The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Director:

Rob Minkoff

Writer (WGA):

John Fusco (written by)

Release Date:

18 April 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Romance

Tagline:

The path is unsafe. The place is unknown. The journey is unbelievable.

Plot:

A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

Plot Keywords:

Whip | Statue | Hair As Weapon | Wuxia | Coming Of Age

Awards:

4 nominations

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Jet Li	...	The Monkey King / The Silent Monk
Michael Angarano	...	Jason Tripitikas
Jackie Chan	...	Lu Yan / Old Hop
Yifei Liu	...	Golden Sparrow / Chinatown Girl
Collin Chou	...	Jade Warlord
Juana Collignon	...	Southie Girl
Morgan Benoit	...	Lupo
Bingbing Li	...	Ni Chang
Jack Posobiec	...	Southie
Thomas McDonell	...	Young Southie
Zhi Ma Gui	...	Old Woman
Shen Shou He	...	Farmer
Bin Jiang	...	Young Village Man
Shaohua Yang	...	Jade Soldier
Yu Yuan Zeng	...	Inn Keeper

Also Known As:

Jackie Chan/Jet Li Project (USA) (working title)
King of Kung Fu (Hong Kong: English title) (literal title)
Untitled J&J Project (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of martial arts action and some violence.

Runtime:

USA:113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Finland:K-13 | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | Hong Kong:IIA | South Korea:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #44223) | UK:12A | Australia:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Malaysia:U | Singapore:PG | Ireland:12A

Filming Locations:

Anji bamboo forest, Jiangsu, China

Company:

Casey Silver Productions

Trivia:

The characters are mostly taken from Chinese mythology and adventure pulps. Lu Yan is a famous Taoist Saint (He's better known as Iron-crutch Li, one of the Eight Immortals). The Jade Emperor is the ruler of the Heavens in Chinese myth. The Monkey King is from a 16th Century fantasy epic by Wu Cheng En. Golden Sparrow was the name of the character played by Cheng Pei Pei in a number of Shaw Bros films like Da zui xia (1966). The White Haired Demoness is the anti-heroine of a pulp novel by Liang Yusheng (filmed twice) with the same title.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Jade Warlord slams the Silent Monk onto the Monkey King's altar at the end, it cuts to a different shot and the Silent Monk disappears, reappearing in the next shot.

Quotes:

Golden Sparrow: She should have killed you, witch!
Ni Chang: Not if I kill you first, orphan bitch!

Movie Connections:

References Enter the Dragon (1973)

Jet Li + Jackie Chan

Jet Li + Jackie Chan = 1 Word... IMBA! I'm definitely a kung-fu movie fan, especially if it's starring Jackie Chan OR Jet Li, but this movie has them both in! The movie is all about the Chinese epic tale: "Journey to the West" About Sun Wu Kong, or better known as "Stone Monkey" it's one of my favorite Chinese stories.

It started out slow and it had me all confused when the main character was an American boy but it turns out that they had their own version of the tale. The boy strangely gets ported back inside the story where he meets the characters whose roles are played by Jet Li and Jackie Chan and they set out in a quest to return a staff owned by the stone monkey who was prophesied to end the tyranny of the Jade warlord, an evil general who is the villain in the movie.

The action scenes were really good, superb even. Jackie chan and Jet Li still had their kung-fu in them and it was fun and amusing to watch.

The Acting was good, especially by Jackie chan and Jet Li. (I liked Jet Li's role as stone monkey especially, because he really looked like a monkey) The storyline though, was quite predictable because, Jackie chan movies always end in happy endings. but as I always say: "What you say is just as important as how you say it." Same goes with a movie, though the storyline is predictable, how the story went and how it was flavored with humor and drama and action made the movie much, much better and so worthwhile and entertaining to watch.