return the magical staff to The Monkey King. The fight sequence between Jackie Chan and Jet Li is great with no outright winner as should be obvious. The characters of Jackie Chan and Jet Li in fact mimic their most famous onscreen characters, with Jackie Chan reprising his Drunken Master and Jet Li playing the silent monk/teacher from his Wong Fei Hung series. The comedy sequences between Jackie Chan and Jet Li are hilarious and while Jackie Chan is the champ of slapstick comedy, Jet Li too does a good job at comedy especially as the funny Monkey King. The action sequences involving Jet Li as The Monkey King high atop the mountains with the army of the evil warlord Collin Chou are breathtaking to say the least. Director Rob Minkoff has taken care to showcase Jackie Chan and Jet Li in their strengths hence each playing the drunken master and monk respectively, roles which made them famous and gave them their onscreen persona at the beginning of their careers.
The rest of the story revolves around how this ragtag group of heroes and misfits returns the magical staff to The Monkey King who is set free and how Collin Chou and his cronies get their comeuppance, and how Michael Angarano is returned home. The Forbidden Kingdom delivers on all fronts for fans of Jackie Chan and Jet Li and is an enjoyable and fun time at the movies for both the young and the old alike, nothing more like it if you like Jackie Chan and Jet Li and have been waiting for their onscreen pairing, or even if you are a fan of the Kung Fu genre and want to see these two legends onscreen together for the very first time. Go ahead, grab the popcorn and kick back for furious fists and feet flying around in a flurry of the best action seen in a while.
