The Forbidden Kingdom

For other uses, see Forbidden Kingdom.

The Forbidden Kingdom
The Forbidden Kingdom poster
Directed by	Rob Minkoff
Written by	John Fusco (screenplay) Wu Cheng'en (story)
Produced by	Ryan Kavanaugh, Lynwood Spinks, Casey Silver, Yuen Woo-ping Raffaella de Laurentis, David U. Lee, Philip Lee, Zhongjun Wang
Starring	Michael Angarano Jackie Chan Jet Li Liu Yifei Collin Chou Li Bingbing
Cinematography	Peter Pau
Edited by	Eric Strand
Music by	David Buckley
Distributed by	Lionsgate The Weinstein Company
Release dates	April 17, 2008 April 17, 2008 April 18, 2008 April 24, 2008 April 24, 2008 June 25, 2008 July 11, 2008 July 26, 2008
Running time	113 minutes
Country	USA
Language	English / Mandarin
Budget	$55 million

The Forbidden Kingdom (Chinese: 功夫之王) is a 2008 Hollywood martial arts-adventure film from Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company directed by Rob Minkoff. It is the first film to star together two of the most well-known names in the martial arts film genre, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. The action sequences were choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping.

The movie is distributed in the United States through Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company, and through The Huayi Brothers Film & Taihe Investment Company in the People's Republic of China.

Plot

Jason (Michael Angarano), a teenage fan of Hong Kong kung fu films, is magically transported back in time to Ancient China where he must undertake a quest to free the fabled warrior Sun Wukong. The story begins with Jason dreaming about the Monkey King fighting a group of Jade Warriors atop the Five Elements Mountain. Once he wakes up, he goes to a thrift store owned by an elderly man named Hop (a prosthetic laden Chan) to purchase some Kung Fu DVDs. While searching through the DVDs he is drawn to a room full of Chinese antiques where he finds an ancient staff. Hop tells him that the staff is to be delivered to its rightful owner and then closes the door.

On his way back home, Jason is attacked by a group of bullies who force him to take them to the antique store so they can steal the money from the old man. Feeling betrayed Hop tries to attack the thieves with the staff, but is shot. He tells Jason that he must deliver the staff to its rightful owner. Jason takes the staff and runs from the thieves. On top of a building, he is surrounded by the bullies and suddenly he is pulled off the roof by the staff and travels back through time.

When Jason wakes up he is transported back 500 years in China. There he is attacked by Jade Warriors who try to take the staff away from him. He is helped by the Drunken Immortal, Lu Yan (Jackie Chan). Later that night, they are seated in a restaurant; where the Lu tells him the prophecy about a traveler who will free the Monkey King and destroy the rule of the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). He then tells him a story of how the Monkey King was challenged to a duel by the Jade Warlord and was deceived and turned into stone. But before he was turned into stone completely, the Monkey King casts his staff away. Lu and Jason then get into a fight with the Jade Warriors who track them to the restaurant and are saved by a mysterious woman, who turns out to be the Orphaned Warrior, Golden Sparrow (Liu Yi Fei). Jason then asks Lu to teach him Kung Fu.

The Jade Warlord is notified by his men that they have seen the magical staff. The Jade Warlord then sends his bounty hunter, the white-haired assassin Ni-Chang (Li Bingbing), to retrieve it for him. When Jason wakes up in the morning he is attacked by a person dressed in white clothes, who takes the staff away. Jason, Lu, and Golden Sparrow follow the trail of the mysterious man. They reach upon a temple where the man is. There, Lu confronts the Silent Monk (Jet Li), who was the mysterious man. There they both fight for the staff. The Silent Monk later learns that the staff is meant for the traveler. The four head towards the Five Elements Mountain in the quest of freeing the Monkey King and destroying the rule of the Jade Warlord.

On the way to the Mountain, Lu and the Silent Monk teach Jason Kung Fu. They are attacked by Ni-Chang and the Jade Warriors, but before anyone got hurt the four escape on their horses with the staff intact. Ni-Chang fires an arrow into the air in the direction of the travelers. Lu is hit with the arrow and falls from his horse. In order to heal from the deep wound he needs the elixir from the Jade Warlord. Jason wanting to help Lu, heads toward the palace with the staff to exchange it for the elixir. Once at the palace he learns that the elixir was promised to Ni-Chang if she brought back the staff, but since Jason brought it, he has to fight Ni-Chang to death, the winner getting the elixir. The Silent Monk notices that Jason has left with the staff and pursues Jason along with Golden Sparrow. Back at the palace, Jason and Ni-Chang fight, with Ni-Chang having a better advantage over Jason. Ni-Chang wins the fight, but before she can kill Jason, the Jade Warlord orders her to stop. The Jade Warlord orders Jason to be killed by his men, but before they kill him, the Silent Monk and Golden Sparrow arrive. The fight begins between The Silent Monk and the Jade Warlord, Golden Sparrow and Ni-Chang. Lu then arrives at the palace, being carried by village people. Jason takes the elixir and throws it to Lu Yan who drinks it and gets his strength and energy back. Lu then fights Ni-Chang on the balcony. The Silent Monk is mortally wounded during his battle with the Jade Warlord and throws the staff to Jason. Jason takes the staff and frees the Monkey King from his statue form. The Silent Monk dies from injuries and reverts into a golden hair, revealing him to be a magical human familiar created by the Monkey King prior to his imprisonment. The fight between the Monkey king and the Jade Warlord commences. Golden Sparrow tries to kill The Jade Warlord, but is killed instead. After a long battle, Jason is able to kill the Jade Warlord and Lu Yan kills Ni-Chang. He is then thanked by the Jade Emperor for his bravery and fulfilling the people's prophecy. He is then transported back to his world.

When Jason wakes up, he is attacked by the bullies, but this time he uses his Kung Fu skills and beats up the leader. He then goes to see if Hop is alright, and learns that Hop is actually Lu Yan. Hop is taken to the hospital, before Jason leaves the scene, he sees a girl who looks like Golden Sparrow. She thanks him for being brave and tells him she will see him later. She then goes into her store (Golden Sparrow). Jason, surprised but delighted to see her, leaves and goes home, where he practices his Kung Fu.

Cast

Actor	Role
Jackie Chan	Hop, the thrift store owner/Lu Yan, the Drunken Immortal
Jet Li	The Silent Monk/Sun Wukong, the Monkey King
Collin Chou	The Jade Warlord
Michael Angarano	Jason Tripitikas, the Traveler
Liu Yi Fei	Golden Sparrow, the Orphaned Warrior
Li Bingbing	Ni-Chang, the White-Haired Assassin

Production details

Pre-production

While the character Sun Wukong came from Wu Cheng'en's famous classical novel Journey to the West, in an interview with Screen Power magazine, actor Collin Chou denied that the plotline would be related to the novel. The details of the plot were devised by screenwriter John Fusco along with actor Jet Li. Li explains,

The screenwriter is a good friend of mine and we have been sparring partners for the past three years. I was among the first to get hold of the story and later we were joined by Jackie and others. The screenwriter and I discussed how to turn the story into a fantasy and dream-like film. He is a superb screenwriter and has been learning Chinese martial arts for more than 10 years. He has roughly put across in the film some of my basic understanding of martial arts and principles of Buddhism.

In a behind the scenes article he wrote for Kung Fu Magazine, screenwriter John Fusco also stated he derived the surname for the Jason Tripitikas character from “the wandering monk, Tripitaka, from JOURNEY TO THE WEST.”

Production

Production began in early May 2007 in the area around the Gobi Desert in China. Before filming began, the entire cast did a costume fitting and a script read through, certain dialogues were altered to suit the different actors' English speaking abilities; this was due to the majority of the cast having English as their second language. Chan described the first day of shooting as "very relaxing" because the shots only required drama and walking, with no action.. When the two martial arts veterans (Chan and Li) did film action scenes together for the first time, they both expressed how easy it was to work with one another. Chan explained:

I have not worked with someone whom I’m comfortable with, in terms of movements, rhythm and natural reactions, in the last 10 years. I have done many fight scenes with others but there were usually more than 10 takes, which is a waste of time as the person may forget his moves and unnecessary injuries. When I fought with Li, our actions were quick. We also didn’t have to do the same stunt over 20 times.

The fight choreographer was Yuen Woo-ping. Yuen and Chan had not worked together in over 15 years, the last time being when Yuen worked as one of the action directors on Twin Dragons. Filming continued at the Wuyi Mountains and at the Hengdian World Studios.

Filming finished on August 24 2007, and the film went into post-production on September 29, 2007.

Promotion

Among other titles, the film was given the working title, The J & J Project, before being officially titled The Forbidden Kingdom in April of 2007.

Several teasers and trailers have been released to the web, with and the latest one currently playing on the official site. There have also been a number of posters released, each based on one character from the film with their own distinct color background and tagline.

Reception

The Forbidden Kingdom received generally positive reviews. It currently holds a 62% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus for the film is that it has "[g]reat fight scenes, but too much filler."

The film debuted in first place at the North American box office, taking in $21,401,121 over the weekend in 3,151 theaters and averaging to about $6,792 per venue.

See also

• Jianghu

External links

• Official Website
• Jackie Chan, Jet Li Enter ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’
• Jackie Chan Fansite, Resource for any jackie Chan Fan
• Official Bebo Page
• The Forbidden Kingdom at IMDb
• The Forbidden Kingdom at Rotten Tomatoes
• Info from Jackie Chan's website
• Info from Jet Li's website
• Info from Collin Chou's website
• Forbidden Kingdom reviews, news, info, trailer and behind the scenes
• Star Online article on making of the film.
• Interview with Composer David Buckley at Tracksounds