The Forbidden Kingdom
Short description
A teenage boy from the United States, Jason, is devoted to kung fu and to the Hong Kong martial arts films he watches constantly. In a pawnshop in Chinatown he comes across an old staff that once belonged to the Monkey King, a figure from Chinese legend and from his own dreams. Circumstances force him to flee with the staff, and a fall from a rooftop leaves him in ancient China, still holding it. There he meets a drunken fighter, a monk who rarely speaks and a young woman, and together they set out to return the staff to its owner and break the hold of the Jade Warlord and a white-haired sorceress.
Rob Minkoff directed the film, which followed The Haunted Mansion in his filmography and was written by John Fusco. Jackie Chan plays both the pawnshop owner and the drunken Lu Yan, while Jet Li takes the dual role of the silent monk and the Monkey King, and Michael Angarano plays Jason. Liu Yifei, Li Bingbing and Collin Chou appear among the leads. Made for a reported 55 million dollars, it earned about 128 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.5 from roughly 113,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 from around 2,000 votes. A critics' score of 6 out of 10 from 128 reviews places professional opinion close to the audience response.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's characters are largely drawn from Chinese mythology and popular literature. Lü Yan, better known as Lü Dongbin, is one of the Eight Immortals, who are referenced in Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master" franchise films (1978 and 1994). The Jade Emperor is the supreme deity of the Taoist pantheon, ruling over heaven, earth, and the underworld. The Monkey King is a literary character from the 16th-century work by Wu Cheng'en. Golden Swallow was the name of a character played by Cheng Pei-pei in several films, notably King Hu’s (1932-1997) 1966 action film "Come Drink with Me." The White-Haired Demoness is a character created by the writer Yueshen Liang (1924-2009), who was the subject of two films released in 1993.
- The monk played by Jet Li uses the mantis style, mirroring the patriarch from "Shaolin Temple 3: Martial Arts of Shaolin" (1985).
- Lou Ye uses the style of the drunken master in the film, perfectly replicating the movements from "Drunken Master" (1978).
- When it came time to film the cherry blossoms, the filmmakers saw that all the flowers had already fallen. The blossoms had to be glued to the branches of the trees by hand.
- Before filming began, a costume fitting and script read-through were conducted. Some lines had to be changed, as English was not a native language for a significant portion of the cast.
- In one scene in the middle of the film, the Monk says in the temple that they are leaving in two nights, when there will be no moon. However, the next shot shows a waxing moon. Therefore, it could not disappear in two nights.
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