Blessed is the moment when Rob Minkoff, director of The Forbidden Kingdom came up with the brilliant idea to pit Jackie Chan against Jet Li. The film only has a six minute face-off between the two martial arts legends, but those six minutes left me appreciating the genre more than I have ever done in the past. If there is something that is more impressive in this film, it is Michael Angarano's ability to keep pace with Chan and Li, thus bringing him out of the Sky High shell, and making him the best butt-kicking white teenager since Ralph Macchio's Karate Kid.
Angarano plays Jason Tripitikas, a young kung fu aficionado from Boston, whose bedroom walls are covered in posters of the masters, and whose favorite haunt is an old pawn shop owned by a very old man, played with surprising conviction by Jackie Chan himself. During one of his visits to this shop, Jason discovers a staff that must be taken to a magical kingdom in China and returned to the fabled Monkey King (Jet Li), who in turn will end the oppressive reign of an evil warlord (Collin Chou). Thrown into this world while trying to escape from a couple of bullies, Jason encounters Lu Yan (Chan again, in a fantastic reprisal of his own Drunken Master character), who reluctantly agrees to help him on his journey to the palace of the warlord. The two are joined by Golden Sparrow (Li Bing Bing), an orphaned girl who wants to avenge the death of her parents by killing the warlord herself, and eventually, The Silent Monk (Jet Li again) who also considers it his mission to find and return the Monkey King's staff.
Under the excellent tutelage of these kung fu masters, Jason becomes adept at the art beyond knowing the nomenclature of various moves from the movies he has seen. He and his companions, however, must contend with the warlord's soldiers, who pursue them, led by the White Witch who has been promised an elixir of immortality if she brings the staff to the warlord instead.
It is quite clear that Minkoff considers this an opportunity to pay tribute, vaguely along the lines of Quentin Tarantino but minus the blood and gore, to the kung fu movies of old. The story and legends involved are certainly contrived, Jet Li's shoulders shake rather too much when he giggles or laughs, and Collin Chou's otherwise handsome face is overwhelmed by too much eye make up, but these are the things that make for a traditional kung fu story, and Minkoff does not seem to consider them unworthy of audiences on this side of the Pacific.
The film without doubt, belongs to Chan, who acts his age, while showing agility well above average for someone who recently celebrated his fifty-fourth birthday. His slapstick is more subdued, and his character battles life and death in the film, something I don't recall ever seeing in his previous work. However, whether because of his experience in Hollywood, or his experiments with new types of roles in Hong Kong, or simply his unique style, Chan has proved himself a true actor, not just a comedian and stuntman.
With the exception of Angarano, the other actors are mediocre, albeit good looking, and many of them have thicker accents than Chan, which shouldn't really be much of a problem for a martial arts film, but still leaves you confused if you haven't been paying attention. Perhaps Minkoff would have done better to have dubbed their voices as has been done in the past, as part of his salute to the genre.
The highlight of the film continues to be the Chan-Li showdown, in which both actors move at commendable speed, and demonstrate different moves without being too pedantic about it. Minkoff and fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping very wisely keep both actors on the ground for much of the fight, instead of suspending them in harnesses and having them fly through the air, which allows them to use their signature moves without turning into bland dancers uprooted from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon into this world.
The Forbidden Kingdom may not be counted as a definitive kung fu movie in the future, despite the pairing of Chan and Li, but it is an entertainer through and through, and is bound to generate interest in the genre among those who did not, like Jason and myself, grow up around the famous kung fu movies of the seventies and eighties. Definitely worth watching.
